“What did you say?” asked Levi.

“I told him to go fuck himself with a blow torch, obviously,” replied Raini.

“Obviously,” said Levi.

“I could kill the cheeky fucker.” Harper glanced around, looking for him. “He needs to —” She frowned as a red-faced Keenan stumbled past with Khloë on his back, doing his best to buck her off. But the imp held tight, pulling lots of weird expressions as she took selfie after selfie of the two of them.

Devon sighed at the spectacle. “You know… I sometimes look at how well-organized, precise, and fearless Khloë can be and think, ‘Wow, she’d make an excellent army general.’ But then I remember it would only be a matter of time before she’d be shot by her own troops.”

It was sad because it was true.

“What’s his deal with cameras?” Raini asked Levi.

The reaper shrugged. “He just hates having his picture taken.”

Devon sighed again. “I guess we better dislodge her from him.”

Harper went to follow both Devon and Raini, but then she froze as anger seemed to suddenly blast from the archdemon at her side. His eyes briefly bled to black. She grabbed his arm. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

Knox’s nostrils flared. I’ve just spoken with Larkin.

And?

Crow is gone.

Gone? What the fuck?

Harper watched as Knox paced up and down in front of the fireplace, muscles rippling beneath his suit, looking much like a caged tiger. To say he was pissed would be a massive understatement. Hell, they were all pissed. No one could work out how Crow could possibly have escaped his cell.

The prison was well-guarded and had several, complicated security measures in place. In addition, the building was safeguarded by a myriad of spells that also prevented anyone from teleporting inside. Each individual spell was actually covered with a protective spell to stop them from being unraveled.

They’d initially suspected that dark practitioners had somehow miraculously managed to find a way to undo the spells, but an incantor had visited the prison and assured them that no one had even attempted to tamper with the spells.

Yet, Crow was gone.

None of the cameras showed him leaving the building. He’d simply disappeared from his cell somehow. As Harper sat on the sofa with her feet tucked under her, she couldn’t think of any possible explanation for that. She had, however, thought of something else – a theory that Knox wasn’t going to like at all.

Keenan leaned back on the sofa, crossing his legs at the ankles. “Well, I think we can safely say that Crow was telling the truth and he’s not alone in this little mission. Someone’s been helping him all along. That might have been why he was so hard to track. They could have given him money and even a place to hide.”

Larkin fidgeted with her braid, brows pulled together. “But why? Is it someone who believes Crow’s vision was real and they want to help him?”

“Crow told me he was ‘chosen’ for this mission,” said Harper. “I think this person has been using Crow, not helping him. He may not have even had a vision at all. They could have planted that idea in his head to manipulate him.” Just as she’d suspected after he attacked her, only she’d dismissed the idea too easily. And that made her want to slap herself in the face. She should have trusted her instincts.

“But it makes no sense that someone would use a demon bordering on rogue as an attack dog,” said Larkin.

“Sure it does,” said Harper, having given it some real thought. “To use Crow is a risk-free and highly devious move. He can actually conjure guns and knives and all kinds of shit. In that sense, he is, literally, a loaded weapon. A loaded weapon that’s absolutely and fanatically obsessed with its mission; nothing could deviate Crow from it. That makes him very, very dangerous. Add in that even if he did mention that someone else was involved it would be dismissed as the ramblings of a demon on the edge” – which all six of them had done— “that makes Crow a pretty good attack dog.”

“Okay, yeah, so there was a sneaky sort of wisdom in recruiting Crow,” Larkin conceded. “But only to an extent. He’s no match for Knox.”

“No, but he’s a match for me.”

Knox came to an abrupt halt at Harper’s words. “What?”

Ah, well, here was the theory he’d undoubtedly hate. “I’ve been thinking,” said Harper. “He told me that killing me wouldn’t be enough to stop this evil child being born because you could then meet another she-demon and have it with her. He thinks that ending your life is the answer.”

“But you think the puppeteer actually wanted him to kill you,” sensed Levi.

“I think that, at the very least, they wanted me in danger,” said Harper. “Crow’s a match for me because he’s good at taking people down fast. Like a Taser. But I’m well-protected and I have pretty substantial abilities, so it’s not like anyone could rely on him to kill me.”

“What are you getting at, Harper?” Knox asked. But he was quite sure he already knew.

“I think the puppeteer’s plans were simple: send Crow on a mission after me,” she told him. “I mean, look at the way Crow went after you again and again, determined and undaunted. I think that was what they were hoping he’d do to me. Only no one can truly control a demon so close to rogue, so their plan fucked up and Crow instead targeted you.”