“Aleris’s glasses reveal memories imprinted on objects,” I said.
“The glasses reveal the memories imprinted on other immortal artifacts. Normal objects, even normal magic objects, do not possess enough magic to hold memories.”
“So the glasses are an immortal artifact,” I concluded. “And they react with other immortal artifacts.”
“Among other things.”
“Things? What things?” I asked. “You said only immortal artifacts have enough magic.”
“I said regular items do not have enough magic to store the memories,” he replied. “But there are things that aren’t really things, which do possess enough magic to store memories.”
“Things that aren’t really things?” I repeated, shaking my head. “You’re not making any sense.”
“It will all become clear very soon.”
“Soon? Like during this next challenge?” I asked. Faris had told Colonel Fireswift to use the glasses on Maya’s item next. “What will happen? What are we stealing?” I resisted the urge to grab him by the collar and shake the answers out of him.
Athan spread his empty hands. “I cannot say.”
“Faris already knows what all the gods’ possessions are, doesn’t he?”
Athan smiled. “I must be going now.”
The gods’ bell rang through the hall.
Valora rose from her throne. “Faris, send your godly soldiers to apprehend Zarion’s son,” her crystal-clear voice commanded. “A demigod is too powerful to be left unchecked on Earth, to be trained outside the gods’ supervision. All the gods’ supervision,” she added, slanting a severe look Ronan’s way.
Faris waved at a group of his godly soldiers. “They will find the demigod,” he assured Valora.
His soldiers marched out of the hall, their shining armor sparkling as brightly as the sun.
“When they return with the demigod, we shall see what he has to say for himself,” Valora said. “And we will learn how deep this betrayal goes.”
“Surely not as deep as killing the king of the gods,” Maya whispered to her sister Meda.
Meda coughed. Valora’s nostrils flared in agitation. She glared at Nyx like this was all her fault, like her half-sister was the root of everything that had ever gone wrong in her life.
Ronan took Nyx’s hand in an obvious sign of solidarity. Lines were already being drawn in the sand. This was just what Faris wanted. This was his plan. But how was he going to capitalize on the fracturing alliances?
“Now, soldiers of the Legion,” Faris declared. “It is time for your next challenge.”
15
The Infinity Room
The time between the gods’ challenges was shrinking. And I had the hunch that this too was all part of Faris’s plan.
“For your next challenge, you will all compete to obtain something Maya treasures,” the God of Heaven’s Army announced.
I noticed that Nero and Delta had once more disappeared. They were Maya’s team, so they’d be on defense for this challenge.
“The name of the game is curses and counter curses,” Faris continued. “You will have access to only that field of magic.”
Curses and counter curses—that meant Fairy’s Touch, the ability I had failed to acquire at my last leveling-up ceremony. The optimist in me said getting through this challenge without exposing myself would be problematic. The pessimist in me was bracing for an all-out catastrophe.
After a sip of the gods’ magic-destroying potion, Colonel Fireswift and I stepped through the magic mirror. We popped out inside what appeared to be a palace parlor room, which I assumed was located on Maya’s world.
The room was massive, so long that I couldn’t even see the other end. And nearly everything inside it was red. The sofas were red. The wallpaper was red, accented with gold and tiny gems. I brushed my hand across the satin surface. Were those real diamonds inside the wallpaper?
The carpet was red. The paintings on the wall featured the color red like it was holy: a wine glass filled with red wine, a warrior in a red cape caught in the breeze; his sword was raised high in the air, blood dripping from the blade.
There were even tiny red dishes with even tinier red candies inside. I drew in a deep breath. The sharp bite of cinnamon hung in the air, mixed with the soft creamy aroma of roses.
“This way,” Colonel Fireswift said and began walking down the very long room. Or hall. Whatever this place was supposed to be.
