by Ella Summers
“Are we still assuming the curse originated here?” I asked.
“The first affected soldier was in New York. And more soldiers are affected in the outbreaks here than anywhere else: five times more than in Chicago, ten times more than in New Orleans.”
“It’s bleeding outward from here,” I realized. “The incidents are more concentrated here, at the curse’s epicenter.”
“It would seem so,” Nerissa said as she moved on to testing me. “Telepathic range is limited. Its effects are stronger the closer you are to the source.”
“Well, whoever is doing this, their range is growing.”
“What do you mean?” she asked me.
“The curse started here, then it spread to Chicago, then later to New Orleans. In addition, the frequency in all offices is increasing, but the attacks are still concentrated mostly here. So the person cursing people must be somewhere in this city or close to it. With each passing outbreak, their range is growing, their power increasing.”
“Maybe it’s multiple people. Multiple telepaths,” Harker said. “One person might have started the curse.”
“And others joined in later,” I said. “You know, there is someone who’s been collecting telepaths for years. Someone who is constantly growing his army of ghosts.”
A dark look crossed Harker’s face. “Faris.”
“Right.”
He frowned. “So you don’t think a demon is behind this curse?”
“I’m not so sure anymore. It’s just…well, ever since we determined that this is a telepathic attack, it got me to thinking. It’s no secret that Faris is collecting telepaths. And he did create all that disarray at the Crystal Falls training a few weeks ago. Maybe this is his next move, the next step in his grand scheme.”
“But to cripple the Legion…” Harker shook his head. “It’s just so risky. Without the Legion to protect the Earth, the demons could more easily gain a foothold here again. Why would Faris risk that?”
“Maybe he has a plan in place to counter the demons. Or maybe he wants them to take over the Earth. Maybe that is part of his plan. After all he’s done, would that really surprise you?”
“No,” Harker admitted bleakly.
“Well, whoever is behind this curse, we have to stop it.”
I glanced at Nerissa, who was staring into her magic microscope like she didn’t believe what she saw.
“Nerissa?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”
She met my gaze, her eyes haunted. “I’ve finished reviewing the results of all your tests. I checked three times just to be sure.”
“Sure of what?” I smirked at her. “Am I dying or something?”
“No.” She didn’t return my smile. “But I know what’s causing these incidents.”
“Demons? Faris?”
She swallowed hard. “No, Leda. You are.”
11
A Fevered Response
“You are?” I repeated Nerissa’s words. “What do you mean by ‘you’. You, as in me? Or ‘you’, as in all the angels you’ve tested?”
That would be a dose of dark irony indeed if someone had found a way to make the angels’ magic attack the other Legion soldiers. There was no solution to that problem.
The Legion wouldn’t kill its angels to protect its other soldiers because it needed us; it needed our magic. Angels were the cornerstones of the Legion, its most powerful soldiers, its strongest weapon against the demons.
But the Legion also couldn’t very well stand by and allow the angels’ magic to throw the rest of the soldiers into disarray. The effects of the telepathic curse were intensifying with each new outbreak. Soldiers were growing more violent, more explosive. Sooner or later, someone would die—and soon after that, a whole lot more people would die.
The Legion was nothing without angels to command it and lots of soldiers to make those commands happen. Both were necessary.
“I’ve already said too much.” Nerissa shook her head. “The First Angel ordered me to speak about her angels’ results with her directly—and only her.”
Who could have known that the order meant to protect my secret would end up keeping us all in the dark? The ironies were piling up fast lately. What an unprecedented convergence of unlikely events. It must be raining unicorns today.
The cynic in me wondered if maybe Nyx already knew what was causing the outbreaks. Maybe that’s why she’d ordered Nerissa to share the results only with her. If Nyx did know, she was keeping all the knowledge in her court. The old saying was so true. Knowledge really was power, especially when angels and gods played the game.
“She should be here soon,” Nerissa said.
Nyx stepped into Nerissa’s office. Her black hair, long and glossy, swirled around her in slow, languid waves, as though she were underwater.
