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"Oh, Hades," Juliet said when she saw hiot a full pint in hiriuy’s eyeballs bulged when he saw Juliet reclining on the sofa His Adam’s apple bobbed "You’re the va his shirt Then he paused "U"

Juliet looked at hi under her stiletto

The Goons flanked the door, arht ahead

"My na a chest that made me think of those novelty rubber chickens "It’s not Norm It’s Marvin" He rotated his hips in a circle, then winked "At your service, baby"

Juliet rolled her eyes, but her fangs extended

I fled into the kitchen Before the door swung shut behind led out an ecstatic ry after all

3

A BOOK LAY ON THE KITCHEN TABLE, EXACTLY WHERE I’D LEFT it hours ago Its pale leather cover looked cadaverous under the fluorescent lights No wonder--the book was bound in hunore the waves of malevolence that radiated fro like a pint of chocolate ice creae of Hell

I got a spoon and sat down at the table I pried the lid off the pint and dug in Rich, sweet chocolate ue as I eyed the book I didn’t want to open it But I wanted even less to keep picturing Siht, damn it--Simone was after my boyfriend I needed to see hi was better than thinking about Si to read this da and unpleasant history Its pages contained both the history of the de conflict between demons and humans would end My race, the Cerddorion, was presented as the oal of taking over the Ordinary, the hu the years I was her apprentice, she’d forbidden hteen and near the end of --I’d broken the rule and taken the book from its shelf in Mab’s library The result: I’d accidentally conjured a Hellion Difethwr, the Destroyer The deht, the Destroyer hada bond between us For years, the dees that I struggled to control Two hthat resees had died with the Destroyer For the first time in more than ten years, I finally felt like myself

After ain But the book wasn’t done withon Deadtown’s zooo, Mab su it was ti What I hadn’t counted on was thatto The Book of Utter Darkness ritten in an ancient, dee I didn’t understand As if that wasn’t bad enough, the book tried to trick anyone who atte--one that hatedin its power to defeat ht the book back fro, but Mab wouldn’t let me "There’s much the book has not yet revealed, child," she’d said "You "

So every once in a while, I forcedanother spoonful of cold, creae It didn’t matter where I started The book would share its contents with me only when it decided to do so And anyway, the contentsan illustration today could be a solid block of text to about The Book of Utter Darknessto read it was infinitely worse