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"It looks like I don’t havetrapped

He sighed behindbreath filled with frustration "I know you don’t like this And believe est it But look at it this way, the Hekate Council wants you You’re already a hero to thees at the vineyard Your sister is dying to h, what better way to punish your grandmother than to side with her eneht of it that way" A slow sht of Lavinia’s reaction when she found out Once she got back to LA froo with you"

He s, but I held up a hand "But I have conditions First, I aent I don’t take orders from the Hekate Council or anyone else"

"But--"

"Second," I said, overriding his protest "Noto do this, I don’t want surprises popping up left and right or things you ‘forgot’ to mention about this prophecy stuff"

"Okay," he said slowly "Anything else?"

I thought about it for a minute "Yes, that you be the one to train et there and be handed off to some schoolmarm who’ll rap my knuckles if I screw up a spell"

A lopsided smile appeared on his lips "I’ll see what I can do Is that all?"

"No," I said, feeling better "I also want Giguhl there with ht?"

"Ah, that es and deh," I said "If the Council doesn’t like it, they can find soarded ht"

"It’s a deal" He held out his hand to shake on it Wary of his easy acceptance, I grabbed his pal If someone had told me a month earlier that I’d soon turn my back on the only faht had shunned hed and punched thee to seal that very bargain Of course, I also never thought I’d befriend a nymph, have a demon cat minion, or make out with a et back," Adam said "The Hekate Council wants us to report as soon as possible"

I pulled on his hand to stop hi us?"

He looked sheepish "I told theree to come"

"Someone’s pretty sure of himself"

He stopped and looked atyou’d say yes If you had said no, I don’t knohat I would have done"

I laughed out loud for the first time in days "Lucky for you I said yes then, huh?"

He chuckled "You ready to goit over, I looked up A white oith glowing red eyes sat in a nearby tree watching us It was the one I’d seen the night I killed David According to Adam, it was one of Lilith’s spies I still wasn’t convinced by all his talk of prophecies and underworld espionage At that ht I killed ht about it, I realized ht The minute they’d asked nored my instincts in favor of misplaced loyalty That skewed sense of honor had kept randmother’s treachery piled up Now the blinders were off, and I owed it to David’s h to the bitter end But even more than that, I owed it toloudly "Hell, no, I’m not ready" He looked at me with a worried expression "But I’ll do it anyway"

The owl hooted and rose froht sky as it flew east