Had Ivar killed this demonic vir, Emelia, for the very reason she’d tried to kill me that night she caught me leaving the library—because of Cadan’s fondness?

“I don’t have time for—”

Ronan laughed bitterly, cutting Cadan off. “You. It’s always about you. What you want, what you don’t have, what you’re willing to take. What you don’t give two shits about once you have it.”

“I couldn’t have done anything to protect her,” Cadan said, his voice flat. “If I could, I would have.”

“Then why now?” Ronan spit. “Why wait eighty years to avenge her? If you loved her, then you’d have killed Ivar decades ago.”

“Emelia would have died anyway. She was human, Ronan.”

The other vir sat heavily back in his chair and crossed his thick arms over his chest. He shook his head and his mouth turned down in disgust. “You’re a cold bastard. Just because she had an expiration date, then it meant nothing for her life to be snuffed out?”

Cadan’s hardness broke then, giving away his emotions through his eyes. He leaned over the table and lowered his voice. “Please, Ronan. Tomorrow we can fight this out. Tonight I just need your cooperation. It’s not for me, it’s for her.”

Ronan made an ugly noise and his gaze settled on me. “This little thing? A replacement for Emelia? or have you finally a discovered a taste for human flesh?”

I couldn’t hold my tongue anymore. “You talk about me as if I’m a scrap of food and you only insult Emelia’s memory by doing so. Was she just a ‘meat-bag’ to you too?”

Ronan lunged across the table for me, talons sprouting from his fingertips, vicious fangs springing from his gums. My instinct was to lean away from him and call my swords, but before I did either, Cadan was on his feet, reaching over me, and he grabbed Ronan by the throat and shoved him back down into his seat. Yet again, I’d almost just blown my cover, and Cadan reiterated this fact with a frustrated glare in my direction.

He turned back to Ronan. “I’ll tear your esophagus right out if you make a move for her again. Are we clear?”

“Like glass,” Ronan hissed, baring his fangs before they shrunk back into normal-sized teeth.

As Cadan sat down again, I tried not to notice the many pairs of eyes now focused on the three of us. My heart began to thrum harder as my nerves got to me. This plan wasn’t going well. I wanted to just get out, but we needed this information. I had to save Will. I had to see this through.

Ronan studied my face and tilted his head curiously. His shoulders rose and fell as he tried to calm his rage, but the more he stared at me, the more anxious he became. “I think I know what’s going on. I hear all about you, Cadan, and what you’ve been up to.”

“For the last time, this isn’t about me,” Cadan replied firmly.

“No, it isn’t, is it?” Ronan asked, his lips pulling into an unpleasant grin. “Nobody brings humans in here, and I know you don’t reap any more than I do. I know who she is.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Cadan said, dismissing Ronan’s accusation. “Where’s virgil?”

Ronan’s eyes went wide and his head fell back as he laughed. “That confirms it! You want to know where a Grigori is? Your pet isn’t who you say she is.”

“She’s human,” Cadan snarled. “Don’t do this. I am begging you. I love her, Ronan.”

Ronan’s dark smile widened. “And you brought her right into the wolves’ den. You must be in love with her if you want her dead.”

Cadan’s body went stone-stiff. “Let’s go,” he said to me in a low, rapid voice. “This was a mistake.”

I started to push my chair back when Ronan spoke again. “I know why you want a Grigori, little lamb. We wolves have big ears. How’s the mighty Hammer? Boiling from the inside out, is he?”

Cadan was already standing as I froze and stared at Ronan.

“Ellie.” Cadan tried to drag me to my feet, but I sat bolted to the chair.

“Your Guardian’s dead,” Ronan taunted. “Just as the worthless, self-righteous bastard ought to be.”

Cadan swore, but he had no power to stop me as I exploded and the world moved too slowly to keep up with me. My energy detonated and I flipped the table up with my hands. Ronan was on his feet, but I had already leaped airborne, flying over the midair table, my swords shimmering into existence and bursting with angelfire. One blade slashed down Ronan’s chest in a flash of blood and white fire, shredding his shirt and skin. He roared and staggered back, clutching his bleeding chest as I landed.

The club erupted into chaos.

Demonic reapers charged at me from all sides and I unleashed my archangel glory. Cadan took one look at me and ducked for shelter behind the flipped table. Snarling faces and blazing eyes were drowned by the blinding white divine light that was even more deadly than my angelfire. Bodies exploded into flame and ash as my glory swept through the crowd, drenching them in burning light. I lost track of Ronan as I spun and swung my Khopesh swords, the white flames lighting up about a dozen demonic faces—all that was left of the horde after I released my glory. As one blade swept through the neck of a reaper and the second blade buried into the ribcage of another, I had to remind myself that Cadan was out there somewhere, fighting with me. He wasn’t Will, who was immune to my angelfire. My weapons were just as deadly to Cadan as they were to my enemies.