by Ella Summers
“You put the babies in a surrogate mother,” Inali hissed. “Twins growing in her womb.”
“You’re making this all sound much easier than it was,” Ava said flippantly. “It was no simple task. It was a triumph of magic, the culmination of centuries of planning.”
A vicious smile twisted Inali’s lips. “You like to make people believe you are infallible, and yet the surrogate mother was kidnapped by human warlords. They killed her shortly after the babies were born.”
“Inconsequential.” Ava gave her hand a dismissive wave. “The surrogate had already served her purpose. And as for the babies, I sent some dark sirens to sabotage the warlords’ base so that the girls could escape. And then you made sure Callista Pierce found them. So it all worked out in the end.”
“Why do you refuse to admit that you aren’t in perfect control?” Inali demanded. “Why can’t you admit that your plans only worked because you got lucky?”
Ava’s eyes hardened. “Careful.”
“You can’t hold us forever,” Inali said defiantly.
“Of course I can.” Smiling, Ava caressed her bracelet with the eight charms, like she was petting a cat.
The final memory faded out, leaving Nero and me back in our room on board the airship.
“The eight charms Ava wears on her bracelet are immortal artifacts,” Nero said.
I’d noticed that too. “They’re the ones linked to the octuplets. Like Bella is linked to the wand.”
“Ava is using those artifacts to control the eight sisters,” said Nero. “That’s why they’re doing whatever she wants.”
“And that’s why River kept answering my questions with ‘I can’t say’,” I realized. “Ava won’t let them tell me anything she doesn’t want me to know. These memories we’re seeing now didn’t come out of the Vault; the sisters didn’t send them to me. These are memories Ava doesn’t want me to see.”
Nero looked like he did whenever he was trying to come up with a strategic solution to a seemingly impossible problem.
“What are you thinking?” I asked him.
“The eight sisters are very powerful,” he said slowly. “And Ava controls them. It’s clear Ava also wants to steal our daughter.”
“Even if she has to betray her own sister Grace.”
“As long as Ava controls the eight sisters, she is too powerful.” Nero shook his head. “We might not be able to keep our daughter from her.”
“But if we freed the eight sisters, Ava would lose her greatest weapon,” I said.
“Not only that. The eight sisters can’t be very happy with Ava—and with what the demon has forced them to do,” Nero replied. “Once freed, they would likely turn against her. If she’s too busy fighting them, she can’t make a move to capture our daughter.”
“And then we’d only have to worry about Faris, Grace, the Guardians, and whoever else has an interest in her.” I expelled a sigh of frustration.
“It’s a start, Leda. Soon, we will have the Guardians on the run.”
I liked his confidence that our mission would succeed.
He pounded his fist into his open palm. “And then we’ll deal with Faris and Grace as well.”
I only hoped he was right.
34
The Best Laid Plans
In under an hour, our battle against the Guardians would begin. I just hoped that it ended as we’d planned. If I’d learned anything in my time at the Legion of Angels, it was that even the best-laid plans inevitably went sideways.
I sat in the garden library, surrounded by my family and friends. I’d just finished bringing them through everything Nero and I had learned in the memory stream. I hadn’t invited any of the octuplets. Since Ava was controlling them, I wasn’t going to risk that anything we said got back to the demon.
“So Ava is limiting what the octuplets can do and say, just to manipulate Leda into following her wishes,” Harker said.
I nodded. “Yep.”
“Ava wants me to find Thea,” Bella said.
“Since you’re linked by blood and magic, it is doable,” Arina told her.
Bella drummed her fingers against the armrest. “Ava gave me the wand so I could find Thea. But what does Ava even want with Thea?”
“Let me see the wand?” Arina held out her hand.
Bella hesitated for a moment—understandable, as I’d just told her how the immortal artifacts linked to the octuplets could control them—but she handed it over.
