by Ella Summers
“No, I am a fire maiden in the temple of Capricorn. I tend the fire in the great hall. While performing my duties, I have overheard many of the priests’ debates and discussions.”
“Capricorn. Sound familiar?” Damiel asked me.
“If I remember correctly, that was the name of one of the original Immortals.”
The original Immortals had been here many millennia before the gods and demons, millennia before this Immortal War had begun. They’d been deities more powerful than gods or demons—and then they’d suddenly and inexplicably vanished.
“You remember correctly,” replied Damiel. “Capricorn was an important deity. Until we saw the temple today, I wasn’t aware the old Immortals were still worshipped. They have been gone for a very long time.” He looked to Faith for an explanation.
“The priests say the Immortals are still alive and that they will someday return to us,” she told us, her big, bright smile growing rather dreamy.
The Immortals had been gone for so long that, at this point, their return seemed unlikely. Even impossible. Neither the gods nor the demons believed the Immortals would ever return, and so they’d carved up their empire.
I, however, didn’t believe in the impossible. Maybe the Magic Eaters were right. Maybe the Immortals would surprise us yet.
“The others think you’re with the Hive. That’s why they attacked you,” Faith told us. “But I say no way. Hive soldiers don’t possess any passive magic. They are pure casters, vessels of active magic.” She considered us closely. “No, you two are something else. I believe you’re the ones who will bring the Immortals back.”
“That’s im—” I stopped myself.
“Impossible?” Her brows arched. “I thought you didn’t believe in the impossible.”
“Well, you’ve got me there,” I admitted. “But why do you think that we will bring back the Immortals?”
Faith gave her lollipop a final lick, then tossed it into the trash bin. “Call it a hunch.” Setting her finger over her lips, she added in a hushed whisper, “And my own special power.”
What did she mean by that? What was her power? And how was her power telling her that Damiel and I would bring back the original Immortals?
Faith inserted a key into the lock of our prison cell. “You came here for a reason.” The door clicked, and she swung it open. “Whatever has brought you here, I know I must help you see it through. You wanted to go into the temple. I will bring you there now.”
Outside, the snowy streets were empty. Raised voices came from a larger house down the road, what appeared to be some kind of town hall.
“They are busy deciding your fate.” Faith waved at us. “This way.”
We followed her out of town, into the nearby evergreen forest.
“It won’t be easy to get into the temple,” she said. “It’s heavily guarded, especially after all the recent Hive attacks.”
“What exactly is the Hive?” I asked her.
“Thieves.” She frowned. “They wish to plunder our temple’s treasures. They journey to this world through the magic mirror, time and time again. They come in large numbers, their magic devastating our defenses.”
“But you are Spell Breakers. Can’t you absorb their spells?” I asked.
“Usually, yes. A group of Spell Breakers can handle a force of magic-casters many times larger. But the Hive is different. They have the power to link all their magic and fight as one. Together, they are incredibly powerful. They have overpowered the forces protecting many other temples on our world. We got lucky the first time they came here. We set some traps, and they fell into them. We will not be so lucky next time. They know the terrain now, and they will come in far larger numbers.”
“That’s why everyone is so trigger-happy,” I said.
“Yes. The Hive will return. It’s only a matter of time. They have already destroyed several other towns and plundered their temples. They will keep going, temple by temple, until they have stolen all of our sacred treasures.” She drew in a deep breath, and a cloud of chilled air puffed out of her lips. “But your coming here changes things. You will stop them.”
Faith shot us a hopeful smile over her shoulder, then hurried down the forest trail.
Damiel caught my arm, slowing me down to put some distance between us and our guide. “We can’t trust her.”
“If anything, she can’t trust us. We’re here to steal a dagger from the temple, a sacred artifact. Just as the Hive has been trying to do.”
“This is a trap.” He watched Faith, who still hadn’t noticed how far behind her we’d fallen. “She let us out for a reason.”
