by Ella Summers
“Shame.” Darkstorm lifted his hand, waving his pirates forward.
Guards, armed and armored, streamed down the stairs and through the door we’d just used to enter the building. I counted eighteen on the ground. Another twelve had their guns aimed at us from the upper level. We were surrounded.
Eva walked down the stairs, dressed in a red gown. The silky train cascaded down the steps after her like a bloody river over rocks.
I stepped toward her. “Eva—”
She waved her hands over her head, silvery-blue magic swirling between her fingers. There was a loud crack, like a chunk of ice breaking off a mountainside, then Eva hurled a javelin of ice magic at me. It hit me with the force of winter. My body absorbed the spell, just as it had the Dark Force’s spells back in the Black Forest.
The corners of Eva’s full, red lips curled up. She winked at me, then she hit me with another ice javelin. My magic swallowed that spell—and the spells of Darkstorm and his pirates, for most of them were now blasting me too.
Spells flashed and boomed, echoing off the walls and windows, crashing against the floors and doors. Magic hit me and Damiel from all directions—again and again, a continuous barrage that overloaded my magical resistance and slowly dragged me under. I blacked out.
12
Muted Magic
I awoke to the distinctive roar and sizzle of a raging monster slamming its body against a Magitech barrier. Repeatedly.
“Give it a rest,” I told the gigantic red bull in the prison cell next to mine.
Grunting in displeasure, the beast reared back onto its hind legs and pounded its hooves against the iron bars that separated us. I noticed there wasn’t a magic barrier between the cells. Apparently, our captors didn’t care if their prisoners killed one another—just so long as they didn’t escape.
Stepping up to the Magitech barrier that glistened over my cell door like a gold glitter curtain, I tried to gauge its strength. I reached for my psychic magic, just to give the barrier a little nudge. I found nothing. I tried my elemental magic next. Nothing. Where was my magic? Panic burned, cold and uneven, inside of me.
“They gave us a potion to mute our magic,” Damiel said from the cell across from mine.
I had no magic. The icy fingers of fear clenched around my heart.
“It will wear off eventually,” he said.
“How long?” I asked, trying to remain calm. I felt bare without my magic. Numb and null. Exposed. Like I was standing naked in the middle of a snowstorm.
“Hard to say,” replied Damiel calmly, as though having his magic muted didn’t bother him. But it must have. “The potion should last only a few hours at most. An angel has a lot of magic. The potion can’t silence it for long. If we can find a laboratory or a potion supply closet, we could mix something to reverse the effects ourselves.”
“We would have to get out of these prison cells first.”
“Obviously.”
“Any ideas?”
He said nothing.
“Oh, come on. Don’t tell me that you are still testing me.”
“No, the time for tests has passed. Things have gotten out of hand.” He said it casually, as though he were talking about not having enough birthday cake to go around—not that one of our allies had just betrayed us and joined a rogue dark angel.
I still couldn’t believe it was true.
“There has to be an explanation for Eva’s behavior,” I insisted, pacing in my cell. It was so small that I only took two steps before I had to turn back the other way. “I know her.”
“You think you know someone. Then one day, you realize you never knew them at all,” he said with a sardonic smile. “Every person has a trigger, Cadence, a catalyst that will turn them, something that will bring out the evil lurking inside. Darkstorm found Major Doren’s trigger.”
“No.” I shook my head. My mind was still reeling from what I’d seen in that room above the airship hangar. I was trying to make sense of it, to find some explanation for Eva’s behavior. “No, it can’t be.”
“You’re in denial.”
“No.”
“And you’re in shock.”
I clutched my hands around my arms, hugging myself.
“He marked her.”
My head snapped up, my eyes meeting his.
“I could sense it,” Damiel said. “An angel’s mark. Darkstorm has marked Major Doren as his own. They are bonded. She’s not on some undercover mission to capture him. Chances are she was on a mission to spy on the Legion, and that’s what she was doing at Storm Castle.”
There was sense to his words. Logic. An angel’s mark, born of magic and blood, wasn’t made lightly. It was a sign of possession, of deep feeling, of a connection. And that connection generally went both ways. My friend was in love with a twisted psychopath.
“Are you all right?” Damiel asked me.
“Fine.”
His eyes narrowed. “Your friend shot you. That’s not something you shake off immediately,” Damiel said, something resembling sympathy flashing across his face.
“Who betrayed you?” I asked him.
“If we make it out of here alive, I’ll tell you.”
I snorted. “You must really think we’re going to die if you’re promising to spill your secrets.”
“One secret,” he told me. “The rest…well, that will take time.”
“Ok, one secret. But then I’m also going to have to insist on some of those pancakes you boasted about.”
“I believe we have a deal.”
“Good.” I looked at the magic barrier that glistened over my prison bars, trying to find any sign of weakness. “Now let’s work on getting out of these cells.” I prepared to poke the glowing magic.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Damiel said. “It’s likely that the potion silenced more than the magic the Legion gave you.”
I dropped my hand and took a step back from the barrier. “What do you mean?”
“I was referring to your other abilities.”
