Phoenix’s Refrain (Legion of Angels Book 10)

by Ella Summers

  “You’re awfully quiet, Leda,” Tessa commented.

  I’d passed most of our journey through the ancient airport and broken train line in silence, lost in the memories, in those flashes of the past.

  “The memories are stronger here,” I told her.

  “Good,” Tessa said. “Nice to know you’re not going crazy or anything.”

  I flashed her a smile. “Well, I’ve always been crazy. Nothing new there.”

  When I slept, the dreams came to me. Memories, jumbled and juxtaposed. Out of time. Drifting on the satin sashes of time. Out of place. Whispering against my consciousness.

  These dreams and visions had grown so frequent, they were distracting. They were trying to tell me something. Ever since my recent battle of the minds against the telepath Faith, I’d been having these dreams, or maybe since I’d been pregnant. Hard to say which one since they’d both happened around the same time.

  I tried to work through all these scenes that seemed disconnected. They were from different eras, but something connected it all together. Something linked them. I could feel it. I just couldn’t put my finger on it. Perhaps it was the weapons of heaven and hell? The two angels had wielded them, and so had I.

  My gut told me that all of this was connected to what was happening with the Guardians. I couldn’t say why. I just felt it. And I’d learned to trust my gut.

  I hoped my confidence didn’t come from somewhere deeper, like Grace’s scheme for me. I hoped that I wasn’t falling into her trap. Or Faris’s trap either. Or the Guardians’ trap for that matter.

  Maybe Grace really was behind all of this. I could have gone to her and demanded answers, but demons, like gods, never gave you a straight answer to anything. That wouldn’t have fit into their whole plan of universal domination and manipulating us lesser beings.

  The ruins were quiet, except for the soft steps of our shoes against the shifting rubble. A shrill ring punctuated that stillness, a dramatic, orchestral ringtone from a movie of old.

  I ignored it and kept moving.

  “Are you going to answer that?” Gin asked me.

  I shrugged. “No. Not really.”

  We kept going, and another minute later, my phone rang again, once more breaking the silence.

  “Are you going to answer that?” Gin asked.

  I pulled out my phone and glanced at the screen. “No,” I declared and pressed on, deeper into the building.

  Sure enough, a few minutes later, my phone rang again.

  “Ok, Leda. What the hell is going on with you?” Tessa asked. “Who keeps calling you?”

  “Various people,” I said cryptically.

  “Spill it.”

  Tessa gave me a look far too commanding for her young years. She must have learned it from Calli. Calli, with a single, silent stare, could squeeze secrets out of someone better than the Legion’s Interrogators could with all of the tools and magic at their disposal.

  “It’s just Alec calling,” I said as my phone rang once more. “He can wait.”

  The next time my phone rang, Tessa grabbed it from my hand. “You’re ignoring people, aren’t you? People from the Legion.”

  “Maybe.”

  Gin glanced down at my phone screen. “You’re ignoring Harker too?”

  “Wow, Harker’s calling now,” I commented. “That escalated fast.”

  “What is going on, Leda?” Tessa demanded. “Why is the whole Legion of Angels calling you?”

  “Well, not the whole Legion of Angels,” I said. “But this is certainly working its way up the hierarchy.” I sighed. “Truth be told, I’m not exactly supposed to be on this mission. Or on any mission, for that matter. Nyx has grounded me. She told me I’m not to go on missions because of my condition.”

  “That makes sense,” said Gin.

  “That makes sense?” I repeated, exasperated. “How does it make sense? I’m pregnant, not an invalid. I’m just as powerful as I’ve ever been. Maybe even more powerful. No, scratch that. I’m definitely more powerful.”

  “Yeah, well, I guess the Legion wants to keep your baby safe,” Gin said. “It’s not every day that a child of two angels is conceived.”

  She was right about that. The child of an angel was a precious miracle indeed. And the child of two angels…well, there had only ever been one of those before, and he was the father of my baby. Even so, Nyx needed to chill out. But I supposed chilling out wasn’t part of the First Angel’s job description.

