by Ella Summers
“Why?” Bella asked Gertrude, her voice uneven. “Why did you use my parents to make me?”
“Because I was contracted to do so,” Gertrude said calmly, like it didn’t bother her at all.
“By Ava?” Bella asked.
“Yes.”
“I was a baby. A baby. Have you no shame?” Bella demanded.
Gertrude’s wrinkled face didn’t flinch. “I am a businesswoman.”
“So in other words, no, you didn’t care about the consequences,” I growled at her.
“And then? What happened after you created me?” Bella asked Gertrude. “How did I end up on Earth?”
“One of my sisters brought you there,” Gertrude said. “And another of my sisters made sure Callista Pierce found you. She made sure Calli found all of you—and, later, that you found the four parchments hidden where Calli met you.”
Gaius Knight jumped through the blue shield, landing beside us.
“You called, sister?” he said brightly.
His face faded away to reveal a tall and slender woman with a black braid and a young face. I knew that face. River, the rogue Guardian had that face.
I squinted at her, just to be sure. “River?”
“No,” she said in a voice just like River’s.
It was the same voice as the woman in the purple veil who’d stolen the weapons of heaven and hell for Grace. I knew I’d heard that voice before. Now I knew where.
“I’m Inali. River is my sister. But you know me by my other face.”
Magic rippled across her. She was Gaius Knight for a moment, then she was Inali again.
Well, that there just blew my mind.
Bella remained composed. “You sent me the dreams I had of Thea’s grimoire. You sent them to me using the Vault. Just like you sent visions to Leda.”
“Yes,” said Inali. “We did.”
“Why?”
She smiled but didn’t answer.
“Glad to hear you got away, Inali,” Gertrude said. “I was getting worried.”
Inali shrugged. “Well, you know me. I’m good at disguises.”
“What are you?” I asked Inali. “That wasn’t shifting magic you just did. Not quite. It’s something else.”
“Right you are, Leda,” she said with a smile. “I’m a changeling, in fact. We can change shape. We absorb and use another’s appearance and magic.”
“So you mimicked a man named Gaius Knight?” I guessed.
“Yes.”
“Did the real Gaius Knight ever know Calli?” I asked her.
“No.”
“So, a mimic.” I thought that through. “That’s a passive magic power.”
“Correct,” Inali said.
I looked at Gertrude. “Your magic is passive too. You’re a magic smith. Like Arina.”
Gertrude nodded. “Indeed, I am.”
Looking more closely at Gertrude’s face, I noticed something else. “You look exactly like Inali, only many decades older.”
So that’s where I’d seen Gertrude’s familiar face.
“You’re very observant,” Gertrude told me.
She nodded at Inali, who stepped toward her sister. She waved her hand across Gertrude’s face, undoing the glamor of age.
“I can mimic age too,” Inali added.
Now Gertrude looked exactly like Inali. And exactly like the rogue Guardian River.
“Just how many of you are there out there?” I demanded.
29
Eight
It was Gertrude who answered my question. “There are eight of us. You’ve met me, Inali, and River. Our other sisters are Evie, Indira, Odette, Mallory, and Rosette.”
My mind was exploding with this new information. “And you’re all identical?”
“Yes,” Gertrude said.
Well, the eight chairs suddenly made sense. But the number eight was significant for another reason.
“There are eight passive magic powers.” I looked at Gertrude. “The power of the elf, a crafter and magic smith.” I turned to Inali. “The changeling or mimic with the power to copycat another’s magic and appearance.” I thought of River next. “The phantom, with the power to negate magic. Like River. Or the Guardians.”
“As well as the teleporting djinn, the spell-breaking mermaid, the wish-granting genie, the rebirthing phoenix, and the magic-tracking unicorn,” Bella finished off the list of passive magic types.
“Unicorn. Another of Arina’s powers,” I said.
“Yes, Arina got her unicorn magic from her mother’s side of the family,” Gertrude said.
“Eight sisters.” I still couldn’t believe it. Identical octuplets. “You each possess one of the eight passive powers, don’t you?” I asked.
“We do,” replied Inali. “In great amounts.”
“Then together they are a powerful force of magic,” Nyx said.
“Eight identical sisters, each with a different passive magic power. How did this happen?” I was sure their existence had to be by design; there was nothing natural about them.
“We were made with magic and linked to immortal artifacts as well,” Gertrude said.
So they’d been created in just the same way as Bella and Arina’s twins.
“And you chastised me for doubling the spell!” Arina snapped at her grandmother. “Whoever made you and your sisters multiplied the spell by eight!”
It was Harker who asked the million-dollar question. “Who was it that made you?”
And it was Inali who rebuffed him. “That’s a question for another time.”
“That’s not any better than ‘I cannot say’,” I told her.
“River does like to say that,” Inali said fondly.
“So what is all of this?” I asked them. “Why lure us out here? What do you want?”
Gertrude was eerily calm. “As I said, we’re businesswomen.”
“So this is all for profit?” I demanded.
Gertrude and Inali said nothing.
