by Ella Summers
“Yep.”
“I’ve h-heard scary things about the L-Legion.”
“Those stories are exaggerations,” I said, which was only partially true.
I’d heard all the stories too. At least half of them were pretty close to reality. In the case of the other half, reality was much worse than the rumors. Still, there was no reason to scare Jak any more than he already was. He was actually a nice guy.
“Is it true angels’ wings glow?” someone asked.
The townies were gathering around me.
“Is it true that you drink poison for breakfast every morning?”
“Do you really set each other on fire?”
“She’ll set you on fire, Mick, if you don’t give her some space.”
They all laughed. If I’d been any other Legion soldier, they’d never have dared bombard me with their questions, but they’d known me for years. And they knew Calli had raised me not to set my neighbors on fire.
“Are your uniforms made of dragon leather?”
“Are your swords made of angel tears?”
“Show us some magic tricks, Leda,” Mick said.
“Yeah, show us, Leda.”
I folded my arms across my chest.
“Show us! Show us!” chanted the crowd, over and over again.
“I’m not a stage magician,” I said drily.
I glanced at the magician performing nearby. Though he was dressed in a very nice silk robe, he wasn’t using any actual magic. His fire-breathing display was just a trick. Not that there weren’t real fire elementals out there. It’s just this guy wasn’t one of them. In fact, he was as human as they came. What he lacked in magic, however, he made up for in showmanship. He was a natural performer, possessing an innate ability to captivate an audience. When the townies realized I wasn’t nearly as entertaining as they’d thought, they peeled away from me and went to watch the magician’s show.
Over the roar of the fire and the clink of fake magic, I picked up a soft scratching noise. It was a few blocks away but coming in fast. Running footsteps. Four pairs. I looked past the houses and blinking carnival lights. I saw three women in the distance running after a man. They were bounty hunters, their outfits of shorts and tank tops complemented by light-colored scarves and goggles to protect their eyes from the sand in the air. From the looks of them, they were Magitech goggles with information readouts, high-end tech that allowed you to lock onto a target and track them through thick crowds and behind blind spots.
That ability was coming in handy for them as the man they were chasing darted behind the carousel and cut through the sea of people. He was running fast, but they were gaining on him. Realizing he was cornered, the man grabbed a child from beside the balloon booth.
“Don’t take a single step!” he shouted at the bounty hunters.
They stopped. The crowd fell quiet. Everything was silent, all except the mechanical tune of the turning carousel and the little girl’s howl of despair as her airship balloon floated up, lost to the wind.
“No one move!” the man snapped, holding the little girl in front of himself as a shield.
Now that just made me mad. No matter how desperate he was—which was very desperate from the manic twitch in his eyes and the stain of sweat on his silk suit—you didn’t take children hostage. But if the man had ever possessed any moral boundaries, they’d dissolved under the weight of his desperation. He looked like he would do anything to not be captured. He would cross any line.
From the looks of him, he wasn’t a hardcore criminal. His crimes were probably really minor. But that was then, and this was now. Taking a child hostage was worse than whatever he had done to get a bounty on his head. And it wiped away any sympathy I might have had for him. My foster mother Calli used to say that most people only showed their true colors when put under enormous stress, and he’d done that surely enough. By taking a child hostage, he’d shown the world that he was a piece of shit.
“How can you just stand there?” Carmen demanded of me as the man began backing up with the little girl. “You have to do something!”
Despite my feelings, my humanity screaming at me, I wasn’t allowed to interfere. Those were the Legion’s rules. I could only fight monsters and threats to the gods’ order. These lesser matters were not relevant to the gods. They were handled by local law enforcement and bounty hunters.
The gods didn’t get that these small things—how we acted in everyday life—all added up to one big picture. It determined what kind of people we strived to be. We had to fight for what was right. We couldn’t just battle the monsters beyond the wall. We had to tackle the monsters within head-on.
