by Ella Summers
“Who is Darkstorm?” I asked.
“Darkstorm was a rogue dark angel, turned Pirate Lord of the Sienna Sea,” Cadence explained.
“I’ve never heard of him.”
“That’s no surprise. He died centuries ago, long before you were born.” Damiel looked at Nero and added, “Before either of you were born.”
“It happened during my first mission with Damiel,” Cadence said. “I’d just become an angel. Damiel and I set off across the Sienna Sea to search for Darkstorm—and for the immortal weapon he’d stolen, the Diamond Tear. Darkstorm was killed during the mission.”
“What do you mean ‘was killed’?” Nero asked. “You weren’t the ones to kill him?”
“No,” Cadence said. “It was Eva.”
Eva the Immortal was Cadence’s aunt, her mother’s sister.
“Darkstorm had a failsafe. His life force was linked to his fortress. When Eva killed him, the fortress was destroyed,” Cadence said.
“But if this fortress was destroyed centuries ago, isn’t it kind of to be expected that it’s finally gone?” I pointed out. “Reclaimed by the expanse, eaten by the sands, and all that.”
“The ruins were still there a few months ago.” Damiel glanced at Cadence. “They looked almost exactly as we’d left them.”
“What were you doing back there, Damiel?” Cadence asked him.
“Retracing our steps—every step we took together before you disappeared. I thought doing that would give me some idea of how to find you.”
Cadence took his hand. “And you did find me. Or, rather, I found you.”
They looked at each other with so much love burning in their eyes, love that hadn’t faded after two centuries apart.
Nyx cleared her throat. “Yes, the ruins of Darkstorm’s fortress were right where you’d left them—until they weren’t. Last month, a Legion team found the ruins had disappeared.”
“Did the soldiers try digging a little deeper?” I asked.
“An extensive excavation of the area unveiled nothing of consequence. Every bit of rock, metal, and glass that had once made up Darkstorm’s fortress had vanished, leaving no hint behind that it had ever even existed at all.”
I frowned. “Ok, that’s…creepy.”
“Indeed. That’s why I sent Spellsmiter and Silvertongue to investigate. When they did not return, I sent in another team of soldiers. That team found the bodies of Spellsmiter and Silvertongue. And this is even stranger yet: the angels’ bodies were laid out at the center of Darkstorm’s ruins.”
“The ruins had returned?” Nero asked.
“As though they’d never been gone,” Nyx confirmed.
“That is really weird,” I declared.
Everyone was silent—in agreement of my words, I guessed.
“Wait, this happened last month?” I asked.
“Yes,” Nyx said. “Last month, we discovered the ruins were gone. I sent Spellsmiter and Silvertongue out immediately. The Legion team found their bodies a few days later.”
“So they’ve been dead for a month.”
“Approximately.”
“Two angels have been dead for a whole month.”
“I said that already, Pandora,” Nyx replied impatiently.
“Two angels have been dead for a whole month, and we haven’t heard a thing. Now, I’m admittedly a newbie angel, but I’m pretty sure my remedial angel training books were pretty clear that angels’ deaths were a rather public affair. A grand funeral with many odes to their excellence and achievements, and so on.”
Nyx’s lips drew together, very thin. “Generally, yes.”
“You covered it up,” I realized. “You covered up their deaths.”
Nero and Harker looked at Nyx in surprise—and with a fair share of annoyance. Maybe even a little hostility. None of us here had been big fans of Spellsmiter or Silvertongue, but they’d been angels. And angels’ deaths weren’t simply swept under the rug like this. It was disrespectful.
Nyx gritted her teeth. “It was necessary. Humanity is agitated right now. The Legion is agitated. Between the threat of the Guardians, goddesses going mad, supernaturals killing one another, monsters breaching the gates, and all other sorts of hellish apocalypses happening right now. We can’t afford for humans to lose even more faith in the Legion. If we can’t protect ourselves, our own angels, then how can we protect the people of Earth?”
