“I’m not sure how long I can endure it.”

“I know, my lord, but you must,” Morgan said, trying to sound cheerful.

I shuddered. Imha had been nothing less than disgusting since I returned to her side. Well, pretended to have returned to her side.

She cornered me every opportunity she had, and it was never easy coming up with excuses why we couldn’t jump into bed and have some fun. I shuddered again. By the Everlast. Once upon a time, I wouldn’t have refused. Hell, I had initiated several of our long hours in bed. Once upon a time, I thought her craziness was exciting, intriguing, arousing. Her laugh and the evil shine in her eyes contagious.

That was centuries ago.

Now her maniacal laughter and the wicked gleam in her eyes made me want to run in the other direction.

“One of these days, she’ll notice,” I said. “She’ll figure out that it sickens me to be near her.”

“Let’s hope you find out something useful before then, my lord.”

I had found out several things we could use against her, but all of them would point back to me. I had to be careful what to act on. I needed something good, something big, something that wouldn’t leave room for error. Something that would destroy Imha.

I hoped that something came up soon.

“I saw Nadine’s family this morning, my lord,” Morgan said.

“And?”

“They are well. Of course, they miss Nadine, but they are happy she’s alive and well.”

“Not for long,” I whispered.

They wouldn’t be happy to know she was trading her life for theirs, but I couldn’t do anything about that now. She had made her decision. The Soul Oath was made.

I sighed and paced in front of the bar, returning my mind to the current situation.

“You’ll make a hole in the floor, my lord,” Morgan said.

“He’s late.”

“I know, my lord, but ruining your expensive floors won’t fix it.”

Why was he worried about the floors?

I shook my head and stopped by the bar. If I was going to have to wait, then I better wait with booze. Two doses of whiskey swallowed in five seconds.

“I’m here.” Levi’s voice filled the room as I was serving myself another double shot. I dropped the glass and turned to him. “Sorry, I’m late. It wasn’t easy to dodge Ceris.”

I gestured to the hundreds of bottles behind me. “Can I get you anything to drink?”

“I don’t want—” Levi’s gaze fell on Morgan and his eyes widened. “Morgan! You’re here!”

Morgan bowed. “Yes, my lord. It’s good to see you.”

Levi offered him a small smile. “You too.”

“I’m sorry, my lord, for all the problems I caused when I was under the Crimson Dagger’s influence.”

“It’s okay, Morgan. I know you weren’t yourself.” Then Levi turned to me. He crossed his arms, his brows creased. “I don’t have too much time, Mitrus. Tell me why you would risk our cover by calling me here.”

“I can’t take it anymore!” I yelled, clenching my fists. “Imha is … ugh, she’s so clingy, and it has been hard to dodge her.”

“I know, brother.”

“And there’s Omi too. I don’t think he trusts me. I think he’s suspicious.”

“As long as he doesn’t find anything to incriminate you, it should be okay.”

“But it isn’t okay.” I sank down on the chaise lounge. “Being there, working with them … it disgusts me.”

One side of Levi’s lips curled up. “I’m glad to know that.”

I growled at him. “I’m serious. I’m gonna break soon.”

Levi sighed. “It was your idea, brother. Hang in there. We’re almost done with all this madness. Just a few more days.”

“Days?” I scoffed. “I think you mean weeks. Months.”

Levi shook his head. “I hope not. I’m tired of this war. I want it to end soon.”

Me too. Gods, how I wanted it to end. And yet, I didn’t. Because once it was done, once the war was over, the Soul Oath would be complete, and I … I just couldn’t think about that right now.

I let out a long breath. “There’s one more thing.”

Levi lifted one eyebrow. “What?”

“Besides Aruhi, there’s someone else in Imha’s dungeons.”

Noticing my dejected tone, Levi sat on the chaise across from mine. “Who?”

* * *

Every so often, I thought about the library at the monastery. I relived the events, thinking, studying what I could have done differently. I could have gotten the Cup of Life. I could have grabbed a few books before the place burned down. I could have done so many things differently. If I had, I wouldn’t have to pretend to be one of Imha’s faithful minions right now. I wouldn’t have to endure her evil smiles. Worse than those, her naughty smiles. I shuddered, disgusted just thinking about it.

Morgan paced in front of me.

“You’re making me nervous, Morgan,” I said from the chaise lounge.

He halted. “Sorry, my lord. It’s just … I’m thinking.”

I wasn’t in the mood for talking, but I indulged him. After all, he indulged me all the time. “About?”

He looked at me with big eyes, as if he was going to tell me the discovery of the century. “What if the books survived the fire?”

“That’s … how would they have survived the fire?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know, my lord. I’m just pondering. I mean, that place was hidden and sacred. Surely, whoever created that place must have protected its contents against any damage. No? I don’t know. I’m just rambling nonsense now.”