“We were already trapped, Damiel,” I argued. “Without her, we wouldn’t have escaped.”
“She let us out, defying the commands of her own people. You can’t trust a traitor.”
But Faith did have a reason. She thought that by releasing us, she was helping her people. She thought she was paving the way for the Immortals’ return.
“It must be exhausting to always distrust everyone,” I commented.
“That distrust is how I’ve stayed alive all these years,” Damiel countered. “And, besides, it’s my job to distrust everyone.”
“Even me?”
He opened his mouth, then closed it. There was a moment of silence, then he declared, “You’re different.”
“This distrust isn’t healthy, Damiel. You’re like a cat chasing his tail. What will happen when you finally catch it and realize it was your own tail all along?”
His eyes were hard, his face blank. “Was that an accusation?”
“No, it was an observation. I’m trying to help you.” I sighed. “Never mind.”
I broke into a brisk jog, closing the distance to Faith. It only took a few seconds. She’d stopped behind a pair of trees. Beyond the patchy leaf cover, I could see parts of the stone temple. And as I moved closer, getting a better look, I saw soldiers had the building surrounded.
“They aren’t from the town,” Damiel observed. “They’re dressed differently.”
The soldiers, all wearing red leather uniforms, hadn’t seen us yet. Their eyes were locked on the temple. One of them shot a telekinetic blast at the thick front gate. The doors shook but held.
“They don’t wield magic like the people from the town either,” I said.
“It’s the Hive.” Faith’s face was as pale as the white snow. “They’re here.”
19
The Reliquary
A loud horn echoed off the night sky, then a force of Magic Eaters in fur-trimmed coats rushed toward the invading soldiers, trying to draw them away from the temple.
Faith looked at the ornate hilt sticking up from my hip holster. “You have the Diamond Tear. I recognize the engravings.”
I was surprised. But then again, she did serve in an Immortal temple. And this was an immortal weapon. The people here probably knew more about the immortal treasures than we did.
“You came here for the Sapphire Tear,” she said.
That was the name of the other dagger, no doubt.
Faith didn’t appear upset to learn why we had come here. Nor did she look betrayed. No, she looked relieved. Even hopeful.
“The Diamond Tear led you here, to this world,” she said. “You were meant to come here. To help us. To pave the way for the Immortals’ return.”
That explanation sounded much better than we’d come here to loot their treasures, that we were no better than the Hive.
The force of a tightly-packed bundle of spells smashed against the temple’s front gate. Tiny particles of dust and debris shot in every direction, but the doors held. They must have been reenforced with the same magic-absorbing power as the prison bars.
“The Hive has returned with too many soldiers. The temple’s defenses won’t hold for long.” Faith cast a worried look at the besieged gate. “We must hurry.”
Damiel’s gaze panned the battlefield. “I don’t see a quick way past those soldiers. Both the H
ive and the Magic Eaters will try to stop us if we make a run for it.”
“We don’t need to run.” Faith looked at the Diamond Tear. “That dagger has the power of the djinn, of teleportation. It can transport someone between worlds—or between places on the same world. Cadence, you can use it to bring us into the temple.”
“That certainly sounds better than fighting our way inside,” I agreed, drawing the dagger.
As soon as it was in my hand, that same sensation washed over me. The same natural, effortless feeling that the Diamond Tear knew exactly what I wanted. At the Legion, I’d had to work for every spell, fight for every ability I gained, but wielding this dagger was completely different. I didn’t have to figure out how to use it. It simply did as I needed. One moment we were standing in the woods, looking at the temple—and the next we were inside it.
Faith looked around. “We are in the temple’s main foyer.” She pointed to a flight of stairs. “We need to go down, to the Reliquary. With the combined powers of the Diamond Tear and the Sapphire Tear, you can defeat the Hive’s soldiers. You can drive them away from this world.”
“Why do we need both daggers?” I asked her as we hurried downstairs.
