The moment Olethros spoke Anhinga’s name, Ambrose’s dead eyes flared to life. Galenus’s hackles rose, goat ears flattening as a low snarl rattled in his throat. With a few shared hisses and snaps, the trio put aside whatever differences they had to focus on forcibly wringing the truth from the trapped crow-snake demon.

  I was enraged at the reveal, too, but for different reasons.

  Best to let our hosts go first.

  Ambrose and Galenus seized the offered Crown of Thorns, their animus flaring as they wrenched it apart. Sigils snapped as thorny vines tore apart. The crown exploded into wooden splinters, and Anhinga’s golden core appeared.

  Olethros struck before it hit the floor.

  A sludgy tentacle of demonic animus lashed out and slammed the core into the wall. It wrapped around Anhinga mid-transformation, smothering his half-formed flesh as he let out desperate shrieks. Feathers and scales sprouted haphazardly, then sank back into the ooze. By the time he settled, only a long, thin beak protruded from the blackened mass.

  “I didn’t know it was them!” Anhinga rasped. “I swear it! I thought I was negotiating with General Ragnerus!”

  Galenus recoiled, his usual composure gone. “That is not a valid defense,” he snapped. “You know the Mistress’s enemies. You purposefully led her into an ambush!”

  Ambrose folded his arms. “Enumerate the terms of exchange.”

  “Just the crown!”

  “The General would not let you walk away with it,” Olethros replied. “Yet you did, going so far as to wear it. A curious decision, given that Aziza would also have ensured no one else would ever do so. Could you not sense the curse? Or did you assume it would unravel upon her anticipated death?”

  Nora let out a humorless laugh. “You were trying to take both demon lords out at the same time, weren’t you?”

  “Why?” Galenus demanded, hackles bristling. “Why betray our Mistress? She dragged you back from NAUGHT itself!”

  “Dragged me back only to leash me,” Anhinga spat. “She barred me from further amity research and ordered me to spy on my own murderer, forbidding me from killing him or any of his subjects. All in the name of domesticating humans.”

  He snapped his beak shut, and a long hiss filled the air. “But when I returned, I finally understood the lie. She wanted integration…. For us to study them so we could adapt and wear their culture like clothes. She even gave us human titles!”

  Marquis Galenus stiffened.

  “I showed her how to steal amity from humans, but what did she use it for?” Anhinga let out a scream. “Fortifying her sanctum! Enhanced translocation!” His voice became even louder. “She could have finished what Hrolf began! A human plague so absolute Speranza would still be counting its dead.”

  Hrolf… That weird werewolf demon back in the woods who had eaten other demons and spoke in triplicate.

  “He did say something about Aziza about being mad about the plague before he died.” My eyes drifted towards Ambrose. “She didn’t treat humans as equals, that’s for sure. But you seem to be on her—”

  “We are interrogating him,” Ambrose snapped, his cheeks turning a pale pink.

  “Right, right,” I said quickly. “Go on.”

  “Where did you meet with the Black Order?” Olethros asked.

  Anhinga chortled. “Chairo’s High Temple. Atop the tallest volcano. Outer space.” His beak clacked. “All at the same time.”

  Olethros clawed his fingers as if to strike, but Ambrose motioned for him to pause. With a wicked smile, Ambrose turned to Galenus. “Delta I?”

  “Delta I.” Galenus returned the grin.

  “Y-you’re bluffing!” Anhinga crowed. “Delta I’s energy consumption would cause massive failures throughout—”

  “Oh, we’re not going to use it to experiment on you,” Galenus said with an almost cheerful bleat. “You’re going to power it.”

  Olethros lowered his hands. The sludge peeled away from Anhinga, forming a translucent crimson sphere. With a sharp snap of Ambrose’s fingers, the demon and the surrounding red bubble vanished.

  “Less than an hour?” Galenus hypothesized.

  Ambrose tilted his head, his eyes distant. “Thirty-four to thirty-seven minutes,” he calculated. “You started a timer, I assume?”

  Galenus folded his hands behind his back, his horns bobbing with excitement. “We should observe the process directly.”

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  “Agreed,” Ambrose said coolly. “Data gathered firsthand is always preferable.”

  “Try not to enjoy yourselves too much,” Nora muttered. “Remember, you need to get the location out of him.”

  They made no such promises. With a shared glance and a hurried pace, they stepped through a nearby mirror.

  I felt like the normal hero response would be to condemn whatever torture they had planned. Instead, I sighed, settling for a creeping discomfort I didn’t know how to resolve.

  Olethros gazed at the portal with his eyes closed for a moment, then turned. “Amos.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty?”

  “Attend to Nora. Do not allow those two to spirit her away the moment he capitulates. We all need to be present at Aziza's last known location.” He nodded toward me. “But first, Rachel and I have something important to address.”

  “We do?” I asked.

  Olethros inclined his head. “First, I will accept my private scolding for pursuing the crown alone.” His lips curved into a faint smile. “Then I will attend to your mane.”

  So much for my hiding the fact that he was absolutely in hot water with me.

  “I confess,” he added mildly, “I cannot tell whether you intend to boil me alive or merely subject me to a sauna.” His right eye opened slightly. “Either would be deserved.”

