Chapter 42

If you will cut open the head,

You will find the brain humid,

Full of sweat, and having a bad smell..

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—Hippocrates, On the Sacred Disease

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NINSIANNA

The man who'd occupied her nightmares for the better part of a year lay on the operating table, propped awkwardly sideways with his head clamped into a shiny, crescent-moon shaped vice while the nurse restrained his wings. Jamin spoke to him in a low, soothing voice while Doctor Halpas prepared his instruments for brain surgery.

Ninsianna looked to Eligor, whose face was frozen in an inscrutable expression. He stood behind her like an alert attack dog, though it wasn't her he wished to attack. The man they all wanted to kill, including her, had escaped the moment Lucifer had chosen love over Moloch's power.

"Are……