“You lingered here too long, Pandora,” Nero said. “You should have gotten out as soon as you had the crown. You could have shifted it later, when your magic returned. Curiosity got the better of you.”
I glared up into his smug eyes. “Thanks for the lesson.”
Being paralyzed really sucked. Not only could I not fight back, my throat was so tight I could barely talk—and only kind of roll my eyes at him. I couldn’t use my magic either; it was frozen along with the rest of me.
“She shouldn’t even be able to talk,” Delta said. “You went too easy on her, Nero. Your spell wasn’t at full potency. If we’re going to win this, we need to hit the competition with everything we’ve got. The gods are watching us. And judging us.”
Damn, she sure was taking this game seriously. Faris should have partnered Colonel Fireswift with her instead of me.
“She’s down, unable to fight. That’s all that matters,” Nero told her. “Wasting your energy on being vicious serves no strategical purpose. It simply divides your attention.”
Delta slammed a second paralyzing spell into me, far more potent than Nero’s. Now I really couldn’t move, and I couldn’t talk either. I was completely frozen.
“Actually, it served a very important purpose,” Delta said, sneering down at me. “It shut her up.”
Anger popped inside my paralyzed body. I was going to get her back for this. Somewhere, somehow.
“Enough.” Nero took the crown from Delta. “We need to get out of here.”
He turned to leave—but then he just stopped. A strange reflection flickered across the milky lenses of the opera glasses. Nero had seen it too. That’s what had stopped him. Carefully, he turned the glasses over in his hands, like he suspected sabotage. The glasses were now sparkling like a glitter shower.
“They’re reacting to something.” Nero glanced at the crown. “They are reacting to this. To the crown’s magic.”
“Both are immortal artifacts,” Delta said.
Nero waved the glasses in front of the crown. Streams of light burst out of the crown, projecting an image over the room.
A man wearing Valora’s crown threw open the balcony doors.
“That’s Mercer, the old king of the gods’ council,” Delta said. “Valora’s father.”
Mercer stepped onto the balcony and looked down on the demon army pounding at his castle gates. Thousands of soldiers covered the land like a black blanket.
“This is the Battle of Illusion.” Nero watched the god on the balcony. “The day the demons attacked Mercer’s castle here on the world of Illusion, hoping to claim the King God’s world as their own.”
“The gods’ armies pushed them back,” said Delta. “But a small team of demons had already infiltrated the castle in secret. Even as what remained of the demon army retreated, they were making their way through the castle. To the king.”
The sound of clashing blades and gunfire sounded from the hallway beyond Mercer’s chamber.
“The demons killed Mercer and then tried to flee,” Delta said. “But they never made it out alive again.”
Mercer turned, grabbing a sword as the doors to his chamber burst open. The godly soldiers in the hall were all dead.
Two demon warriors rushed inside, each one brandishing a glowing gun. Immortal weapons. Deity killers. Mercer lifted his sword, preparing to fight the demons.
But the warriors never made it to him. Arrows pierced their bodies. They fell on their faces, revealing Valora behind them. She held a glowing bow in her hands. Mercer looked down at the two demon warriors. Silver poison spread through their veins. Valora’s arrows had been shot from an immortal weapon. Soon the demons would be dead.
“There might be more of them,” Mercer said to his daughter. “We must be ready.” He grabbed a shield from his weapons closet.
A shot went off.
Mercer fell, clutching his chest. Silver poison was quickly spreading through his veins. A bullet had pierced his chest—a bullet shot from one of the demons’ guns.
“Why?” Mercer gasped, his surprised eyes flickering from the dead demons on the floor, to the gun in his daughter’s hand.
“You have failed us, Father,” Valora declared as he fell dead to the floor. She looked down on him, her face cold. “You have failed me,” she rasped, her voice breaking.
Tossing the gun to the ground, she stepped onto the balcony. As she watched the demons’ army retreat, a single teardrop fell from her eye. Killing her father had hurt Valora. She loved him.
