Phoenix’s Refrain (Legion of Angels Book 10)

by Ella Summers

  There was a flash, and then my brother and three sisters were suddenly there, each one standing in a different quadrant. Zane was inside the active light magic field. Bella was in the active dark magic forest. Tessa was in the passive light magic meadow. And, finally, Gin was in the passive dark magic quadrant.

  “I think the Vault is trying to tell us something,” I said,

  “How very observant of you.”

  I turned toward the voice—and found Gaius Knight. He stood beside me in the tiny crossroads square, which had meanwhile grown larger to accommodate his presence.

  “Are you part of this metaphor?” I asked him.

  “No, he’s actually here, talking to us,” Arina told me.

  Gaius smiled. “Correct.”

  “In fact, he’s the one who enchanted your parchment in the first place,” Arina said. “The clue to Thea’s grimoire. And he put my picture on that page.”

  “Mostly correct.” Gaius didn’t clarify further.

  “Somehow he’s found a way to tap into the visions from wherever he is.” Arina poked him with her finger. Her hand didn’t go right through him.

  “Then he’s the one who can give us the answers we need.” I turned and faced the man. “Why did you send me all these visions? And what is this magical metaphor all about? Light, dark, active, passive. What is the meaning of showing me this?”

  “Passive magic. That’s what the Immortals named it when they catalogued all of magic.”

  That wasn’t an answer to the question I’d asked, but Gaius didn’t seem to care. In fact, he looked perfectly content to speak about whatever he had already planned to speak about.

  “The Immortals called it ‘passive magic’ because they thought ‘eating magic’ sounded too dangerous, too threatening.”

  “Very interesting.” I had a feeling he would eventually come to the point, but I had no idea how long that would take.

  “But passive magic didn’t sound too dangerous or too threatening,” Gaius continued. “It sounded amenable. It sounded like something that wasn’t vile, something that wasn’t a threat.”

  “Indeed.” What else was I supposed to say?

  “Some other people out there still called it eating magic,” Gaius said. “Because the magic that the passive magic users wield comes from channeling magic that exists outside themselves.”

  So the Immortals had tried their hand at rebranding magic.

  “This is all very interesting,” I told him. “But what does it have to do with what you’re showing me here?”

  “The bonds of siblings are strong, when they grow up properly.”

  I felt like I was talking to a fortune cookie.

  “And Callista made just the right environment for you all to bond. She created the right recipe.” He sounded like he was talking about baking, not family. “Look at your brother and sisters.”

  So I looked.

  “They are your four horsemen, one from each quadrant of magic. Together, they encompass the four kinds of magic. And here you are, Leda Pandora, standing right at the middle of it all.”

  “So you meant for my brother and sisters to protect me?” I asked.

  Like Ava had wanted Bella to protect me. Come to think of it, where did Ava’s plans fit in to all of this? I was about to ask that question when Gaius dropped the biggest bombshell of them all.

  “They’re meant to protect not only you, but also the child you carry. Your daughter is the future. And you are standing at the crossroads, Leda. Light magic. Dark magic. Active magic. Eating magic.”

  “Light, dark, active, eating,” I muttered, repeating his words.

  I didn’t like the order, so I changed it. “Light, eating, dark, active. LEDA.” I gaped at him. “Leda. It’s me.”

  23

  Terrible Futures

  I tried to work through what Gaius had shown me. “My first foster mother, Aradia, was one of Sonja’s soldiers.”

  “Yes,” Gaius replied. “Until Aradia betrayed Sonja.”

  “And Sonja sent the soldiers who killed Aradia.”

  He nodded. “Dark Force soldiers.”

  “Aradia betrayed Sonja because of what Sonja did to her friend Thea. Thea, Bella’s mother. What happened to Bella and what happened to me—this is all connected.”

  “Naturally.”

  “Who named me?” I asked him.

  “Grace.”

  “So Grace knew what she was truly creating.”