It seemed like forever had passed since Nerissa had messaged Nyx, but the clock told me it had only been a few minutes. It was funny how time stalled when hell was busy freezing over.
“Everyone out, all except for Dr. Harding and my angels,” Nyx declared loudly. Her voice, pulsing with authority, echoed through the lab.
All of Nerissa’s staff immediately stopped what they were doing. They set down their work and rushed out of the lab as fast as they could move, which was pretty damn fast, being that they were all soldiers with god-gifted magic. Harker closed the door behind them.
Then, when the four of us were alone, Nyx’s gaze zeroed in on Angel. My kitten had made herself comfortable perched atop Nerissa’s computer, her eyes surveying her territory. The cat really was an angel, through and through.
“Who does this animal belong to?” Nyx asked us.
“Angel is mine,” I told her.
Nyx’s slender dark brows arched. “Angel?”
“That’s her name.”
Nyx met the kitten’s bright blue eyes. Angel yawned, completely unconcerned by the badass First Angel.
“You have found yourself a worthy companion,” Nyx told me. “She does not scare easily.”
“Plus, she’s adorable,” I said, trying to lighten the mood, most of all my own.
Nyx petted Angel on the head. The kitten purred, nudging her fluffy white head against Nyx’s hand.
“I had no idea you were an animal person,” I said.
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Leda.” The almost wistful look on Nyx’s face hardened. She stopped petting the cat and looked at Nerissa. “You said you’ve discovered the cause of this curse.”
“Well, yes,” Nerissa said cautiously, her eyes flickering to me and Harker.
“Out with it, Dr. Harding,” Nyx said sharply. “We need to sort it out now, before the Legion tears itself apart.”
It sure didn’t sound like the First Angel already knew what was going on, but then again, she was a skilled actress with deity-level shifting magic. She could become anything. Look like anything. Sound like anything.
The power of shifting wasn’t only about changing your physical attributes. It was about changing your mannerisms, your voice, your body language and facial expressions. It was about choosing what emotions you showed others. That same power was used to craft others’ perceptions of you. A skilled shifter was an actor. They could choose what story their body told.
“I tested the magic of the three angels currently present in this office,” Nerissa said. “I looked at their magic levels as a whole, as well as specifically their signs of telepathic resistance.”
Gods, this prologue was going on forever. Nerissa was my friend, but right now I was sorely tempted to grab her by the heels and shake the answers out of her.
“Everything was normal in Colonel Fireswift and Lt. Colonel Sunstorm,” Nerissa continued. “There was an increase in telepathic magic activity, more specifically the magic that defends against telepathic attacks. Just as we’d suspected, their magic is warding off the effects of the telepathic bombardment.”
“And me?” I asked, almost fearing the answer.
N
erissa’s gaze flickered to Nyx, who nodded. Right, for a moment there, I’d almost forgotten that I needed the First Angel’s permission to hear about my own test results.
“Your magic is all over the place,” Nerissa told me. “It is completely overstimulated, bouncing up and down, all over the chart.”
“That’s typical for a newly-made angel, Doctor,” said Nyx.
“Leda’s magic is not like any magic I’ve ever seen, and certainly not the magic I’d expect to see in an angel.”
Nyx looked at Harker. She must have issued a telepathic command to him because he nodded, then reached into his jacket to pull out the now-familiar-to-me magic orb. He tossed it into the air, casting a privacy screen around us.
“Go on, Doctor,” Nyx told Nerissa.
“Leda’s magic is completely balanced, both light and dark. At the same time, she is an angel and a dark angel.” A perplexed crinkle formed between Nerissa’s eyes. “How can that be? It should be impossible. Everything I’ve ever read, everything I’ve ever seen, tells me this cannot be. And yet it is.”
“I am well aware of the nature of Leda’s magic,” said Nyx. “And it’s classified.”
Nerissa looked like she had a million questions buzzing on her lips.
