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Ava tittered. “It’s a little too late for that, dear.”

Beside me, Bella whimpered in despair. I gave her hand a solid squeeze.

“How did you find this place, demon?” Nero demanded, his voice sharp, commanding.

“Oh, please,” Ava said with a mocking smile. “Do you really think that I don’t know about all of your secret hidey-holes, Windstriker? And I’m not the only one. Everyone is watching your daughter. And unraveling your plans to keep her hidden.”

I was very tempted to wipe that smirk off Ava’s face.

Sensing my unease, Nero told me, “She’s bluffing. She obviously followed us when we brought Bella here. If she can control Bella, she can track her.”

“What the hell did you do to my sister?” I growled at the demon.

“I cursed her,” Ava said, the glow of victory in her eyes. “It’s called the Curse of the Sun.”

“Curse of the Sun,” I repeated. “Wait, it was light outside when Bella stole the Nectar. And also when she attacked the gods. But as soon as we brought her here, she was herself again. So the sun controls her curse! When it’s night, she is herself. But when it’s day, the curse takes over.”

Ava nodded. “Very good, Leda. I’m glad to see intelligence didn’t skip a generation in our family.”

“Well, insanity sure did,” I snapped back.

“How did you curse Bella?” Nero’s voice was so calm, so even.

I really envied him sometimes.

“The wand.” Bella slipped a slim, crystal wand out of her jacket. It was an immortal artifact, linked to Bella, created by Thea and Khalon. That same magical act of creation had given birth to Bella—and bound her life irrevocably to the wand.

“You’ve been planning this curse for over twenty years?” I gasped.

“I thought you knew by now, Leda,” Ava said. “Deities always play the long game.”

“You were the one who gave me the wand,” Bella said quietly. “And when I touched it, something happened. I felt this rush of power. The wand activated something in me. A curse.” She frowned. “But it’s been years since you gave me the wand. I’ve been myself through many days, even while the sun was shining.”

Ava looked amused. “Yes, well, there was of course one final piece missing to complete the curse. It was?—”

“I’m just going to stop you right there now, Ava, because I know how much you love your villain monologues,” I cut her off. “I already know what this ‘final piece’ was.”

“You do?” Bella asked, surprised.

“The timing lines up, and, well, that glowing magic barrier around the gods’ hall today was a total giveaway. It’s the same glowing magic barrier that was around the control room of Purgatory’s water system. Ava was the one who set mutant rats loose in my sewers.” I wrinkled my nose at her. “Nerissa found a strange magical component she couldn’t identify in those corpses. I bet that was the last piece of Ava’s curse. She knew I would send you a sample, Bella. So she mutated those rats, letting them brew in my sewers until they were ready to deliver that final piece to you. And when the wand came into contact with the very special magic in those rats, the curse was activated in you. Shortly after that, the mysterious mega-demon started stealing the gods’ Nectar.”

Laughter—horrible, bone-chilling laughter—exploded out of Ava’s mouth. “It sounds like you have it all figured out, Leda.”

“Almost. There’s just one step missing,” I replied. “The step where you tell us how to lift the curse. By the way, that’s your cue to remove your demon’s mark on my sister.”

“Oh, no. That’s not how this works,” Ava simpered. “The curse is Bella’s destiny. It’s the reason she was created. The reason she exists. It’s what she was designed to be: the perfect weapon against the gods.” Ava strode forward with inhuman grace and smiled at Bella. “You, child, are the God-Killer. The Angel-Slayer. Your magic is Venom, fatal to anyone with light magic. And you will destroy them all, paving the way for the demons’ dominion.”

18

FALLOUT

And with that dramatic declaration delivered, Ava disappeared.

“Popping in and out like that all the time…she must still have a djinn in her service,” I commented, watching the gentle ripples in the air where the demon had stood just a moment ago. “After all that she’s done, after how far she’s fallen, I’m surprised she has any allies left.”

“Those allies are the only reason she’s still alive.” Nero had his business face on. He was probably already coming up with a plan to find Ava’s allies and eliminate them.

We moved our conversation inside the log cabin. Bella looked terribly pale, so I set her up on the sofa in front of the fireplace and piled lots of fluffy blankets on top of her.