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A Clash of Heaven and Hell

Igawked at Faris. “Do what we came here to do?” I repeated his words.

“Learn who is sending you these visions, of course.”

I cast a suspicious look on him. “Why do you care?”

“I care very much that someone is trying to manipulate you. That someone has control over you. That someone can make you see things. I will free you of this invasive force.”

It didn’t require much thought to read between the lines.

“You wouldn’t want someone else’s finger on the trigger of your weapon,” I said.

“Don’t be so melodramatic, Leda,” he replied coolly.

I snorted. “Says the right person.”

“I took time out of my very busy schedule to be here.”

His busy schedule of admiring his reflection in the mirror and getting his hair done. And—as the small droplets of blood on his outfit told me—torturing people. And planning his complete and total dominion over the known universe and everyone in it, at least if the hard, upward lift of his mouth was any hint to his motives.

“I am here to help you,” Faris continued. “Now do you want to get to the bottom of these visions or not?”

I didn’t trust the God of Heaven’s Army for a second, but I did want to figure out these visions. And much as I hated to admit it, I could really use Faris’s help. This place was teeming with monsters, and I didn’t have a Legion support team with me because I wasn’t supposed to be out here in the first place.

“These visions…could it be Faith again?” Tessa asked.

“The telepath’s powers still have not returned,” Faris said bitterly. “And I don’t expect them to. Thanks to Grace.” Then he glowered at me like it was all my fault.

“You called?” Grace said pleasantly, suddenly here beside us.

Faris glared at her. “What are you doing here?”

Grace met his hard scowl with an easy smile. “The same thing as you: looking out for our dear daughter.”

“You expect me to believe that you came here out of feelings of motherly love and concern?” Derision dripped from every word that Faris spoke.

Nodding, Grace folded her hands together. “Of course.”

“You aren’t capable of love, Grace.”

“I am capable of a great deal more than you, Faris,” the demon shot back.

“A great deal more evil,” Faris said. “Leda sees right through you. You must know that.”

“Leda knows I have only ever looked out for her best interests.”

“You poisoned her with Venom,” he said, obviously more for my benefit than for hers. “And you manipulated a crazed telepath into attacking her mind in order to fulfill your purpose of Leda’s child absorbing that telepath’s power.”

“And you threatened to destroy her mind if she didn’t completely surrender her free will to you.” Grace’s smirk was pure venom. “But who’s keeping count?”

They locked gazes like two stags locking horns. Each of them was keeping a careful tally of the other’s evil deeds. And each of them was trying to manipulate me, to control me, to get me to side with them and become their own personal weapon.

No way. That just wasn’t going to happen.

“If you two are just going to fight, how did you ever agree on anything for long enough to create me anyway?” I quipped.