by Ella Summers
“You’ve all already given up and decided taking Hardwicke’s base is impossible. So what’s the harm in trying things my way?” I asked him.
“The harm is to our dignity, to the propriety of the Legion. Your way is dirty,” Petite Soldier said, pursing her lips in disgust.
“Since we’re talking about propriety, let me take this moment to remind you that I outrank you,” I snapped back, my gaze dropping to the small metallic insignia of a musical note on her chest, the symbol for Siren’s Song, the Legion’s third level. “So I’m going to invite you to shut your mouth before you embarrass yourself any further.”
Her face turned as red as her hair, but she didn’t insult me. In fact, she didn’t say anything at all. Finally.
I turned back to Jace. “Let me and my family show you—show the Legion—just how effective these ‘dirty’ ways can be. What do you have to lose?”
I could see the battle raging inside his eyes. On the one hand, allowing civilians to take part in this mission was a major no-no, but on the other, he really, really wanted to catch the deserter. The fortresses defenses were much better than expected. If he played this by the books, at best his mission would fail; at worst, we would all die.
“Very well. You may proceed,” he finally agreed. He looked at Bella and Calli. “The Legion takes no responsibility for any maladies that may befall you, including injury, disfigurement, or death.”
It was the standard Legion disclaimer, and the words rolled off his tongue like he’d been practicing them since he could talk.
“Are all Legion soldiers so charming?” Bella asked me.
“Why don’t you ask your boyfriend?”
Bella blushed. “He’s not my boyfriend.”
I grinned at her.
“Girls, must I remind you that we have a castle to storm?” When Calli was on the job, she was all business and no nonsense.
Bella and Calli were already dressed in the standard wilderness outfit: tank tops, shorts, and boots. They looked the part. My wardrobe, on the other hand, would need some work.
I peeled off my jacket, stripping down to my tank top and shorts. Without any insignia, it wasn’t immediately obvious that I was wearing part of a Legion uniform. I swooped down and grabbed two fistfuls of dirt, tossing it all over my clothes. Then I grabbed the bottom of my shirt and tore it. The fabric ripped halfway up my abdomen. I ran my fingers through my ponytail. A few messy strands tumbled out of my hairband. Almost there. And now for the finishing touch. I pulled out my knife.
“What’s that for?” Bodybuilder One asked, watching me closely.
“I’m going to make a few blood stains. For verisimilitude.”
Bodybuilder One looked at Bodybuilder Two. “The crazy girl is going to cut herself.”
“Oh, I’m not cutting myself,” I told him, smiling. “And no one will know the difference.”
I grabbed hold of his thick arm. His muscles bulged as he pushed against me, trying to free himself. Holding him steady, I slashed my blade across his arm. I wiped my hand over his cut, then smeared streaks of his blood all over my clothes and skin.
“You’re completely out of your mind,” Bodybuilder One said, stumbling away from me.
“Please heal Mr. Panic Pants before he bursts any more arteries,” I said to Bella.
Even as Bella dabbed a potion over his skin, he continued to glare at me.
Nimble Knife laughed. “Actually, I think she’s growing on me.”
I winked at him.
The other soldiers just gaped at me in shock.
“This is so crude,” Petite Soldier commented in a low voice.
I shrugged. “Sometimes to get the job done, you have to get your hands a little dirty. Didn’t your angel leader teach you that?”
Her jaw dropped. I’d apparently rendered her speechless.
I wiped the last of the blood on my shorts, then turned to Jace. “How do I look?”
“Like you wrestled a troll in a mud pit, ran across a live minefield, and then rubbed yourself against some barbed wire to top it all off.”
“Perfect.”
Calli tossed me a hood. “Ready?”
I lifted it over my head, casting my face in shadow. “Yes. Just don’t do it too hard this time,” I said. “I have sensitive skin.”
Calli snorted. “I’ll get you some moisturizer for that.”
Then she slapped a pair of handcuffs on my wrists. She moved to one side of me, Bella to the other. It was like that, sandwiched between my sister and my foster mother, that I set down the broken brick path that led to the castle gates.
16
The Medieval Magitech Castle
As we approached the castle, I looked up at the high stone walls. I counted over twenty guards standing on those walls, all of them armed with guns or bows. The guard on the north tower had a machine gun. The east tower guard stood behind a catapult that hurled magic balls.