He moved like he knew precisely where he was going. Faris had probably given him a map straight to Maya’s vault. There was no small amount of irony in the fact that the high and holy head of the Interrogators, hunter of sinners and traitors, was not above cheating to win this challenge. He probably justified it to himself with the assertion that he was following a god’s orders.
As I walked beside him, I tried to puzzle out what Faris was up to—and how much Colonel Fireswift knew about it all.
“I wonder how far this room goes,” I said. We’d already walked for over a minute, and I still didn’t see the end of it.
“It goes as far as there are enemies to fight,” replied Colonel Fireswift.
“That sounds like a curse,” I joked.
His face was devoid of amusement—or any other emotion for that matter. Actually, he looked rather constipated.
“Prepare yourself for battle,” he replied stiffly.
Prepare myself for my non-existent resistance to curses? And prepare my own equally non-existent curses? Done and done.
But I didn’t say a thing. Chatting with Colonel Fireswift never ended well. It turned out that walking in silence wasn’t any better, however. Colonel Fireswift watched me like he was dissecting me with his eyes.
Just when I was about to break the silence, certain that talking to him could not possibly be worse than the creepy look he was giving me, he spoke, “Tell me where you come from.”
“I’m a mutt, straight off the streets of Purgatory,” I said with a smile. “I’m sure you haven’t forgotten, Colonel. You never let me forget it.”
“Who were your parents?”
“I never knew them,” I said cautiously. This conversation was going places, none of them good.
“And your magic before you joined the Legion?”
He looked analytical, not sympathetic. He wasn’t making small talk; he was acting like this was an interrogation. Hell, it probably was. Ok, I’d changed my mind. The silence had been so much better than this.
“What magic did you possess before joining the Legion?” he prompted me again.
“I didn’t have any.”
“General Spellsmiter believes you are vampire dominant. I know you are siren dominant. It is unusual for someone to possess two dominant magic powers. That is a trait seen only in the offspring of angels.”
“I am not the offspring of an angel.”
“Obviously.” His nose pinched up, like he could still smell the dirty street scent on me from my years of living there. As far as he was concerned, the stench was permanently imprinted there. “But you are…something.”
“Something,” I repeated with a nonchalant shrug. “That’s a step up from nothing.”
“Why must you constantly make jokes?”
“It lightens the mood. Makes things more fun.”
“Fun.” He said it like he’d never experienced the feeling before—and wouldn’t care to. Like it was an infectious disease that would strip him of his magic and holiness.
After that, Colonel Fireswift didn’t say anything more. Neither did I. My mind was still looping his words, his promise that he would break me and turn me into an Interrogator.
Trying to break free of that mental loop, I turned my attention to the decor. That was when I saw that the room looked different in this section. It wasn’t red; it was orange. I looked behind me, trying to figure out when the color had changed. I couldn’t tell. The room seemed to go on forever in front of us. And to extend forever behind us. I couldn’t even
see where we’d entered.
I looked up. Everything was limitless in this infinity room, even the ceiling.
Glowing beams of light shot out from the side walls, blinding me. I blinked rapidly, trying to clear my vision. A moment ago, we’d been all alone, but now Jace and Leila were standing right in front of us.
“One soldier from each team shall fight,” a voice boomed from every direction. It sounded like a god, but I couldn’t tell which one.
One of the glowing light beams slid over me, encasing my body. I reached out to touch the beam—and received a nasty jolt. Leila stood trapped inside another magic ray of light. And thus began the first round of this challenge, sparing me any more quality alone time with Colonel Fireswift.
He and Jace were already hurling curses at each other as fast as they could weave them. Finally, Jace was hit, unable to avoid his father’s brutal barrage of spells any longer. As Jace fell to the floor, Colonel Fireswift slammed another five curses into him for good measure. Gods, he was ruthless, even to his son. No, especially to his son.
That is how the Legion endures, Colonel Fireswift had told me a few days ago. It is how my father made me stronger, and it is how I made my children stronger.
There had to be another way.
Jace and Leila disappeared before my eyes. The beam that had trapped me during the battle dropped. I could move again.