Nyx was right. Humanity’s faith in the Legion was dangling by a thread.
And when the First Angel of the Legion of Angels started referring to the apocalypse in the plural, you knew you were in really deep shit.
“Their deaths must be acknowledged,” I said.
“They will be,” Nyx assured me. “But first we have other problems on our hands. Spellsmiter and Silvertongue weren’t the only ones killed. They had a team of twenty highly-trained Vanguard soldiers with them.”
This was just getting better and better.
“Those twenty soldiers’ bodies were found at the reappeared ruins too, weren’t they?” I said.
“Not just found. Displayed. I told you the bodies of Spellsmiter and Silvertongue were at the center of the ruins. And the twenty dead Vanguard soldiers were positioned in a ring around them, like the rays of some kind of perverse black sun.”
I shuddered at the image.
“There’s more,” Nyx said.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear any more of this.
“At around the same time, we found similar scenes like this all over the world. Dead witches. Dead vampires. Dead elementals. Dead shifters and fairies, dead psychics and sirens. And a group of dead ghosts we hadn’t even known existed.”
“How did you ever keep this all secret from the public?” Nero clenched his jaw. “And from the rest of us?”
“With a lot of difficulty and even more magic,” Nyx said.
I closed my eyes and shook my head. So much death.
“There’s more,” said Damiel.
My arms were folded across my chest; my hands gripped my upper arms, like they were holding on for dear life. I didn’t want to hear more. I really didn’t want to know.
“These multiple massacres happened on many worlds, all around the same time,” Damiel said.
“The massacres were coordinated?” Nero’s voice was so level, so cold, just like it was whenever he shut off his emotions.
“It appears so,” Nyx said.
I dared to open my eyes. My heart was racing, pounding. “How many people died?”
Nyx shook her head. “We don’t have an exact number, but it was in the thousands.”
“Who did this?” I could hardly speak, could barely say the words.
“We don’t know,” Nyx told me.
I sighed. The weight of the universe, of all those deaths, seemed to press me down into the ground.
“But we do have a lead,” she added.
I looked at her.
“One of Ronan’s soldiers was on another world at the time,” Nyx said. “He survived a massacre. He got a reading on the assailants’ magic. We’re going to use that magical reading to track them down.”
I stepped forward.
“No. Not you, Pandora.” She cut me off. “You’re not going.”
“But after what they did—”
“After what they did, you’re going to stay far, far away from them. For the safety of your unborn child.”
“I can take care of myself.” I set my hand on my belly. “And I can take care of her.”
“Whoever these people are, they killed two angels and twenty elite Vanguard soldiers. They killed thousands of powerful magical beings. They killed gods. And I’m not going to risk that they kill you too.” Nyx looked at Cadence. “Or you, Lightbringer. Right now, there is nothing more important for the two of you to do than safeguard the future of the Legion: those children of angels.”
One quick glance at Cadence was all it took to tell me she was itching to go too, to do something. To protect the Le
gion, the Earth, her home, and all of those things she’d said just a few minutes ago.
“Don’t argue,” Nyx said. “Yes, I’m talking to you, Leda Pandora. For once, just obey my commands. You will be staying behind, but you won’t be idle. I have a very special assignment for you both.”
I narrowed my eyes with suspicion. “What special assignment?”
“Stay alive.”
“You can’t whisk me away to safety, separated from everything and everyone,” I complained.
“You’re always in the thick of things,” Nyx commented. “It’s time to take a break from all that. Stop being the center of attention.”
“I’m not trying to be the center of attention. Trouble just finds me,” I told her. “And now someone is trying to kill my family. I can’t stand by and let that happen.”
“Which is why you’re bringing your family to stay with you. Honestly, Pandora, weren’t you paying attention when I said that?”
“Nyx, that was a whole ten minutes ago. You can’t expect me to remember everything you say—or hang on your every word.”
I had to tease her, especially since everyone was expected to hang on the First Angel’s every word.
Nyx shook her head. “You’re supposed to be studying to be a better angel, not making jokes.”
