“Danielle—” I started, but she cut me off.
She grabbed my face with both hands, forcing my chin to tilt up toward her. “See me, Charlie! Iknowyou can. I know you’ve seen me through all that haze, because I saw you looking at me all the time at the Institute.Our lovecured your blindness, because I was the only one youcouldsee. You were always looking at me. You don’t have to fake it anymore.”
For fuck’s sake. I guarantee all those times she thought I waslooking at her, my head was just pointed in one direction. She took it as a sign that she’d restored my eyesight.
“Danielle—” I tried again.
“I had a shrine of our love in my room at the Institute,” she gushed. “I used my Commissary points to print out your mugshot. I saw you drop a candy wrapper, once, and I kept that, too.”
She gave a light giggle. “I also had your midterm essay from Rehabilitation Skills. You did such a lovely job typing it up.”
What the hell? Sothat’swhere that essay ended up. I’d fucking got an F for that essay because Professor Ziva didn’t believe I’d turned it in, and IknewI had. She hadn’t let me redo it, either. Danielle must’ve snatched it off the stack of essays before Professor Ziva had a chance to grade them.
“We’re certainly devoted to one another,” I cut in, before Danielle could say anything else. “That means we’re on the same side. Perhaps you can tell me what I have to look forward to. I’ve been so eager to join The Mission, but… ah…that girlwouldn’t let me.”
Talking about Ava like that made me physically ill, but she had to play the bad guy if I was getting back to her.
“It’s going to be grand!” she exclaimed. “The Warden figured if he stormed Ilamanthe with you demigods there, it would only end in destruction and casualties, and he doesn’t want all those Elves to die. They’re too useful to him. But he had the brilliant idea that if I tookyouand lured your friends out, he could kill them and take Ilamanthe no problem, imprisoning all the Elves.”
I chuckled under my breath. “That’s so like him— never taking on a fight he isn’t certain he can win. He’s very cautious.”
My tone held amusement. Danielle clearly missed the insult that was there.
“Oh, yes,” she agreed. “He’s very methodical.”
“And patient,” I added. “What does he want to do with the Elves? Use their power? It’s weird he doesn’t just exterminate them all, like the fae tried to do during the last Great Supernatural War.”
“I’m not sure…” Danielle mused. “Maybe he just likes them because they’re beautiful. Like you.”
Ick. Please shut up.
“Surely he’s been working out a plan all this time,” I insisted. “What has he been up to? Making more demigods?”
“He tried, for some time,” she admitted. “But he’s moved on from that. Too many people died because their bodies couldn’t contain the power. Plus, he’s got to take power from Esther and Mad Dog to do it, since they’re natural-born demigods. They get sick for days after his experiments, so he put an end to them. He figured it’s better to put his best fighters to work rather than try to make more demigods and fail every time. He doesn’t want to keep giving up his power.”
Of course. That’s something he’d hoard for himself.
“How does he maintain loyalty?” I wondered. “I understand that Esther’s on his side, because she’s his niece, but what about Mad Dog, Naya, and Deuce? What has he offered them? Why don’t they just kill him and take over?”
Danielle laughed so hard it shook my shackles. “Kill him? Charlie, no one can kill the Warden. Why do you think the dark gods are working for him? Even they can’t destroy him.”
My heart rate picked up, but I forced it to slow so Danielle didn’t notice. Angels were immortal, but only in the sense that they didn’t age once they reached adulthood. They could still be killed by a number of other means, and I was damn sure a god had the ability to kill any supernatural, demigod or not.
But the dark gods couldn’t kill the Warden. That was absolutely terrifying. If they didn’t have the power to get rid of him, who did?
“How can you be sure?” I asked.
“I saw it,” she stated simply. “I witnessed the dark gods try to destroy him, but no matter what they did, he wouldn’t go down. He didn’t even get hurt.”
Terror spread throughout my body and pinned me to the chair. I couldn’t imagine the type of power it would take to protect himself like that. It had to be one hell of a spell… or maybe not a spell at all. Perhaps it was the Warden’s special demigod power— like how I could make illusions into solid reality, or how Kallie could manipulate time.
Still, there had to besomeway around this power, so we could kill him for good. Even the greatest supernaturals alive had weaknesses.
“Demigods aren’t an easy bunch to kill,” I pointed out. “How does he plan to do it?”
“Esther had a job before she came to the Institute,” Danielle explained. “She used to kill angelic Deacons on the council forthe Warden. She has experience killing angels. She can kill demigods, too.”
I shuddered. If Danielle was right and she wasn’t making up stories, there was literally no way to kill the Warden. It didn’t matter what kind of power we were packing, because he was completely invulnerable to all attacks.
