She frowned. “You sound so sad.”

I smiled at her and fought back a tear. “I’ve got to go. Bye, Josie.”

To my shock, she yanked me into a hug. “Bye, Ellie. Be safe.”

I let my shoulders relax after a moment. “You too.”

When we parted, I was sad to leave Josie. She really was a nice girl and I’d miss her. If I survived this war, I would visit her. I would do a lot of things. I would go antiquing with Nana again like we used to. Kate and I would waste a million hours wandering around the mall. Maybe I’d even join a rock band. If I survived this war, then I would really live. I’d savor every moment in the sunshine, catch as many snowflakes on my tongue as I could, and I’d love as fiercely as my heart would allow. I wouldn’t let the demonic take anything else from me. I wouldn’t let anyone take from me what made me…me.

Will and I sat in the living room at the house, hard at work with Ava, Cadan, and Marcus, going through known relic guardians and choosing which were the most promising to check out. We could pick a few locations out of a hundred, but in the end, the Pentalpha might not be in any of them. our odds of success didn’t seem so great.

“What about this one?” I asked, pulling the photo of a girl—no, an angelic reaper—out from the pile.

Ava shook her head. “She protects a demonic relic, a blade Lilith used to murder babies in their cribs.”

I exhaled in frustration. “You know all of these relic guardians and what they’re guarding, but none of them can help us.”

“Most of them I know,” she agreed. “Not these three.”

She pushed three file sheets toward Will and me, and we peered over the table to take a look. The first document had a small photograph of a male reaper paper-clipped to a sheet of his known physical traits, apparently for identification purposes, and the name of a town was circled in red ink in the top right corner: Apache Junction, Arizona. The second file listed the guardian’s name as “Unknown” and featured a map of a region in Brazil with a small village near Manaos highlighted. The last file had only a question mark scribbled in red above a map of Belgium.

“What do you have?” Cadan asked.

“This is all the information there is on these guardians and their relics,” Ava explained. “I have the most comprehensive collection of information on relic guardians and these three are a mystery to me. It must be that secrecy is their top priority. They want to remain unknown because whatever they are protecting is of the greatest power. These are the three relics we need to track down.”

“Excellent,” Will said. “Ellie and I will track down the Arizona guardian. Marcus and Ava will go to Brazil.”

“I can check out Belgium,” Cadan offered.

I shook my head. “You aren’t going alone.”

“I’ll be fine,” he said.

“You’re working with us now,” I said. “We work in teams. You’re not going alone.”

He shrugged, seeming disappointed but accepting of my terms. “What’s my job, then?”

“Guard Nathaniel’s copy of the grimoire,” I said. “I trust you to keep it safe. Merodach wanted to keep its power from us and Sammael may send more thugs to stop us. We still need this book to summon Azrael and hopefully perform my ascension, but I need the Pentalpha first.”

“Let’s get ready to ship out, then,” Marcus said excitedly. No one got more pumped about a mission than him.

“I’ll get us on a flight into Phoenix tonight,” Will said to me.

“Sounds good,” I replied.

He got up and headed to the study to use the computer. Ava stood and bade us good-bye and good luck. Marcus gave me a hug as I walked him out the front door.

“I’d better let Kate know what’s going on before I go,” he said. “She’ll be furious if I leave without a good-bye.”

I laughed. “Yeah, she would beat you to a pulp for sure.”

“See you soon,” Marcus said, and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “Go kick some ass, okay?”

“You too.”

I closed the door behind him and turned back to find that only Cadan remained in the room. He stood and settled his hands on my shoulders.

“You’ll be okay without me?” he asked, his gaze warm and searching my own.

“Of course. Will you be okay without me?”

He grinned. “I might not.”

“I’ll be fine,” I assured him. “I don’t expect a fight. We’re just going to check out this relic and if it’s the Pentalpha, then we’ll bring it home. Don’t worry about me.”

“I will anyway.”

“Just don’t give me a reason to worry about you, okay?”

“You won’t need to.”

I pulled away from him and started toward the hallway to the study. “Let me grab Nathaniel’s book for you before we forget it,” I called back to him.

Will wasn’t in the study when I got there, but the computer still hummed and our flight information was printed out beside it. I pulled the grimoire from the shelf where I’d hidden it and made my way back to the living room. I slowed when I heard Will’s and Cadan’s voices.

“I wanted to thank you,” Will said, seeming to force the words out, “for saving my life. And for keeping her safe.”

“It was nothing, really,” Cadan replied. “Don’t mention it.”