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“Storage? For what?” My hand shot to my mouth. “Nectar,” I realized. “The gods are storing Nectar on those worlds.”

“We were storing Nectar on those worlds. Until the worlds were taken and the Nectar stolen.” Saphira’s brows drew together in suspicion. “But how could you know that?”

“I saw demons stealing Nectar from one of Faris’s worlds.” I frowned. “Or at least I thought they were demons.”

“And now you don’t?”

“I’m not sure anymore. This is all so weird. On the first lost world I visited, the people told me they worshipped a new god, not a demon.”

“Did you see this supposed god?” Saphira asked.

I shook my head. “No. We escaped before he arrived.”

“He? What is his name?”

“The locals called him Solarian. Have you heard of him?”

“No,” she said, and I actually believed she was telling the truth—unlike Faris when I’d asked him the same question.

“But the other world Faris sent me to, it was unpopulated. It was just a Nectar storage facility,” I said. “And there it wasn’t some mysterious god who was raiding the crates of Nectar. It was a bunch of guys in armor. Faris’s soldiers claimed they were demons.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. Demons would never steal Nectar,” replied Saphira. “It’s poison to them.”

“Yeah, that was definitely weird,” I agreed. “The armored thieves had the same god-killing batons as the humans I encountered a few weeks ago on another of Faris’s lost worlds. And, even worse, there was this big, bad behemoth guy. He could supercharge himself to shoot blasts of magic that can take out any god in range.”

“And what is this range?”

“I’m not sure. I think it depends on how much energy the guy builds up before he releases it.”

“Does Faris know about this?” Saphira asked, her eyes hard, worried.

“Yes. His soldiers told him.”

“When?”

“As soon as they got back from the storage facility,” I replied. “A week ago.”

Saphira fell totally silent. I couldn’t even hear her breathe anymore.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her.

“What’s wrong is there’s a god-killing super-demon out there, and Faris hasn’t told a soul about it.”

“I’m not even sure he was a demon,” I said.

“You’re also not sure he isn’t.”

“Ok, sure,” I admitted.

“Faris still should have told us about this threat, whether it’s a demon or not.”

“You did say the gods are a secretive bunch,” I reminded her.

“Secrecy is one thing. This is something beyond secrecy. It’s downright insanity. This demon is a threat to all gods. If Faris had told us about him, we wouldn’t have sent in armies of soldiers to retake our worlds.” The fancy perfume bottle on Saphira’s makeup stand exploded. “We wouldn’t have lost them.”

“Just how many casualties are we talking about?” I asked her.

“Armies, Leda,” she growled under her breath. “And now the gods are weaker than ever before. Because of the demons.” She rose to her feet.