Johnny took another step closer to me. With him standing so near, raw hunger seemed to eat at me from the inside out—a void that could never be filled. I wanted to get away from him.

Instinctively, I took a step back.

A million thoughts raced through my mind as I considered my options. I had the knife of Nyxobian silver strapped to my thigh. If I went full fae and acted swiftly enough, I could pull the knife from its sheath. I could slit Johnny’s throat, poisoning him with the Devil’s Bane. He’d be unconscious for a while.

But that would leave us seriously screwed, wouldn’t it? How would I get my three friends out of here before the other two angels descended and killed us all?

I tried to push away my whirling emotions and think rationally. What was my ethical obligation here?

It was like the old moral test—a man is tied to one branch of a train track, and five are on the other branch. The train is headed for the group of five. Do you pull the lever and switch the train’s trajectory?

There was supposed to be a right answer, I thought. You were supposed to kill the one guy, saving the five. Never mind that I wanted more information. What if the five people were Nazis, or had painful terminal illnesses? You weren’t supposed to think about that. It was supposed to be a numbers game—kill the one to save the many.

And right now, before me, I had a numbers game. Three human lives for the lives of the many I could potentially help by collaborating with the Order.

By this point, all the euphoria of Eimmal had rushed right out of my system, and fear gnawed at my ribs.

“Are you ready to watch them die?” asked Johnny. “Don’t worry. Their necks won’t snap, so you’ll get to watch them suffocate slowly. A miserable death, really.”

“I really don’t care,” I said hollowly, my hands shaking.

Johnny handed me the bow and the quiver of arrows, and I worked to still the shaking in my hands as I took them from him.

“Put the quiver on,” he ordered.

My legs were shaking as I followed his instructions, sliding the quiver onto my back.

Sacrifice them for the greater good, I told myself. You can save many more lives if you don’t blow your cover here.

I just couldn’t stop myself from thinking about how much we’d been through together—the cold, starving nights, the gangs, our little shared garden. Our nights of keeping sane by telling stories around the fireplace. We were survivors—all of us.

“Let the show begin!” shouted Johnny. He flicked his wrist, and the trapdoor descended from the bottom of the gallows.

My heart thundered in my chest.

He’d lowered the trapdoor just enough so that they were choking slowly, their tiptoes straining against the wood below them.

Weakness shook my legs. It wasn’t just a numbers game, was it? It was stupid to pretend emotions played no part in moral decisions. I wasn’t a machine.

Fury raced through my body, and I nocked an arrow, my arm still searing from where I’d injured it yesterday. I loosed the arrow, and it struck Alex’s rope. I shot off my arrows rapid-fire, and after three hits to his rope, the thing snapped. Alex fell through the trapdoor. I was already reaching for the next arrow, unleashing a rapid volley until Katie, then Lucy fell through the trapdoor to the earth below.

I lowered my bow, turning to look at Johnny.

I’d just completely blown my cover, and the punk angel now glared down at me.

“Well, well, well. The succubus cares about humans.”

I racked my mind for a way to get out of this that would still be in character. Trembling all over, I cocked a hip. “Listen, Johnny. It’s been a long time since I’ve fed from humans, and I didn’t see any reason to waste perfectly good resources. The human male looked tempting.”

He snarled, “Explain to me your sudden prowess with the bow.”

I shrugged. “I’ve had four thousand years to practice. So I held back a bit in our demon battle. I just wanted to see what you flying vultures were capable of.”

Johnny snarled, stepping closer until his tall form loomed over me, leaving me in shadow. “Thing is, love, I really don’t believe you, do I? I can see it in your eyes. You’re lying.”

Adonis yesterday, Johnny today.

I was well and truly fucked at this point. If I made it off this parapet alive, I’d sneak out of here and find my way back to the rookeries as soon as I could.

My stomach tightened. But then I’d never see Hazel again.

A shadow swooped above us, and I glanced up at Adonis’s form soaring lower, his midnight wings gleaming in the morning sunlight.

Oh sweet earthly gods. My morning wasn’t about to get any better, was it? Johnny already thought I was guilty—and Adonis was about to confirm it.

My heart thundered as the Dark Lord landed. I glanced over the parapet one more time at my human friends, watching them scramble out from under the gallows, arms tied behind their backs. This must have been terrifying for them.

Adonis’s footsteps turned my head.

