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“Yeah.” I tried to laugh, but it didn’t come out right.

He teleported us back to the gods’ hall to assess the damage. And it was, well…bad. Really bad.

The place was in shambles. The window I’d shattered with magic was nothing more than a big hole in the wall. A frigid wind blew leaves and debris across the dirty, blood-stained floor. Two armored gods were using telekinesis to sweep up all the glass. They gave me a dirty look as I passed by.

“They know I’m the one responsible for breaking their pretty window,” I whispered to Nero.

I wasn’t sure why I was whispering. The gods had such good hearing that they could all hear me anyway.

“This isn’t on you,” said Nero. “It was Ava who caused all this destruction. She cursed Bella. She sent her here. Today was just the culmination of her decades of scheming.”

“I fear that this was just an appetizer of what’s to come,” I sighed. “And that we haven’t yet experienced the full impact of Ava’s scheming.”

Nero spotted his parents, so we rushed over to them. Their armor was even more tattered than Harker’s, but otherwise they seemed fine.

“That’s what armor is for,” Damiel told me with a wink. “To take the damage for you.”

“I think we might need to rethink our armor,” Cadence said. “There must be a way to construct it to withstand that Venom-blast attack.”

“And Nectar-blast attacks, while we’re at it.” Damiel rubbed his stubbly chin. He looked like he hadn’t shaved in days. Or showered. “Zarion’s weapon is still out there, on a countdown to destruction. And if it’s anything like Ava’s weapon, it will pack quite a punch.”

“Hey, that ‘weapon’ is my sister,” I reminded him.

“I know.” Damiel set his hands on my shoulders. “And I’m sorry she has to go through this. But wallowing isn’t going to fix anything.”

“No, I am going to fix it,” I declared. “And, by the way, I don’t wallow. I strike back.”

“Let’s hold off on the retaliatory strikes for now. Or preemptive strikes, for that matter,” said Cadence. “For all we know, that’s why Ava sent Bella to attack the gods today. We can’t let this situation spiral even more out of control.”

She was right, of course. Maybe I couldn’t act, but I was still going to picture myself striking back at Ava. Repeatedly. With clenched fists.

“We have another problem.”

Cadence’s face was so dour, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.

“What is it?” Nero asked her.

“Zarion is dead,” said Damiel. “He was killed in the attack.”

“What?” I gaped at him. “Zarion is dead?”

“Yes.” Damiel frowned. “And there goes our chance to interrogate him about his weapon.”

“Several soldiers in Heaven’s Army were also killed in the attack,” Cadence told me.

My stomach twisted. “Stash?”

“Your cousin is fine,” she said.

My momentary relief quickly fizzled out. Stash had survived, but not everyone had been so lucky. I looked around the room—at the destruction, the death, the suffering. There were bodies everywhere, their lives cut short. I didn’t recognize any of the fallen gods, but that didn’t matter. This never should have happened.

A god in a purple suit screamed out in pain as two soldiers lifted him onto a stretcher. A black web of veins spiraled out from the cut in his arm. Venom. It was consuming his body, poisoning him from the inside out.

“Can we save him?” I asked.

“It’s too late,” replied Cadence. “The Venom has spread too far. He’s already dead.”

I watched, wide-eyed, as the soldiers carried the dying god away.