Page 59 of Gods' Battleground

“Not human,” I finished for him. “Yeah.”

His eyes bulged. “V-vampire?”

“Oh, I’m so much worse than a vampire.” I made my wings appear, then disappear.

“You’re an angel,” he gasped.

“Angel. Goddess. Demon,” I rattled off. “All of the above and so much more. I’m a versatile gal.”

“But you fought without magic. You fought like a?—”

“Cockroach?” I said with a sardonic smile. “That is what you and your fake princes called me, right? The human cockroach?”

He winced. “Are you going to kill me?”

“Idon’t kill people for sport,” I replied. “The two of us are just taking a little trip to your Vault.” I pushed him toward the hand scanner at the door. “Open it.”

“You intend to rob me?” His eyes were angry, his voice indignant.

A thunderous explosion shook the building. It sounded like someone had just breached the castle gates.

“Big picture, princey. Big picture. You have way bigger problems right now,” I told him. “Now open the door.”

“I willnothelp you,” he hissed, folding his arms across his chest in defiance.

“Sure you will.” I grabbed his hand and slammed the palm against the scanner.

The Vault door responded with a beep, then it opened.

The moment I let go of the Night Prince, he scrambled back from me, pivoted around, and ran off. I doubted he’d make it far, but that wasn’t really my problem. If he were smart, he would have stuck with me. I had no intention of killing him. I couldn’t say the same for the angry army of former slaves.

“Leda?” Zane asked, coming down the hall toward me. “What are you doing?”

“Looting,” I replied casually as I entered the Vault.

Zane followed me inside. “But Harker said the grimoire is a fake. And he cured Bella another way. We don’t need the grimoire.”

“I know,” I said. “But it’s not the grimoire I’m after. I want to get my hands on that Map of the Ancient Lands.”

“The map the Sun Queen mentioned?”

“Yes,” I confirmed. “She wanted the treasures hidden in the ancient Immortal burial grounds, but that’s not what I’m interested in.”

“You want to find Nectar and Venom.”

I nodded. “Where there are Immortal burial sites, there are pockets of Nectar and Venom too.” I started searching the Vault.

But it was big. And disorganized. After half an hour—and another three castle-rattling explosions—Zane and I still hadn’tfound the map. We were knee-deep in sparkly trinkets when Faris swept into the Vault, looking very melodramatic in white armor and a bright red cape. He had a hundred or so soldiers from Heaven’s Army with him, total overkill in my opinion. Most of them ran past the door, toward the skirmish in the Viewing Room, but two men remained behind. They took up position on either side of the door.

“What are you doing here?” I asked Faris.

“It’s been weeks since I’ve heard from you,” he replied, moving toward me. He had to turn sideways to squeeze between two storage cabinets. The Vault was seriously overcrowded. “I grew impatient waiting for you, so I gathered an army.”

“Ah, how sweet.” I tossed a gold watering can aside. “You were worried about me.”

“Hardly,” Faris said coolly. “I simply want you to be done with this nonsense so that you can move on to the real reason you are here: finding new sources of Nectar.”

Yeah, Faris would never admit to having actual feelings, especially not for me.

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