“Is Leda’s balanced light and dark magic relevant to the outbursts of uncontrolled emotion currently plaguing the Legion’s soldiers?” Nyx asked her.
“No.”
“Then speak no more of it—to anyone,” Nyx added harshly, her words backed up by a potent punch of magic.
Nerissa swallowed hard. “Yes, First Angel. I understand.”
Nerissa was one of the Legion’s reigning queens of gossip. She loved to drink it in and to dish it out. Still, I knew she would keep my secret, and not just because Nyx had ordered her to do so. I knew she would keep my secret because she was my friend. And I trusted in friendship, even if Nyx didn’t. I supposed that in her position, she felt like she couldn’t afford to feel that way.
Nyx’s forehead crinkled up in thought, and her black hair responded, swirling faster now in the air. On top of Nerissa’s computer, my cat stretched out her back and rose to bat at the hair. Nyx didn’t seem to care. She took Angel into her arms and began to pet her. It seemed petting a cat calmed her too, just as it did for me. Maybe Ronan should get her a cat as a present. I’d make sure to suggest it to him the next time I saw him.
Nyx turned sharply to me. “Why are you laughing, Pandora?”
Was I? I hadn’t even realized it. Maybe laughter was my body’s natural antidote to the worries building up in me.
I pointed at her swirling hair. “Angel likes your hair. How do you make it move like that?”
“It’s a reality-shifting spell.”
“It’s a cool spell,” I told her. “Someday, I really should learn it.”
“It’s a difficult spell, one not found in any book. It’s of my own design, in fact. If you’re good, I might teach it to you.”
I smirked at her. “Oh, come on, Nyx. Since when have I ever been good?”
Harker choked down a laugh.
Nyx cocked a single brow upward at him. “Something in your throat, Sunstorm?”
“No, First Angel.”
Nyx caught his magic orb, zapping out the privacy spell. She tossed it at Harker, then glanced at the closed door to the lab. “Come in, Colonel.” She nodded at Nerissa. “Now go on with your analysis, Dr. Harding.”
Colonel Fireswift entered the room, shutting the door behind him. The privacy spell must have worked because while he viewed me with his usual suspicion, he didn’t pull a sword on me and declare me a freak of magic.
“Leda’s magic is erratic, but not like those of a new angel,” Nerissa said. “The classic post-transformation erratic patterns are weak now, almost gone. From the looks of her magic, it basically settled down about a week ago.”
“Before the first incident,” Nyx said.
“Yes. But there’s something else happening inside of her, a buildup of all her magic across the board.”
“You make it sound like I’m a bomb ready to blow,” I told Nerissa.
I hoped this buildup wasn’t my body unable to handle all the light and dark magic now pumping through it—that I wasn’t a failed experiment gearing up to self destruct. Damn Athan for giving me double shots of Nectar and Venom. That magic cocktail had skyrocketed my magic across the entire magical spectrum, light to dark. Vampire, witch, siren, elemental, shifter, psychic, fairy…and all the angel and dark angel abilities waiting to be revealed. Maybe my body couldn’t handle that sudden spike in magic.
Or, worse yet, perhaps Athan had known this would happen. Had he made me an angel not only to find his sister, but to get revenge on the gods? By turning me into a magic bomb that destroyed the Legion, ripping control away from its soldiers, burying them in negative emotions until they imploded? And then, when everyone else was gone, would I self-destruct, my body unable to handle my new magic?
I wouldn’t have thought Athan capable of something like that. He’d been desperate to save his sister. Everything he’d done, including exposing Aleris and leveling up my magic, had been to save her. He wasn’t a malicious man. Or at least, he hadn’t seemed malicious.
But ‘seemed’ was the key word here. Admittedly, I didn’t really know Athan beyond the few brief conversations we’d had—conversations that had been mostly focused on me and the gods’ games. Athan could very well be more than he seemed. He could be someone capable of all this and more.
“Show me Leda’s test results,” Nyx commanded Nerissa.
