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Back Seven Devils
Chapters (62)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. 1.
  4. 2.
  5. 3.
  6. 4.
  7. 5.
  8. 6.
  9. 7.
  10. 8.
  11. 9.
  12. 10.
  13. 11.
  14. 12.
  15. 13.
  16. 14.
  17. 15.
  18. 16.
  19. 17.
  20. 18.
  21. 19.
  22. 20.
  23. 21.
  24. 22.
  25. 23.
  26. 24.
  27. 25.
  28. 26.
  29. 27.
  30. 28.
  31. 29.
  32. 30.
  33. 31.
  34. 32.
  35. 33.
  36. 34.
  37. 35.
  38. 36.
  39. 37.
  40. 38.
  41. 39.
  42. 40.
  43. 41.
  44. 42.
  45. 43.
  46. 44.
  47. 45.
  48. 46.
  49. 47.
  50. 48.
  51. 49.
  52. 50.
  53. 51.
  54. 52.
  55. 53.
  56. 54.
  57. 55.
  58. 56.
  59. 57.
  60. EPILOGUE
  61. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  62. ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Eris let out a breath of relief. “And the bad?”

“I don’t have any guarantees Damocles’s engineers won’t figure out how to retrofit it and use it to kill a bunch of people. We ought to plant a convincing fake.” When no one responded, she made a noise in the back of her throat. “We’re talking about a theoretical genocide, people. Come on. Look a little more alarmed.”

“Clo’s right,” Rhea said softly, looking at the specs. “I know Damocles. If you give him this, he won’t use it to protect the Empire—he’ll use it to destroy everyone else. This isn’t the weapon of a leader; it’s the weapon of a conqueror.”

Ariadne chewed her lip. “I can make it basically disintegrate after five uses,” she said. “Just needs a little bit of a solution . . . here.”

Nyx didn’t look convinced. “And if Damocles makes a full scan of it before he shoots it five times? And he updates it to the Oracle’s database?”

“Maybe he won’t?”

Clo set down the tools, rubbing her temples. “Nyx is right, Ariadne. If they crack this, we’ll be responsible for more deaths than the Battle of the Garnet. A hundredfold.”

They all went quiet, and the four women looked at Eris. She had to do this. She had to earn Damocles’s trust. At this very moment, he was probably having his experts run a search on Zoe Eirene-X-2 to make sure her alias was legitimate. It would hold for now. But if she went there tomorrow with nothing, that alias wasn’t going to save any of them.

Fuck. Someone had to make the hard decision here. Let the deaths be on her conscience, to keep company with all the others.

“I know the risk,” Eris said quietly. “But a fake will only get us all killed, and then there will be nothing stopping Damocles from whatever he’s planning. Ariadne, put everything you can into the failsafe. Just get it made.”

25.

CLO

Present day

The weapon Clo and Ariadne created was the worst possible thing they could put in the hands of any person, let alone a Tholosian. Let alone Prince fucking Damocles.

While constructing the weapon from Ariadne’s schematics, Clo had wished she were a little less skilled at this. Ariadne’s specs were a decent guideline, but they weren’t perfect—they were created by someone who had very clearly never held a weapon in her hands.

Clo was different. She had taken apart and put together so many different weapons back in the Snarl: old and new, retrofitted, experimental designs. Her knowledge had helped fill in those last gaps in Ariadne’s schematics. Without those small differences, she still would have produced something impressive. But not one that made her think, upon its completion, that she had made a huge mistake.

What have I done?