Page 46 of Hell to Slay

“You’re going to let Preta take over?” Cyrene scoffed.

Demetri glanced down at the man who outranked the rest of them, and I caught a hint of uncertainty in his eyes.

“He’s sure to do a better job than the two of you,” one of the lowest ranking directors said, but Demetri’s uncertainty was contagious, making me wonder why he hesitated.

“Why are you just standing around?” Lan called to the OIB agents.

Nim put a hand on his arm as if to quiet him, but this time it was Rye who asked, “What are you authorized to do?”

One of the agents behind us spoke up, and we turned to face him. “Our superiors expect a full report of everything here today. If the DHA does not denounce them, we are to arrest them ourselves. And we’ll need sworn statements from everyone here.”

I sighed. We were in for a long week, then.

“You hear that?” Hudson called. “The two of you aren’t getting out of this. One way or another—”

“Fine,” Cyrene cut him off. “We’ll answer your questions.” I didn’t miss the look she gave La Cora, though.

“And we’ll tell truths that none of you seem to want to hear.” La Cora raised his truth-seeker charm, meeting my eyes, then catching the gazes of everyone around, always seeking to be the one in charge.

“Did you throw our own agents into the infernal realm?” Demetri demanded.

“No, we did not,” Cyrene sneered, disdain for everyone around clear in her voice. I watched in shock as the charm didn’t burn her the way it had when I lied.

Preta rolled his eyes. “Don’t waste our time. Did you order Demon Hunter Agents to be thrown into the infernal realm?”

Cyrene sighed and rolled her eyes. “Fine, yes, we ordered it done.”

“Look,” Cyrene said, “We realized that it was in the best interest of the DHA to keep up the threat of the portal’s expansion, because it made it obvious how much the city needed demon hunters. Every time the regs were forced to move the containment walls, our budget increased.”

La Cora nodded, then glanced at the OIB agents surrounding all of us. “We were just looking out for witches, making sure we have a place in a world that used to hate us. No one wants to admit it, but the world actually got better for witches after the Year of Rending.”

Nimue teleported to La Cora’s side and punched him in the face. “The truth-seeker charm may not think you’re lying, but you’re trash if you think that.” Demetri grabbed Nim’s arm, pulling her away from La Cora.

“So many witches lost their lives due to the expansion of the infernal realm, and many more suffered fates worse than death,” Rye said quietly, his eyes haunted.

I could only imagine how many witches the healers had seen with demon burns, poison due to venomous bites, and more.

“In the beginning, we didn’t know the portal expanded every time it gained new souls,” La Cora defended their actions, and the truth-seeker charm again did not burn him.

“We thought it was a good way to get rid of dissenters,” Cyrene added. “It wasn’t our fault that the portal expanded.”

Hudson and I shared an incredulous glance when the artifact still didn’t burn her. Either they’d found a way around its powers, or it truly determined the fault rested elsewhere.

“But you still continued this practice even after you knew, didn’t you?” Circe grilled them. She stood next to her coven-mate Demetri, close enough their shoulders nearly touched, but that was as close to PDA as the two directors ever came.

“Alright, yes. But only when there was no other choice!” La Cora quickly added.

“We also always ensured the containment wall moved when necessary so that it remained far beyond the threshold. We kept the city safe.”

“We did,” La Cora echoed. “We’ve always tried to keep Charlotte safe. When we felt we had no other choice to keep agents silent, that’s when we eliminated them by having them thrown into the infernal realm.”

That made me wonder how close I’d come to being thrown in recently. I shared a glance with Demetri, who’d once warned me that agents were disappearing. He’d been the one to assign me to a unit with three vampires, ultimately leading to me forming a coven with them. I wondered if he’d intentionally used me as bait to draw out La Cora and Cyrene, or if he truly hadn’t known the threat came from within our own agency.

“What about your connection with Ty?” I called.

“I have no connection with him,” Cyrene answered, raising her chin and staring me down.

But what interested me most was the way that La Cora glanced at an agent I recognized… Kev. The bald-headed demon hunter who’d called my coven-mates demons when we’d last crossed the threshold.

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