Nonsense. But what if it wasn’t? What if he was right? What if …

I stood in a flash, startling Morgan.

“You put an itch in my mind and now I’ll have to go back and check it out.”

Morgan wrinkled his nose. “I-I’m sorry?”

With a half-smile, I shook my head and teleported to outside the monastery. From there, I followed the same steps Levi and I had taken before but halted when I saw the library building destroyed by the fire. The fire was long gone, but the walls were black, the windows broken, and the roof had caved in.

“Shit,” I muttered. I hoped I could get to the secret staircase.

It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. The hardest part was descending the narrow staircase with all the rubble on the steps. I had to use magic several times to move aside stones and bricks.

When I finally reached the secret library, I gasped.

The walls were black, the shelves were burned to a crisp, most had fallen over or turned into ashes … but the books? The books were intact. The books and the scrolls. All of them. Perfectly intact.

“No way.”

Morgan had been right! There was a spell on the library’s contents.

In haste, I moved over the shelves—most crumbled into even smaller pieces when I tried to lift them—and went back to the last place I had seen the book. Under a broken shelf and more books, I found it. The book about Diana. I opened it and made sure the pages were all still there. Not ripped out, not burned.

Incredible.

I teleported back to my lair in the underworld.

“Back already?” Morgan asked, his brow at his hairline. His eyes found the book in my hands. “There was a spell on the books?”

“It seems that way.” I sat down on the chaise and flipped the book open to the chapter about the ladies of Diana. “Here.”

Morgan leaned over my shoulder and read it with me.

The ladies of Diana were females who had been chosen to serve Diana, helping her maintain justice and peace in the world.

Often ladies of Diana were confused with heroes from the Everlasting Circle. However, heroes were chosen by the Fates, while the ladies of Diana were chosen by Diana’s magic. Another difference is heroes were stronger and had an accelerated healing, while ladies of Diana were stronger, had accelerated healing, but also had special abilities.

Most ladies of Diana possessed several abilities, like being expert warriors with any kind of weapon, being able to heal minor injuries or pains from humans and lesser gods, and finding missing people. These special abilities varied from lady to lady, depending mostly on their ranking under Diana’s command.

“That’s it,” Morgan said, his voice full of wonder. “Nadine is a lady of Diana. That’s why she could heal you and Lord Levi. That’s why she found the scepters and is now finding other gods. And I’m guessing Alice is one too.”

And Keisha was one too.

That made sense.

I handed the book to Morgan and started pacing. Morgan sat down with the book open and he became immersed in it. Meanwhile, I let my mind wander, remembering each of the times Nadine had touched me and healed me, the time she had found Levi’s and my scepters, and then given us the energy to transform into full gods. The times she had looked at the map and seen symbols, even when no one else could see them. And she had become an expert fighter in such a short time.

It did make sense.

But why didn’t her aura read like Alice’s and Keisha’s? Every god or goddess knew what Alice and Keisha were from their auras, but we didn’t feel the same thing with Nadine’s. Why?

“I think I may have found something, my lord,” Morgan announced.

I turned to him. “Yes?”

Morgan turned the book to me. “See this chapter?” He pointed to the picture of Diana. She stood in front of her ladies, holding a crystal spear. “This chapter talks about Diana’s weapon, the spear of justice. According to this text, the spear has a unique power. It can render any enemy immobile, even major gods, allowing Diana to pass judgment without any interference.”

I frowned. “This Diana is powerful, huh?”

“She was.”

If Diana could really render any enemy immobile, she could win this entire freaking war for us. “We should look for her. She could be of great help.”

“My lord, there’s another chapter here that explains more about Diana’s vanishing act. It says that she’s not just hiding. It says she’s dead. For real. Otherwise, don’t you think she would have stopped Lady Imha and Lord Omi by now? She is the goddess of justice, after all.”

By the Everlast, I wished he weren’t right. If Diana was still around, she could be a great ally. Our ultimate weapon. But if she was alive and hiding, then she had some explaining to do.

“How about her spear?” I asked.

Morgan narrowed his eyes. “What about it?”

“Maybe we can’t find Diana, but we can try to find her spear, and with the spear, we can stop Imha and Omi.”

“That’s a good theory.”

I clicked my tongue, realizing something important. “To activate our scepters, we had to be the ones to hold it. If this spear is like that, we won’t be able to touch it.”

“Maybe you can’t, but the ladies of Diana can.”

“Nadine,” I whispered.

“Or Alice,” Morgan offered.

“Yeah, right. Her too.” He smiled. “I should tell the others.” I was ready to teleport to NYC, but Morgan raised his hand.

“You shouldn’t go, my lord. Your cover might be blown if you do.”

Damn it. “I’ll send a message to Levi, then.”