I desperately wanted to ask him what it was, but there was something more important I needed to know. “How do you break a demon spell that was cast on an object?”

Greed’s answering smile was toxic. “I told you about the Horn of Hades. The rest will cost you. I don’t believe in giving without gain.”

Now my smile turned sharp. “Per your rules, that was my first actual question.”

He rolled his shoulders back, his nostrils flaring a bit. I was half convinced he was about to spring across the desk and wrap his hands around my neck. A long moment passed before he spoke.

“Clever girl.” He reached for his glass and drank deeply, his knuckles turning white while he probably thought over my phrasing. “Sacrifice a bit of yourself.”

“That’s not an honest answer.”

“Oh, but it is.”

Greed took another sip of water. “Would you like to ask another question?”

I would like to ask another dozen questions, but dragging useful information from a prince of Hell was harder than I thought. I pressed my lips together.

He kicked his boots up onto the desk, and steepled his fingers again. “Allow me to be blunt, Signorina di Carlo. Your sister gave me her amulet, knowing the importance of it. I need both hers and yours to work a spell. Give me your amulet, and I vow to protect your world.”

Sure he would. Right after he pillaged and destroyed it. Suspicion coiled around me. There was absolutely no way my sister had willingly given him her cornicello. If he did have it, then he’d taken it. I knew for a fact Vittoria had been wearing it the day she died. I swallowed hard. It was looking more and more possible that I was sitting across from my twin’s murderer. I mentally crossed witch hunters off my list of suspects. Thus far, all of my clues kept pointing to demons.

I wondered if Greed told my sister a similar story and she refused him. I was more than a little afraid of what he might do if I also tried walking away. He could probably sense fear, so I shoved it as far down inside me as I could, and bluffed. “If Vittoria gave you her amulet, show it to me.”

“Ah.” He blew out a long breath. “That isn’t possible.”

“Not possible, or you won’t do it?”

“Both. A Viperidae was summoned to this realm. Its nest is below the cathedral and, well, they’re very protective about their space. The amulet will stay there until it decides to give it up.”

I didn’t bother asking what a Viperidae was, or who’d summoned it. I doubted he’d tell me anything else after I’d tricked information from him.