Finale

more about the devilcraft super-drink. Since Dante is working for fallen angels, why would he have you develop something that would aid our race?”
    “He never distributed the drink to other Nephilim like he told me he would. It’s only strengthening him. And now he has all the prototypes. The antidote, too.” Blakely squeezed
between his eyes. “Everything I worked for—he stole it.”
    My damp hair clung to my skin, and chilled water dripped down my back. Goose bumps stood out on my flesh, from cold and Blakely’s words both. “Patch will be here any minute. Since
you were apparently clever enough to find his home, I’m guessing you were looking for him.”
    “I want to ruin Dante.” His voice vibrated with conviction.
    “You mean you want Patch to ruin him for you.” What was it with evildoers trying to hire my boyfriend as a mercenary? Granted, he’d worked as one in a past life, but this was
starting to get ridiculous—and irritating. What happened to taking care of one’s own problems? “What makes you think he’ll do it?”
    “I want Dante to spend the rest of his life in misery. Isolated from the world, tortured to the breaking point. Patch is the only one I trust to do it. Price isn’t an
issue.”
    “Patch doesn’t need money—” I stopped, holding the thought. An idea had just come to me, and it was as devious as it was manipulative. I didn’t want to take
advantage of Blakely, but then again, he’d hardly been gracious to me in the past. I reminded myself that when push came to shove, he’d driven a knife enhanced with devilcraft deep
inside me, introducing me to a toxic addiction. “Patch doesn’t need your money, but he does need your testimony. If you agree to confess Dante’s crimes at the duel tomorrow in
front of Lisa Martin and other influential Nephilim, Patch will kill Dante for you.” Just because Patch had already promised to kill Dante for Pepper didn’t mean we couldn’t take
advantage of circumstances and position ourselves to gain something from Blakely as well. The expression “two birds with one stone” hadn’t come from nowhere, after all.
    “Dante can’t be killed. Imprisoned eternally, yes, but not killed. None of the prototypes work against him. He’s immune because his body—”
    “This is a job Patch can handle,” I fired back tersely. “If you want Dante dead, consider it done. You have your connections, and Patch has his.”
    Blakely studied me with a contemplative, discerning gaze. “He knows an archangel?” he guessed at last.
    “You didn’t hear it from me. One more thing, Blakely. This is important. Do you hold enough clout with Lisa Martin and other powerful Nephilim to turn them against Dante? Because if
not, we’re both going down tomorrow.”
    He only debated a minute. “Dante charmed your father, Lisa Martin, and several other Nephilim from the beginning, but he doesn’t have the history with them that I do. If I call him a
traitor, they’ll listen.” Blakely reached into his pocket and offered me a small card. “I need to retrieve a few important items from my home before I relocate to my safe house.
This is my new address. Give me a head start, then bring Patch. We’ll work out the details tonight.”
    Patch arrived minutes after Blakely left. The first words out of my mouth were, “You’ll never believe who just stopped by.” With that captivating hook, I
launched into my story, relaying to Patch every word from my conversation with Blakely.
    “What do you make of it?” Patch asked when I finished.
    “I think Blakely is our last hope.”
    “You trust him?”
    “No. But your enemy’s enemy . . .”
    “Did you make him swear an oath to testify tomorrow?”
    My heart sank. I hadn’t thought of it. It was an honest mistake, but it made me wonder if I’d ever be a worthy leader. I knew Patch didn’t expect perfection from me, but I
wanted to impress him just the same. An idiotic voice inside my head questioned whether Dabria would have made the same mistake. Doubtful. “When we meet him tonight, it will be the first
thing I take care of.”
    “It makes sense that Dante would want to control devilcraft exclusively,” Patch mused. “And if Dante thought Blakely suspected him of working for fallen angels, he would kill
him to keep his secret safe.”
    I said, “Do you think Dante told me about devilcraft that day at Rollerland because he anticipated that I’d tell you, and you’d go after