  He folded his hands together and smiled at me. Apparently, I’d diverted from the path of what he wanted to tell me.

  “Did Aradia know about all of this?” I waved my hand to indicate the four quadrants of magic.

  “Aradia knew only what she needed to know.”

  “She only knew what you showed her, you mean. You manipulated her.” I frowned. “And you’re manipulating me.”

  “No, not manipulating. I am…doing you a favor, child. I’m guiding you to your destiny. I’m protecting you from those who would deter you from it.”

  “Call it what you will. You are being perfectly obtuse,” I said. “You’re showing me only what you want to show me in order to push me down the path that you have set out for me.”

  “I have not set this path for you, Leda. It is nothing short of what you were always meant to do.”

  He was trying to use big, dramatic words to mask the reality of his machinations.

  “You’ve overlooked one thing,” I told him. “I’m a rebel. Showing me what you want me to do only makes me want to not do it.”

  “I believe that,” he chuckled. “But you really want to stop the Guardians’ plans. For your daughter’s sake.”

  A cold chill took hold of me. “What will happen to my daughter? What are the Guardians planning to do to her?”

  “The Guardians have a Prophecy.”

  “A Prophecy about a divine savior who will be born human, with equal light and dark magic,” I quoted what Zane had once told me. “She will grow her magic one ability at a time, and someday she will upset the balance of power. The Guardians believe she will change the balance of magic back to the middle, back to mixed magic of light and dark origins. They believe the savior is a god killer and demon slayer.”

  “The Guardians didn’t tell Zane everything,” Gaius said. “They didn’t tell Zane the part where you have a child. Or that your having that child will be how you balance magic.”

  I set my hands protectively over my belly.

  “But there’s a risk, Leda. One path leads to the Guardians gaining power and supremacy, to getting everything they’ve ever wanted. Everything they’ve been dreaming of and planning for. The other path, however, leads to their total destruction.”

  “Well, I guess it’s a fine line between power and death,” I commented.

  That was the line every Legion soldier walked, every time they tried to level up their magic.

  “The future is not set, and so the Prophecy allows for several different paths,” Gaius said. “The Guardians decided long ago to allow you to grow your magic until you became an angel and had a child. Then they plan to destroy you.”

  “What about Nero? Why did the Guardians want Nero to be born?” I asked him.

  “Because they needed him, a man of Immortal blood, to have a child with the savior they knew would one day be born.”

  “The savior, an angel with perfect light and dark magic but who wasn’t born with any magic at all,” I quoted.

  That described me perfectly.

  “The Guardians needed you and Nero Windstriker to conceive a child, the product of light and dark, of active and passive, of order and chaos,” Gaius said. “And of love. That one most of all.”

  Nero took my hand.

  “This child would exist in perfect balance and would be more powerful than even the Immortals,” said Gaius. “If the Guardians could find a way to control her, they could take out anyone who stood in their way. Do you understand what I’m telling you, Leda? Your daughter is the k
ey to the Guardians finally getting everything that they want. Your daughter is the one who can end the gods and demons, end all the Guardians’ enemies, for that matter. Because with her power, no one will be able to stand against her. And with her under the Guardians’ control, no one will be able to stand against them.”

  “Well, when you put it like that, it does sound pretty bad,” I said quietly.

  “Worse than bad. It is the end of everything.” Gaius set his hand on my forehead.

  I saw the dream that Nero had described to me. I saw the two of us fighting side-by-side against a great invading army. We were fighting for our daughter, to keep her from those who would steal her from us.

  “This is the vision Grace sent to Nero, this vision of the future,” Gaius told me. “But it’s only one possibility. And it’s one of the best outcomes.”

  “One of the best outcomes?” I said in shock. “The universe and everyone in it is at war. How could this possibly be one of the best outcomes?”

  “Because in this outcome, your daughter still has free will. Shall I show you the other possible futures?”

