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“L eave her alone.”

“No. You leave her alone. I was here first. And I brought food.”

“No. I was here first. I only left to use the bathroom.”

“Sucks to suck.”

“Be thankful I didn’t blow up her en suite. What have the Suarezes been feeding me?”

“Both of you get out,” a stern voice rumbled to my left. “Leave the food. I’ll make sure she eats.”

The shock of my siblings obeying an order from Harrow convinced me I was still dreaming.

“They’re gone,” he said softly after the door shut behind them. “You can quit pretending.”

Slowly lifting my eyelids, I found him sitting in a chair beside my bed holding a bowl of gumbo.

“Everyone is safe.” He waited until I pushed myself upright, bracing my back against the headboard, then shoved a spoonful of food into my mouth. “The house is secure.” He watched me swallow then resumed his update. “Rollo called in a favor. The bodies have been disposed of. The rear neighbor, Mr. Cranston, says he’ll bill Vi for the damages to his lawn and shrubs. He also wants the skeletons back. Apparently, they’re related to him.”

The words trickled in and out of my ears, none of them sticking. “He’s gone.”

Silence stretched between us as Harrow stirred the bowl.

“He came back once.” He crammed a second spoonful into my mouth. “He can do it again, right?”

That was before he rebelled against his god. Dis Pater wouldn’t forgive him for his disobedience anytime soon.

Throat burning, and not from the spices, I rasped, “He tried to kill me.”

“I know.”

“I didn’t think he would actually do it.” Heat in my cheeks, I sniffled just once. “Pretty dumb, huh?”

“I won’t pretend to understand what you’ve gone through. I know you’re still figuring the god stuff out, but you have to know Kierce would never hurt you if he had a choice. Even I can see that.”

“But he doesn’t get one.” A hot tear slid down my cheek to drip off my chin, just when I thought I had run out of them. “He’s never had one.” I wiped my face dry. “I don’t even know if he was only with me to spy for Dis Pater or if he really cares about me.”

“It can be both.”

“How?”

“The way I heard it, he begged for death to protect you. He wouldn’t have done that if he didn’t care.”

You were…worth it. Worth everything. Always.

Those last words kept circling around and around my head until I grew dizzy from them.

“I want to free him. Let him make his own choices. Whether that’s me or not.”

“Okay.” He took the opportunity to force another spoonful into my mouth. “So, what’s our plan?”

“ Our plan?” I dribbled gumbo down my chin. “I’m not dragging you deeper into this mess.”

“That’s what friends do for each other, right?”

“You’re not obligated to me. Not anymore. Not after what Anunit did to you.”

“Friendship isn’t an obligation. It’s a privilege. And I’ve got other reasons.”

A door slammed deeper in the house, and I quirked an eyebrow. “What’s that about?”

“Carter’s here.” A smile crept up on him. “She came to check on me, make sure I’m still alive.” He twirled the spoon in the bowl. “That was her excuse anyway. She banged on the door until Jean-Claude let her in then hunted down Josie. They were holed up in her room arguing for hours before she came to check on you. Based on that slam, it sounds like they’re about to kick off round two.”

“I’m glad I’m not the only one with a complicated relationship.” I hesitated. “What other reasons?”

“Ankou is back.”

Ankou, who had turned Lyle into a dybbuk.

Ankou, who had twisted Lyle into a monster.

Ankou, who had forced Harrow to kill his own uncle.

“I respect that you might need him as an ally, for now, but the second you don’t…” Harrow looked me in the eye, “…I’m going to kill him.”

“I respect that, and I’m not going to stop you.” I had my own grudges to nurse against him. “He did me a good turn because it suited him. I have no loyalty to him. Not after everything he’s done to my family.” I was half afraid I would find him sitting in a chair in the corner of my room, since he seemed to be popping up everywhere these days. “Where is he, anyway?”

“He saw Josie and me coming for you, yelled ‘not today, Satan’ at her, then vanished before we reached him. He was hurt badly from whatever Josie did to him. He probably went somewhere to heal.”

“I’m sure he’ll be back when we least expect—or want—him. He can’t be done with me yet. He wouldn’t have protected me otherwise.” I exhaled. “His god must have plans for me. Plans that involve exploiting the Alcheyvāhā for his benefit.” I laughed softly. “I feel like such an idiot. Dis Pater told me no gods used them for personal gain. That some things are sacred.” I made a halfhearted gesture. “Obviously, that was a lie. And I have nothing but my gut to tell me whether Kierce knew it all along.”

Death gods were dying out. Graveyard tithes weren’t enough anymore. They required additional sources of power to stay alive. Or, being both dead and gods, maybe exist was a better designation. They dipped a hand into the Alcheyvāhā cookie jar whenever they got hungry, consuming their power for themselves by presenting a united front against any other gods who might come sniffing around for crumbs.

“I can’t point out anyone else’s failings.” He reached for my hand, squeezed my fingers. “I fucked up too, Frankie. In so many ways. More than I can count.” He released me. “You found it in your heart to forgive me, so you’ll figure out this thing with Kierce.”

“You put in the work.” I cringed inwardly. “And it was my fault you got possessed by an ancient god.”

“All I’m saying is maybe don’t give up on him yet.”

“I don’t plan on it.”

I had made myself a promise, back when Matty fell ill, and I intended to keep it.

Whether or not what we had was real, I was going to free Kierce from Dis Pater’s service. He was a good person. At least he tried to be. That had to count for something. However he felt about me afterward, well, I was a big girl. I could handle the truth.

Probably.

With enough of Josie and Matty’s bathtub gin.

A tap-tap-tap drew my attention to the window and a black smudge flapping against the glass.

“Badb.” I was halfway to standing when Harrow pushed me down and went to let her in. “I wondered where you went.” I hadn’t seen her since Anunit took me to Dis Pater’s house. “I was getting worried about you.”

The crow perched on the tips of my toes, rustled her feathers, and a clear voice rang out behind her.

“I couldn’t help but overhear, Bijou, that you’re planning a trip to Abaddon.” Ankou hung from a thorny vine as thick as his wrist Josie must have missed while pruning after their skirmish. He dangled just outside the wards but close enough he could have used his keen senses to eavesdrop. “Let me be the first to offer my services as your guide to the underworld.”

Trusting Ankou to get me in and out—with Kierce—promised to be a terrible idea.

Especially when, if he heard that much, he knew that Harrow had drawn a target on his back.

“No,” Harrow barked at him, about to slam the window shut. “Absolutely not.”

“Sure.” I told myself I was making the smart choice and not just following my stupid heart, which had a sense of direction as accurate as a compass with no needle. “What have I got to lose?”

Dis Pater had made it plain by sending god bloods after me that he wasn’t going to stop until he killed me, and I couldn’t think of a better person than Kierce to help me return the favor before Dis Pater got any bright ideas about coming after my family again.

To do that, I needed Kierce back.

And here was the one person who could help me save him.

“Don’t give up on me.”

The memory of Kierce saying those words galvanized my resolve.

Dis Pater better hope Buttons could gift his owner one of his nine lives because I was coming for him, and I wasn’t going to stop until he was a footnote in the history books. I might only be a demigoddess, but I had a stronger motivator to survive than his selfish greed.

My family.

May God have mercy on his soul.

Because I won’t.