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A potent wave of divine energy pressed down on Mae when they crossed the threshold into the estate. The way Nikolai stiffened and Brimstone and Hellreaver stilled told her they’d felt it too.

Violet and Miles had mentioned the barrier that protected the property. It had been erected by the goddess who had given birth to Artemus and his twin brother Drake Hunter.

They drove up an access road lined with trees.

Moss-covered tombstones dotted the woods crowding the grounds of the estate.

“Am I the only one who thinks having a cemetery on your doorstep is creepy?” Nikolai said.

Mae studied the graves. “You gotta admit, compared to Hell, this is positively cheery.”

The outlook opened up ahead.

A sprawling Gothic mansion appeared at the end of the driveway.

Set over three floors, its roofline was topped by steeply pitched gables with spires and decorative wood trimmings, brick chimneys, and dormers. There was even a tower with crenellated parapets. Lights shone through the leaded windows, giving the place a warm and cozy feel.

They parked next to a bevy of vehicles and got out.

Mae observed the house guardedly as Mila and Caspian began unloading grocery bags from the Jeep.

My witch , Brimstone said quietly.

I know.

Though she could not visualize their cores like she could magic users, she could sense the incredible energies of the people inside even from where she stood.

Mae blinked. Oh. There’s someone with a magic core.

It must be the witch who lives here , Brimstone said.

“Mae?” Nikolai gave her a puzzled look as he took a couple of bags off Caspian.

She flashed him a distracted smile and went to help Mila. “It’s nothing.”

Brimstone tensed by Mae’s side. Alastair made a warning sound on Nikolai’s shoulder.

The ground began trembling.

Magic flooded Mae’s bloodstream and quickened her pulse. Nikolai’s face tightened, white sparks dancing around his fingertips.

“It’s okay,” Mila said hastily. “This is just,” she stopped and grimaced, “—you’ll see in a second.”

The sound of a stampede reached Mae and Nikolai before they could ask her what she meant.

A purple helldragon shot around the side of the mansion.

He darted past them, braked in a shower of dirt and grass, and reversed until he drew abreast.

“Oh. Hi, Mae. Hi, Niko!” Vozgan said cheerfully, hopping from one foot to the other.

Nikolai coughed and waved at the dust clouds thickening the air. He frowned at the helldragon.

“I distinctly recall ordering you not to call me that.”

“Don’t be such a kill joy,” Vozgan retorted, unfazed.

Brimstone went over to greet the helldragon.

Mae’s scalp prickled when she felt a fearsome presence approaching.

A chocolate-colored Rex rabbit appeared around the corner. He shot past them, legs a blur and a red glint in his limpid brown eyes.

Brimstone froze. He followed the creature unblinkingly with his gaze, ears cocked and body leaning eagerly forward.

“Hey, wait for me!” Vozgan protested. He started after the rabbit. “See you later, Brimbrim!”

Mae stared. “Was that?—?”

“Smokey the Hellhound?” Mila said. “Yeah, it was.”

“He’s cute,” Nikolai grunted.

“Dude, that bunny will lose his shit if you tell him that,” Caspian warned.

It seems this place is full of hot-blooded fools, my witch , Hellreaver said uneasily.

He’d returned to his pendant form and was hugging her sweater grimly.

Mae decided not to remind him that her life was also full of hot-blooded fools and he was the worst one among them. She’d just taken a bag from Mila when a terrifying squawk made her and Nikolai jump.

Mae clutched her chest and an equally startled Hellreaver.

“What the hell was that?!” Nikolai snapped.

An orange chicken with a lopsided neck and an ominous aura came into view. She dashed past them, tattered wings flapping menacingly as she chased after the helldragon and the rabbit.

Oh. Brimstone fairly vibrated with excitement beside Mae. My witch! I—I’m afraid I must go!

He bolted after the chicken.

“What’s he doing?” Caspian asked curiously.

“Answering the call of the wild.” Mae sighed. “You know, fox, undead chicken.”

“Oh.”

Nikolai muttered something under his breath. Alastair took flight and disappeared after Brimstone.

“Not you too!” the sorcerer protested.

The crow ignored him.

Hellreaver tutted disapprovingly.

“I take it that was Gertrude?” Mae asked Mila and Caspian warily.

“Yeah,” Mila said. “Astarte is convinced she got possessed by the spirit of a vengeful demon general after she died.”

A shudder shook Caspian. “That chicken is a menace.”

They carried the grocery bags up the steps to a porch with slender turned posts and eldritch, cast-iron lanterns. A veritable cacophony blasted their ears when Mila opened the front door.

Mae and Nikolai stopped inside the threshold with the Immortals and stared.

The foyer was full of kids.

Two girls sparred noisily with wooden swords to the right.

A couple of boys were play-fighting on the marble floor.