  He didn’t wait for my answer. Before I knew it, I was looking at Sierra, the red-haired angel.

  “This is your daughter.”

  I watched the angel clad herself in the weapons of heaven and hell. Her flaming sword shimmered in the light of the full moon. She was so powerful. So beautiful. So magnificent.

  “Arina was right? Sierra really is my daughter?” I asked Gaius.

  “Yes.”

  Sierra moved across the city battlefield, her wings as silver as her armor. A monster jumped at her. She lifted her shield and knocked it away. Her sword cut through the next beast. Then she continued past the broken buildings, on toward the enemy that had invaded her city.

  “Sierra is a hero, but she has lost much. Her family, her friends.” Gaius looked at Nero and me. “Her parents.”

  “In this future, we are dead?” I asked him.

  “Yes, but this is only one of many terrible futures.”

  He waved his hand, and then I was on another battlefield in some other possible future. I stood between two warring armies, each side led by angels.

  I remembered this vision. I’d seen it before.

  Beautiful and terrible, the armies of angels clashed in a war of magic and might that shook the ground and echoed across the heavens. Swords clashed. Steel clanged. The stench of blood and sulfur and death permeated the air. Feathers fluttered on the wind. The soil was soaked with blood; it spread out from the battlefield, blackening the Earth. The storm of spells raged on.

  I dashed across the battlefield, my pale blonde hair swooshing across my face as I slashed through the enemy ranks with my fire sword. I sprang into the air, then slammed my fist down. Jets of fire erupted from the ground, shooting up into raging pillars of flames.

  I strode across the battlefield, wings spreading out from my back, my dark purple-black feathers shimmering like petals of luxurious velvet in the light of the setting sun. Bodies fell before me. Men turned and ran from me. The ground shook beneath me.

  A jolt of pain ruptured my ribcage. I looked down to find a sword protruding from my chest. I turned around to face the person who’d stabbed me in the back.

  The last time I’d seen this vision, I’d blacked out before I could see my attacker’s face. Not this time. This time, I saw her as clearly as the blood that flowed out of my chest. It was Sierra. My daughter had stabbed me in the back.

  24

  Locked Out

  “In this future, you failed,” Gaius explained to me and Nero. “You survived, but your daughter Sierra turned against you. She became the Guardians’ champion, a champion of nefarious intentions.”

  “Are these really the only two options for our daughter?” I asked. “A life as a hero, but in a miserable, forsaken world where everyone she cares about is dead? Or a life where the world and her loved ones have survived, but we’ve lost Sierra because she serves the Guardians?”

  “You can save the world and your daughter,” Gaius told me. “You just need to be smart about it. There’s always another way.”

  “Your way.” I frowned in frustration. “You’re telling me the only way to save Sierra and the world is to do what you say.”

  “I would never tell you that.”

  “And yet you’re giving us no other option.”

  “In fact, I presented two alternative options, Leda.”

  “Neither of which is truly an option!”

  He nodded. “I thought you might see it that way.”

  “Of course you did.” Scorn dripped from my words. “Everything you showed me was to make me see it your way.”

  “You still have a choice. No one can take that away from you.”

  I made an exasperated noise. “Ok. I’ll bite. What is this ‘smart’ way? How do we save our daughter and the world?”

  Gaius opened his mouth to speak, then shut it again. He glanced around, looking suddenly nervous. “Later. Need to go now.”

  Then he faded out, but we were still here at the crossroads. We hadn’t returned to the real world, to the airship.

  “What a drama queen,” I grumbled. “I bet he’s left us hanging so we have a chance to digest those awful future visions for a while. And then he believes we’ll pick his ‘way out’, whatever that is.”

  “I’m not so sure he left to create drama,” Nero told me. “Gaius was so focused throughout our conversation, and then he was suddenly so nervous. He looked like someone had just walked in on his conversation with us. Perhaps he was attacked.”

