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Answers didn’t flow out of her glass, nor precipitate as she swirled it close. “She knows what you are. She likes it when people die in front of me. To send you to die in my arms? A dream come true for her.”

“If they wanted me to reach you alive, they cut it pretty close. If I was an ordinary demon hunter, and if Ryan hadn’t zapped me to safety, I’d be in the morgue right now.”

An odd thought quirked into Eryn’s mind. She shot a glare across the room. “Lexi?”

Lexi stopped chewing and opened her eyes wide.

“Did you… did you know about them?” Eryn asked, halfway to tears and fighting it hard.

“Demon hunters have an arrangement with coroners—under a very terrifying threat of death, by the way, so I wasn’t allowed to say, or theoretically, someone would come after us both.” Lexi pushed up from her chair and crossed, and dropped to sit at Eryn’s other side. “Before Vann, I’d never even spoken to a demon hunter. They don’t exactly give out their contact information. When I first heard about hunters…” Lexi looked up at the ceiling and puffed out her bottom lip.

“You hoped,” Eryn said softly.

“I did. And I dug, and I researched.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Lost hope is worse than no hope at all.” Lexi puffed out her cheeks and looked down at her fingers.

“I know better than to trust a hope.”

“Apparently, I don’t.” Lexi made eye contact with every person in the room, as if peering into the heart of each demon hunter. “Her sister’s lover? Demon hunter, I’m willing to bet, and that bitch didn’t even break a nail taking out their entire team. So, at best, any hunters involved would piss her off and risk her taking out her vengeance on us. On you, Eryn. You betrayed her once, and if she hadn’t admired your grit, you’d be dead.”

Every demon hunter in the room listened quietly.

Lexi threatened each with a look that sent prickles up Eryn’s spine. “Demon hunters. Killers of demons.” She squeezed Eryn’s knee and stiffened her upper lip. “My research led me to one conclusion. You. Dead. If not by her hand, then by theirs.”

None of the demon hunters argued. A few sad looks. Vann swallowed hard. “I don’t know what you are, but I know you’re not human. We were born to kill demons. So… yeah. Lexi’s right. A lot of teams wouldn’t wait around to find out if you’re a decent person.”

“When you met Vann, did you know what he was?”

Lexi bit her bottom lip and tilted a sad look. “Not right away. And when I found out, I… well, Vann, sorry, but… um… I spied on you. Did what I could to get on your good side.”

Vann laughed under his breath. “I thought we were friends.”

“Dammit, Vann, you made me hope, because you’re so likeable. It’s irritating.” Lexi’s eyes welled, and she bit her lips together. “When you told me about your team. The things you’ve done? That you have a freaking vampire on your team? A werewolf? I thought maybe… maybe you would see Eryn for who she is, not what the demon has made her. Or… if this goes to shit and Eryn turns into a murderous, vengeful bitch, maybe you can take her out before she kills anyone.”

A scream threatened in Eryn’s throat. She coughed and choked it back. “Lexi, what the fuck? I am so sick of secrets. I thought you, of all people, wouldn’t lie to me.”

Lexi wrapped her arms around Eryn’s shoulders and pressed a wet cheek against hers. “I love you. You sold your soul for me. I was trying to take on my share of this burden. Do you know how many secrets I’ve been lugging around lately? It is tearing me apart. How to give up your secret to them, or their secret to you, without screwing everything up even worse. Not to make myself the victim, but fuck, Eryn, I gave myself a damn ulcer, trying to work behind the scenes to save you. But none of you all can take a damn hint or read between the damn lines.”

Eryn leaned into her sister, her warmth, and closed her eyes. “That’s where the bitch keeps getting it wrong. Sisters piss each other off regularly.”

Lexi smacked a kiss on the top of Eryn’s head. She walked back to the table and plucked a cookie off the platter. “Because we love each other.”

“Eryn?” Vann asked, and set his half-finished plate on the side table next to him. “I need to know.”

A house full of fighters. Individuals with more demonic power than she had. All bred and trained to fight the evil she’d believed she had to fight alone.

Tisiphone’s sisters had fallen… to people like them.

Eryn would have died before she’d even drawn her blade.

“What is she?” Vann asked, and reached across for her hand.

Dammit, Eryn was done. With secrets. With the fear of a failure that was as inevitable as death. “She is a fury.”

“A furry?” Archer asked with a lip-twitching smile, on the verge of a laugh.