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“You can’t give Stash to her,” I told him, before he tossed my cousin to the wolves as an ill-conceived bargaining chip. “That’s just what they want.”

He turned to me. “And who exactly is this they? Zarion is dead. He’s not controlling Stash anymore.”

“But someone is,” I said. “That someone already killed Grace. And I bet that someone would love nothing more than for you to give Stash to Sonja, so he can finish the job by taking out the rest of the demons’ council.”

“Our security is better than the gods’ security,” Sonja said with a derisive laugh. “When we put someone in one of our dungeons, he stays there.”

“I know all about your dungeons,” I shot back. “In case you’ve forgotten, I was once in one of them. Oh—and guess what?—I got out.”

“You’re assuming that I didn’t let you escape, child.”

Her comment soured the memory of watching her dungeon burn to the ground, but I kept a smile on my face. I was not going to let her know that she’d rattled me.

“This argument is a waste of time.” Faris motioned to his guards. “Open the cell. We’re transferring the prisoner to the demons.”

“But—”

“Come with me,” Faris cut me off, grabbing a rough hold of my arm.

“Why are you letting them have Stash?” I protested as we left the dungeon. “Do you have any idea what they’re going to do to him? How they’re going to hurt him?”

“Oh, I am well-aware. I have tortured a good many prisoners in my long life.”

“Stash wasn’t in control of himself when he killed Grace,” I argued. “And neither was Bella when she killed Zarion.”

“Do you have a point?” he demanded.

“Yeah, I do,” I told him. “Instead of playing musical chairs with the demons, instead of taking out our fear on Bella and Stash, who are victims in this as much as anyone else—we should be working with them to figure out who is really behind all of this. Zarion conditioned Stash to be a weapon, but now he’s dead. Because Ava made Bella kill him. So now gods and demons are pointing fingers at one another, and the alliance is falling apart.”

“What’s you point?”

“My point is, I couldn’t have engineered this much chaos if I’d tried, and I am the Angel of Chaos,” I said. “Someone is manipulating all of us, Faris. They are making us paranoid and belligerent and just downright angry. And meanwhile, they are preparing to take advantage of the chaos they’ve sown.”

“They?” Faris frowned. “You think this is the Guardians.”

“Well, they did manipulate you and the demons to go to war before,” I pointed out.

“You want to save your cousin and your sister?” he hissed. “Then get to the bottom of this. Find the Guardians. And finish them, once and for all. Because that’s the only way this is going to end.”

27

POWERED UP AND POWERLESS

“Pandora.”

Nero stood in the doorway to Calli’s house. I’d come here after leaving the gods’ castle, after Grace…

As soon as she’d seen me, Calli had known something was wrong, but she hadn’t burdened me with questions. Instead, she’d handed me a box of double chocolate-chip cookies and watched me try to eat my sorrows away.

Gin and Tessa had arrived about halfway through the cookie box. And then Zane soon after. And now Nero.

I was about to rise to my feet and go to him, but he was faster. He crossed the room in a flash, and then he was right there in front of me.

“I heard what happened to Grace.” His arms folded around me, drawing me in close.

I rested my head against his chest and closed my eyes. The moment I’d left the gods’ castle, the moment I’d burned through the adrenaline, all the crazy shit that had happened today hit me like a brick wall.

“I’m ok,” I told him, breathing out. “And I’m so glad that you’re here.”