I was considering interfering anyway, Legion rules be damned, but before I could act, the bounty hunter in the blue outfit pressed a button on her arm band. A tiny flying robot, roughly the shape of a ship and the size of an alley cat, flew through the crowd and shot straight at the man. It stopped mere inches from his face, a cannon pointed right between his eyes.
“Put your hands in the air, or I’ll blow out your brains,” the robot’s mechanical voice declared cheerfully.
He raised his hands. The bounty hunter in the stylish outfit of dusk pink and light beige ran forward, whisking the little girl away. The bounty hunter in black tackled the man. She pulled his arms behind his back, slamming him to the ground when he struggled against her hold. And she wasn’t too gentle about it either. I didn’t blame her.
Her knee pressed to his back, she cuffed him. Then she slid up her goggles and pushed the scarf away from her face, revealing my foster mother Calli.
“Hi, Leda,” she said, glancing over her shoulder at me. “You’re late. You missed all the fun.”
Fun was tackling criminals to the ground. What could I say? That was my family.
2
Jinx
Calli grinned at me. “So the Legion of Angels hotshot finally came back down to Earth for a visit.”
It was a joke, but Calli’s prisoner wasn’t laughing. He paled at the mention of the Legion.
“What did he do?” I asked Calli.
“Magitech Leech,” she said darkly.
Magitech Leech was the term for people who snuck into Magitech plants and bottled a little extra power off the top, hoping no one would ever notice. They’d then peddle the magic on the black market. They’d get rich, and the rest of the world would have a little less magic to power important things like the walls that kept the monsters out. These kind of selfish people just pissed me off.
The machine-wielding bounty hunter joined us, her robot hovering behind her. She pulled off her blue scarf and goggles to reveal my sister Gin.
“When did you get in?”
My sister Tessa, the pink and beige bounty hunter, was right behind her. “You didn’t tell us you were coming!”
“Just now. And it was supposed to be a surprise,” I answered my sisters in turn.
Tessa sighed. “How are we supposed to throw you a proper homecoming party with zero notice?”
“You don’t have to throw me a party.”
“Leda, please don’t talk about things you don’t understand,” Tessa said with agitated patience.
“Then I suppose I shouldn’t mention that Bella is coming too.”
Bella was my third sister, and my best friend. She’d just completed the first of two years at the New York University of Witchcraft.
Delight sparkled in Tessa’s eyes, even as she threw her hands up in the air. “Honestly, it almost feels like you two don’t want parades and parties in your honor.”
I would have told her we didn’t need any of that, but it wouldn’t have changed a thing. Tessa already knew it. The party was more for her than for us, a way for her to show how much she’d missed us. I was torn between being glad I wouldn’t have to be the center of attention for once, and feeling guilty for unwittingly thwarting my little sister’s plans.
As I stood there, watching Calli pull the prisoner off the ground, Gin do a ch
eck of her robot, and Tessa try to recruit them both into helping her pull off an impromptu celebration, my heart clenched up. Yes, I’d missed my family, but it wasn’t until this moment that I realized just how homesick I was.
Gin gave her robot a final pat. “How’s your life of dancing with angels?”
“Busy.” I sighed. “Exhausting.”
Gin’s grin lit up her whole face. “And you love it.”
“I must be crazy,” I admitted.
“But we all already knew that, Leda,” Gin chuckled.
Tessa’s finger slid at top speed across her phone. “Flowers, a cake…two dozen doves,” she muttered.
“Whose wedding are you planning?” I teased her.
Tessa glanced up from her screen, meeting my eyes. “Yours, smart ass.” Then she returned her attention to her list. “…silk runners, acrobats…”
“She’s not serious, is she?” I asked Gin.
“About the acrobats? I wouldn’t put it past her. She’s always wanted to plan an angel wedding with acrobats.” Mischief twinkled in her eyes.
“Haha, very funny.”
They were just messing with me. I hoped. A change of subject was desperately in order.