“So I’m still going to be stuck with Colonel Fireswift in that classroom, rather than actually making a difference? Great.”
“You will make all the difference in the world. And Fireswift isn’t going with you. He’s coming with me.”
I perked up at her statement, my optimism returning. “So I don’t have Colonel Fireswift as an instructor anymore? Awesome. Maybe I’ll get someone better.”
“Like Damiel,” Cadence teased.
I turned to Damiel. “It’s not you, is it?”
“Well, the First Angel did consider me for the job.”
“I considered it for a very brief moment, Dragonsire. But then I quickly decided that putting you in charge over another angel’s training would ruffle quite a few feathers at the Legion. They’d all worry that they might be the next one I’d put under your black thumb.”
“The other angels don’t approve of Damiel’s sordid past,” Cadence said.
“His past as the Master Interrogator or as a demon collaborator?” I asked.
“Both,” replied Damiel. “Never mind that I never collaborated with the demons. But, nonetheless, clearly the First Angel doesn’t think putting me in charge would send the right signal.” He frowned, as if he didn’t agree with her decision. “In fact, it would be sending exactly the right signal—to our enemies. It would tell them that I don’t pull any punches. With me at the helm of our army—”
“With you at the helm of our army, the Legion would collapse into civil war,” Nyx cut off his grand speech. “You’re not a very unifying force, Damiel.”
Damiel seemed to be thinking that over, but clearly he wasn’t completely sold on her argument.
“Nyx needs the cleverest angels on her mission to take down the angel slayers,” Cadence told him with a smile.
Damiel looked appeased by her words. His chest might have puffed out proudly too. “And take them down, I shall,” he vowed solemnly.
Nyx shot Cadence a look that might have actually been awe. It certainly was amazing how Cadence could so masterfully influence the hardheaded angel Damiel Dragonsire.
“Ok, come on. Tell me who is taking over for Colonel Fireswift in training me,” I asked Nyx.
“You’ll have to wait and see.”
That was foreboding. It must have been someone really nasty. Otherwise, Nyx would have just come out and said it.
“Windstriker, Dragonsire, time to go,” Nyx told them. “We have some angel slayers to hunt down.”
Damiel kissed Cadence goodbye. “Take care of yourself, my love.”
Nero set his hands on my shoulders and met my eyes. “I’ll be back soon.”
I kissed him. “You’d better be.”
He looked agitated. “I don’t like leaving you here, especially now.”
While I was pregnant, he meant.
“Nyx has probably put a boatload of security on me and Cadence,” I told him.
“She has,” Damiel announced. “Vanguard soldiers.”
Wow, Nyx was really going all out. The Vanguard was usually reserved for all-out assaults. They were offense, not defense.
“Even so, I should be here, by your side.” Nero touched my face.
I draped my arms over his shoulders and leaned in closer. “Haven’t you often told me that angels should delegate, not micromanage?”
“Funny.”
I kissed him again. “Don’t be so cranky, Nero. I’m sure the Legion’s best and brightest soldiers can hold the line here for a few days. And your mom and I do know a thing or two about battling the forces of evil.”
“Don’t take any unnecessary risks, Pandora.”
“What makes you think that I will?”
“Because you are rather reckless at times.”
“Not anymore. I’m a changed woman. One day of classroom training with Colonel Fireswift on angel decorum has cured me of any and all wickedness.” To prove my point, I shot him a wicked wink.
“Cured of wickedness?” He gave me a crooked smile. “I can see that.”
“Seriously, Nero, I’ll be careful. I’ll keep her safe.” I set a hand on my belly. “And I’ll keep Cadence and your little brother or sister safe too.”
His mouth came down on mine.
But our kiss was cut short by Nyx’s loud clearing of her throat. It was accompanied by the rumble of an airship floating overhead.
I sighed and stepped away from Nero. Nyx was sometimes such a spoilsport.
There was a puff of magic and feathers from the airship above, then a winged soldier flew down and landed before us. I looked at him, a muscular man with chin-length hair and a two-day beard.