And yet she’d killed him anyway. Why? What was the failure she’d spoken of, I wondered as the memory faded out.
Nero looked down at the crown in his hands. “We always thought demons had killed Mercer. But it was Valora all along. She killed her father. She killed the king.”
11
Exposed
The revelation hung heavy in the air. Valora had killed her father, the former king of the gods. Neither Nero nor Delta said a word. I supposed they didn’t know what to say to that.
Nero and Delta departed the castle through a magic mirror, Aleris’s glasses and Valora’s crown securely in their possession. Still paralyzed beneath the weight of their magic curses, I was powerless to stop them.
The moment they left Valora’s world, I could move again. The curse had lifted. Beside me, Colonel Fireswift was also rising to his feet.
“What did we just see?” I could speak again too.
“It is not our place to think about it,” said Colonel Fireswift.
“Not think about it? That was murder.”
“The Legion is the instrument of the gods’ justice. We perform that justice on humans.” He slanted a hard look my way. “Not on gods.”
“But—”
“He’s right, Leda,” Leila told me. “This is a mess you don’t want to get tangled up in. You want to stay as far away from all this as you can.” She glanced down at her unmoving body. “And you want to release us now.”
Leila and Jace’s minds were free, but their bodies were still locked down inside my siren spell. I tore apart the spell’s remaining threads, releasing them. Strange that some part of my compulsion spell had held when I’d been paralyzed.
“You stole from me,” Jace said to me as the four of us walked toward the magic mirror. “Twice.”
I shrugged.
“And then General Windstriker stole from you.” Jace looked tickled about that. He clearly liked the idea of me getting a taste of my own medicine—or being a victim of my own dirty fighting.
“Oh, don’t you worry about that,” I said. “I’ll get the artifacts back from him just fine.”
Colonel Fireswift glowered at me. “The Legion did not engage in such cheap trickery and thievery before you.”
“What can I say? I’m a bad influence.” I winked at him.
Leila laughed.
Colonel Fireswift shot her an incredulous look. “You are an angel, Colonel Starborn. Do try to act with some semblance of dignity.”
Leila quickly put on a more subdued expression. Apparently, even other angels feared the head of the Interrogators.
We passed through the mirror and returned to the gods’ audience chamber. It was like stepping into the middle of a thunderstorm.
“Your crown, your palace, your place on the council—everything you have you bought with blood. Your father’s blood,” Meda snapped angrily at Valora, her voice booming like thunder.
The gods really were watching our every move. They’d seen the memories the glasses’ magic had exposed off the crown, like chemicals exposing an old filmstrip.
“Mercer ruled well,” said Maya. “He had a formidable army. When you killed him, you left that army without a leader to rally them, to command them to great victories against the demons. And so the demons gained ground in those years following his death. Because of you, Valora.”
Zarion rose, turning on the sister goddesses. “You benefitted from Mercer’s rule, Maya. You and Meda were always hi
s favorites, parroting whatever he said, voting with him no matter what.”
Meda’s eyes pierced like a spear. “Don’t tell me you’re still bitter that we didn’t back your extravagant pyramid project, Zarion.”
An irritated crinkle formed between his eyes. “That pyramid was to be the base from which we launched our campaign to claim back the wilderness, to wash the plains of monsters from the Earth. It was a beacon of hope, a base of opportunity.”
“It was garish,” Meda countered. “Nothing more than a shrine to your own self-importance.”
“I wouldn’t expect you to understand. You spend too much time tinkering, inventing walls and generators and all these things we wouldn’t even need if we concentrated on what’s really important: the magic of the people’s faith. And how that magic is great enough to crush armies and topple enemy strongholds. That faith should be fostered. That should be our focus, not the latest technical doodad your demented mind can think up.”
“Funny how fostering that faith means you get a big shrine where the people pray to you,” Maya said, her laugh sardonic. “That boosts your power, Zarion. Not ours.”
He folded his silken-sleeved arms over his chest. “A win for me is a win for you. For all of us.”