As though on cue, Calli said, “When’s Bella arriving?”
Thank you, Calli.
“She’s arriving on the next train,” I told her.
To keep up with all the festival traffic, for the next few days, the trains were running every hour between here and New York. I was really looking forward to seeing Bella again. We both lived in the city, but I hadn’t seen her in such a long time. We were both too busy—I working day and night to be ready for the upcoming Crystal Falls training, she taking her end-of-year exams at the New York University of Witchcraft. We hadn’t had lunch together in ages.
“Bella says she has some news,” I told my family.
Tessa perked up from her list-making. “What is it?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know.”
“But you and Bella tell each other everything,” Tessa pressed me.
I shrugged. “She’s been acting strangely lately. Distant.”
“Whatever she’s hiding, it must be big,” Tessa said, her gaze drifting up in thought.
A loud crash and a series of booms roared over the constant churn of the carnival tunes. A putrid green smoke filled the air. My lungs burning, my eyes watering, I coughed. I waved my hand, air magic crackling off my fingers. A breeze formed around us, carrying the smoke away.
The prisoner was on the move and running fast.
“He’s got magic?” I asked Calli.
“He’s not supposed to.”
She was already running after him, and she was gaining on him fast. If the man was an elemental, he wasn’t any stronger or faster than a human. Elementals fought with the magic of nature, not with their fists. Calli was almost upon him, getting ready for the tackle.
Then the man just froze and let out a startled breath. A second later, he shot backwards like some spell had just sucked him in.
At second glance, I realized it wasn’t magic. A transparent rope was looped around his waist like a lasso. And at the end of that lasso was a very smug face framed by a dark goatee. Jinx, another bounty hunter. The bastard always used to trail me on my jobs. He’d make me do all the work, then he’d steal my mark out from under me. And now he was leeching off my family’s hard work, stealing food out of their mouths.
Tessa and Gin burst forward, looping off into side alleys as Calli sprinted after Jinx. The slippery bastard hopped on a motorcycle, tossed the prisoner in the side car, and then zoomed away, his laughter ringing over the roar of the engine. He was getting away.
As he threw a smirk back at Calli and my sisters, my knuckles cracked under the pressure of my clenched fists. Securing my backpack into place, I lowered into my knees for the sprint. I didn’t care if he was in a motorcycle. I had the magic of the gods’ gifts burning in my blood. I could outrun him. I would outrun him. He’d stolen my mark for the last time.
I paused, reminding myself that the Leech wasn’t my mark—and that I wasn’t a bounty hunter anymore. I was a soldier in the Legion of Angels. Funny how easy it was to forget that when coming home. And how easily I fell into my old patterns.
I wasn’t supposed to interfere. But there were always ways around the rules while still following them to the letter. I’d learned that well in my time at the Legion.
I ran up the brick wall of the nearest building and swung onto the roof. Dashing over the rooftops, leaping between buildings, I tracked the motorcycle down on the ground. I passed it, then continued for a block before jumping down to the street. I tucked myself right behind the next curve he’d have to take.
Just three seconds to go.
The motorcycle roared closer. I flipped up the hood of my sporty halter top, covering my face.
One second.
I stepped onto the road as the motorcycle came around the corner. Jinx’s eyes flickering in alarm, he swerved to avoid me. I gave the motorcycle a little extra nudge with my wind magic, and it tipped over. It slid across the street, skidded through a pile of garbage cans, and slammed against a brick wall.
Jinx jumped up from his ruined motorcycle, a string of curses pouring out of his mouth. “You stupid girl!” he screamed at me.
He grabbed the prisoner and threw him over his back. Calli, Tessa, and Gin were closing in now from three sides. They’d caught up to him. Jinx ran straight toward me. I was blocking the only way out now, and I didn’t move.
“Get out of the way!” he shouted.
Calli and my sisters were almost upon him.
Jinx ran faster, shouting louder at me this time. “Move it!”
I just stood there and waited.