“I don’t know what you’re—”
“There’s no point in denying it. You possess abilities that the gods’ Nectar does not grant. I have observed your magic in action. Suddenly, the missing pieces of your mission in the Black Forest are clear.”
“There are no missing pieces.”
“Not anymore,” he said. “I’ve figured it out. You weren’t lucky enough to dodge the Dark Force’s spells. They hit you surely enough. But your natural resistance to magic protected you long enough to escape. Clearly, there is a limit to how much magic your body can protect you from. Major Doren, Darkstorm, and the pirates exceeded that limit back in the hangar, and then you passed out like anyone else.”
Words of denial sprang to my lips, but I swallowed them back down before they escaped. As Damiel had said, there was no point in denying it. He’d seen my magic resistance with his own two eyes.
“You were analyzing my magic, even as the pirates bombarded us with spells,” I said quietly.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because there were too many pirates. They were going to take us prison no matter what we did to try to stop them. So I decided that I might as well see what happens when you’re hit by enemy spells, just as you were in the Black Forest. I wasn’t there to watch you then, so I had to take the opportunity here.”
“Ever the pragmatist, Colonel.”
He dipped his chin in acknowledgment.
I sighed. “It sounds like you’ve already got me all figured out. So now what?”
My father had told me the Master Interrogator would brand me as a traitor and a deviant if he learned about my magic resistance. Best case scenario, he’d send me to the gods, so they could poke and prod me until they figured out the secret of my never-before-seen magic. Or maybe that was the worst case.
“Now, we get out of this prison cell and complete our mission,” Damiel said.
“And what happens to me afte
r we complete our mission?”
“Nothing of my doing. I am not your enemy, Cadence.” His words held a hint of impatience. “And you’re not the only one with unexplained powers.”
I blinked in surprise. “You? You have strange powers as well?”
He said nothing.
His magic was different too, just like mine. I just knew it was. Was that the reason I felt drawn to him? Was our shared attraction nothing more than a convergence of similar magics?
“What kind of unusual powers do you have?” I asked him.
“We must get to work on our escape, while we still can.”
“Sharing is caring?” I smiled.
His face remained blank.
“If you have unusual abilities yourself, then why were you investigating my powers?”
“I never said I had unusual abilities. But if a Legion soldier did have such powers, he might wish to learn more about another soldier’s powers in order to understand his own.”
“Are you resistant to magic?” I asked him.
“It is a waste of your energy to speculate about this right now. You need to focus on the mission.”
Maybe I could have focused more easily on the mission if he would just answer my question. But I didn’t say that. I tried really hard not to think it either. Instead, I concentrated on the Magitech barrier that stood between us and freedom. I had extensive experience with Magitech. I could find a way out of this.
Before I could begin, however, Eva sauntered into the prison block like she didn’t have a care in the world. Like she was walking on clouds. She was still wearing the crimson silk dress that hugged her body like a smooth, shiny layer of hot candle wax. Her feet were bare. I couldn’t imagine walking barefoot over the scorching ground of red pebbles outside, but she didn’t show any signs of discomfort. She was completely at home here.
As soon as Eva’s big, brown eyes met mine, a smile lit up her whole face. She stopped in front of my cell, bouncing with excitement.
“Oh, Cadence, I’m so glad that you’re here.”
“Err, what’s going on?”
Eva stretched out her hand, wiggling her fingers to show off her enormous diamond ring. “I’m getting married!” she gushed.
I glanced from her to Damiel. “I’ve heard.”
She giggled, her tightly-spiraled platinum locks bouncing off her shoulders. “Oh, not to Colonel Dragonsire.” She spared him an apologetic look before going back to completely ignoring him. “To Hugo.”
Hugo? Hugo Darkstorm was the rogue dark angel who was at the center of this disaster. If there hadn’t been a magic barrier between me and Eva, I would have rushed forward and tried to shake some sense into her.
As it was, I struggled to keep my tone level. “How did this happen?”
“Hugo asked me to marry him, and I said yes!”
That’s not what I’d meant.
“How did you two…” Fall in love? No! This wasn’t love. It was madness. “How did you get together?”
Her smile was wide, her eyes starry. “I know what you’re thinking, Cadence, and no, I’m not crazy. Sometimes two people are just meant for each other, don’t you know?”
No. Not really. Not my friend and a rogue dark angel whose pirate forces murdered and raided. They were the last two people on Earth who were made for each other.
“Hugo is so misunderstood. He’s really, truly a gentle soul,” Eva cooed.
Tell that to the hundreds of people he’d killed in cold blood.
“You just have to give him a chance. I want you to come to the wedding, Cadence,” Eva told me.
“When is it?” I asked, humoring her.
Maybe if I played nice, she’d convince the guards to let me out of the cell. There wasn’t actually going to be a wedding anyway, what with the bride and groom stuck in prison cells, being grilled by the Legion’s Interrogators.
“The wedding is happening right now!” she said unexpectedly.
I blinked. This was so unreal. I felt like I was trapped in some alternate reality, a reality where my friend was suffering from delirium. Eva had never been this bubbly.