  “I hope we don’t get in trouble with the Legion for going off with a rogue angel,” Tessa chuckled, looking at Gin.

  “You know, you’re right.” Gin grinned. “Think we should call the Legion and turn her in?”

  “Na. We’ll give her a little time.” Tessa turned toward me. “But we’re keeping our eyes on you, angel.”

  I snorted. “I think we’re finally here actually.”

  Gin stepped forward. This was why I’d asked her to come along with me to the Lost City. A broken door lay before us. I remembered it from my last mission through the city. It had seemed insignificant at the time, but now, yeah, my visions kept snapping to this spot. This place wasn’t part of the memories, but I kept seeing flashes of this door. It was the key to the memories.

  Gin was good at fixing things. Really good. And her lock-picking skills were second to no one.

  Gin knelt down in front of the broken door and started looking it over. “There is a barrier of some sort here. Magic. It’s weak right now because of the full moon.”

  The full moon was tied to the monsters and their shifting tempers. Right now, when the moon was full, the monsters’ magic was erratic. And that erratic magic here in the Lost City had weakened the barrier of this broken door, eating away at it, making it hard for the barrier to hold its seal. Just as Bella had speculated. That’s why I’d come here now when the moon was full.

  The problem was the beasts always got a bit moody around the time of the full moon. Luckily, I was somewhat of an expert monster slayer.

  My phone rang again. It was a number I didn’t recognize. But the name ‘Heaven’ was displayed prominently on the screen. Must have been someone’s idea of a good joke.

  “Heaven is calling,” I told my sisters.

  Yeah, Heaven. As though that would make me answer the phone.

  I looked up at the sky and said, “Nice try, Nyx.”

  I could hear the rumbling of beasts.

  “What’s that?” Gin asked, unsettled. She nearly dropped her tools.

  “Don’t worry about it,” I told her. “I’m on it.”

  I was already up and swinging my sword through the overgrown centipedes. Damn, their armor was tough. I blasted one with a fire spell. It worked better than my sword.

  “How are you coming with that door, Gin?” I called back.

  “Just a little bit longer,” she replied.

  Tessa was helping her, holding her tools and keeping an eye out in case any of the beasts got past me. The centipedes were gone, but now I had some rather large silver wolves to contend with.

  And by silver, I meant made of actual metal. They weren’t covered in fur like normal wolves. They were made of some kind of strong metal, stronger than anything I’d ever encountered. My sword bounced right off them. Even my magic didn’t put a dent in them. Nothing was hurting them. Sure, I could force them back with some well-placed telekinetic blasts, but they just kept rushing forward. We were being overrun.

  “Now would be a good time to get that door open,” I told Gin, trying to keep the panic out of my voice.

  I didn’t know what was on the other side. Hopefully, it wasn’t more monsters. All I knew was things weren’t looking good here. The monsters came at me from either side—and from above.

  Magic flashed, and then the beasts were gone. A combined blast of thunder, fire, and lightning had split them into little bits of metal. That blast had also knocked me on my ass.

  I looked up and saw Faris. So he’d been the one to blast th
e monsters to bits. And save my life. Damn it. I really didn’t want to owe Faris anything.

  He pulled me to my feet. “You really must be more careful. You are carrying priceless cargo.” He looked down at my belly.

  Faris saw me as a moderately useful weapon, but he saw my unborn child as the weapon to end all wars.

  “You didn’t answer my call.” Disapproval flashed in his eyes.

  “Heaven. That was you,” I realized.

  “Naturally,” he said smugly.

  I shook my head in disbelief. “I should have guessed.”

  The God of Heaven’s Army. Heaven. Made sense.

  “All right then,” Faris said, dusting leftover magic off his hands. “Let’s do what we came here to do.”

  2

  A Clash of Heaven and Hell

  I gawked at Faris. “Do what we came here to do?” I repeated his words.

  “Learn who is sending you these visions, of course.”