Arina held the wand between her hands, eyes closed. A few moments later, her eyelashes swept up, and she returned the wand to Bella. “Some years after Thea disappeared, Ava learned that Thea was the only one who’d heard a Prophecy from the powerful telepath who was Zane’s father. Since Zane’s father is dead, Thea is the only one alive today who knows what that Prophecy says.”
Zane sat up straighter in his seat.
“This Prophecy is about the savior and the different paths she might take, including which one would lead to the result Ava wanted: the total defeat of the Guardians without great losses and the certainty of demon dominion in the universe,” Arina said.
“Our plan will cripple the Guardians but surely not end them,” Damiel said. “That’s why Ava wants to know the Prophecy Thea heard. She’s looking for the key to achieving the demons’ ultimate goal: to rule over all.”
“As the one who brought this about, Ava will rule over all.” I shook my head. “Obviously, we can’t let Ava gain this information.”
“And as long as she’s in control of the octuplets, she’s too powerful,” Nero added.
“So we need to free the octuplets from Ava’s control, destroy the barrier hiding the Guardians’ Sanctuary, and find Thea without Ava ever finding her too.” I counted off the tasks on my fingers. “That’s a tall order.”
“Try not to look too excited at the prospect of defying impossible odds,” Nyx said.
“Don’t be such a killjoy, Nyx,” I told her.
Nyx’s mouth drew into a very hard, very humorless line. People didn’t tease the First Angel nearly enough, so she wasn’t used to it. Or maybe being suddenly nine months pregnant had made her cranky. It was certainly overwhelming. I’d thought I would have so much time to prepare for motherhood.
“Rosette, the djinn, changed the direction of the magic mirror Harker and I were in when we left Valerian’s world,” Bella said out of the blue. “That’s how we ended up on a world with Ava, not on Earth.”
We all looked at her.
“Sorry,” she said, her face sheepish. “I just figured out something that had been bothering me for a while.”
“We need to discuss the upcoming battle,” Damiel declared, which scored him an approving nod from the First Angel.
“We need to watch out for all the people the Guardians have ‘saved’. We need to rescue them before the Guardians start killing them.” Cadence looked at Arina. “The Guardians are planning to drain the power out of these supernaturals, right? That’s why they’ve been collecting them?”
“For so long, the Guardians have collected people with all kinds of powers and combinations of powers.” Arina cringed, likely thinking of her kids. “They’ve gathered together many supernaturals of every ability—dark and light, active and passive.”
“And the gods and demons, with their obsession of collecting these kinds of people, have driven them right to the Guardians.” I couldn’t help but feel really annoyed at both the gods and the demons. “After being hunted so mercilessly, the Guardians’ Sanctuary must have seemed like paradise to those people.”
“The Guardians worked slowly, taking these people over many centuries, as to not draw too much attention to themselves,” Arina said. “But lately, they’ve upped their pace, especially in collecting sirens.”
I supposed that was my fault. Several weeks ago, I’d unknowingly killed a bunch of the Guardians’ sirens. It had all happened inside my mind. At the time, I’d thought they were only machines, not people. Still, I
felt really guilty about it.
“The Guardians plan to drain all the supernaturals of their magic, and pump that power into themselves,” Arina continued. “They believe the overflow of magic will be so strong that their own nullifying magic is overpowered, and they gain the magic of all those that they killed.”
“That sounds just like what we’re doing to their barrier,” Leila said. “Using so much magic that the Guardians’ nullifying magic is overpowered.”
“But how can they channel this magic into themselves?” Basanti wanted to know.
“That’s all thanks to the Legion of Angels, the Dark Force, Leila, the goddess Meda, and others,” Arina said.
“That’s a lot of people helping the Guardians who would never, under any circumstances, help the Guardians,” Harker commented with a skeptical eye.
“Ok, let’s take them one by one,” Arina said. “One. The idea of blending magic. The Guardians got that from the Legion’s and the Dark Force’s efforts to create supernatural soldiers out of humans. It is the idea of giving magic to people without magic. The Guardians’ formula is a modification from the ones used by the Legion and the Dark Force.