“Now? Ok…sure.” If her wedding was my ticket to getting out of this cell, I’d play along. “But I want to bring a date.” I glanced at Damiel.
“Of course.” She was grinning from ear to ear. “You’re both welcome.”
The guard standing in the open doorway to the cell block opened his mouth to protest, but Eva was faster.
“Their magic has been neutralized,” she said. “How much of a threat can they be, surrounded by hundreds of highly-skilled armed guards?”
“I’ll have to clear it with Darkstorm,” the guard said gruffly, like that was the response expected of him. In truth, he looked rather bored. Babysitting magic-muted angels couldn’t have been all that exciting for him.
“Hugo won’t deny me this small favor, I know he won’t. Not on our wedding day!”
She beamed at me as the guard muttered something into his phone. Without the enhanced hearing my magic usually provided, I couldn’t hear what he was saying.
“See you in a few minutes!” Eva sang, then happily skipped out of the prison block.
I looked at Damiel in confusion. “What just happened? What the hell is wrong with Eva?”
“She’s been bewitched,” he said quietly as the guard followed Eva into the hallway.
“Yes,” I agreed.
They said true love could change a person, but Eva was acting like she’d had a complete personality transplant. And I had noticed a odd starry sparkle in her eyes.
“We need to reverse the spell,” I told Damiel.
“Without our magic, that will prove difficult. Before we can reverse the effects, we need to identify the spell Darkstorm used on her.”
“So that’s what we’ll do,” I decided. “When the guards release us from our cells to escort us to the wedding, we’ll figure out how Darkstorm has bewitched her and reverse it.” I pounded my clenched fist into my open palm. “Before Eva makes the biggest mistake of her life.”
13
Love
Reversing the spell on Eva was easier said than done. As she’d promised, the guards allowed me and Damiel to leave our cells for the wedding ceremony. Problem number one was the pirates had confiscated all of our weapons. Problem number two was Beastman. The mega-monster of a guard was our new shadow.
And to top it all off, we still didn’t have our magic back. That meant no superhuman strength and speed, and no spells to hurl at the two-hundred-and-fifty enemy pirate combatants in attendance.
The wedding took place in the airship hangar. Someone had drawn back the curtains from the overhead windows, showcasing a gorgeous red-and-orange sky. Beams of glittering natural light streamed in through the windows, lighting up the gold accents on the airship.
And so Eva and Darkstorm were married under the sunset sky. As they spoke their vows, my heart clenched up, thinking of what my friend was doing under the influence of the dark angel’s spell. I took consolation in the fact that once we freed Eva’s mind, the Legion would annul the marriage right away. Then things could finally go back to the way they were supposed to be.
As the wedding ceremony seamlessly transitioned into the after-party, the guards carried in trays of food. My stomach growled. I was famished, but this was no time to snack. I had to focus on what Damiel and I were trying to do: figure out how Darkstorm had bewitched Eva, a powerful soldier in her own right. Whatever magic he’d used on her must have been really potent.
I watched Eva hang on Darkstorm’s arm, fawning over him with stars in her eyes. Dressed in a graceful gown—a silver bodice and white feather skirt—Eva looked like a swan. Silver bracelets jingled on her arms, and beaded slippers sparkled on her feet. Her platinum-blonde hair was pulled up into an elaborate twist.
“She is a beautiful bride,” I commented to Damiel.
His response was a subtle nudge into my back, directing my attention to the guard who�
�d just walked up to Beastman.
“I have the package,” the guard said.
There was that package again. What the hell was in this package they were all so worked up about?
Beastman took the mystery bundle, lifted up the packaging paper to peek inside, then quickly rewrapped it. I didn’t catch a glimpse, though I was sure I’d smelled something. Oh, what was it? My nose was so human right now, so weak. Was it flowers that I’d smelled?
“Did you get a look inside?” I asked Damiel. He was standing closer to Beastman than I was.
“No.” He frowned. “He moved too fast.”
I had a feeling that being human again—if only temporarily—was even more aggravating for Damiel than it was for me.
Beastman closed the two steps to us. “Don’t try anything,” he said, leveling a hard glare on us. “Or they will shoot you in the head. Even an angel will go down if you put enough bullets through them.” He pointed at the two guards who stood on the upper level, looking down at us with the same hard, humorless eyes. Both pirates had their guns aimed at us. Fantastic.
Beastman walked off with the mystery package, disappearing into the airship.
“The magic bewitching Major Doren is not siren magic,” Damiel said as soon as our chaperone was gone. “It’s a potion.”
“I think it’s this ‘package’ Darkstorm’s men are fussing over.”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t see it either, but I did smell something flowery. Lavender, I think.”
“And rose petals,” Damiel added.
“Something metallic too.”
“Gold,” he said.
“Strawberries too. And something rich…” I frowned. What was it? Damn this human nose!
“Dark chocolate,” Damiel told me.
“Yes, chocolate. That’s it.” I mulled it over. “We’re not looking at a confounding potion. This is something far more powerful. And far more dangerous. A love potion.”
Damiel chewed absently on his lip.
“What are you thinking?” I asked him.