  I cast a suspicious look on him. “Why do you care?”

  “I care very much that someone is trying to manipulate you. That someone has control over you. That someone can make you see things. I will free you of this invasive force.”

  It didn’t require much thought to read between the lines.

  “You wouldn’t want someone else’s finger on the trigger of your weapon,” I said.

  “Don’t be so melodramatic, Leda,” he replied coolly.

  I snorted. “Says the right person.”

  “I took time out of my very busy schedule to be here.”

  His busy schedule of admiring his reflection in the mirror and getting his hair done. And—as the small droplets of blood on his outfit told me—torturing people. And planning his complete and total dominion over the known universe and everyone in it, at least if the hard, upward lift of his mouth was any hint to his motives.

  “I am here to help you,” Faris continued. “Now do you want to get to the bottom of these visions or not?”

  I didn’t trust the God of Heaven’s Army for a second, but I did want to figure out these visions. And much as I hated to admit it, I could really use Faris’s help. This place was teeming with monsters, and I didn’t have a Legion support team with me because I wasn’t supposed to be out here in the first place.

  “These visions…could it be Faith again?” Tessa asked.

  “The telepath’s powers still have not returned,” Faris said bitterly. “And I don’t expect them to. Thanks to Grace.” Then he glowered at me like it was all my fault.

  “You called?” Grace said pleasantly, suddenly here beside us.

  Faris glared at her. “What are you doing here?”

  Grace met his hard scowl with an easy smile. “The same thing as you: looking out for our dear daughter.”

  “You expect me to believe that you came here out of feelings of motherly love and concern?” Derision dripped from every word that Faris spoke.

  Nodding, Grace folded her hands together. “Of course.”

  “You aren’t capable of love, Grace.”

  “I am capable of a great deal more than you, Faris,” the demon shot back.

  “A great deal more evil,” Faris said. “Leda sees right through you. You must know that.”

  “Leda knows I have only ever looked out for her best interests.”

  “You poisoned her with Venom,” he said, obviously more for my benefit than for hers. “And you manipulated a crazed telepath into attacking her mind in order to fulfill your purpose of Leda’s child absorbing that telepath’s power.”

  “And you threatened to destroy her mind if she didn’t completely surrender her free will to you.” Grace’s smirk was pure venom. “But who’s keeping count?”

  They locked gazes like two stags locking horns. Each of them was keeping a careful tally of the other’s evil deeds. And each of them was trying to manipulate me, to control me, to get me to side with them and become their own personal weapon.

  No way. That just wasn’t going to happen.

  “If you two are just going to fight, how did you ever agree on anything for long enough to create me anyway?” I quipped.

  Faris and Grace said nothing, but their expressions told all.

  “I see. You each believed you could gain the upper hand and steal me for your exclusive use. So how’d that work out for you? Not at all. You fought over your precious toy, and in the end, no one got me.”

  “I will admit that I underestimated Faris,” said Grace. “Or perhaps I overestimated my soldiers’ martial prowess. I never imagined Faris could make it past my defenses and steal you from me.”

  “I did not steal her.” Faris’s voice had frozen over.

  “Ah, ‘claiming what is rightfully yours’ then?” Grace snapped. “That’s how you see it, right? Calling it by another name doesn’t change the essence of what you did, Faris. Stealing is stealing.”

  “We had a deal, Grace. The child was to be shared.”

  “A deal you had every intention of breaking.”

  He kept his face carefully blank. “I suppose we’ll never know now, will we?”

  “I suppose not.”

  They were glaring at each other so hard that the walls were covered in frost. Literally. Gin was still busily working to open the door, so she hadn’t noticed, but Tessa looked at me as if to say ‘your parents are so messed up’.

  Yeah, didn’t I know it.

  It was Faris who broke the steely silence. “I didn’t make it past your defenses, Grace.”

  She blinked in confusion. “What?”

  “I didn’t steal Leda. Or reclaim her.”

  Grace laughed. “You expect me to believe that?”

  “At this point, I expect very little of you, Grace.”

