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“Sonja cannot be allowed to wield such a weapon, to groom it, train it, control it.”

“Agreed. But I’m not giving you such a weapon either, Faris.”

A twisted smile curled his lips. “You already have.”

He grabbed for her, but Grace was quicker. She vanished in a cloud of black smoke.

And so did we.

* * *

We watchedGrace give birth to me in a hidden place, far from the eyes of demons and gods.

I winced. “I didn’t realize childbirth involved so much screaming,” I said to Nero.

He took my hand and squeezed it as Grace howled in agony once more. A psychic blast wave shot out of her, shattering all of the windows.

I slammed my eyes shut. My birth wasn’t a pretty sight, and I made every effort to forget everything I’d just seen.

* * *

I watcheda baby sleeping in a large wooden crib. Baby Leda. Me.

Grace was in the next room, pouring herself a glass of Venom. She looked so pale, so tired. I wondered how long she’d been hiding here, wherever here was.

My quick glance out the window offered no answers. The view was obscured by a snowstorm. Ok, so we were somewhere totally inhospitable.

“Grace is in hiding,” Nero said.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “She’s hiding from the other demons. And from Faris.”

“She didn’t hide well enough.” Nero pointed out the masked figure who’d just lifted me out of my crib and then snuck out of the room.

Grace was still sitting in the other room, slowly sipping her Venom. She was so drained of magic, so tired, that she hadn’t noticed a thing.

“Who was that masked person?” I wondered. “Who took me?”

“Let’s find out,” Arina said.

* * *

“It’s called Purgatory.”

The woman who’d stolen baby Leda sat on an old park bench, surrounded by wild grass. This must have once been a well-maintained city garden, but nature had reclaimed this piece from civilization. I could see the glow of a Magitech wall in the distance. She was casually sitting with a baby on the plains of monsters, totally unafraid of the monsters.

The man who’d spoken sat next to her. I recognized him instantly as Gaius Knight. Calli had shown me a picture of him. That messy black hair and long, crooked nose were unmistakable.

“I know all about Purgatory,” the woman replied.

The baby thief had ditched the mask, so now I could see her real face. And I recognized her too. Those big blue eyes. That long red hair. Those well-toned arms that were strong enough to move large pieces of furniture all by herself.

Back when she’d been my foster mother, I’d known her as Julianna Mather. I’d later learned that Julianna Mather had been just an alias, and that her real name was Aradia Redwood. Major Redwood had been a soldier in the Legion of Angels, but she’d supposedly died in battle around the time I was born. Yeah, there were a lot of things that didn’t quite add up here.

“You took this baby from the demon Grace,” Gaius said.

Wow, he knew a lot.

Aradia seemed to be just as surprised. “How do you know about that?”