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“It makes perfect sense,” Faris told me. “As long as there was an official hunt for Ava, Alessandro got regular progress updates.”
“So he could warn Ava when the hunters got close to her,” I realized.
“Precisely,” Faris said with a nod. “If the demons’ council hadn’t voted to hunt Ava, some of the demons would have done it themselves, unofficially, and then Alessandro wouldn’t have known when Ava was in danger.”
“Deities are so devious.” I frowned.
“If you practice, you can be devious too. I can instruct you.”
He’d totally misinterpreted my frown. I didn’t want lessons in world domination from Daddy Dearest. I wanted people to stop being evil. Not that there was much chance of that.
“I don’t see any Guardians,” I said.
“You wouldn’t,” replied Faris. “The Guardians operate from the shadows.”
“Let’s rip those shadows wide open before gods and demons devolve into civil war.” I crept forward a few steps, but when I glanced back, Faris hadn’t moved from his spot. I backtracked to him. “What is it?”
“She’s here.”
My eyes followed his gesture, past the banquet table, to the brightly-lit beach. And there she was, tied to a palm tree like a sacrificial lamb. A long chain coiled around her body, chest to ankles, ending in a fat metal spike in the ground.
“Grace,” I gasped, then turned to Faris, setting my hands on his shoulders. “She’s alive. And she’s clearly not one of them.”
Faris didn’t say anything. His gaze was glued to Grace.
“We have to rescue her,” I told him.
“Indeed.” His eyes glistened. He blinked several times. “Go to her. Release her from her chains. I will lure the guards away.”
“How?”
“By showing myself.” Faris rose from the cover of the bushes and declared, “Regin! I have come to deliver the gods’ justice!” His voice boomed, echoing off the sky like a thunderstorm.
That got everyone’s attention. The soldiers guarding Grace moved toward him, weapons drawn, but Regin didn’t even rise from his seat.
“Faris,” he laughed, then took another casual sip of Nectar. “You should have brought backup.”
“I am more than a match for you and your ilk,” Faris said with a distasteful curl of his lips, like the very sight of them left a bad taste in his mouth.
Meanwhile, I was making my way toward Grace. I stuck to the shadows as long as I could, but soon there was no avoiding the light. The beach was lit up like the gods’ hall on coronation day. It’s a good thing Faris was so good at commanding an audience’s attention.
“You are outmatched, my brother.” Regin laughed again, then rose to his feet. He glided over to Faris, his wings unfolding from his body. They were bright purple, sparkling like a sea of amethysts. “But then you always were arrogant to the point of stupidity.”
Faris looked his brother up and down, clearly unimpressed. “And you always put on a show in a vain attempt to appear powerful.”
While they continued to banter, I snuck up to Grace. I tried to open my mind to speak to her, but I just got static noise. Those chains must have been blocking the signal.
So I whispered, “Are you all right?”
Her eyes widened when she saw me. “Leda? You shouldn’t have come. It’s too dangerous. Regin controls powerful immortal artifacts. Weapons that can kill a deity.”
“We thought you were dead.” I stroked the chains coiled around her body, trying to coax them into surrender. They weren’t very accommodating.
“Regin wouldn’t kill me,” Grace replied. “Not yet, anyway. He has big plans for me.”
“What plans?”
“He tried to force me to use my power of foresight to show him the future.” Pain and victory swirled in her eyes. “I didn’t cooperate.”
