wouldn’t save those girls. They were already marked
by Asmodeus. The only way to save them was to get
him to set them free.
Once you made a deal with a demon, there was almost no way to go back.
“Xaphan still wants that girl. Everybody knows it.”
Roxy’s ears perked up and she slid deeper into the
shadow, hoping they’d forget she was there. Could it
be this easy? Her pulse picked up its pace.
“Yeah, but she doesn’t want nothing to do with
him.” More smoke. More laughter.
“Heard she’s under Butcher’s protection.”
Roxy frowned at the name. She’d heard it a time or
two. And the bubble of anticipation she’d floated was
already sinking before Big Ralph said, “I don’t think he’d
like it if his Naphré ended up as Xaphan’s concubine.”
They weren’t talking about Dana.
The night was a bust.
ROXY SOUNDLESSLY PULLED THE FRONT door shut behind
her and breathed in the familiar scent of lemon cleaner.
Three years ago, she’d bought the dilapidated church
just north of the city and lovingly restored it. She’d
hired a local artist to replace cracked fragments of the
stained-glass windows. She’d taken out the pews with
her own hands and laid new strips of hardwood. Plumbing and wiring were beyond her knowledge, so she’d
been forced to hire contractors for those jobs. But in
the end, her stamp was on every stair and every beam.
EVE SILVER
115
Home, sweet home.
And after nearly forty-eight hours awake and on the