“That was over fast,” I commented as we continued walking.
“Yes,” Colonel Fireswift said, his voice at the same time arrogant and irked.
Apparently, Jace hadn’t performed up to his father’s angelic standards. I didn’t dare hope Colonel Fireswift wouldn’t take it out on him the next time they trained; I knew that he would. As Colonel Fireswift had proudly declared, this was how he made his children stronger.
The infinity room’s color palette had shifted once again. Everything in this section was pink. The decor consisted of pristine antiques. Between the pink-striped walls and vases of spring flowers, it looked like the sort of place where you’d sit down for tea and cake. It was certainly unlike any fighting arena I’d ever seen.
Magic light flashed, and Nyx and Arius were suddenly in front of us. Two glowing beams swallowed the two angels. Great. That meant I had to pit my fairy magic against Arius’s. This battle would be even shorter than the last one.
“Nyx and Arius have both already fought a battle in this challenge,” Colonel Fireswift said to me. “You can see it in their eyes. They are fatigued. Do not hesitate. Arius won’t.”
Yeah, good advice, minus the fact that I couldn’t wield any fairy spells. I needed a plan, and I needed one fast. Flying by the seat of your pants was all well and good—until your pants caught on fire.
Arius unleashed a reeking miasma of sparkling black particles. I didn’t recognize the curse, but I was pretty sure it wasn’t a cure for acne. I jumped out of the black cloud’s path. It slammed against the wall behind me, the wallpaper wilting out from the impact point.
“Why are you running away, little girl?” Arius taunted. “Stand and fight!”
Little girl? Ha! I wasn’t the one who looked sixteen.
As Arius unleashed his next curse, a putrid green fog, I wondered how I was going to get myself out of this mess this time. How could I win this battle of fairy magic without using any fairy magic?
Arius was coughing out curses faster than I could sneeze. My eyes flickered from the magic beams of light encasing Nyx and Colonel Fireswift, to the projectors on the walls.
Arius continued shooting curses at me nonstop. Surely, he had to run out of stamina eventually. I was sure tired of dodging his spells.
I ran to the side, kicked off a pastel-pink sofa, and yanked one of the projectors off the wall. As Arius angled another curse my way, I turned the beam on him. He flitted away too quickly. The magic beam missed him, but his curse grazed my side. It felt like someone had kicked me in the ribs. I didn’t want to imagine how much it would have hurt if the curse had hit me full on.
I turned the projector with Arius, tracking him as he ran a tight circle around me. His eyes widened, his sense overruling his arrogance, and he evaded. As he jumped out of the way, the magic beam skid across his chest. The hit wasn’t direct enough to trap him, but it did throw him to the floor. Before he could jump up, I thumped the heavy projector over his head, knocking him out. I reached down and swiped Valora’s hairbrush off of Arius as he and Nyx faded away.
The magic beam released Colonel Fireswift, and we advanced deeper into the infinity room.
“There is no dignity in the way you fight,” Colonel Fireswift said gruffly.
“Dignity doesn’t win battles.”
“Warn me before the next time you extort such blasphemy, so I can step a safe distance away from you in case the gods decide to smite you.”
I wiped the sweat off my forehead with the back of my hand. “The more time we spend together, the more I come to appreciate your sense of humor.” I smirked at him. “We’ll be braiding each other’s hair before you know it.”
“I am an angel.”
I snorted. “Yeah, I’d noticed.”
“You do not treat me with the necessary reverence of an angel in my position.”
“How should I treat you?”
“You should fear me.”
“There’s no strategic advantage to being afraid of you.”
“No strategic advantage.” He repeated my words like he couldn’t believe I’d uttered them.
“In other words, it doesn’t help me to be afraid of you.”
“I know what it means,” he snapped.
“Of course you do. You’re smart. Like me.” I smiled as hard as I could. Sure, it hurt my face, but it was worth it to see the puzzled expression on his face.
