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When I arrived at the castle, in the hallway just outside Faris’s wing, the alarms were blaring. The door was ajar—and dangling from its hinges like a loose tooth. Soldiers rushed past me, running through the door.
I followed them to one of the meeting rooms. There was broken furniture everywhere. And blood. So much blood. I moved through the room, to the one next door. It looked just as bad. Devlin’s team was there, their weapons drawn.
“What happened here?” I asked them.
“Stash broke out of the dungeon,” Devlin told me. His brow furrowed. “We rushed here, but we were too late. He…”
“What did Stash do?”
Devlin set his hands on my shoulders. “He killed Grace.”
I stumbled back.
“He hit her with a blast of bright, white light. The spell incinerated her on impact.”
I stopped, my breath cold, like my lungs had frozen over. My skin was hot, prickly, angry. Hot and cold, angry and scared—I was ripped in two different directions. I was stuck. I didn’t know what to do. My mother, the woman I’d only just begun to get to know, was dead.
26
ENGINEERED CHAOS
Devlin told me it had taken nearly fifty soldiers to subdue Stash and drag him back into the dungeon. He was there now, so that’s where I had to be too. I had to speak to him. I had to know what Ava was planning. I had to know what she’d do next.
So I shoved that deep pit of misery even deeper inside of me and marched down to the dungeon. I had to stop this before I lost anyone else. Nightmares flickered through my head, the people I cared about dead on the floor. Calli and my foster siblings. Nero. Sierra.
I started running. Soon I was in front of Stash’s cell, but not soon enough. Sonja had beaten me here, and she was already interrogating him.
“What’s going on here?” I asked Faris.
But Sonja answered before he could, “That is exactly what I came here to find out. And I have. Zarion conditioned him.” She pointed at Stash, who was clenching his fists in anguish more than anger. “Zarion used spells to warp his mind and magic. He combined Stash’s power with that of an immortal artifact, transforming him into a demon-killing weapon.” Sonja’s hawkish gaze shot from me to Stash, and she hissed, “A weapon that killed my sister.”
My heart was hammering and my head pounding. “Stash.” I gripped the bars with my sweaty hands. “Do you remember what happened? Do you know everything you did?”
The look on his face told me all I needed to know. He remembered. And the guilt was eating him up inside.
“Why did they want you to kill Grace?” I asked him.
Sonja frowned. “They?”
“Zarion. Or maybe Ava,” I shot back.
“A demon did not do this,” Sonja said, haughty and stiff. “It was a god. Or perhaps all of them.” Her gaze panned to Faris.
“We don’t know that,” I told her. “All we know is that both Ava and Zarion used immortal artifacts to turn people into weapons. And now we’re all caught in the crossfire of their war.”
“Speak for yourself, child,” Sonja simpered. “I know a lot more than you.”
“Fine.” I struggled to keep my voice level. “Then enlighten us.”
“I must do no such thing. I do not answer to you.” Her attention snapped to Faris. “The demons’ council demands that the criminal be released into our custody.”
Faris blinked at her. For once, he didn’t have a sharp comeback or a seething look. He just looked shocked. Grace’s death must have hit him hard. Maybe he really had loved her.
But whatever his feelings, Faris recovered quickly. “I’m sure you know that I cannot simply give him to you, Sonja,” he said with a tight smile. “Stash is one of our own. We need to get to the bottom of his treachery, which we can only do if he remains in our custody.”
“And yet you are holding Bella, one of our own, granddaughter of Valerian, a demon on our council,” Sonja countered. “If you’re going to apply double standards, at least don’t be so transparent about it.” Her smile was poison on her lips. “Allow me to speak plainly, Faris. If the gods wish to salvage this alliance, you will hand Stash over to us for questioning. Otherwise, we might get the crazy idea that you’re trying to hide something. Perhaps Zarion was not acting alone when he sent his weapon to kill my sister. Perhaps this is all part of the gods’ great conspiracy to take out the demons.”
I sensed anger in Faris, but also calculation.