  “Great. Even better. The only person with answers is now out of commission.”

  Nero touched my cheek softly. “You’re usually so optimistic.”

  “I’m not usually dealing with the fate of our daughter.”

  “Don’t lose heart, Leda. We will figure out how to protect our daughter, with or without his help.”

  I set my hand over his. “Thank you. For being, well, you. And for not panicking.”

  “Panicking serves no purpose.” Nero was pragmatic like that.

  I chuckled. “I’ll try to remember that.” I turned to Arina. “Are there any more visions in the Vault?”

  “There might be, but I can’t tell. Someone is blocking my magic, my access to the visions.” She looked like she didn’t like the feeling one bit. “But you’ve been connected to the Vault since you stepped into the Lost City two years ago. Maybe you can access them?”

  I closed my eyes and tried focusing on the visions. I didn’t find a thing. I felt like a wall had sprung up, blocking them off from me. I was locked out.

  I opened my eyes and shook my head. “Nothing. Gaius must have inserted himself into the memories by being there, at the Lost City, in the Vault. But now he is silent and so are the memories. Someone must have stopped him from sending them to us. And whoever that someone is, they don’t want me seeing these memories right now. They’ve turned off my access.”

  “The Guardians,” said Arina. She looked like she wanted to punch someone. Yep, the Guardians were clearly at the very top of her shit list.

  “That’s my guess,” I said. “The Guardians have the most to lose if Nero and I can find a way to save our daughter from suffering that terrible fate. We have to go there, to the Lost City. We have to expel the Guardians from the Vault. We have to hear what Gaius was going to tell us.”

  “What we must do, above all, is exercise caution,” Nero told me calmly. “Our going there might be exactly what the Guardians want. We do know they want our daughter. We can’t let them get her.”

  I set my hands over my belly, shielding our daughter. “You’re right. The trouble is we don’t even know what causes our path to spiral toward those terrible futures—or which choices will help us avoid those futures.” I sighed into a slouch. “I think I preferred things when I didn’t know what possibilities the future might hold.”

  “It’s generally a good idea to have no p
rior knowledge of what nonsense we might cause in the future,” he replied.

  “Yeah, imagine what you’d have done if you’d been forewarned of all my chaos.” I gave him a coy look. “You’d never have tried to seduce me by showing off your physique.”

  “I take issue with your statement that I was ever showing off.”

  “What about when you went totally hardcore on the salmon ladder in the gym?” I pointed out.

  “There’s a difference between training and showing off, Pandora. It’s not my fault that you’re easily impressed by—”

  “By your acts of raw, supercharged masculinity as you powered your way up that ladder, muscles bulging, hot sweat dripping off your—”

  “Do you need to sit down?” Nero arched his brows.

  I fanned myself with my hand. “Yes, please.”

  Nero snorted.

  I winked at him.

  “You’re one to talk,” he said. “You were always going around the gym in those…inappropriate outfits.”

  “Crop tops?”

  “Yes. And those tiny shorts.” He wet his lips.

  “If you don’t like the Legion’s sport attire, you should take it up with the Head of Wardrobe,” I laughed. “Come to think of it, maybe I’ll have a chat with him myself. I notice the men’s outfit doesn’t consist of a skimpy sport bra and hot pants…”

  I stopped. Nero was watching me, an odd look on his face.

  “You’re picturing me in a skimpy sport bra and hot pants, aren’t you?” I asked him.

  There was fire in his eyes. “Not as much clothing as that.”

  I looped my arms over Nero’s shoulders. “I’ve had an idea.”

  “That sounds dangerous.”

  “I haven’t even told you my idea yet.”

  “It doesn’t matter. I know you, Leda. And I know that look in your eyes.”

  I fluttered my eyelashes, the picture of innocence. “Oh?”

  “It’s the look you get right before you’re about to do something reckless.”

  I winked at him.

  “So what is your reckless idea?” He sighed.