  I felt heat crawl up my neck, so I focused on his other statement. “And you are not fixing my hair right now. We don’t have the time.”

  “We will take the time we need to prepare, unless you intend to yell at me in private for the full half hour.” His grinned deeper. “But I know you can be much more efficient at expressing your concern, and I have already prepared appropriate concessions.”

  “I’m the one who decides if they’re appropriate or not!”

  “Of course,” he agreed, gesturing to the mirror. “I await your judgment.”

  The reception room he had picked was cozy, decorated with all manner of delicate breakables.

  Bold choice, given I’m sure I had told him about rage rooms.

  The moment the mirror sealed behind us, he lowered his head.

  “Tarek told me about a group of cultists in the north who had been trying to kidnap dark mages to unseal the crown. If you’ll recall, I once mentioned Anhinga had human worshippers who—”

  “And how would I know where you had gone if you needed help?” I bellowed, not caring about the setup in the slightest.

  “I told Amos,” he replied, frowning.

  “I didn’t hear you say anything of the sort!”

  He scratched his cheek. “I did not say it in a way you would understand,” he admitted. “Because I did not wish you to worry. I assumed being disconnected from your body was enough.”

  “Next time, you will tell me before you do something so reckless!”

  He nodded. “Agreed.”

  I glared at him for a bit, trying to figure out what else I wanted to wring from him. He waited, his tail swishing as if to count the seconds.

  With a loud snort, I threw myself into a wooden chair. “It’s no fun to yell at you when I know you’re doing what you think is best. But I want to be involved in your shenanigans up front next time—and I mean it.”

  “Shenanigans…?”

  “It’s exactly what it sounds like, and I’m sure I’ve said that word to you before,” I snapped as I ran my fingers through my hair. “Now just—even it out.”

  He stepped behind me, and I felt him lift a lock of hair. There was the soft hum I had long since associated with magic, along with the distinctive sound of scissor snips. He paused often as he switched between sectioning and snipping my hair.

  “It doesn’t have to be so precise,” I muttered sullenly.

  “No, it doesn’t,” he agreed. “I’m just choosing to be.”

  He worked slowly, each cut deliberately measured. When I finally accepted the fact that this was in some way important to him, I heard him sigh.

  “I would advise you not to cling to hope where my sister is concerned,” he said quietly. “You will be disappointed at best, and endangered at worst. Do not think she can be motivated to help us once found, even if we have allied with her subordinates.”

  “You know I’m going to at least try.”

  “I know her,” he said. “And I know Ambrose, as well as Galenus. They smile, they reason… they agree, all until it no longer suits them.”

  Isn’t that just about everyone’s modus operandi?

  I turned to look at him, pulling a lock of hair from his fingers. “Then we’ll just have to make an offer she can’t refuse, that’s all.”

  “I don’t feel like dying to satisfy her,” he replied dryly. “And neither should you.”

  “You don’t think she’d appreciate the truth of everything that happened?”

  He shook his head. “That won’t bring back whatever warped perception she has of our father.”

  “Don’t you think she’d be incensed over the fact that Relias absorbed him?”

  “I was wondering when you would bring him up…” He his shears aside, their dark glow fading. “Which brings us to a far more dangerous conversation.”

  “I think I know where this is headed,” I said with a swallow. “But let me first say—”

  “He needs to die, Rachel.”

  “Olethros, when I think about his death… I—”

  “He doesn’t deserve another chance!”

  “Let me finish!”

  He let out a snarl but forced himself to be silent.

  “When I think about this death, it doesn’t feel like it’s enough.”

  Both of his eyes opened wide.

  “I’m sure whatever he did or is planning to do to NAUGHT will ensure his continued existence, whether it be through immortality or reincarnation. His power comes from others’ belief in him. So we can’t just kill him to turn him into some mythical hero. We have to destroy everything associated with him. His Name. His Purpose. Everything he’s built. Otherwise, he just comes back—or something else like him. The only trace he should leave behind is a very clear and cautionary tale.”

  If snakes could crow triumphantly, they would have sounded like him in that moment.

  “Allow me to assist you,” he said fervently. “I swear I will not take this from you unless you ask—”

  “You can help, but you can’t be seen as his destroyer.” I sighed. “It has to be me.”

  Euphridia alone would be difficult enough to deal with in the aftermath. But letting the world believe the demon king slew Relias would only crown Olethros with a new millennium of hatred.

  “When you say destroy, what do you mean, precisely—”

  “Verb: to end the existence of something.” I started to shudder. “To kill.”

  “Rachel... If there is anything I can do to help you...”

  This time, I didn’t hesitate. I jumped up from the chair and clung to him, sobbing all over his robes. He didn’t gloat, or apologize, or minimize my feelings. He just held me as I ugly cried, my icy resolve crystallizing beneath my grief. When I was finally done, I wiped away the tears with his summoned handkerchief.

  “Well,” I sniffed. “Let me see the cut.”

  Olethros held out his hands and called for two small mirrors. I angled them for a clear view.

  “You even layered it just as Amos suggested,” I said with a loud, wet laugh. “I don’t know how I’m going to do everything I just said, but I’ll sure as hell look good while doing it.”

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