Ashtoreth felt the new presence before she even turned around. Her magical senses registered them like a small moon, one that had been absent one moment, but was suddenly there in the room with them the next.

  She didn’t want to take her eyes off Dazel… but the sudden threat weighing on her mind insisted that she wheel to take them in.

  They looked much like an elf wearing a simple gown covered in faded patterns. Their skin was pale grey, and black cracks radiated outward from their eyes, which stared vacantly ahead.

  Her tag was simple, even if circumstances meant that Ashtoreth didn’t trust it at all:

  {Elf — Level 241}

  “You,” Ashtoreth whispered. She’d seen this elf just before they spoke with Kakisha—she’d asked them for directions.

  The elf turned her inhuman gaze toward Ashtoreth, head turning so slowly that it could have been accompanied by the sound of grinding stone.

  “Ashtoreth. Please.”

  It was Dazel. His voice was low and urgent. “Listen, okay? You’ve lost. You guys need to get out of here or this will become a mess. I can’t control everything.”

  The stone-skinned elf spoke, and her voice was like the sound of many nails scraping across stone. “I thought I heard a lonely echo,” she said, her gaze distant. “An ancient speaker with a hoarded voice.” Her voice had a kind of lull to it, a rhythm that guided her words despite their harshness.

  “Ask me about her if you need to,” Dazel said quickly. “Ask me if you stand a chance, if you’re safe—and then run.”

  The new arrival looked at Dazel. “Did I hear that long-sought melody?” she asked, her eyes still seeming wide and insane. “A newborn drumbeat—the wayward thrum?”

  Ashtoreth pushed away her shock and let herself feel the fear and uncertainty that threatened to take control of her. Doubtless the newcomer was stronger than her, just like Dazel promised: her true sight would have penetrated the illusions of someone weak.

  Besides: something unnerved her about the newcomer, something that went beyond just their circumstances. She didn’t like this woman at all. In fact, the elf’s eyes reminded her of someone, but she couldn’t place who.

  Ashtoreth didn’t have any trouble believing the elf was dangerous, though. If she was Dazel’s backup plan, she was probably thousands of years old—an ancient servant of someone who had once been the ruler of humanity.

  She had a responsibility to the people behind her to keep them safe. But she had a responsibility to Earth, too, and even if her mind was reeling from everything that Dazel had told her, she was now almost certain that Dazel might be just as threatening to humanity’s home planet as Hell was.

  We need, need, need to kill Dazel, she said to the others with telepathy. The contract reversal means that once he’s dispersed, I don’t have to summon him again.

  Ahead of her, Dazel was rigid, focused on the newcomer as if she were a predator. He spoke with the same seriousness that she hadn’t heard in his voice since she’d first shown him the shard.

  “It’s me, Nadir,” he said. “I’m the voice you heard… but thought you imagined. Return to my side. We’re going home.”

  Get ready to hit him with everything you can on my mark, said Ashtoreth. You know he’s wily.

  The elf—Nadir—just stared at Dazel for a moment. Then she turned again to look at Ashtoreth. “Often have my hopes been commandeered,” she said. “But if you are my one true master… then I must keep you safe.”

  It was War, Ashtoreth realized. That was who Nadir reminded her of. The cracks in her smooth, stony skin somehow made her think of the blood that had run from the archangel’s eyes. She wasn’t quite sure what it was: in truth, they didn’t even look very similar, but…

  I think that’s an angel, Ashtoreth said. Hunter, Sadie, let us know when you’re ready to get us out of here.

  ‘Kay.

  To Frost, she added: Go for Sadie, not me, when it goes down.

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  Right.

  “Nadir,” Dazel said cautiously. “Look at me.”

  Slowly, she turned back to him. Then she cocked her head. “I have to keep you safe,” she said.

  “Nadir.”

  “Have long years weathered what was once so sharp and clean?” she asked. “You are not yourself.”

  “Nadir.”

  “Perhaps we both have drifted far from what we once were.”

  Dazel flicked his ears in annoyance, and a note of his typical sarcasm actually entered his voice. “Sure, Nadir. Let’s say that long years have made me a real smooth piece of driftwood and leave it at that for now—but you’ll follow my orders whether they meet your expectations or not.”

  “We should erase all trace of your passage,” said Nadir, seemingly unoffended. “I know. You know.”