“Great. Just great.” I shook my head in disbelief—and disgust. “Maybe I’ll just take you prisoner and see if that encourages you to talk.”
“What a marvelous idea,” Gertrude said.
Inali extended her wrists to me, offering herself to be handcuffed. “Bring us aboard your airship.”
“I think that’s exactly what you want.” I cuffed them both anyway.
“Then it’s a win-win scenario. It’s truly amazing how well everything is working out for everyone,” Gertrude said with a smile.
“She thinks you’re up to something,” Arina told her grandmother. “And so do I. In all my life, have you ever told me a single shred of truth?”
“Of course. When I said I loved you, dear, that was true.”
Arina was unimpressed by her rhetoric. “Am I even your granddaughter?”
“Yes.”
“But you’re immortal,” Arina pointed out.
“I was made that way. You can hardly blame me for how I was made.”
“But I can question the truth of your words,” Arina shot back. “You are immortal. I am not immortal. Neither is my father, your son.”
“Magic isn’t always simple, Arina.”
“With you, it’s never simple. I thought you were the one person in my family who truly understood me, but…” Arina’s mouth trembled. “It doesn’t mean anything at all.”
Gertrude reached toward her. “Arina.”
Arina brushed away her hand. “It doesn’t matter anymore. You are the past. Done. Gone. All that matters now is that the Guardians have my children. And you are going to help me save them.”
“Of course I will.”
Arina was unmoved by her words. She marched off to stand under the blue magic shield that covered the hole in the ceiling.
Devlin waved his hand over himself and her, recasting the water-repelling spells. Then he spread his wings and carried her toward the ceiling door.
Theon flashed us a grin. “I love family drama.” Then the soap-o
pera-loving god cast his anti-water spell and left with Octavian and Arabelle.
Bella and Harker went next, followed by Punch and Patch. Stash waited behind with me and Nyx.
“Pandora, you really know how to attract madness,” the First Angel said, grabbing Gertrude by the arm.
I took hold of Inali, and together with Stash, we left the underwater sitting room.
Back on the shore, Cadence and the others were waiting for us.
“Who are they?” Leila’s eyes flickered from Gertrude to Inali.
“And why do they look identical?” Basanti wondered.
I handed Inali off to Arabelle. “It’s a long story.”
I walked between Bella and Arina as we headed back to the airship. Both looked shaken, like their worlds had been turned upside down.
“How you were made, Bella, that doesn’t make you any less real,” I told my sister.
“Leda, I…” Bella looked ready to protest, but then she caught Arina’s eye and stopped. She obviously didn’t want to offend Arina’s children by calling her children not real. Even though Bella seemed to feel that way about herself.
“You have a mother and a father,” I told Bella. “Unfortunately, none of us get to choose who our parents are. But I still think you got luckier than I did with Faris and Grace.” I winked at her.
Bella laughed. “Thanks, Leda. Thanks for cheering me up.”
I looked at Arina.
“I don’t need a counselor,” she said quickly.
“You won’t get any counseling from me, only snark.”
Arina didn’t laugh. “I don’t need snark either.”
“What you need is to save your children.”
“Yes.”
I rubbed my belly. “I get it. I need to save my child too. That’s why we’re taking the fight to the Guardians.”
“So you’ve figured out how to get into their Sanctuary?” Arina asked, surprised.
“Not entirely,” I admitted. “But I will. I always figure things out. I’m pretty damn stubborn, and I refuse to believe anything is impossible.”
Arina looked me over, slowly and carefully.
“You’re doing that magic thing of yours where you can see who someone truly is deep inside, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“And what do you see?” I asked her.
“That you’re pretty damn stubborn and refuse to believe anything is impossible.”
Glad we were in agreement.
“Does your magic always work?” I asked.
“I’d always thought so.” Arina watched her grandmother. “Until just now. She isn’t at all the person she seemed to be.”
“That has more to do with her magic than with yours. I bet she was hiding who she is inside, like she was hiding her true face. Inali’s magic helped her do that.”
Our conversation paused as we went up to the airship. Alec was waiting for me there.
“See?” I said to him as I stepped on board. “I’m back, safe and sound. Nothing to worry about.”
Alec snorted. “You’ve received a petition request from someone who wants an audience with you.”
“All the way out here?” I asked, perplexed. “Where is this petitioner?”
“It’s not a person,” he told me. “It’s a message.”
Curious, I asked to see the message.
“It isn’t that kind of message, Leda. There was this big ball of magic fire that suddenly burst into existence in front of me a few minutes ago. The voice delivered the message that someone would be coming to see you shortly, then the fireball disappeared.”
Weird. Really weird.
“Making friends?” Alec asked as Arabelle and Octavian brought the handcuffed Inali and Gertrude aboard. His mouth twitched when his eyes fell upon their bound wrists.
“Always,” I said. “Alec, I need you to show these prisoners to a cell.”
“You’re going to want us there for this,” Inali told me.
My eyes narrowed to slits. “You know what’s coming?”
Gertrude and Inali gave me matching smiles.
“Are we in danger?” I asked.