“What’s the matter with you?! Are you deaf?!” He shoved me out of the way.
I took the hit, but I didn’t budge. He crashed into me and fell, the prisoner tumbling off his back. Jinx looked up at me as my hood fell back, revealing my face. Surprise flashed across his face as he recognized me. He froze.
“That was a mistake,” I told him.
Jinx tried to duck, but I knocked him to the ground with a solid strike to the head. Disoriented, he stumbled, narrowly catching himself before he fell. I pivoted around him and kicked the back of his knees. His legs collapsed, and his knees hit the brick road.
“I’d heard you’d joined the Legion.” He spat out blood. “You’re interfering. This isn’t your jurisdiction. You’re making a big mistake.”
“No, you’re the one who made a mistake by striking a soldier in the Legion of Angels,” I told him.
Defeat and anger swirled inside his eyes. “You might be a soldier of heaven now, but you still fight dirty.”
I stomped my boot against his back, pinning him in place. “Always,” I said with a smile.
I had no handcuffs, but it didn’t matter. I yanked a strand of wire off a nearby clothesline and used it to bind his hands together. As he struggled, the wire cut into his skin. A few drops of blood pooled up. He stopped moving, shooting a dirty look over his shoulder.
“Brokers,” I called out to the paranormal soldier I’d met before.
He’d come back down to the ground to check out the commotion, and he wasn’t the only one. Every paranormal soldier in the area was staring at me now that they’d all realized I was a member of the Legion of Angels.
And they weren’t the only ones staring. The festival had paused, and everyone was gawking at us. From the sidelines, Yellow Hat, the tourist who’d hit on me earlier, now looked as pale as a sheet. He was probably wondering if I’d toss him to the Interrogators so they could investigate his boasts of sneaking into Legion clubs. As though the Interrogators didn’t have better things to do.
The paranormal soldiers didn’t speak, waiting for me to tell them what to do. They looked ready to piss themselves. Legion soldiers might kill the monsters hunting humanity, but we also brought in people who threatened the gods
’ order. And no one wanted to be declared a threat. You really had to walk on eggshells around many of my fellow Legion soldiers, especially the angels. All they had to do was declare you suspicious, and then the Legion Interrogators swooped in and tossed you into an interrogation cell. You might be released—eventually—but the Interrogators would be very, very thorough in their interviews.
Except I had no intention of throwing people to the Interrogators on a whim, just because they’d annoyed me. Even so, I had to maintain the Legion’s image.
“Put this bounty hunter in jail for the night,” I told Brokers, my tone sharp, commanding. I even put a little siren magic behind my words, just enough to give them kick. “That will teach him not to strike a member of the Legion of Angels.”
I didn’t allow emotion to show on my face. I was professional, cold. Dispassionate. Nero would have been so proud.
Truth be told, it was a lenient sentence, but I had no interest in torturing people. I just wanted Jinx out of the way so my family could do their job without him stealing their mark. And besides, I had tricked him into attacking me.
Brokers and another paranormal soldier each took hold of one of Jinx’s arms.
“He is a slippery one,” I told them. “If he so much as twitches, you have my permission to knock him upside the head with your guns.”
They nodded solemnly and headed off toward the sheriff’s office, looking relieved that the bounty hunter was the one being punished instead of them. The show over, everyone returned to their festivities. Music boomed, conversations sprouted up, and the high-pitched beeps of the carnival games filled the festival grounds once more. It was as though the whole thing had never happened.
I looked down at the Magitech Leech at my feet. He shuddered and averted my eyes, fear freezing him. He didn’t try to escape. He didn’t even move. His body was slouched over in defeat, no fight left in him.
“Why didn’t you use cuffs to restrain Jinx?” Gin asked me as she checked the prisoner’s restraints.
“I came here for some family time. For a vacation. I didn’t expect to be dispensing Legion justice, so I didn’t bring any handcuffs. I don’t carry them around for fun.”