“Hello, sweetness.”
“Stash?” I grinned at him. “What are you doing here?”
Stash was both my friend and my cousin. He was also a demigod.
“I’m here for you, Leda.”
“For me? Wait a minute. You’re the one who’s replacing Fireswift? You’re the one Nyx got to teach me?” I tried not to sound too excited, but Stash was great fun. Much more fun than the glass-is-all-empty Colonel Fireswift.
“No,” Stash replied. “Nyx didn’t send me here. Faris did.”
Nyx gritted her teeth. Uh-oh. I sensed tension.
“To protect you,” Stash finished.
“The Legion of Angels is perfectly capable of protecting itself without the interference of Heaven’s Army,” Nyx told him.
Stash sighed. “I know you’re annoyed with Faris for stepping on your toes, Nyx, but you have to admit that things aren’t safe right now. Two angels are dead. And thousands more are dead on many worlds. This isn’t just an Earth problem. It’s bigger than that. The more people protecting the Legion’s future unborn angels, the better. You do want to keep them safe, don’t you?”
Nyx folded her arms over her chest. “You know I do.”
Stash flashed her an easy smile. “Then relax and let us do our thing.”
“Us?” I asked.
“I brought along a team of soldiers from Heaven’s Army. You might remember some of those misfits.” Stash winked at me.
I smiled “It will be good to see the gang again.”
“They’re excited because being around you means being at the epicenter of action,” Stash told me.
My smile faded. “Apparently not this time.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure. Faris wouldn’t have sent us if he didn’t expect trouble.”
Nero gave him a cool look. He didn’t like the idea of trouble finding me, especially while he was away.
I squeezed Nero’s hand. “Why did Faris send you all—specifically?” I asked Stash.
“Would you believe me if I told you that Faris is worried about
you and didn’t think you’d accept his protection if he didn’t send people to guard you that you actually like?”
I considered the idea, but rejected it immediately. “No.” I thought about it some more. “Did Faris actually say that?”
Stash chuckled. “No, of course not. He just ordered us to go. Didn’t explain himself at all.”
Just as I’d come to expect of Faris. The King of the Gods didn’t ever justify his actions to anyone, friend or foe, equal or underling. Not that he considered anyone to be equal to him.
As Nyx, Nero, and Damiel spread their wings, readying to leave, I wondered who would be teaching me to be a perfect angel during my seclusion.
“Ok, seriously, Nyx, any hints on who will be training me?” I asked her.
“You won’t have a trainer,” she told me. “Your angel training is over.”
“Wow, I’ve never failed out of something this fast before,” I commented.
Nyx actually looked amused. “You didn’t fail. Colonel Fireswift has graded your test and was forced to pass you.”
“I passed? Me? The Angel of Chaos? And Colonel Fireswift was the one to pass me?”
I bet he’d hated that. He’d probably wanted an excuse to torture me longer with all the long lists.
“But wait. If I’m not doing remedial angel studies, then what will I be doing?”
“It’s been brought to my attention that the humans think of us angels as rather unapproachable and not to be trusted,” Nyx said. “I’m not particularly worried about the first, but I am concerned about the second. Right now, we need the humans and supernaturals to side with us. There are a lot more of them than there are of us. We need them to sign up, to help us grow the Legion.”
So apparently Nyx had come to realize the Legion didn’t have the best relations with humans and supernaturals. Yeah, I could have told her that.
“It’s critical that we improve our relationship with humanity now, as we will need everyone united in the fight against the Guardians,” she said.
I folded my hands together. “So the Legion’s fear and the Pilgrims’ propaganda aren’t enough.”
“No.” Nyx frowned at her admission. “We need to make people trust us, to work with us. Just as we need to work with the gods and the demons.”
The gods and demons had formed an alliance against the Guardians, but no one knew how that would play out in the end. Gods and demons had spent many millennia at war, many millennia of mistrust. It wasn’t so easy to put that all aside.