  “I know what happened, Faris, and I know you were behind it. Leda was only a few weeks old when you came for her. I was staying in a secluded fortress, guarded by my most loyal soldiers. I thought Leda was safe, that no one could penetrate our defenses.”

  “I didn’t—”

  “You did,” Grace cut him off shortly. “One day, I was tired, worn out from all the rituals I’d performed on Leda during my long pregnancy. I’d spent those weeks since birth recovering, trying to regain my strength, to grow strong enough for the final ritual on Leda. To make Leda strong. I went to get a drink of Venom from the next room. When I returned, Leda was gone. She’d disappeared without a trace. Vanished into thin air. Like magic.”

  “You believe I did this.” His halo flashed briefly red before it returned to its usual golden hue.

  “I know you did this,” Grace growled. “For centuries, you have been collecting magical beings with unique powers, Faris. A djinn could have teleported in and taken Leda and been gone the next instant, before I returned. That’s how you got past my guards.”

  “I don’t have any djinn.” Faris cast a speculative look on Tessa.

  “Don’t even think about it,” I warned him.

  “Very few would dare speak to me in such a manner.” He shot me a look laden with threat.

  I allowed a smile to stretch my mouth, but my eyes remained locked on to him. “Well, I guess I’m just special.”

  “Yes, you are. One of a kind, in fact.” His tone was icy. “Fortunately for you.”

  “Ah, Pops, stop it. I’m tearing up here.”

  “You are a very peculiar…”

  “Weapon?” I filled in the blank for him.

  “He was going to say person, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it,” Grace laughed. “To refer to you as a person would be an admission that you’re actually a living being with a will of her own.”

  “You might want to remember that too, the next time you devise ways to manipulate me,” I told her.

  Faris’s maniacal laughter rang in my ears. “I told you Grace is a master manipulator.”

  I turned sharply toward him. “Don’t celebrate too soon. I don’t trust either of you as far as I can throw you—blindfolded. And with both my hands
tied behind my back.”

  “As usual, your attempt to ‘lighten the mood’ with humor falls flat,” he said in a bored voice, cutting out with his sword as a newly arrived monster jumped at us.

  Grace shot a spell at another monster—and she shot snark at Faris. “As does your attempt to turn Leda against me.”

  “Don’t you two ever stop bickering?” I demanded of both my insane parents, joining them in attacking the winged rat-like monsters trying to swarm us.

  “No,” Grace said.

  “Such a task is impossible as long as she continues talking,” Faris added.

  Grace rolled her eyes; it was such a human gesture. “You know, if I didn’t have my hands full killing monsters, I’d kill you right here and now.”

  Faris’s sword burst into flames. “You and what army?”

  “I don’t need an army to take you down, Faris. I don’t even need any magic. I could do it with nothing but this knife.” She held up a short knife in front of his face.

  Faris gave the knife a cold, derisive look. “Pretty trinket. Try not to hurt yourself with it.”

  Grace and Faris rushed toward each other, murder screaming in their eyes. I should have let them do it. Their deaths would have saved me a lot of aggravation. But two deities engaged in a fight to the death was not a pretty sight. They didn’t look out for anyone, and collateral damage wasn’t even a problem in their book. Well, it was a problem in my book. A big problem. My little sisters were here, and I was going to keep them safe.

  So I planted myself between my fighting parents. “Behave yourselves, or I’ll kick both your asses. Seriously, two deities should be able to behave with better manners than a pair of lovestruck teenagers.”

  “What did you say?” Anger boomed in Faris’s voice.

  Grace stiffened. She puffed out her chest and rolled back her shoulders. “I beg your pardon?”

  “You heard me,” I said. “And, yes, you should be begging my pardon. And my sisters’ pardon too. Get your shit together or get a room.”

  Grace was stunned to silence. Faris looked like he was going to smite me. I forced myself to keep my eyes on him and not look up at the foreboding sky, even though I could hear it swirling up a storm past the big hole in the ceiling.