“He wasn’t saying that when you wanted a new hospital, Maya,” Meda pointed out.
Her sister snorted.
The gods were bickering like a pack of politicians—or high school students.
“As amusing as this little spat is, it’s beside the point,” Faris told Zarion and the twin goddesses.
“Indeed,” agreed Aleris. “Neither pyramids nor hospitals have anything to do with this new revelation.”
Their words did little to quell the fires of fury. The gods hurled accusations back and forth. Some defended Valora, others condemned her.
“Like I said, you really want to stay out of this,” Leila whispered to me.
“Apparently,” I said, watching Meda set her dagger on fire and turned it on Valora.
As the Queen Goddess drew her crossbow, Nero came to stand beside me. “How are you?”
“Delta was right. You didn’t hit me hard enough. I’m still walking. And plotting my next move.” I smirked at him. “Which is bad for you.”
“Unless I’ve already anticipated your next move. Again.” His face remained perfectly calm and controlled. My words had obviously not ruffled him in the slightest.
“Not this time,” I told him.
“We shall see.” His eyes lit up. “Have dinner with me tonight.”
“We are all having dinner together as soon as the other teams get back. Assuming the gods don’t destroy the hall,” I added as a nearby table exploded.
“You misunderstand.” His voice dipped lower. Each syllable was a caress and a command, silk and steel wrapped up in one. “I wish for you to have dinner with me alone.”
“I’m not sure Colonel Fireswift would approve of me fraternizing with the enemy,” I teased.
“To hell with Colonel Fireswift. You’re not his. You’re mine.” Conviction rang in Nero’s voice.
“He told me about you and Delta. That you were the hot couple.”
“That was over a century ago. And we were not a couple.”
“You just slept together.”
“Does that bother you?”
“No, Nero, that doesn’t bother me. Delta bothers me. She’s nuts. And she is making it obvious to everyone with eyes that she’s trying to get you back.”
“Ignore her. She’s just trying to rile you up.”
“So you claim Delta doesn’t want to sleep with you?”
“No, she does. But she can want until she’s blue in the face, and it won’t do her any good. I told you that you’re mine. And I’m yours.” He set his hands on my cheeks and kissed my lips softly. “Don’t ever forget that.”
I leaned into him. “When you kiss me like that, it’s easy to forget a lot of things.”
Chuckling softly, Nero kissed me once more, then he stepped back, putting a respectable distance between us. “Also, don’t forget who Colonel Fireswift is and why he told you what he did. He’s trying to get in your head. That’s what he does. It’s his job, and he’s damn good at it.”
“But Colonel Fireswift and I are supposed to be on the same team. So why would he do that, besides the obvious high he gets out of messing with me?”
“Once he knocks you off center, you are vulnerable to attack. He wants something from you,” Nero said darkly. “Maybe to kill you, use you, or just weaken you so that his son beats you. Or maybe he wants to crack your secret.”
My heart stammered. “Which one?” I laughed.
“Be careful, Leda. Colonel Fireswift didn’t get to be the head of the Interrogators by playing nice.”
“He is watching us now,” I whispered.
I glanced at Colonel Fireswift, who stood across the room, talking to Faris. The God of Heaven’s Army was staying out of the conflict that had consumed most of the other gods. Colonel Fireswift bowed to Faris, then started walking our way.
Tonight at midnight, Nero spoke in my mind. Meet me beside the siren statue in the red tulip garden.
There was a flash of magic, then the remaining teams were back here in the gods’ hall, back from Illusion. Nyx froze, listening to the gods’ arguments. Fury flashed in her blue eyes. Nyx marched toward Valora, reaching for her sword.
Ronan’s hand caught hers before she could draw her weapon. “This is neither the time nor the place to go to war.”
Nyx’s mouth tightened. Magic flared in her eyes. The First Angel looked completely, uncharacteristically out of control.
“Mercer is Nyx’s father,” Nero told me.
“That makes her Valora’s half-sister.”
