Faye drew back, her shoulders leveling. It took a moment for her to speak. “I’d never... I’d never seen anything like that. His eyes were open in the picture, burned out. Empty sockets. He had no tongue, and his ears... It looked like someone had shoved ice picks into him, but he was...he was smiling. The look on his face was peaceful, as if he was happy. How could that be possible? His death was brutal. How could he be smiling?”

Well, that sounded gruesome to be sure.

“Why do you think that’s not something Bael is capable of? I imagine burning out eyeballs isn’t exactly hard, and neither would be convincing someone the whole process felt good while it was being done.” Roth drew his arm off the back of the couch. “Demons may not be able to persuade large groups of humans into doing or feeling things, but one? Easy peasy.”

“We are protected against demon persuasion,” she insisted. “No demon can break that spell.”

Roth looked like he wanted to try, but the method of death didn’t tell us anything about the Harbinger.

The witch focused on Roth once more. “I’m sorry that Layla was put in danger. I am, but we made a deal with the senator, and you all...stepped into this deal and—”

“Ah, yes. The whole Trueborn thing,” Roth cut her off. “You were promised a Trueborn in exchange for your coven’s aid.”

“Parts,” I reminded him. “Parts of a Trueborn.”

“Yes. That is what we were promised. Are still promised,” she added.

My brows lifted as the anger simmered to near boiling point. “You still think they’re going to deliver?”

“Why would they not?” She picked up her glass. “We held up our end of the bargain, and I didn’t hear either of you say you killed anyone other than Aym.”

I could feel Roth start to move, but I was faster as I tipped toward the witch. “I can one hundred percent assure you that they will not be able to hold up their end of the bargain.”

Her dismissive, almost distasteful gaze flickered over me, and I realized that, even though she was mostly human, she didn’t like humans. She didn’t consider herself one of them.

Considering I kept referring to humans as them, maybe I didn’t, either.

“And how would you know that?” she asked, voice snide.

It was wrong. It was flat-out dangerous and probably more than a little stupid, but her being so totally unaware of how close she was to getting punt-kicked into her next life got the best of me.

And I knew what I did next would mean.