A smile ghosted across his beautiful features. “Please don’t tell me you decided to have a slaughter party without inviting me. Honestly, I’m insulted.”

Johnny’s eyes were positively murderous. “I have a little theory about our street demon.”

Adonis leaned against the parapet, folding his arms. “Oh? Indulge me.”

“I think she’s the very ginger tart the sentinels saw wandering around East London. Mind you, they said she wasn’t a succubus, and she was a bit skinnier, but what the hell do they know?”

I offered a sympathetic grimace. “He’s been at the vodka.”

Johnny pointed at the courtyard. “And I think she was living with those humans down there—the ones she just saved with her considerable aim. And what’s more, I think she’s the reason all the humans evacuated the Tower yesterday. You wouldn’t by any chance have seen her wandering about the woods yesterday, would you?”

Adonis’s pale eyes slid to me, and an icy shiver ran over my skin. This wasn’t turning out well for me.

He seemed to be studying me, assessing me. “Mmm. No. In fact, before my visit to the Tower, I was in my room all day. As it happens, Ruby was with me. You know, Kratos wasn’t lying about her dancing.”

Johnny and I both stared at him.

What the hell? He was covering for me?

“She was with you?” Johnny repeated. “The whole day?”

His lips curled in a wicked smile. “Did you know that a succubus can get herself into positions I’ve never seen another creature achieve?”

I nearly decked him, but I held back.

“Kratos won’t like that,” Johnny slurred. “He resents the fact that you can’t fall yet.”

Adonis shrugged slowly. “Probably best you don’t tell him about what I was up to.”

Johnny scratched his head. “Why did she save the humans, then?”

Adonis shrugged again. “Demons get annoyed when we kill their food. Let me take care of the humans.”

Johnny didn’t look like he was ready to let this go. “And her sudden skill with the bow and arrow? How do you explain that?”

Adonis blinked. “Johnny, of course she’s always been skilled.” He spoke slowly, as if Johnny were a particularly dull child. “A demon’s not going to give away her gifts around the angels unless she needs to, is she? Any skilled warrior would have done the same.”

I just stared at him. What exactly did he have planned here?

Johnny shot me a sharp look. “Just because you were stripping in front of the Dark Lord yesterday, don’t think this leaves you in the clear. Maybe you’re not guilty of this particular leak, but I don’t trust you.”

“Your opinion is noted. Can I keep the bow?”

“No.” He snatched it from my hands, then stalked off, gray wings trailing behind him.

Adonis was still leaning against the parapet, his powerful magic humming over my body, curling luxuriously over my skin. His expression suggested this whole thing was hilarious to him.

I tapped the stone, trying to mentally block out the plight of my friends still bound and gagged in the courtyard below. I needed to stop Adonis from executing them. “I was stripping for you yesterday, was I?”

He cocked his head. “I could see your hands shaking from above. Even high in the air, your fear washed over my skin. I thrive on terror, did you know that? It feeds me. Yours tasted exquisite.”

I swallowed hard. There wasn’t much left I could say at this point. I dropped the act. “What do you want? Why did you help me?”

“I’d ask you to tell me the truth, but I suspect you’d sooner eat your own entrails.”

An icy wind whipped over the stone walls, toying with his dark hair, and his gray-blue eyes glinted in the bright light. “You want me to let your human friends live? Come to my room tonight after dinner.”

My mouth went dry. “For what? I’m not stripping for you. That’s not the kind of dancing I do…” I bit my lip. “Well, that’s part of it, but not like you think.”

He shook his head slowly. “Is that any way to treat someone who just helped you?”

“Why did you help me?” All I knew was that he had something sinister planned. “And what are you going to do with them?”

“Because now you owe me, and I’ll get them somewhere safe.”

“But what do you want from me?”

His gaze raked over my body in a sensual caress. “Maybe you were right. Maybe men like me like to have control over beautiful things.”

I shivered, hugging myself tightly. What the hell had I gotten myself into?

That heartbreakingly beautiful smile curled his lips again. “I was told you can dance. I want to see it. And I don’t think you have much choice, do you? Unless you want me to kill your friends.” He stalked off with that infuriating, languid ease.

An icy shudder rippled up my spine. Two out of three angels now suspected me of betrayal.

Now I had two projects for today: make myself a burlesque costume for some sort of performance for the Dark Lord; and finish carving my bow and arrows from the yew grove. I had a terrible feeling I’d be needing them soon.