“I have two guesses. Either the gates are exponentially weakening. Or someone summoned them all.” Wrath pressed us more firmly against the stone, his massive body swallowing up any bit of light from my amulet that might give us away. “If you agree to it, I can transvenio us back to the palace. Will you come with me?”

A slight tug of warning stayed my tongue. Which was odd considering I very much wanted him to magic us away from the danger. But it was also highly convenient that I only had his word about the invisible mercenaries. Envy had succeeded in one thing; he’d created doubt.

“How does that work, exactly?”

“Put simply, you travel through dimensions with me, and are deposited at a place of my choosing.”

“You said I had to agree to it . . . does that happen each time?”

“Once you give permission, it is eternal.”

Despite the danger closing in, there was still that nagging feeling I couldn’t ignore. I’d rather take my chances with mercenaries than make an eternal bargain. “And what else?”

He hesitated now. Which worried me. “Essentially it feels like you’re being incinerated while we shift time and space. It doesn’t last more than a second or two.”

I stared at him. Fire and witches mixed as well as demons and angels. It was settled. I’d try my luck with the assassins. “There has to be—”

“Run, Emilia!”

He whipped around, and landed a hard kick into what could only be an Umbra demon. I didn’t see it go flying, but I heard a strange sound. If it was incorporeal, I wasn’t sure how Wrath had made contact with it. He lashed out at another, and another. It was only when they collapsed that I understood the anomaly. Wrath’s demon dagger severed their heads. Maybe holding the weapon allowed him to strike them, too.

As they died, they lost their invisibility. I wanted to run, but couldn’t seem to move. I stared at the pale faces with deep black circles around their sunken eyes, and teeth carved to tiny points that pulled back from rotting black gums. They looked like corpses and smelled much the same.

I couldn’t decide if not knowing their true faces was better or worse.

“Take the horns and leave!” Wrath dodged forward, struck, heads rolled. He was violence made flesh. Watching him attack and maim demon after demon, I imagined he was invincible. He’d strike, parry, kick, and then heads would roll. Body parts went flying. Dark blood splattered. There was nothing that could stop him.

Envy emerged from the deepest part of the shadows, his eyes glittering like emeralds. “Seize him.”