“This is Windstriker’s influence. He coached you on how to mess with me.”
He looked more sure now, more settled, now that he had an explanation for my sensible words. An angel had told me what to say; that was way better than admitting I could rub more than two brain cells together. I could never throw him for a whirl. Of course not. No, I was just a dirty street dog who’d learned a trick, taught to me by an angel. An angel was a worthy adversary, unlike me.
“Yeah, sure thing,” I laughed. “Nero told me how to mess with you. Believe that if it makes you feel better.”
His mouth was a hard line, his eyes an Arctic wasteland of cold fury. “I don’t like you.”
“So you’ve already told me a thousand times. I know. I’ve got it. I’m smart, remember?”
“I will enjoy breaking you.”
“And I will enjoy continuing to flabbergast you. If you think you can break me, then ask yourself one question: which of us is more stubborn?”
His brows drew together in annoyance.
“Don’t frown, Colonel, or eventually your face will freeze like that,” I told him.
He didn’t have a chance to retort. We’d finally reached the end of the infinity room: the bronze door to Maya’s vault. Colonel Fireswift grabbed the lever and started turning.
Nero and Delta attacked us from behind. Where the hell had they come from? Each of them held one of the magic projectors. They turned them on me. Oh, shit.
I tried to run, but they caught me in their magic crossfire. Twin beams swallowed me up, locking me in. Nero countered my glare with a sly smile.
Yes, Mr. Smartypants. You used my own trick against me. Again.
I contemplated pounding my fists against my magic prison in fury—but decided against it. If the gods launched us straight into the next challenge, it might help to actually be conscious.
Nero and Delta had caught Colonel Fireswift inside a light beam. Another second, and he’d have had the treasure. The vault door was already halfway open.
Delta saw that too. She stepped toward the vault, something within catching her eyes. Pulling back the door the rest of the way, she hurried inside.
I gasped when I saw the contents of Maya’s vau
lt. There were no precious metals or gems, no paintings or artifacts. There was no treasure at all. There was only one thing inside the vault—and indeed, just as Athan had said, it was not a thing at all. It was a dead body.
“That is General Wardbreaker,” Colonel Fireswift said, his eyes widening in surprise.
General Wardbreaker, Delta’s father, was the archangel who’d died last year. Damiel had killed him. But how had Maya ended up with him? And why did the goddess have a dead angel’s body stashed away in her vault?
16
The Goddess's Lover
How had Maya ended up with the body of the archangel General Wardbreaker? The same question obviously burned inside of Delta. And she wasn’t waiting for answers.
She lifted the magic projector over her head, then smashed it against the ground. The spell binding Colonel Fireswift dissolved. Before he could move, Delta grabbed Aleris’s glasses from his hands. She shot her magic through the lenses, directing the sparkling stream at General Wardbreaker. A montage of images rose from her father’s body and projected over the infinity room.
“I should go.” Osiris Wardbreaker turned over in bed, his disheveled dark hair falling over his lover’s face as he kissed her cheek. “Nyx has summoned me to Los Angeles.”
“The First Angel can wait. I cannot.”
The woman turned to face him. It was Maya. She wasn’t wearing a thread of clothing, nothing but a diamond-studded flower necklace around her neck.
“Or do you dare defy the gods?” demanded the Goddess of Fairies.
He watched her hand glide slowly up her side, wetting his lips. “I know only one goddess.”
When Maya giggled, she didn’t sound like an immortal, all-powerful god; she sounded like a young woman in love. In love? Was it possible the goddess was in love with an angel?
Osiris took Maya’s hand, kissing her fingers as they stared into each others’ eyes. Yes, she was in love. And she wasn’t the only one. Osiris didn’t just love her; he worshipped her beyond mere piety or duty. He’d said he knew only one goddess. Every glance, every move that he made, betrayed his immortal love.
Fairy’s Touch: Legion of Angels: Book 7 Page 14