‘You’re not actually going to be fighting,’ says Raffe. ‘No one expects it.’

‘Oh, so a hundred against just you. Why do you have a second if you’re supposed to have a team with you?’

‘It’s traditionally meant to make sure that no one stands alone,’ says Josiah.

He glances at Raffe with sympathy. ‘No one declines the honor of being second, but it’s completely optional as to whether someone joins a team for a trial by contest.’

Seeing pity in Josiah’s eyes makes me want to kick something. Raffe helped me, but now I can’t help him. A girl who can’t fly can’t play in angel games.

I look at the cages on the field. The two remaining hellions are attacking each other and fighting around Beliel. They probably would have shoved me in there too if Raffe hadn’t named me his second. How long would I last in there?

‘Uriel’s right,’ says Raffe. ‘I don’t have my Watchers anymore. I can’t count on anyone stepping into their duties.’

‘The warriors still talk about them, you know,’ says Josiah. ‘No group has come close to being the elite fighting team that the Watchers were. They’ve become legend.’ He shakes his head. ‘What a waste. And all because of—’ He looks at me with some hostility in his eyes and bites off whatever insult he was going to call Daughters of Men.

‘Don’t blame the women for the angels breaking your own stupid rules. Their women didn’t even break any rules, but they got punished anyway.’

‘The Watchers would still be here if it weren’t for the Daughters of Men,’ says Josiah. ‘We lost our most elite group of warriors because they married your kind. The least you can do is have the decency to—’

‘Enough,’ says Raffe. ‘The Watchers are gone and arguing about whose fault it is won’t bring them back. The only question left is, can we find a substitute?’

‘Where are they now?’ I suspect they’re still in the Pit, but who knows? I think what I saw in Beliel’s memory was from a long time ago.

They both glance at Beliel. He’s swatting at the hellions who are squabbling near his shoulder. They fly away from him to hang on to the bars and stare at us.

No, not at us.

At my sword.

The Pit hellions want to go home. However bad it was there, it had to have been better than being caged, waiting to be killed.

Home.

‘What if we could go into the Pit and get the Watchers?’ I ask.

It’s an insane thought, one I wouldn’t consider if the entire human race didn’t depend on it. If Raffe could dethrone Uriel, then no more war, right?