“Damn, what happened to you? Dora really did a number on you, huh?” the man asked, shifting in his seat against the bindings.
“Do you know where Pandora is?” Truth questioned gruffly, ignoring his commentary.
He shrugged. “Yeah. Have for a while now.”
Hope shot them a bewildered gaze as the man spoke.
“Where is she?” Truth inquired.
“Even if I tell you, it won’t do any good. You won’t be able to kill her.”
Annoyance skittered over Daria’s senses, but Truth distracted her from anything she could have said as he shrugged off both her and Misery’s holds and stepped forward.
“Don’t play games with us. Just tell us who you are.”
The man shrugged and shifted in his seat, as much as the ropes allowed him to.
“My name is Cadmon. I’m not a demon. Never was, never will be.”
Cadmon. That name pinged around her brain, the familiarity striking a chord within until she—
“Pandora’s husband?” Truth asked, surprise coloring his voice.
“Yeah. Though I think I’d rather prefer ex-husband, as I’m sure you can understand why.”
“Weren’t you responsible for breaking the demons free in the first place?” Daria asked, her mind trying to keep up.
He beamed proudly. “That’s me.”
Turning her confusion to Truth, she glanced at him for clarification.
“He’s not lying,” he admitted, then turned back to Cadmon. “But that doesn’t explain why you were working alongside her.”
Cadmon’s brows dipped low, and he glanced from face to face before realization dawned. “Oh! You think I’m working with her?” Tossing his head back, he barked out a dry laugh. “Hell no. I was at the pavilion to observe. To see how many demons she had brainwashed or blackmailed or whatever. Then I got sucked into the sinkhole. Thanks for pulling me out, by the way.”
Truth cocked his head to the side. “What the—hell? Why would you pick that moment to try and watch her?”
“What other chance was I going to get? Her little compound is locked down tight. I have no idea how to get in, and there’s not enough of us left to take on the demons she has at her side. You saw how many there were at the pavilion. Humans wouldn’t be able to take them on.”
“Humans… what do humans have to do with this?”
“Chaopados,” Daria whispered.
His gaze darted to hers with surprise and he nodded. “The very ones.”
“You still lead it? After all this time?” Hope asked, surprised.
“Well… yes. What else was I supposed to do all these years to keep myself busy? Plant a garden?”
“All these years? How the hell are you still alive?” Misery barked.
He stuttered, gaze bouncing around the room as his eyebrows shot sky high. “Hold on, none of you remember?” Mumbling a curse, he glared at the ceiling. “I was made by the gods. Assholes. They wrote me out of the history books, didn’t they? Figures.”
“Why did they make you?” Truth inquired, cocking his head to the side.
“Pandora and I were supposed to balance each other. They just... didn’t take into account that we’d fucking hate each other.”
“So you… you’re the one in charge of the cult that kidnapped them and almost killed me?” Daria asked. What are the fucking odds?
Cadmon arched a brow and tried to sit straighter in his chair. “And you’re Daria, right? The one who wiped out an entire location?”
Her cheeks flushed as guilt rose up to constrict her throat. Betrayal’s face appeared, their night together, the promise they’d made rising to the forefront of her mind. No more guilt.
Swallowing the emotion down, she faced Cadmon head-on. “That was me.”
She battered back the reflex to explain herself to him—that it was an accident, that they’d kidnapped her demons, that they’d attacked them—because none of it mattered.
Daria had done what she needed to do to protect them, and she’d do it again.
“Why are you trying to kill Pandora?” Truth asked, pulling the attention back to himself.
Cadmon shifted in his seat again. “It’s simple. She has some of the demons trapped, I want them to remain out in the world. After the Maleston branch of chaopados was wiped out, it became clear that we needed to shift our goals. Not that it’s any of your business…” He paused, studying each of them before continuing. “We decided that if we couldn’t control the demons, then we’d have to accept just leaving you out in the world, creating chaos all on your own. Pandora stands in the way of that.”
“So what is your goal?” Truth questioned.
“To get Pandora out of the way. To kill her.”
“Why didn’t you try to kill her at the pavilion? Why just watch?”
Shifting in the chair, he flexed his arms and shoved against the ropes. “I wouldn’t normally be this loose-lipped, you know. I’m only telling you all this because we have the same goal in mind.”
“And if you don’t, we’ll just make you,” Betrayal growled.
Rolling his eyes, Cadmon continued with a huff. “Pandora can only be killed by a specific blade. One crafted by the gods who created her. Any other wound, she’d just heal from.”
“Any wound? What about a beheading?”
“You don’t wanna try it and find out, trust me,” he said.
“Where is this blade?”
“It’s… in a museum.”
Daria groaned. “A museum? You’re kidding me.”
Now we have to steal a knife? Why can’t anything be easy?
Truth cocked his head to the side. “Would you be willing to work with us?”
“Uhm, wait, Truth, I think we need to talk about this first,” Misery interjected.
“What is there to talk about? He hasn’t told a single lie since I’ve been in the room. Everything rings true, and we could use all the help we could get. He has an entire cult at his expense.”
“Yeah, of humans, who can’t really do anything,” Hope argued.
“Have you guys ever pulled off a heist?” Truth retorted. “Because I sure haven’t.”
“Okay, let’s just think about this,” Daria interjected, stepping between them. Placing a palm softly against Truth’s chest, she met his blue gaze, the determination in them shining outward. “It’s okay,” she mouthed to him, and then to Misery before turning her attention to Hope, a tic in his jaw blinking in and out of existence. “We can go inside and talk it out,” she offered.
“Persy!” a deep voice shouted from the house.
At once, they all turned toward the back door. Through the window, they saw Pain run from the kitchen to the living room, shouting nonsense.
She took a step toward the house, fingers curling lightly against Truth’s chest.
“Daria, wait, I—” The pressure against her palm disappeared as Truth’s voice choked off, and she turned to find an empty room. Misery stared at the space Truth had occupied with his mouth agape.
“Where’d he go?” Daria asked, her stomach dropping as dread overwhelmed her.