“Of course,” Gertrude said. “You’ll be in danger until the Guardians are dealt with, once and for all.”
“They are powerful,” Inali added. “They killed the Immortals.”
“That’s not to say that the danger will pass once the Guardians are gone,” Gertrude said. “There are other threats out there, other beings of great power.”
“Any chance you’ll tell us more about these other threats and other beings?” I asked them, even though I was pretty sure of the answer.
They smiled again.
“Right. I didn’t think so.” I waved for Alec to follow me with the prisoners.
The entire landing party came too. Along the way, others joined us, including Calli, Zane, Tessa, and Gin.
When our very long procession reached the court chamber, there was no petitioner to be seen.
“Well, that was anti-climatic,” Basanti commented, bored.
We all sat down in our chairs. Stash and the other gods took up positions around the room. Alec stayed with the prisoners, and Harker kept close to Bella’s side.
“About those rings you two made,” I said to Leila and Basanti while we were waiting for…well, actually, I wasn’t exactly sure what we were waiting for.
“Yes?” Leila asked.
“They’re immortal artifacts.”
Leila frowned. “How did you—”
“And, by the way, making the rings is also the reason that you and Basanti are pregnant.” I explained to them what we’d learned about creating immortal artifacts. “The question is how you knew how to make immortal artifacts.”
“I found a formula in the library,” Leila said.
“If the Legion had any book with a recipe to make immortal artifacts, I would know about it,” Nyx declared.
“I found the book at Storm Castle,” said Leila. “I hadn’t seen it before, so I thought—”
“We made sure the book found its way into your possession,” Inali told her.
Leila blinked. “Why?”
“So you two would have children.” Gertrude smiled. “You’re welcome.”
Basanti frowned at them. “Why did you really do this?”
This time, Gertrude didn’t answer.
The dead silence in the room was broken by the explosive rattle of gunfire and the swoosh of magic.
I hurried over to the windows and looked out. Now, I’d seen a lot since joining the Legion of Angels, but what I saw now shocked even me. An armored female knight rode a black pegasus, carrying a very long scythe, like some kind of grim reaper. And that agent of death was headed straight for the airship.
30
The Pegasus Knight
The pegasus rider was not alone in the sky. Over twenty pilots in old-style, one-person planes were chasing her in a scene that looked like it had been ripped right out of history. Well, at least if planes at the dawn of the flight era had shot highly-charged magic explosives at a woman in knightly armor who was riding a pegasus.
The planes’ magic shots lit up the sky like fireworks. The pilots had the advantage of greater numbers, but the pegasus rider was quicker, more agile. She zipped around the lead plane and split it in half with a powerful swipe of her insanely long scythe.
The plane’s engine choked, and the two severed pieces split apart like a banana peel. The pilot hopped out of his falling plane and landed on the deck of my airship in a single huge, inhuman leap. My guards rushed forward to intercept him as he ran toward the doors that led into the Court Chamber, his gun drawn.
In the meantime, more pilots were abandoning their planes and jumping onto the airship. They looked like locusts falling out of the sky. More planes kept coming. Twenty-five, thirty, thirty-five. Luckily, the pilots weren’t shooting at us. They were too busy with the pegasus knight, who was ripping open the planes like a highly-efficient can opener.
>
One of the jumpers made it past my guards. He stopped for a moment, looked around, then made a beeline straight for Gin. I blasted him away before he reached my sister.
Another jumper made it into the Court Chamber. He, too, went straight for Gin. What the hell?
I drew my sword. Flames roared to life on the blade. I jumped in front of Gin, swinging the sword. Her assailant jumped out of the flaming sword’s path. Annoyance—and fear—flashed in his eyes, peeking out from behind a full-face wrap. His whole body was wrapped actually, like a ninja. These guys were dressed just like the ninjas who’d attacked my family twice in Purgatory.
“You weren’t aiming for Bella. Or for Zane.” I parried the strike of his sword. “You were after Gin all along. Why?”
He didn’t answer, but I knew I was right. Gin had been there both times the ninjas had attacked. And the single-minded determination with which these guys kept going for her now was unmistakable. They were after Gin. And they were fighting to kill.
There was a loud thump as the pegasus’s knight heavy boots—and her steed’s hooves—hit the floor. She darted around the deck, slashing through all the ninjas that remained there. Then she pushed open the doors to enter the court chamber. She marched toward me.
My guards rushed forward, surrounding her. Covered in blood, his dark eyes alight with delight, Punch looked like he was having the time of his life.
“I am here to petition for the Legion’s protection,” the pegasus knight declared.
“Who are you?” I asked her.
“My name is Indira. I sent you a message that I’d be coming.” She pulled off her helmet, revealing her face. The woman looked just like Gertrude and Inali.
“So you’re another one of the eight.”
Indira. That was one of the names Gertrude had given me, the name of one of her sisters.
“I am,” Indira said. “Leda Pandora, you must accept my petition. You must let me in. You must hear what I have to say. More planes are headed this way. They have come here to kill your sister.”
I looked at Gin, then back at Indira. “Why? Why Gin?”
