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“We’ve never had anyone worthy of commanding those positions. Until now,” Grace added.

“I think you’re overestimating my telepathic powers.”

“Certainly not,” replied Grace. “I didn’t spend all those long months of pregnancy enhancing your telepathic powers for nothing. You are a stronger telepath than you realize, Leda.”

“Maybe,” I allowed. “But you want me to sit on both councils? Do you realize how big this is? How unprecedented it is?”

“We need someone who can bridge the gap between us,” Grace said sensibly. “And you are the only one who can. The only one of demon and god blood.”

“The demons, the gods…” I snatched yet another cookie from the bowl. “None of them will ever agree to this.”

“Actually, we already put it to a vote,” Grace told me. “You have the demons’ support.”

“And the gods’ support,” Faris added.

I blinked at them. “I don’t know what to say.”

“The appropriate response would be to accept our generous offer,” Faris said stiffly, his voice strained, impatient.

I looked at Nero. “If I do this, we can’t go with your parents. We won’t be getting away from this all. We’ll just be diving in deeper.”

“You wanted to be involved in bigger things,” he reminded me. “Things more important than chasing sewer rats.”

He wasn’t wrong about that.

I turned back toward Faris and Grace. “Before I can consider your offer, I need to know what I’m getting into. What were Regin and the others really trying to do? I know it’s more complicated than just putting immortal artifacts into the hands of a few humans. What’s going on? What is this big secret the councils are trying to keep hidden?”

Faris and Grace exchanged glances.

Then Grace sighed. “You’re right, Leda. It is more complicated than that. It all comes down to Venom and Nectar.”

“Regin stole them from you guys. And then he used them to activate the immortal artifacts, so humans could wield them.”

“Yes, but that’s not the only reason Regin’s order stole Nectar and Venom,” Faris said.

“You see, Venom and Nectar—and Life, a combination of the two—are all made from the same thing,” Grace explained.

“Which is?” I asked.

I’d never wondered what the food of the gods and demons was made of, but now that they mentioned it, I was suddenly curious.

“You know where immortal artifacts get their magic?” Grace asked me.

“Yeah, Sunfire made each artifact by capturing an Immortal’s soul.”

Grace nodded. “Right, an Immortal’s soul, plus some of their magic. Well, Venom and Nectar contain the rest of an Immortal: the body, along with a lot of their magic.”

“Which is a lot of magic,” Faris said.

I grimaced, pretty grossed out by the realization that I craved something that came from dead Immortal bodies.

On the other hand, that did explain why I craved Nero’s blood and why his blood tasted like Nectar. Nero was as close to an Immortal as you got nowadays.

“The Venom and Nectar are refined after being mined,” Grace said.

“Mined?” I asked. “From where?”

“Nectar and Venom are mined from the graveyards in the Veil, a space between worlds, which everyone travels through when teleporting,” Faris replied.