“She…” I swallow, putting together those rapid, desperate moments before Jonas tried to kill me himself. “She tried to consume my aether—”

“She what?” Sel snarls.

“Tried to,” I continue speaking directly to Kizia. “And then you stopped. Like trying to take my root inside hurt you…” Kizia looks away. The fear from before is there in the taut line of her throat.

Sel taps his thigh with the dagger. “You demons like bargains. If you tell us what we want to know, we’ll let you go. How about that?”

Kizia glances up at him, temptation written across her face.

“Tell us what stopped you from feeding on the Scion of Arthur, Kizia.”

Kizia looks me over from head to toe, and finally relents. She swallows thickly. “He’ll know it was me. That this was unauthorized. You’re unregulated. Which is why you should let me go.”

Cold fear slips through me. “Unregulated?” Sel asks. “What does that mean? And who will know it was you? Your boss?”

Her voice is hushed when she speaks again, eyes wide. “The Great Devourer. He who hunts humans for power.”

Hunt. Power. Tacitus’s final threat and red eyes rise to my mind. I shudder.

“Bullshit,” Sel mutters. “Give us a real answer.”

Kizia snarls. “This is full-demon business, cambion. I got nothing else to say to you.”

“You sure?” Sel asks, a dark twinkle in his eye.

“Fuck you!”

“If that’s the case,” he says, “Thank you for your time, Kizia.”

Sel glances up at William and nods. After a beat, William releases her. Kizia darts to her feet. She spares me a brief glance and turns, speeding into the woods in a dark blur.

Then, without a word, Sel hefts the dagger in his hand, dips his chin to follow her path—and throws the blade fast and hard.

A cloud of green dust explodes against the darkness, and I know that Sel’s aim was true.

After a beat of silence, Alice shoves back onto her knees, looking between the woods and Sel, between Sel and William. “You—you… killed her?”

“Kizia was an undead demon. Never alive in the first place.” Sel shrugs. “The woman Kizia murdered in order to mimic her body? She’s dead.”

Alice wobbles to her feet, dazed. “But she looked human, she spoke to us, she—”

Sel rolls his eyes. “Get your shit together, Onceborn.”

“I have my shit together!” Alice waves her hands in front of her. “But you just killed a demon-person, and you’re acting like that’s… normal. Like killing is okay!”

“I killed a demon-person, too,” I whisper. “Rhaz.”

Alice’s mouth opens and closes again, like she just can’t find her words.