I wasn’t sure about that. Demons smote each other all the time, but that didn’t mean Hell liked it. It created paperwork, and if you were caught, you got sent to Hell’s equivalent of prison. Grace apparently shared my doubts about how easy it would be for Jerome to kill her.

“I don’t think so. As it is, you’ll be lucky if you have your job when you get back. You got yourself summoned.” Her eyes flicked to me and Roman, huddled together on the sand. “Your territory’s in chaos. They’ll send you off to a desk job—or make you somebody else’s subordinate. Quite a fall from an archdemon’s position.”

“Not likely,” said Mei, speaking up. “Not if we spin this right. Jerome’s got powerful connections. So do I. And Cedric will advocate for him.”

Her willingness to help and assurance about Cedric surprised me, but then, perhaps it was back to the know-thy-enemy philosophy. Grace glared at her former counterpart.

“You’re the biggest fool of all here.”

“Enough,” snapped Jerome. “There’s been enough villainous exposition here. The matter’s done.” I didn’t have to see him to know he was smiling at Grace—only, I suspected it wasn’t a very nice smile. “I will see you in Hell.”

He snapped his fingers, and suddenly, what looked like black ice sprang up from the ground and crawled up Grace’s body. She hardly had any time to scream because it coated her so quickly and then froze into place, leaving her immobile. She had become a thorny black statue.

“What is that?” I breathed.

“Kind of a demon stasis,” Roman murmured back. “A prison of sorts. He’s ten times more powerful than her—it’s an easy thing for him to do.”

I wondered then just how powerful Roman really was. He’d seemed matched against Grace, but I still wasn’t sure if he’d been holding back or not, for fear of detection. As it was, he now had his signature turned off, appearing as a human for all intents and purposes. He’d done it just before Mei fully materialized.

“You need to get out of here,” I told him.

“Wait,” he responded.