“Two. The Guardians refined that potion formula using Leila Starborn’s experiments on balancing magic in monsters.”
Leila’s eyes grew wide with surprise.
“Three,” Arina said. “The Guardians also used Meda’s research on the archangel Osiris Wardbreaker and others to further refine the potion formula.”
We did know that Meda had gotten the Life potion, which she’d used in her experiments, from the Guardians. The goddess had thought she was using the Guardians. Well, it turned out they’d been the ones using her.
“The Guardians’ new potion formula will prime their bodies to receive all of that raw magic stolen from the supernaturals they’re sacrificing,” Arina said.
“How do you know all of this?” Every one of Colonel Fireswift words was saturated with suspicion.
“When the Guardians abducted my children, I followed a lot of magic trails to figure out exactly what they were planning to do with them,” Arina told him, not cowered by his glower.
She truly was a kick-ass woman.
“All right, folks, the plan is to blow open the doors of the Guardians’ Sanctuary, free all their ‘guests’, and stop the Guardians once and for all,” I declared, trying to stay optimistic. “We bearers of the Legion’s future will take care of all the magic we need. I’ll channel it through Angel—” I indicated my cat, who meowed. “We expect heavy resistance from the Guardians’ forces, given that we’re trying to blow a rather massive hole in their wicked plans. The rest of you have the job of holding them off. As soon as the Sanctuary is exposed, our army will move in.”
“The first letter of each octuplet’s name spells ‘grimoire’ when put together,” Bella said randomly.
We all looked at her.
“Gertrude, River, Inali, Mallory, Odette, Indira, Rosette, Evie. GRIMOIRE. Grimoire.” Bella smiled at us.
My clever sister. In our house, Bella always won when family game night involved a bit of mental gymnastics.
“You’re having a lot of epiphanies today,” I told her.
Bella nodded earnestly. “I know.”
“Before we march onto the battlefield, are there any questions?” I asked our army.
“Yes, actually.” Colonel Dragonblood turned to Nero. “Windstriker, does she always make things sound so easy?”
“Yes.” Nero looked fondly upon me. “Pandora has a knack for not only making the impossible sound possible, but also for making the impossible actually possible.”
I pumped my arm in the air. “And on that happy note, let’s go kick some Guardian ass.”
35
Sierra
I’d never imagined I’d be in labor on the battlefield, but that was pretty much in line with the rest of my life. Leda Pandora never did things the easy way.
A ring of soldiers from Heaven’s Army surrounded me, Nyx, Cadence, Leila, Basanti, Andromeda, and Alice. The soldiers were there to protect us from the monsters. This was the plain of monsters, after all, and though there weren’t any beasts nearby right now, that could change at any moment.
Actually, there was just one beast here. Angel, my lion-sized fluffy white cat, was pacing around inside the protected ring. She must have been just as nervous as I was.
The soldiers from Heaven’s Army were also here to protect us from the Guardians’ forces. We were currently right on top of the Sanctuary, or at least where it existed in another, slightly-offset magical plane of existence.
As expected, the Guardians had sent out soldiers to stop us.
“They must know what we’re planning and are worried,” I told the others, cringing through a contraction. “That means we’re doing exactly what we should be doing.”
“Those people, the ones the Guardians have sent into battle against us, they’re the supernaturals who were abducted and brought to the Sanctuary,” Cadence said. “Innocent people.”
“Those two are not innocent.” Leila pointed at the two angels leading the Guardians’ forces.
I recognized them from my visions as Giselle and Taron. Their eyes were alight with wicked fire. They were not innocent or ignorant like the rest.
“They’re the ones who abducted you,” I said to Cadence.
“They took your brother too,” she replied. “That’s the job the Guardians have given them: to fill their fortress with supernaturals of extraordinary power.”
