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I helped Calli clear the table. I even did it without magic, just in case I accidentally overshot the sink and shattered Calli’s favorite cake plates against the kitchen wall.
Zane had gone outside with Gin and Tessa. From my place in front of the sink, I could see them throwing small balls at the cans they’d lined up on the fence, just like we’d done back when we’d been kids.
Bella stood beside me, drying the dishes that I washed. It all felt so normal, so completely unlike everything else going on in our lives. It was nice to be normal for a spell.
I had just finished telling Bella about my misadventure with Faris and Grace.
“Grace claims you were taken from her,” Bella said.
“Yes, but she doesn’t know who did it. She did accuse Faris of doing it, though.” I handed over the plate I’d just washed.
She grabbed a new, dry towel. “Ava claims Grace sent you to Earth.”
“Then one of them is lying. Or both of them are.”
“The question is why.”
“I don’t know. And trying to think like a deity gives me a headache.” I winked at her. “And a god complex.”
Bella laughed at my joke. She had such a pretty, proper laugh. It was not at all like the wild chortles that came out of me.
“All I know is Ava has a plan for me,” she said. “And that this plan seems to involve finding Thea. Maybe my efforts to locate Thea’s grimoire will help me find her. But that really makes me wonder if I should be looking for it.”
“Ignorance is not bliss when it concerns gods and demons,” I told her. “Our best weapon against their machinations is to arm ourselves with enough knowledge to realize when they’re trying to manipulate us, so that maybe we can even outfox them.”
Bella said quietly, “Knowledge truly is power.”
“Yep.”
“Still, I feel conflicted, you know? I don’t want to do as Ava wants, but I do want to find my mother. I want to understand how I came to be without either of my parents knowing I even exist,” she said. “And I want to know how Thea, who doesn’t know her own daughter exists, could have created a grimoire made up of four pieces, each one hidden where Tessa, Gin, Zane, and I met Calli.”
Tessa popped into the kitchen—literally—and grabbed Bella by the hand, dragging her away from the sink. “Stop worrying, Mistress Witch, or you’ll give yourself worry wrinkles. Come out and play.” Tessa turned a reproaching glance on me. “I would invite you too, Leda, but your overbearing archangel considers throwing balls at aluminum cans to be too dangerous for you in your delicate condition. You might want to have a chat with him about that. I think all that overdosing on Nectar has made him paranoid and kind of crazy. Sexy too, of course. But so crazy.”
Then Tessa pulled Bella outside, chuckling all the way. I joined Nero in the living room. Calli was there too, grilling Harker.
“You and Bella have been spending a lot of time together lately,” Calli said calmly.
Uh-oh. It was that exact kind of calm she exuded when she was preparing to shoot someone.
“So we have.” Harker was leaning casually against the wall, doing a superb job of looking unperturbed despite Calli’s sniper stare.
Calli pursed her lips. “Dare I ask what your intentions are?”
“You may dare, but you might not appreciate the answer,” he said smoothly.
“Now, see here, young man—”
“I am over two hundred years old,” Harker said.
She frowned. “What’s your point?”
“I am not a young man. In fact, I am older than you.”
“In matters of love, all men are boys, no matter how old they are,” Calli said.
“Or how angelic they are?” He gave one of his brows an enigmatic lift.
“All angels are trouble,” Calli declared.