Nerissa handed her a tablet. Nyx’s eyes panned across the screen. Then they both stared long and hard at me.
“If I’m going to die, at least tell me now,” I said.
“You’re not dying, Leda,” replied Nyx. “Not at all. This isn’t about death. Quite the opposite actually.”
“Meaning?”
“When the reports of these incidents started coming in, I suspected this might be the cause.”
“What is the cause?”
“But for it to happen so quickly is completely unprecedented.”
My impatience overrode my propriety. “Spit it out already, Nyx!”
Colonel Fireswift looked horrified that I’d address the First Angel in such a manner, but Nyx was clearly unbothered by my outburst.
“You have the Fever,” she told me.
Nyx’s words didn’t process. My brain couldn’t grasp them.
“I have the what?”
“Your magic is building up, your moods growing more turbulent as your body prepares to become fertile,” Nyx said. “And as we always see when a female angel has the Fever, it’s affecting all the Legion soldiers around you.”
12
Immortal Future
“You claim I have the Fever and it’s affecting the Legion soldiers around me,” I said to Nyx, keeping my voice calm. “But there have been incidents in other offices far from here.” My heart was pounding so hard in my ears that I could hardly hear myself speak. “The soldiers involved in those incidents weren’t anywhere near me when their emotions went berserk.”
Her eyes slid over me, giving me a long, assessing look. “Your magic is different. Its reach is obviously larger than that of other female angels who’ve had the Fever.”
“But female angels aren’t fertile right after the transformation,” I protested, grasping for something else, anything else that would kill this wrong theory where it stood. I couldn’t have the Fever. I just couldn’t. It was impossible. It had to be impossible.
Nectar was a poison, the strongest that there was, save the demons’ quickly-potent Venom. The dosage of Nectar or Venom required to create an angel or dark angel was enormous. It flooded the new angel’s body, consuming it, overloading it. It took decades for the poison in the female angel’s blood to quiet down enough for her to become fertile.
And I’d had an angel-sized dose of Nectar and Venom, both at once. With two potent p
oisons like that raging inside my body, my first Fever shouldn’t have hit me for another forty or fifty years from now—at the earliest. A whole century was more likely. And after that, the Fever would recur only once every few decades or so. Angels were notoriously infertile, courtesy of the poison that gave us our magic.
“The Fever couldn’t have hit me so soon. So immediately.” I shook my head vehemently. “It goes against everything we know about the laws of magic.”
“I think we’ve established that you don’t follow the normal laws of magic, Leda.” I could have sworn I caught a hint of sympathy in Nyx’s eyes, peeking through her facade of professional detachment, but it vanished even before she’d shifted her gaze to Nerissa. “How long before she peaks, Doctor?”
“I’ll have to run tests every few hours on her to determine her surge pattern.” Nerissa glanced down at her tablet. “But based on her magic and hormones right now, she doesn’t have more than a week before she peaks.”
Nyx read the screen of Nerissa’s tablet. “She is spiking fast.”
“Yes,” Nerissa agreed. “It usually takes at least a month.”
“We don’t have much time. We must get started immediately. Dr. Harding, I need you to coordinate magic tests at all Legion offices. Every male soldier is to report for magic testing.”
“Wait,” I said.
Nyx didn’t wait. She continued firing off commands to Nerissa. “As the samples come in, I need you to run them with Leda’s samples for magic compatibility. You—and no one else—are to handle Leda’s samples. Do you understand?”
Nerissa bowed her head. “Yes, First Angel.”
“Stop,” I told them.
“Until this is sorted, all medical personnel are assigned to the task of testing the Legion’s male soldiers,” Nyx said. “The clock is ticking. Let’s get it done.”
“You will listen!” I shouted, my magic bursting out of me.
A glass wall between two of the labs shattered. The potions inside the vials on Nerissa’s shelves began to bubble. Papers blew off the desks, froze suspended on the air for a moment, then all simultaneously caught on fire. They dove to the floor, streaming black smoke.
