Page 123 of Knight’s Dominion

His mouth twisted. "I didn't like doing it, Grace. But I knew it was for the best…for them, for all of us?”

“Do you still think it was the best for Tina?” She sucked in a pained breath and let all the hatred she felt right then show on her face. "You're a fucking coward."

Anger replaced the guilt in his eyes, but then he shook his head and dropped to his knees, cupping her face. "You don’t understand, not yet. I want this so much, and you owe me, you know you do. I saved you, you said it yourself. You just have to do this for me, please do this for me.”

She wrenched her head out of his hold. "What does Oden do with them?"

Vince shook his head. "He’s just a courier. They use the demi for their powers. They’ll help us with this war. And the ones that won’t conform, well, you can siphon their powers. You can do what they won’t.”

"No."

His expression changed to one a father might use on a petulant child. "You'll come around. You just need time." He looked excited. “They have big plans for you. With the way you can take powers into yourself, you could be an army all on your own. And the way you look, no one will suspect you might have the power to tear their world down around them. You’ll be the perfect weapon, Gracie.”

They wanted to make her a freaking demi of mass destruction. “And if I don't? What if I refuse to do it? What if I like the world we have now?"

His expression turned troubled. “Then they’ll make you.”

"I'll end up like Tina, you mean."

He flinched. “No, not you, they promised not to kill you. You’re too valuable, your power too rare.”

"How many have suffered like Tina, how many of us have died for this greater good you speak of? Who does it benefit? Because from where I'm sitting, it's not us."

"Unfortunately, like any war, there are casualties. But when Diemos is released from Hell and takes his rightful place here, we’ll be rewarded for our service to him." He rubbed his fingers over the gold ring he was wearing, one she'd never seen on him before. It was the same as the one Oden wore. That same symbol.

A phoenix rising, she suddenly realized. Diemos, rising from the fires of Hell.

She felt sick to her stomach. "Why did Oden kick the shit out of you if you're cult buddies?"

“I went behind his back, went straight to our leader and told him about you. Even before I knew about your power, I knew you were valuable. You’ve always been special. I saw that from the start. But Oden wanted to be the one to bring you in, to get the reward. To please our leader.” He chuckled. “He actually thought he could make you fall for him, that’s why he kept coming into the club. He thought if you were in love with him, you’d be his, his to control, his to command. It suited me to let him believe it. Idiot.”

Jesus. "Until he beat you. Then you wanted me to stay away from him, would have been happy if I’d ended him.”

Vince shrugged.

“And that's why Oden took me to that party? So he’d be the one to get the pat on the back?"

"Yes."

"But I got away. He must have been pissed?”

“Furious, and so was our leader. I can’t wait to see his face when I bring you in.”

Grace let him see her disgust. “That’s all you really care about—power. You don’t give two shits about me. I thought we were family, Vince.”

He shook his head frantically. “We are, which is why I want you on the right side of this war. If you do as I say, you’ll be fine.”

“You've lost your mind. You realize that, right? What makes you think they won’t kill you like the other demi who were no longer of use?”

“I can provide them with what they want. I’m valuable. And I have you. You belong to me. I found you on the street, I took you in. I own you, which means you are mine to offer.”

"I don’t belong to you." No, she belonged to a controlling knight and he belonged to her. Body and soul, she was his, would always be his.

Pain sliced through her just thinking about Chaos. What he must think right now. He’d be freaking out, thinking the worst.

"I've given you a lot of information, but we have a couple of days until you’re brought before anyone. By then you’ll have come around to my way of thinking."

“You're just going to leave me here?" Wherever the fuck here was.