“Hey, you. Did you have breakfast?” I scratched him behind the ear.
He plopped on the floor, pressed against me, and started to purr. Nick had an automatic feeder now, set on a timer, which made my day a lot easier. But I liked to give him some wet food to supplement the dry. It was healthier for him. Plus, if I didn't, he started hunting little creatures in the grasslands and leaving parts of them for me to find. I got up to open a can of cat food. Yup, he had me trained.
As I set Nick's bowl down in the kitchenette, Azrael's phone chimed.
“Son of a . . .” Az trailed off as he pulled out his phone.
“Do you want more pancakes, Dom?” Vero, who was younger than Dominic but more mature thanks to his Froekn magic, offered.
“Yes, please,” Dominic said.
“Oh, my sweet boys,” I said as I went back to my seat. I paused to kiss Dominic's cheek, then Vero's.
“What about me?” Sebastian finally landed and hurried over to me, his green eyes wide and midnight wings dragging on the floor behind him.
“Lift your wings, honey.” I picked Sebastian up and set him on a chair beside Dominic. “Now show me what a good boy you are and eat your breakfast.”
“Yes, I think waiting for more children is a good idea,” Odin mumbled.
I snorted at him. Then I noticed Azrael. “Az?”
“The Pasha is missing,” Azrael said.
“The Pasha?” Viper asked.
A chill ran down my spine. Of all things for the trickster to take, that was up there with the worst of them. Higher than the Ark.
“It's a god weapon,” Trevor said. “Well, it wasn't made to be a weapon. But then its owner died and passed it on to his son. Katila used it to consume god souls.”
“Demon souls,” I whispered. “Katila.”
That was a name I hadn't thought of in a while. Katila was a god who had been born without magic. Or so everyone thought. But everyone was wrong. Katila did have magic—the power of Invisibility. Not invisibility in the way that Gods could glamour themselves to be invisible. Katila could be standing right next to you, and you would simply not notice him. It would be more apt to call it Unnoticeable Magic. He was so unnoticeable that he was practically a ghost. Katila didn't even—
“Oh my gosh!” I exclaimed as the thought trailed off in my mind.
“What is it?” Odin asked.
“Katila had no scent. He had a non-scent,” I said.
“Vervain, Katila's dead,” Trevor said. “You . . .” He looked at the kids and winced. “You made sure of that.”
Trevor didn't have to say it. I could never forget the way I had pulled Katila's heart out of his chest and then ate it like an apple. Yes, Katila was very dead. Thank all that was good for that. He had been nuts. Absolutely bonkers. And not in the good,Alice in Wonderlandway. Katila's goal was to kill all the Demons by consuming their souls and then he would have used that combined power to overthrow Lucifer. And Katila's craziness involved me as well. He thought I was going to be his queen.
“I know he's dead,” I said. “But if someone has the Pasha, maybe they . . .” I trailed off.
“Will someone finish a sentence, please?” Viper growled.
Lesya laughed.
Viper made a funny face at her, and she laughed harder.
“Sorry. I just realized that the Pasha has to be used on the living.” I looked from Az to Odin. “Right? It couldn't take magic from a soul in the Void.”
Odin frowned. “No. The magic doesn't go with us into the Void, remember?”
“Right. I had to give you the Spear for you to reconnect with your magic.”
“Well, that was only because I left most of my magic in the spear to protect you. Otherwise, it would have dissipated.”
