Zorn rematerialized and slashed down his machete, cleaving a chest in two. He hacked at another and took down one more. Lightning fell down from the sky, striking six more dead. I took up another six ribbons and yanked. The souls hit against their casings. I yanked again, giving it everything I had. Only one popped free.

“Hurry,” I said, out of breath, my legs made of jelly.

I chanced a glance behind me and nearly cried. Thane lay facedown, his limbs spread out to the sides. Lydia climbed to her feet, and although she was unsteady, her arm at the wrong angle, she was still alive. Fucking Demigods were hard to kill.

“It is useless,” she shouted, and I could hear the pain lacing her words. “I prepared for this. I hired dozens. There is nowhere for you to go. You are outnumbered! Give yourself up now, and I will not kill your friends and children.”

She’d said the magic words.

I slowed, drooping. Dylan bumped up against my back and then staggered away, as tired as I was. The cats slinked around me. Mordecai and Daisy shuffled in close, the first time I’d seen them show defeat.

This was it. It was over. She might not be able to carry this off in the long run, but in the short term, she was doing a bang-up job of ruining my life.

“You win,” I said, pain bleeding through me. “Give me a moment.”

I turned and looked at the faces of my kids. Daisy looked so sweet and innocent, except she was splattered with blood. Mordecai had such kind eyes, even in wolf form.

“Forget me,” I told them, tears running down my face. “Forget you ever knew me. Get clear of here and go into hiding. Get out of the magical world and stay that way. You don’t want to see what I will become.”

“She will not get away with this,” Daisy said through gritted teeth. “We’ve lost the battle, but we will not lose this war, Lexi. We won’t lose you.” Tears filled her eyes and she couldn’t blink them all away. Her lip trembled. “We will not lose the war,” she whispered again.

Mordecai shifted back to human, his eyes already welling with tears. “She won’t kill Kieran, Lexi. She can’t. He’ll fix this. He will. If anyone can fix this, he can.”

I didn’t tell them what she had in store for him. Couldn’t.

Sobs choked me.

“Look after Kieran,” I told Bria softly. “He’ll need it.”

Her brow furrowed. “She won’t get away with this, Alexis. Demigods aren’t untouchable. Don’t let them break you. Keep your wits so you can give us time. We’ll get you out of this.”

Zorn stared at me, his machete lowered, his face flat, and his eyes on fire.

“You’re a damn fine man, Zorn,” I told him. “Stay prickly. I’m glad to have known you.”

He didn’t respond.

I laid my hand on Dylan’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” I told him. “I’m sorry I fucked up your life.”

“You gave me something to fight for,” he replied. “Someone to fight against. I’m done with Demigods doing shit like this. Done with it. It has to stop. It will stop. Give us time, as Bria said. Don’t give in. We’ll get you out.”

“That’s enough. Take her,” Lydia said. She hadn’t moved, beyond getting to her feet, and looked close to collapsing.

I turned to say goodbye to Red when I heard, “That won’t be necessary.”

The voice was smooth and confident. The crowd parted, giving me a view of the man as he entered the hall. His strut suggested money and power in large quantities. He held his shoulders back and his head high, not hurrying, taking time to let everyone see him. One hand was in his trouser pocket, and the other swung gracefully at his side. His three-piece suit was black on black, perfectly tailored and without a wrinkle or spot of lint. A silver tie dipped into his vest, and a matching silver pocket square accentuated his jacket pocket.

His soul pulsed strangely, bright one moment, and thick and dark the next, somewhat erratic. Something looked vaguely familiar about him. Although it was hard to judge his age, he looked to be in his late forties, with a strong, square jaw devoid of stubble, lips on the thin side, and a nose that was a touch too large. Despite that, or maybe even because of it, he was incredibly striking. He drew the eye and then kept it interested, his charisma unmistakable.

“What are you doing here?” Lydia spat, pulling herself up straight despite the pain it clearly gave her.

“I’ve learned the hard way that it is important to get with the times.” His people followed him into the room, all wearing suits, women included, not here to fight, or if they were, they would look very stylish as they did so. “Your surveillance feeds have been live streaming for the past hour. All of this”—he gestured around the room—“has been recorded. Demigod Kieran’s people are excellent in this field, and they made sure to cover their asses as soon as this started going down. I was close by, so I thought I might lend a hand. Your people didn’t do a great job of keeping him contained, by the way. You gave him way too little of whatever drug you used. Rope to hold a Demigod of his caliber?” He laughed. “He might be young, but he is Valens’s son.”

“It would’ve been the right dose if he had continued consuming it all day, as I’d planned,” she ground out. “This ridiculous, untrained, irrational little girl disturbed my plans.”

“Yes.” The man gave a tiny smile. “She has a sprinkle of her mother’s Chaos magic in her blood. Level fives sometimes have a smattering of the recessive magic within their arsenal. It is a handy magic to have on one’s side in these situations. Not so fortunate when it is used against you, as you saw, Lydia.”

With the slow, deliberate way he talked about my mother’s magic, it felt like he was explaining it to me specifically. I couldn’t breathe. He’d obviously looked me up in the files, which was all well and good, but I’d never known what my mother could do. We’d never talked about magic growing up, and because of that, I’d never thought to ask. I’d never thought to dig into her past life.

So many things suddenly made sense. How she could turn up at a store, and something would happen to throw the whole place into disarray, allowing us to grab a few things we couldn’t otherwise afford and hightail it out of there without being noticed. Or bills that would randomly be forgiven because of some crazy mix-up with the company. The list was long, and I’d just always assumed she was eccentric. It had been fun, truth be told, living in all that chaos. I’d never really minded. Now I knew why.

“You should’ve done your homework. You are out of touch, my dear,” the man said as I came out of my shocked stupor. “Your people upstairs are all dead, and, last I saw, Demigod Kieran was making his way out of the room. This was moments ago. I think I might’ve just saved your life. From what I understand, he is not entirely rational where his mark holder is concerned.”

“You didn’t save my life! You caused my ruin!” Lydia screamed.

“My goodness, it is not a good look when a Demigod loses control.” He spread his free hand wide, his smile giving him a little something extra that really suited him. Why did he look so vaguely familiar? “One must not blame others for one’s downfall. Rather, one must learn to play the game. I simply outmaneuvered you, Lydia. Had you not interfered with my plans a century ago, I would not have had to usher you out of my way. And here we are, at your downfall. What a treat, for it all to be recorded on video.”