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I laughed, empty and low. Unsettling enough that Renna stepped back, giving me a strange look.
"You're too late," the queen murmured. "All of you."
I glanced up to see Renna had arrived with backup—a motley crew of powerful men and women, several of whom stalked right to the queen and scanned her for injuries. Their intensity reminded me of how we were with Haley, and my eyes stung.
I wanted my mate back. My hands shook harder, magic whirling around me in a vicious tangle.
"What happened?" a deep voice demanded.
What happened?A goddess took my mate, and kidnapped Emlyn and Wane. Wane—who we'd just got back, who'd been through a living nightmare. What was happening to him right now? What if he was triggered? What if this broke him?
"Keep your shit together," the librarian barked at me, striding through the maelstrom of power around me and slapping my cheek.
I staggered back, clutching my face, my eyes wide. I'd just broken Renna's ribs with my power, but the librarian batted it away like it was nothing.
"That woman of yours needs you to think clearly, so pull yourself together so we can hunt them down, rescue your family, and kill that bitch."
"Aggie!" the queen gasped. "We're not killing Aphrodite."
Aggie muttered under her breath, giving me another hard look. Strangely, it reminded me of Emlyn, and helped me gain a fraction of composure.
I pulled my snakes back to me, forming a writhing shield over my body, and I strode across the room to grab Harvey's arms. He was trembling, his eyes staring into space, almost … empty.
"Fuck," I breathed, and dragged him into a brutal hug. "There's no force in any realm that can keep us away from our family. Yeah?"
"Yeah," he replied hollowly.
"You said we needed proof," Lili breathed, and I lifted my head to watch Lucifer nod. "I'll be back," she replied, and rushed out the door.
I returned my attention to Harvey, tightening my grip on him. "Stay with me."
He swallowed and nodded.
I took a ragged breath, aware all at once thatIneeded to be the strong one, to hold Harvey together. So I shoved all my volatile panic into a vault in my chest and slammed the door shut, locking it tight.
"That was Aphrodite," I said, facing Lucifer—and blinking at the other men around him. I vaguely recognised them from the days we'd lived in the palace before we went to find Adhiti—Lucifer's inner circle. The most powerful demons in Iarlon. In all of Hell. "The goddess of love?"
The big, bald guy beside Lucifer scoffed. "The goddess of spite and selfishness more like."
"She was one of the gods that fought against us in the war," Lucifer explained, watching Harvey and I like we were a bomb about to explode. "She sided with Zeus, and almost succeeded in wiping out all demons."
"And a whole host of other fucked up stuff," a scowling brunette man with thick-rimmed glasses muttered.
I took a slow breath, processing that. So Aphrodite had already started one war and lost. No wonder Lucifer was willing to help us.
"Aggie's right," I said, making the old librarian jolt and send me a sharp look. "We should kill her. If she doesn't give my family back, I'll make war look like a fucking fairy tale. So where did she take them?"
Lucifer sighed. "Olympus. Where even I'm not welcome without an invite."
I ground my teeth until they threatened to crack, shoving more rage into my inner vault. The floor shook under us, betraying my emotions.
"Fuck an invite," Harvey muttered, grabbing my shoulder and squeezing tight. "We don't need to go through the front; we need to break into the back door."
"Unless we bargain with her," Renna suggested, earning a sharp look from all of Lucifer's inner circle. "Exchange them for something she wants more."
"We're not handing her an object of power she can use to take us down," Cerny argued instantly, the only one of the new men I recognised—Haley's boss, the one who sent her to Alphaven.
"Not an object," Renna agreed, a calculating edge to her smile. "A person."
