“Look, I’m not going through there to pick a fight. I’ll be under a veil. I’ll do some surveillance, and then I’ll be right back.”

“I’m not surveilling anything,” Beezle said, climbing out of my coat and flying to Samiel’s shoulder. “If you want to go into the room with the hundreds of whatevers, be my guest.”

“Why must it always be you to take the risk?” Nathaniel said. “Why not one of us?”

“You can’t pass through walls,” I pointed out. “And we didn’t come all this way to stand and stare at a door. I’m going. I’ll be back soon.”

“Then let me veil you,” Nathaniel said. “Your own veil may not be enough.”

I stood still while Nathaniel muttered the spell. His magic draped over me, warm and comforting, and I felt a surprising burst of tenderness toward him.

“Can you see me?” I asked.

They all shook their heads.

“I won’t do anything stupid,” I promised.

“Then you wouldn’t be you,” Beezle said. “Just come back in one piece. And with no more pieces missing.”

I smiled at that, glancing down at my left hand. I’d once promised Beezle I’d come back in one piece, and returned with two fingers missing. Lucifer had sworn that the digits would return, but they never had. The skin there had grown smooth over the place where the sword had cauterized the wound.

I put my right palm against the door and spoke the invocation of the Hound of the Hunt. A moment later I was through the door.

And bumped into the charcarion demon that stood there.

I went still, holding my breath, as it turned around. Seeing no one behind him he smacked the head of the demon that stood next to him, saying something in a harsh, guttural language.

I could see why he thought that another demon had bumped into him. There were hundreds of them crammed into the cave of the nephilim. The cages that had imprisoned the Grigori’s monstrous children hung empty at the ceiling. Charcarion demons covered every inch of the floor, crawled up the walls, dangled from the top of the cavern.

It was like being inside a massive, seething hive of insects.

Very carefully, I spread my wings and took flight. I felt like I threaded a very fine needle, trying to pass over the heads of the demons on the floor and below the demons that were suspended above.

The nephilim’s cavern emptied into another, smaller chamber. This was the place where Ramuell and Ariell had lived, and where I had died. I lowered to the ground, pulling the veil tighter around me.

The charcarion demons confined themselves to the larger cavern. This one was empty. There were signs that someone had been living here—a mattress, some scraps of food on the floor.

And a large wooden cupboard. A cupboard a lot like the one that…

Antares entered from the opposite side of the cavern, a bow in one hand and a quiver of arrows slung across his shoulder. My half brother looks like a medieval priest’s idea of a demon—large, curving black horns, red skin, claws, cloven hoofs, the works. I noticed with some satisfaction that there were several scars on his chest, the result of his battle with Gabriel a couple of weeks before.

I felt so secure under the veil that it didn’t occur to me that Antares might be able to see me. So it took me by surprise when he shot an arrow straight for my heart.

I dodged out of the way at the last moment, and the tip of the arrow buried itself in my left shoulder instead.

“Hello, little sister,” Antares crooned. “Come for a family visit?”

I pushed Nathaniel’s veil off me and shot a bolt of nightfire at Antares. It bounced in the air about a foot away from him, and rebounded back at me. I dove out of the way again and the nightfire smashed into the cavern wall. The arrow dug painfully into my shoulder as I rolled on the floor. I reached up and broke off the shaft, but the tip was still buried inside. I’d have to remove it later. If I had a later.

Antares giggled. “No magic for you, sister. My mother’s spell protects me.”

“Too bad you didn’t think to have Mommy protect you when Gabriel was taking pieces of you,” I said, coming to my feet and drawing Lucifer’s sword.

“Yes, well, never let it be said that I don’t learn from my mistakes,” Antares said. “But the thrall is dead, and I still live.”

“I can take care of that problem,” I said, running toward him with the sword upraised.

He shot another arrow at me, and I knocked it away with the blade. Antares dropped the bow and pulled a charm from a small bag that hung around his neck.

I quickly muttered an incantation and tossed up a shield as Antares threw the charm at me. The spell smashed into the shield and melted it, but the magic didn’t hit me. Which was good. Because I had no desire to be melted.

I swung the sword at Antares and he danced away, the blade just skimming across his right arm. That meant that his shield blocked magic, but I could still hurt him with the sword.

Some of the charcarion demons in the other cavern had taken notice of the battle, and a cry went up inside the hive. Several of them poured out and surrounded us so that Antares and I were locked inside a ring. Their chitters and howls echoed loudly inside the cave and made it hard to think.

I needed to get rid of Antares’ advantage. I couldn’t use magic against him, but he could throw his mother’s spells at me all day. I ducked out of the way of another flying charm that hit the crowd of demons behind me. Three of the demons burst into flame. I stepped forward, jabbed upward with the sword, aiming for his jaw.