“Yes, but Nyx and Valora have never gotten along,” Nero said. “Valora has always hated Nyx. She sees her as a symbol of her father straying, of his affair with a mortal. And Mercer really loved Nyx. He invited her to train with the gods. Valora hated that even more. She made Nyx’s life difficult during those years.”
Faris flicked his hand. His godly soldiers surrounded me and the other Legion soldiers, pushing us toward the exit. For a moment, Nyx looked like she was going to stay and fight, but she allowed the soldiers to lead her out of the hall as well. I only hoped she didn’t sneak in later and try to kill Valora. We did not need to be here when all hell broke loose in heaven.
We ascended the staircase, a Legion team departing at each floor. Soon Colonel Fireswift and I were at the top. I glanced back at our escort—but she wasn’t there. Faris stood in her place. I wasn’t sure if I should be honored or worried that the God of Heaven’s Army had personally accompanied us. Inside the apartment, platters of food already lay on the table. Wow, the gods sure worked fast.
I smiled at Faris. “You’re missing the battle.”
Colonel Fireswift looked at me like I’d completely lost my mind to try my jokes on a god.
“That is no battle,” said Faris, cool and unconcerned. “It is no more than a squabble.”
“Wars often begin with a squabble,” I pointed out.
“Perhaps on Earth. In heaven, we are more civilized.”
“Meda tried to bring down a chandelier on Valora’s head. You call that civilized?”
“Do you always ask so many questions?” Faris said impatiently.
“Yes,” I replied, grinning. “Asking so many questions is how I got to be so smart.”
Colonel Fireswift’s gaze flitted around the room, like he was looking for a sock to stuff in my mouth—or a heavy object to hit me over the head with.
Faris regarded me coolly. He obviously had no sense of humor.
“I will see to it she is punished for her impudence, my lord,” Colonel Fireswift promised him.
Faris’s gaze flickered briefly to me. “No, Colonel. I need her in one piece. I need you two to win this game.”
“The gods are on the brink of civil war, and all you care about is w
inning this silly game?” I gasped.
Faris considered me like I was an insect who’d snuck inside uninvited. “We are not on the brink of civil war. We’ve gone through this song and dance countless times before. Secrets come out. Some gods are annoyed, others applaud. Alliances shift. Then the smoke clears, and we go back to business as usual. After this many millennia, you accumulate quite a few skeletons in your closet.”
I blinked, his cold indifference spurring my surprise. “Just how many skeletons do you have stuffed in there?”
He bristled. “That is not a prudent question to pose a god.”
“If all everyone ever did was ask prudent questions, we’d never get anywhere. We’d never grow. We’d never evolve.”
“Are you quite sure you don’t want me to punish her, my lord?” Colonel Fireswift said. “I would be happy to do it.”
I didn’t doubt it.
Faris seemed to consider it for a moment. “No, don’t harm her. Your team must win,” he reiterated. “When all this is said and done, I really do want to win my bet with Ronan. The consequences of failure would be unpalatable.”
He said it like he was critiquing the food at some high-end restaurant—and not finding it up to snuff.
“Now eat and get rested for tomorrow’s challenge,” Faris commanded us.
Colonel Fireswift bowed to Faris as the god departed. When the Colonel and I were alone again, he turned his hard glare on me.
“It’s against the rules to kill your teammate,” I reminded him, popping a grape into my mouth.
Silver flickered across Colonel Fireswift’s blue irises. “I don’t find your flippant remarks amusing.”
“Funny.” I flashed him a grin. “Most people find them charming.”
“Nor did Faris find them amusing,” Colonel Fireswift continued as though I hadn’t spoken at all.
“Well, Faris has the personality of a battle axe.”
Colonel Fireswift glowered.
“Oh, don’t get your panties in a twist, Colonel. Faris would take that statement as a compliment. As would you.” I yawned. “Now, if you would excuse me. I need to get my beauty sleep.”
Fairy’s Touch: Legion of Angels: Book 7 Page 10