“Eleven.” I switched the sickle blade to my right hand.

Leon glanced down at me. “Do try not to get yourself killed.”

With that, we met them halfway. The male, finally noticing me, made a grab for my arm, but I feinted to the right. He was much bigger than me, maybe the size of Aiden, and I knew I couldn’t let this one get me on the ground. I got a good kick in, but he barely moved.

Not good.

I blocked his punch, but it still knocked me back a few steps. I kept my balance, whipping the blade through the air. He dipped quickly, retaliating with a vicious swing aimed to take me down. I felt the wind of the blade whizzing past my head. I jumped to the side, but the daimon half moved so damn fast. His fist came around, slamming into my stomach. I staggered back, gasping for air.

The daimon half laughed. “Ready to die?”

“Not really.” I straightened. “The pale and addicted look isn’t a good one. You look a little strung out. Need some aether?”

He tilted his head to the side and smiled. “I’m going to rip you apart, you stupid—”

Dipping down, I swept his legs out from underneath him. He went down—leaving only an instant to attack. Jumping up, I brought the sickle blade down on his throat. It met no resistance.

Wide-eyed, I lifted the blade. “Damn, that issharp.” I turned around, about to point that out to Leon when the daimon pure was suddenly right in my face.

It licked its lips. “Apollyon…”

“Oh, come on, can you all really smell it?” I flipped the sickle over and shoved it into his stomach.

“You smell like warmth and summer.” Seth appeared at my side. “I told you, you smelled good.”

“Well, you smell like… like…”

Seth waited, brows raised.

My eyes widened. Over his shoulder, I saw at least five more daimon pures coming down the hallway. “Daimons.”

“I smell like a daimon?” He looked let down.

“No, you idiot, there’re more daimons coming.”

Seth glanced over his shoulder. “Oh. Well, damn. They must’ve broken through the entrances.”

“That’s not good.”

Another cracking sound shattered through the hall, different from the breaking glass. It reminded me of an artist chipping away at marble. Seth and I turned at the same time, but I don’t know who noticed it first. Both of us took a step back.

A network of fractures split the white marble encasing the furies. Chunks of stone broke off, dropping to the floor. Pink, luminous flesh appeared through the larger gaps in the marble. A fine current of electricity shot through my body.

“Oh, my gods,” I whispered.

Seth’s arm shot out, slamming his dagger into the chest of a daimon pure without even taking his eyes off the crumbling statues. “Indeed.”

A soft, tinkling laugh overcame the sounds of battle, halting every-one and everything in the hall. Transfixed, I watched the rest of the marble slip away like a snake shedding its skin. And there they were, the three of them hovering above the makeshift battlefield. And oh, my gods, they were savagely beautiful.

The gods had unleashed the furies.

Their diaphanous white gowns stood in sharp contrast to the surrounding blood and gore. Pale, blonde, and perfect, the three cast their all-white eyes toward the carnage before them. They moved through the still air on pale, transparent wings, delicate-looking and soundless. The furies were lesser goddesses, but their presence took over the hall.

I’d never seen a god before, let alone three of them, but they appeared the way I’d imagined them: compelling, and beautiful. Frightening. I even took a step toward them, barely realizing that Seth had done so, too. Neither of us could help it. They were gods—freaking gods appearing before us. None of the other halfs or pures moved, seeming too stunned to do much of anything.

Around the room, the daimons backed off from their opponents, all their attention fixed on the furies as they sniffed the air. Some started to whine, others growled. It was the aether flowing through the gods, I realized. If Seth and I were steak, then the furies had to be the most succulent cuts of filet mignon.

One of the daimons, a half-blood, let out a low howl and charged forward.

The furie in the middle lowered to the floor, sinking her bare feet into blood and glass. Thick blonde curls floated around her head as her noiseless wings fluttered around her. A pearly glow radiated from her skin as she tipped her head to the side and smiled. The daimon lunged at her, but she simply raised one hand and froze it mid-attack.

Her smile was innocent, child-like, and yet held a barbed edge to it that was cruel. She reached back with her other arm and slammed her hand clean through the daimon’s chest. She shot straight up in the air, bringing the frantic daimon with her. Floating above us, she ripped the daimon in two.

I gasped. “Holy…”

“Shit,” Seth finished.

In an instant the furies shifted, shedding their beautiful bodies. Their skin and wings turned gray and milky, their hair darkening and thinning into stringy black ropes that snapped at the air around them. Snakes, not ropes, I realized. Their hair was freaking snakes!

The middle one screamed, bringing several pures to their knees. I backed up, knocking into Seth. He wrapped an arm around my waist, hauling me against him. One of the furies swooped, snatching up a daimon and launching it through the air. Another arced down, grabbed a Sentinel with her clawed feet, and sliced him apart as he screamed. The third landed near a crop of daimons, one strand of her snake hair zipping out and right through the eye of a Guard as she eviscerated a daimon pure.

It didn’t matter who stood in their paths—the furies were destroying everyone.

I caught sight of Leon ducking under a gray wing and pulling Aiden out of reach of one of the furies. An expression of awe and horror marked Aiden’s features as he swung a blade into a nearby daimon that wasn’t even paying attention to him.

A furie swept the ceiling, her all-white eyes glowing much like Seth’s did when he was pissed. A second later, the furie swung toward us, shrieking shrilly. It stared straight at us, arms extended and claws sharpened into fine points.

Seth grabbed my free hand. “Come on!”

I let him pull me back. “But what about Aiden and Leon?”

“They don’t have a furie gunning for their asses. Now, come on!”

We rushed toward the reception hall. The Guards still held their ground at the doors, protecting the pures. Looking back, my heart dropped; the furie was coming after us.

“Seth!”

“I know, Alex, I—” Seth stopped as we rounded the corner.

I slapped into his back. Peering over his shoulder, horror twisted my insides. The hall was choked with daimons. Half-blood servants littered the floor, necks broken or ripped open. As medicated as they were, they’d been utterly defenseless against the daimons. Guards struggled with the flood, trying to hold them back.

The furie screamed, dipping down. Seth spun around, knocking me to the floor and throwing his body over mine. By the grace of gods, I didn’t accidentally stab him with the sickle. My heart thundered and fear stuck to my skin as the furie’s wings stirred the air around us. Seth tensed as the furie swooped again, but sensing a god chock full of aether in their presence, the daimons swarmed the furie.

Jumping to his feet, Seth pulled me up and we started back down the hall. We rushed past rooms full of carnage and disaster. In the midst of the chaos, I saw Brown Eyes fighting back daimons along with the younger half he’d spoken with in the dining room this morning. He moved as gracefully as any Sentinel, taking down a daimon with a titanium candelabrum.

Seth and I reached the ballroom just as a sudden burst of panicked and terrified screams whirled the Guards around. As they yanked the door open a stampede of pure-bloods trampled the Guards, pushing and clawing to get away. Then the herd of frightened pures descended on us, tearing my hand from Seth’s. The wave of red and white robes slammed into me from all sides. Trying to stay upright, I screamed, “Seth!”