“I have reason to believe that she did manage to free it.” Knox told him about the demon’s attempt to get near Asher and its attack on Knox. Dion actually paled, and Knox wondered if it was because he worried the incorporeal would kill him in revenge for holding it captive.

“Alethea couldn’t have freed it without help,” Dion insisted. “She simply wasn’t strong enough.”

“I don’t believe she had help. I believe she was the help. Someone else—most likely the last of the Horsemen—wanted the incorporeal and recruited her to aid him in obtaining it. Together, they then freed it and nurtured it back to full strength. Then he made a bargain with it.”

“But he said on the clip before killing her that she was in his way.”

“Maybe she didn’t like the bargain he made with the incorporeal. Maybe she hadn’t known he was the Horseman until right then. We can’t be sure why he killed her, but we can be certain that the incorporeal is free.”

Urgency in his manner, Dion slung the duplicate of his display case on the sofa. “If the incorporeal is gunning for you and your family, you need to find a way to have it banished back to hell or destroyed. It won’t stop until it’s done whatever it is that will free it. Only the flames of hell can destroy an incorporeal. And, despite the rumors, I don’t believe that’s an ability you possess. There would be no reason for you to hide it.” He swallowed. “I will do what I can to discover where Alethea spent her time running up to her death.”

Levi looked at Dion through narrowed eyes. “You fear the incorporeal will come for you, don’t you?” It wasn’t really a question; it was a confident statement. “Well, if I were kept in a museum for centuries, confined to a small case and gawked at by passersby, I’d certainly want vengeance on my captor.”

“You’ll need to be careful who you let on your island, especially if they’re human,” Knox advised Dion. “You wouldn’t know they were possessed by the incorporeal until it was much too late.”

Dion swallowed nervously, but he set his jaw in determination. “It will never reach me here. I wish you luck in dealing with it.”

Yeah, I’ll bet he does, Levi said to Knox. If it’s destroyed, he’s safe.

You can’t blame him for being so disturbed by the idea of the incorporeal coming for him, said Knox. They’re not forgiving creatures, and I would imagine they would be eager to make their captor pay for a very long time.

After Armand teleported Knox and the sentinels to Knox’s office within the Underground, the teleporter left the room. Knox sank into his leather chair behind his desk and brought Larkin up to speed on all that Dion had said. “Well, now we know for sure where Alethea got the incorporeal,” Knox added. “By all appearances, it does seem that she stole it right from under Dion’s nose.”

“For a minute, I did wonder if maybe he gave the incorporeal to her and then fed us a load of shit to cover his ass,” began Levi, “but he could have just denied ever owning an incorporeal—we would never have been able to prove that he had. He could have also denied that Alethea had spent a lot of time with him before her disappearance—again, we wouldn’t have been able to prove it was a lie on our part.”

Perched on the sofa near the window that overlooked the combat circle beneath them, Larkin spoke, “I agree that it’s unlikely he was in cahoots with Alethea. It seems extreme that he’d have gone to the trouble of having a replica of the display case made purely on the off-chance that our investigation would have led us to him.”

“We don’t know that it is a replica,” said Knox. “We never saw the original case. Only Jonas knows what it looks like. Dion could have shown us any damn case.”

Larkin bit her lip. “Shit, I never thought of that. I guess we could ask Jonas to describe the case he saw at Alethea’s home.”

“He won’t do us any favors,” said Knox. “He won’t even take my calls anymore. Despite that I can’t be sure the case truly was a replica, I’m no longer inclined to consider Dion a suspect. If he were the Horseman and needed Alethea’s help in freeing the incorporeal, it seems highly unlikely that he wouldn’t have given it to her. They could have just worked together in secret on his island.”

Levi nodded. “Letting her take the case off the island risked someone else, like Jonas, seeing it. Plus, I doubt Dion would have wanted it so far out of his sight and reach.”

“I don’t think Dion’s the fourth Horseman either, but that’s not to say that he isn’t one of the bastard’s minions,” said Larkin. “Honestly, though, my suspicions lean more toward Jonas. Maybe it’s just because I’ve never liked him and something about him rubs me up the wrong way. And it still bugs me that he wanted an archdemon.”

“He said he wanted one so that he could use it to kill the incorporeal,” Levi pointed out.

“But I can’t help wondering if maybe what he really wanted was an archdemon for a minion, so that he had extra power against Knox,” said Larkin. “Jonas did seem to put a lot of effort into looking for Alethea, but that could have been for show. You said he was adamant that she wouldn’t have known she was working with the Horseman, but that’s exactly what you’d expect him to say. You’d be suspicious if her own brother did anything but defend her.”

Levi tilted his head, allowing that. “True. But if you ask me, Dario is the most obvious suspect, since he had a connection to both Nora and Isla. He campaigned to be Monarch of the US like Isla, but it’s possible that they weren’t really competing for the position. Maybe they both did it in the hope that at least one of them would be elected.”

Knox twisted his mouth. “Dario does seem to be the most logical suspect. He also had a connection to Alethea. In Malden’s words, Dario’s ‘ancient history’ with Alethea hadn’t ended well, but that’s not to say that she and Dario hadn’t recently rekindled what they once had.” Alethea had never been difficult to seduce, which was partly why his demon hadn’t found her in the least bit interesting.

“And, if the rumors are right, Dario’s no stranger to rituals,” Levi added. “It’s alleged that he regularly engages in voodoo sex rituals with his harem.”

Larkin’s brow puckered. “Was his concubine part of the harem? The one who died?”

“Most likely,” replied Knox. Many Primes had harems consisting of several concubines. Personally, he’d never seen the appeal in having a harem.

“Maybe he replaced her with Alethea. I heard she was pretty adventurous in bed.” Larkin’s gaze turned inward. “I wonder how the concubine died.”

Levi shrugged. “No idea.”

Touching Harper’s mind, loving the way it rang with her fire, iron will, innate sensuality, and the soft streak she did her best to hide, Knox said, Hey, baby, how are you and our boy doing?

We’re fine, she replied. He seems very pleased with himself after peeing in the air while I was changing his diaper. Honestly, it was like a fountain.

Knox’s mouth twitched, able to imagine the impish grin on his son’s face. I’d say it was the Wallis part of his nature at work. They were mischievous to their core.

Yeah, probably. How did it go with Dion?

Alethea got the incorporeal from him. It seems that she stole itand replaced his display case with a replica, which suggests she was either prepared and went there specifically to take the incorporeal or she had someone teleport a replica to her.

Harper was quiet for a moment. I’m more inclined to think that she already knew he had an incorporeal. The Horseman probably knew and sent her to get it, allowing her to take the risks. She’d have gotten a kick out of the danger. But we can’t be sure, can we? She sighed. At least we know where the incorporeal came from. Are you going to tell the other Primes about it?