“Like people, each dagger possesses a different power,” she replied. “The Diamond Tear has the magic to traverse time and space, while the Sapphire Tear possesses the powers of the Spell Breakers. You can use the Sapphire Tear to break the bonds of magic between the Hive soldiers, that which gives them a huge collective power boost. Then you can use the Diamond Tear to open a portal and send those invaders back where they came from. After that, seal the magic mirror shut so they may never return here to plague us.”
So each dagger had very specific powers. And only the Diamond Tear could transport us between worlds. We’d gotten lucky to find it first, or else we might never have found our way to the Sapphire Tear.
“Faith, there’s something I don’t understand,” I said. “If the Hive has been harassing your world for years, why haven’t you used the Sapphire Tear to fight them off? You could have used the dagger to break the bonds that unite the Hive soldiers. That would weaken their collective magical might.”
“Only the worthy may claim the Sapphire Tear,” she said. “Only the heir.”
“The heir?”
“You, Cadence, the heir to the Immortal Legacy. The Champion of Magic. It is written in the prophecy that the heir’s arrival will pave the way for the Immortals’ return.”
She’d lost me at ‘heir to the Immortal Legacy’.
“You are of Immortal blood, Cadence,” she told me. “Most people possess Immortal blood, but in them it’s weak and diluted. But not in you. In you, the Immortal blood is strong.”
“That must be why indirect magic powers have manifested in you even before you became an archangel,” Damiel reasoned.
“Yes.” Faith nodded. “The magic of pure Nectar is enough to spark Immortal Legacy magic, no matter how weak or diluted someone’s Immortal blood is. But Cadence demonstrated those abilities even before she sipped that pure Nectar that would make her an archangel.” She smiled at me. “You are special.”
I canted my head sideways toward Damiel. “And what about him?” I asked Faith. “He’s manifested these powers too.”
“Immortal blood also runs through his veins.” She looked at Damiel, considering him. “But an heir to the Immortal Legacy?” She shook her head. “I just don’t see it. His mind is jaded, suspicious, closed off. The Immortals aren’t just about magic; they are about acceptance and diversity. About trust and faith. Only the truly worthy may claim the Sapphire Tear.”
“Who decides if we are worthy?” I asked.
“The temple’s guardian spirit,” she told me. “It protects the Sapphire Tear. Only someone who is worthy can wield the dagger’s power.”
The walls quaked.
Faith winced. “We don’t have much time before the Hive breaks through. We must get to the Sapphire Tear first.”
“What are the chances one of the Hive soldiers is worthy enough to wield the dagger?” I asked.
Because if that happened, we’d be in a whole lot of trouble. More than Nightingale, this single world, would be in danger. The Hive sounded like the kind of friendly people who would chase us all the way back to Earth for daring to interfere with their siege.
“It is unlikely any of the Hive soldiers are worthy.” She nodded slowly. “No, not when no one here was worthy to wield its power.”
“They don’t have to wield the dagger’s magic in order to steal it, to keep it away from others,” Damiel pointed out.
“Just so,” agreed Faith. “If the Hive gets their hands on the Sapphire Tear, they will ruin everything. The prophecy will never come to pass. The Immortals will never return to us. But you can stop the Hive, Cadence. You are the Champion.”
I looked at the young girl who had stars in her eyes and so much hope in her heart. She was putting all that faith in me. And I’d thought my father had put a lot of pressure on me. This girl thought the future of her world, of all the worlds in the Immortals’ fallen empire, lay in my hands.
“It’s not far now,” Faith said as she led us down yet another spiraling staircase.
“There is a reason she helped us,” I whispered to Damiel as we followed her. “She wants us to save her people. She needs us. She can be trusted.”
His brows drew together. “Just because someone has a reason for what they do, that does not make them guiltless. The guilty always have reasons for what they do.”
“The girl is guilty of nothing more than of having hope and helping us.”
“We shall see.”