A little girl with blonde ringlets and an angelic expression was braiding the fur of a sleeping dog under a table, pink tongue sticking out cutely as she focused.

A boy sat cross-legged beside her, a book on his lap and seemingly oblivious to the chaos around him.

A teenage girl with pink-streaked hair and ripped jeans leaned against a wall next to them, her eyes and fingers glued to her cellphone.

Two men stood on the staircase. One of them was trying to remove the kid clinging to his leg like a leech. The other guy was failing badly in his attempt to cajole a little girl down from a banister.

“This place is a zoo,” Nikolai stated leadenly.

“You get used to it,” Mila grunted.

“Is that a kid on the chandelier?” Mae asked cautiously.

They followed her gaze to the glittering crystal contraption suspended from the high ceiling. A boy in nothing but his underpants and a red cape was standing proudly on it, one hand on his hip.

“You mean Commander Underpants?” Mila said with a roll of her eyes. “Yeah, just ignore him.”

“He might break a bone if he falls from there,” Nikolai muttered.

“He won’t,” Caspian said blithely. “His father is the Sphinx. The kid can levitate.”

“Apparently, divine beast genetics can be passed on,” Mila explained at Mae and Nikolai’s surprised stares.

Mae’s eyes glazed over a little at that. Nikolai paled.

They’d heard plenty about the divine beasts who lived in Artemus Steele’s mansion.

Mila sighed at their expressions. “Yeah, that’s how I felt when I first found out.”

“Still, Artemus is going to skin the kid alive if he sees him on his precious antique,” Caspian added with a hint of macabre anticipation.

A plastic arrow whizzed past Mae’s head.

Another one bounced off Nikolai’s crotch.

“Incoming!” the boy who’d fired the projectiles shouted enthusiastically from the top of the staircase.

The man with the kid attached to his leg looked around sharply.

“Hey, Artemus said no firing weapons inside the house!”

Hellreaver vibrated uneasily on Mae’s chest.

There is a divine dragon inside that man, my witch.

Mae’s pulse quickened as she observed the fiery beast inside Haruki Kuroda.

The guy reaching for the little girl on the banister turned and scowled at the boy with the bow.

“You’re several seconds too late, you little shit!”

He walked up the stairs, snatched up Bow Boy, and proceeded to give him a noogie.

“You shouldn’t swear in front of the children, William,” Pink Haired teenager admonished without looking up from her phone.

William’s eyes shrank to slits. “That’s gold coming from the chick who’s standing there doing nothing. How about you help us out?”

“I’m already helping.” She pointed at Braiding Girl and Book Boy. “I said I’d look after them.”

“Oh, come on, Lucy!” William protested. “Lola and Oliver are the most docile kids in this entire madhouse. You could practically leave them on their own for the day and they’d be fine!”

“Don’t make me call Social Services on you, Uncle William,” Oliver said coolly. He licked his finger and turned a page.

William’s expression grew pinched. “I keep forgetting that kid has a smart mouth on him.”

Lucy smirked.

Caspian stepped over the boys rolling on the floor and maneuvered his way expertly around the sword-fighting girls, several grocery bags in his arms. He disappeared down a passage to the right.

“Shouldn’t someone try and stop her?” Nikolai asked uneasily as Mila hefted the load in her arms and prepared to follow her brother. He indicated the little girl on the banister.

The kid was climbing it with steadfast determination.

“She’s fine,” Mila said breezily. “Besides, she bounces well.”

Mae and Nikolai gave her a horrified look.

Mila grimaced. “I’m kidding. Leah’s got her back.”

A young woman with fiery red hair was coming down the stairs. She walked past William and Bow Boy and lifted the girl off the banister.

“Sienna, your mother’s gonna have words with you if she sees you do that. And they won’t be pretty ones.”

Mae stared. She could see the soul of the divine beast who inhabited the redhead.

She must be Leah Chase, the host of the Nemean Lion. And that little girl is Serena’s daughter.

Sienna struggled in Leah’s arms.

“ Noooo ! Let go, Aunt Leah! I’m climbing a mountain!”

“You’re climbing the steps to an uncertain death is what you’re climbing, kid.” Leah winced when Sienna grabbed a fistful of her hair and tugged hard. “Haruki, I think we should revisit our plans to have five kids.”

Haruki froze, eyes rounding. “Wait. We’re having five kids ?!”

William made a disgusted sound. “Stop bragging about your rosy future and help me manage these little assho—I mean, darlings.”

“Rawr, rawr, I’m a lion!” the kid wrapped around Haruki’s thigh contributed animatedly to the conversation.

Haruki sighed. “I’m sorry to have to tell you this, Kris, but I hear a lion roar most nights and she does not sound like that.”

Leah grinned. William sneered.