“And now they’re leading those supernaturals to the slaughter on the battlefield. Why?” I wondered. “Don’t the Guardians need them to gain their magic?”
“Your reputation precedes you, Leda,” Andromeda said. “The Guardians know you won’t let them be killed.”
“She’s right,” Alice said. “You have a habit of trying to save people, no matter the cost.”
“The cost of saving those people is too high this time,” Nyx declared. “If our plan fails, many more innocents will die than just these supernaturals here.”
I watched our forces rush forward to meet the Guardians’ army. Something about this bothered me.
“Look at the fire in their eyes,” Basanti commented. “They are prepared to fight to the death, all of them.”
“They believe the Guardians were the ones who saved them from the horrors of the universe,” Leila said. “They don’t realize the Guardians plan to kill them and drain them dry of magic.”
“They’ve been kept here for years, raised like animals to be slaughtered. The whole time their magic was honed and perfected, flavored and seasoned to create the perfect meal for the Guardians.” The whole thing made me feel sick to my stomach. “We can’t kill them. They are victims too.”
“That’s a hard line for our soldiers to hold when these ‘innocents’ are doing their best to kill them,” Basanti pointed out.
“Indeed, these victims are making it difficult for us to save them,” Leila agreed.
“But we must save them.” I looked at Nyx. “Tell our soldiers not to kill them.”
Nyx sighed. “You’re an idealist, Pandora.” She pointed up at the sky. “And I don’t think they will listen.”
Winged soldiers filled the sky—angels, gods, and demons alike. I spotted Ronan. He would be leading the Legion’s forces. Faris had brought in more of his soldiers from Heaven’s Army. And Grace had come with demon soldiers sworn to her service.
Faris and Grace swooped down and landed beside me.
“Not a single one of them shall be spared,” Faris told me. “Every one of those supernaturals is just fuel for the Guardians’ fire.”
“They could be knocked out, not killed,” I said.
He didn’t look amused by my suggestion. “That is inefficient. And it will decrease our odds of winning this battle.”
“We only have to keep them at bay long enough for…” I cringed as the latest contraction hit me. I felt like I was splitting a
part from the inside. “…for us to hit the Sanctuary with everything we’ve got…” I groaned as another contraction pulsed through me. “…and bring it into our realm.”
“You’re close, Leda,” Grace observed.
We were all close. From the expressions on my six pregnant companions’ faces, our contractions were in perfect synchronicity. Indira sure knew what she was doing. I bet all seven of us were going to deliver at exactly the same moment.
Nerissa and her staff hurried over to us. At least I wouldn’t have to catch my baby myself.
“Lie down, Leda,” she ordered me.
“I feel better standing,” I told her. “And pacing.”
The contractions were close together now. Really, really close. I hardly had time to catch my breath between them.
“You never could sit still, Leda.” Nerissa followed behind me as I paced, as though the baby was just going to shoot out of me like a bullet. “Fine, stand. But no pacing.”
“Leda,” Bella said.
I blinked. “When did you get here?”
“I’ve been here the whole time,” my sister told me.
“Don’t mind Leda,” Nerissa told her. “She’s a tad delirious.”
“I am…” Another contraction came, and I clenched my fists. “…not delirious.”
Nerissa looked at me like I’d just sinned. “Did you push?”
“Yes,” I croaked.
Nerissa’s eyes went very wide. “This is the fastest labor I’ve ever seen.”
“I’ve always been precipitous,” I declared proudly.
Nerissa snorted.
Bella said something, but I hardly heard her.
“Say that again, Bella?” My body tensed up, and I pushed again. “It appears I’m kind of delirious after all.”
“The Guardians have sent these people out to die,” she told me. “They want us to kill them. They’re already linked to the Guardians, who’ve all had their potion. Each person we kill on this battlefield only fills the Guardians’ cup of power. We’re helping them gain power.”
