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“Ok, fine,” I said. “Have it your way. Keep your secrets.”

“Thank you.”

“No problem.” I casually brushed the ash off my jacket. “So if we’re not going to talk about your girlfriend, tell me about work.”

He finally looked at me. “What about it?”

“What devious business has your boss Faris been up to?”

“A lot.” Stash looked positively relieved to be discussing state secrets, which really piqued my curiosity about his love life.

I figured it was a tale of forbidden romance—or maybe unrequited love. Maybe Stash was in love with a demon. That would certainly create waves in the halls of heaven and hell.

Stay on topic, Leda, I reminded myself.

“Does Faris know more than he’s letting on about what’s happening on these worlds of ‘strategic value’?” I asked. “And what’s going on with his brother?”

“You mean how Zarion stole a whole bunch of immortal artifacts?”

I nodded. “Yeah, that. And how he’s planning to use one of them to attack the demons.”

“That’s just a theory. You don’t have any evidence that Zarion is going to attack the demons.”

“Ok, so maybe I didn’t find a big villain board with all of the steps of his evil plan laid out in perfect detail. Gods are too devious to be that careless, and things are never that easy. But my gut tells me something big is about to go down, and I need to stop it.”

“You’re just one person, Leda,” Stash reminded me. “You can’t fix everything that’s wrong with the universe.”

“I could if I had an army,” I grumbled. “But Faris refused to give me one. The one time I ever asked him for anything. He’s such a terrible father.”

Stash’s jaw cracked. “My father’s worse. He’s the whole reason you even need an army.”

“If Faris weren’t so thick-headed…” I frowned, an unsettling thought taking root in my mind.

“What is it?” Stash asked me.

“Maybe this is bigger than just Zarion. Maybe it’s not just one god striking out at the demons.” I inhaled sharply. “Maybe it’s the whole gods’ council. Maybe they heard about all these immortal artifacts out there, ready and ripe for the taking. And all they had to do to get them was kill a few hunters. What if the council saw the chance to deal the demons a big blow and decided to take it?”

Stash’s eyes bulged, and his jaw dropped. “You think the entire council is a part of this?”

“Maybe.” I shrugged. “Or at least Faris is.”

Stash fell silent for a moment, then said quietly, “Why do you suspect Faris?”

“I never rule out Faris whenever an evil scheme is brewing. Come on, Stash. When I told him about Zarion and the demon-killing artifact, he totally dismissed what I was saying without even listening to me. And then he sent me here, to the literal middle of nowhere, probably to get me out of the way.” I looked at him. “What do you think?”

“That you have a very active imagination.” His eyebrow twitched.

“So you’re telling me that there is no tension between the gods and demons? And that they’re all getting along swimmingly?”

Stash frowned.

“Ha! I thought so. Tell me what you know.”

He bit his lip, then admitted, “There have been a few skirmishes between gods and demons on the fringes.”

I pounced on the new information. “What caused these skirmishes?”

“Paranoia,” Stash told me. “The demons claim the gods took out some of their bases. But I checked, and Heaven’s Army wasn’t anywhere near them when the attacks happened.”