  “Well we can’t,” said Dazel. “And trying will just end up making our trail easier to follow. I’ll explain later, just grab me and get us out.” Then he snarled and looked at Ashtoreth. “Fucking stop, Ashtoreth! You’re going to get these kids killed. Or worse—yourself.”

  “I protect Earth,” she said. “I protect humanity.”

  “Think of your humans! Think of your responsibilities!”

  She glowered at him. “Can you honestly say that you want what’s best for Earth and humanity?”

  Dazel’s eyes widened with sudden panic. He began answering immediately, and his words came fast. “I told you this already, Ashtoreth—from my point of view, of course. But from yours it’s going to be more complicated. I won’t pretend that I have some quiet, simple destiny in mind for Earth, Ashtoreth—but I have no other choice. None of us do.”

  Immediately, he began to speak to her with telepathy. I’ve got a fallen angel on a leash made of dental floss, here. If she figures out you’ve got me bound to answer your questions, you’re dead.

  Nadir was staring at Dazel again. “I will trust that you are who you say, but heed: you are in my power. I will visit… unthinkable agonies upon you if you are abusing my madness—as so many before you have done.”

  Dazel sighed. “Nadir. You just have no idea how much I can’t wait to show you for certain that it’s me.”

  In answer, Nadir only turned back to Ashtoreth. “The Master has spoken. Leave this place.”

  But before Ashtoreth could answer her, a new voice answered.

  “Master? Master of what?”

  She turned to see a man walking into the room to join them. He looked like a winged devil in a suit of heavy black scales, but tagging him revealed that he was simply a dragon in a diabolical form.

  {Massemeliact — Level 2455}

  Ashtoreth’s heart fell. It was the dragon that the swarm of birds had called earlier: the one who’d found her very existence as a human archfiend offensive.

  “Not master of this realm,” said the dragon, stepping further inside. “Nor this archfiend… nor these humans. No,” he said, looking past Nadir at Dazel. “Whatever he once was, he is nothing now.”

  Nadir let out a wistful sigh as she turned to Massemeliact. “A prideful dragon of middling years,” she said. “Unwise enough to wish to know the source of our authority.”

  Ashtoreth almost winced. Massemeliact was almost certainly one of the powerful immortals who owned and protected this outer market. The defenses that he had at the ready would make Morax Tol’s look like a children’s toybox. Even if Nadir thought that she was stronger than him, she was showing how completely insane she was by goading him right away.

  Apparently Massemeliact agreed, as he gave an amused tilt of his head a moment later. “You think I don’t know what you are?” he asked. “Broken one. I heard everything. I know what you intend.”

  Nadir stared at him for a few moments, her eyes seeming to grow even more distant, more hazy. She opened her mouth, reaching up to touch her teeth with two fingers. Then she lowered her hand.

  “Can a dragon that is whole be made to be broken?” she asked. “Perhaps we make sockets where once there were wings? Perhaps one must—”

  “—Quiet, Nadir,” Dazel said.

  The stony-skinned elf paused mid-sentence, and Ashtoreth thought she detected a hint of shock on the elf’s inexpressive face, as if she were surprised to find herself listening to him.

  “We bought our goods here fairly,” Dazel told the dragon. “Even the archfiend’s betrayal of me was just another part of the market, another thing this place had for sale. We’re entitled to do our business and be on our way without your intervention.”

  The dragon’s eyes flashed. “You think I’m trading away my honor by interfering? If I am, then so be it. You are from the home realm of the humans, and you oppose the Authority of Heaven. Need I know more? All of you are to be placed in stasis.”

  “If you overheard everything, then you should know that the girl’s got nothing to do with it,” said Dazel. “She was nothing but my free ride out—she never knew a damned thing.”

  “The girl is a human archfiend,” said Massemeliact. “That’s enough. Though I must say, I’m rather amused by your attempts to convince me—compassion? Honor? Am I perhaps the first dragon you’ve met?”

  “Not at all,” said Dazel. “I find that most of you start spinning your wheels whenever you think you’ve got the worm on the hook—you just love saying no to someone you think is begging.”

  The dragon’s face fell with disappointment. “I see.”

  Ashtoreth realized in a flash that it was time to make a decision…

  Get out, she said. Forget Dazel—just run.

  “Nadir,” said Dazel. “Move.”