Damiel remained stubbornly unconvinced. He didn’t truly have faith—in people, in the world, in the universe, in the idea that everything would work out in the end if we worked hard and just did the right thing. That’s why he was unhappy. He needed a little faith in his life.
We passed through an arched doorway into a grand chamber plated in gold and gems. It was as opulent as the town was simple and unassuming.
“The throne room,” Faith said as she zigzagged around urns and vases, jewelry and crowns.
An enormous gold throne, large enough for a giant, sat on a raised platform, a treasure box to either side, an ornate carpet at its feet. It had been millennia since the temple’s Immortal deity had sat there, but the throne was as good as new. Spotless and dust-free, it was a testament to the Immortals’ greatness—and to the people’s faith in them.
“We’re keeping it clean for the day Capricorn and the other Immortals return,” Faith said, watching me give the throne a long look. “It’s been so long, and many have lost hope, but the faithful still come here to care for the temple.” She waved me forward. “This way. The Reliquary is through here.”
We stopped in front of a door that lay behind the giant throne. Damiel set his hand on the gold knob and turned it. He and I stepped through the doorway.
There was a blinding flash of light as we entered the room. It took some time for my eyes to recover. That was the downside to hypersensitive supernatural senses; they were too easy to overload.
My ears were overloaded as well as my eyes. For a few moments, I couldn’t hear anything. It was just white silence. Then there was a low ringing as sounds slowly filtered back in. My vision returned shortly afterwards.
When I could see again, I saw I was in a small room. There were very few treasures here in the Reliquary, and they weren’t nearly as opulent as those back in the throne room. These treasures were more private, more personal. While the throne room’s purpose was clearly to show off—to demonstrate wealth, power, and might—this place was about quiet contemplation and private enjoyment. It was meant for one person only at any given time, so it made sense that it was so small that Damiel and I could barely fit inside the room together.
I quickly spotted the Sapphire Tear on the wall. It looked just like the Diamond Tear, except the gem in the dagger’s hilt was a sapphire, n
ot a diamond. It sparkled just as brightly, though. Magic swirled in the gemstone’s depths, like a deep blue ocean storm was brewing inside of it.
Faith hadn’t entered the room. She waited on the other side of the doorway, still standing in the throne room. “Take it, Cadence. Take the Sapphire Tear and fulfill your destiny as the Immortal Heir, the Champion, the Magic Bearer.”
Well, who was I to deny destiny?
I reached for the Sapphire Tear. Magic swirled around the dagger. It shot across my skin, a feeling not unlike snatching a bolt of lightning. That was the protective barrier that coated the dagger. The spell rippled. The sharp bite of live lightning quieted; it now felt like gentle water lapping across my skin. A moment later, the protective ward covering the dagger dissolved. I closed my fingers around the hilt and took it from the wall.
The whole building shook like an earthquake had just rumbled the earth beneath us. Maybe I wasn’t worthy after all. Maybe I’d set off a booby trap.
Faith looked at me, her wide eyes quivering. “The temple’s defenses have fallen. The Hive has broken through the gate.”
20
The Hive
The whole temple shook horribly as Damiel, Faith, and I rushed out of the Reliquary, across the throne room, and up the many stairs to the foyer. When we got there, we saw our fears realized: the Hive soldiers had broken through the gate. The enormous, palatial double doors, as tall as several stories, were splintered. Soldiers in red leather uniforms streamed through their broken remains. The Magic Eaters rushed forward to meet them head-on.
The Hive was here.
Every red soldier wore a helmet. One of eight distinct symbols adorned those helmets. Each symbol represented a different magical ability.
“The Hive appears to be using basically the same symbols as we do at the Legion to denote a soldier’s magic,” I commented to Damiel.
A drop of blood stood for Vampire’s Kiss, a potion vial Witch’s Cauldron. A musical note indicated Siren’s Song. There was a fire symbol for Dragon’s Storm, a paw print for Shifter’s Shadow, a psychic hand for Psychic’s Spell, and a flower for Fairy’s Touch.