And that wasn’t the worst part. The whole wall was glowing gold-green, a cheaper, dirtier, less pure flavor of Magitech than the one protecting the walls that separated humanity from the plains of monsters. Hardwicke’s wall was likely not strong enough to survive a herd of charging monsters, but it was more than powerful enough to kill a human, or even a Legion soldier.
Two guards stood in front of the closed drawbridge, each one dressed in a suit of shiny armor. Wow, these fellows sure took their medieval fantasies seriously. The guards didn’t shoot us on the spot as we approached, which meant they weren’t really as clever as they thought they were.
“What business do you have here?” demanded the guard in the silver armor as we stopped in front of them.
“We’re bounty hunters,” Calli said. “You put out a bounty on this girl.”
The red-armored guard took a long, good look at me. He even had the nerve to reach under my hood and touch my hair. I snarled, snapping my teeth at him. He retracted his hand in alarm. I shot him a gleefully savage look.
“Don’t get too close to her. She’s been out here so long that she’s gone a bit crazy,” Bella warned the guards.
She’d put on a different voice, one that was rougher than her usual sophisticated accent. It was the voice of the Frontier. She handed the guards the wanted poster of me that she’d made while I was smearing dirt and blood all over myself.
They were paying more attention to her than to the poster. Bella smiled, but I could see the annoyance in her eyes. She’d put a lot of effort into forging that poster. She was proud of it, and these guards were only interested in gawking at her.
“Are you going to let us in already?” Calli said, tapping her foot impatiently. “We’re on a tight schedule.”
Silver Guard blinked, stammering, “Yes, of course, I wouldn’t want to be in the way of your tight schedule.” As he spoke the word tight, he stared right at Bella’s ass. What an idiot.
I rolled my eyes at Bella from behind the guard’s back. She swallowed a snort.
Calli grabbed me roughly by the cuffs, tugging me toward the door. As the guards turned to watch me struggle wildly against Calli’s hold, Bella plugged a tiny device into a power outlet in the stone wall.
I was still wondering why they’d need a power outlet outside the gates—vacuuming the drawbridge?—when Red Guard hit a button. The magic on the wall faded out, the drawbridge extended, and we walked through the gates.
“You two need to stop goofing off,” Calli whispered to us as we entered the castle. “Honestly, I expected more dignity out of a Legion soldier.”
“What can I say? You should try to have fun in whatever you do.”
“She is the black sheep of the Legion, after all,” Bella reminded Calli.
I nodded in agreement.
“That would explain why she’s so fond of black feathers.” Bella was referring to Nero’s beautiful dark feathers.
I looked at Calli. “Why do I always get the lecture anyway? Bella is goofing off just as much as I am, and she’s a witch. Even more than
the Legion, the witches live and breathe dignity, from their tight corsets to those adorable little boots and cute belts.”
We passed into the courtyard between the towers. Armed guards moved about in every direction.
“It looks like they’re preparing for war,” Bella commented.
Dread sank heavy in my stomach, and I couldn’t shake the foreboding cloud hanging over my head. We had to find the prisoners and get the hell out of here. But where could Hardwicke be keeping them?
Inside, I decided, somewhere they could be secured. I scanned the castle towers, trying to locate the prison from the window placement. Surely, Hardwicke couldn’t be so cliche as to keep them in the dungeon.
On the other hand, I thought as a group of soldiers in heavy armor clanked past us, this place was one enormous medieval fantasy park.
We passed from the courtyard into the building. A guard moved forward, stopping us in our path. Tall, wide, and muscular, he would have given Jace’s bodybuilder twins a run for their money. The guard also had the benefit of a heavy suit of armor, which made him look even larger. Shiny and gold, the armor made him look like the quintessential commander of the castle guard, which was probably exactly what he was.
He wore a monstrous two-handed sword on his back. This was the sort of fellow who’d hit hard, cutting people apart with the blade, breaking noses and bones with the pommel. In a fight, I’d have to take him out before he had a chance to tear through my team.
“What are you doing here?” The guard addressed Calli, picking her out as the one in charge.
“We’ve come to collect on this bounty,” she replied, roughly tugging me forward.
The Commander’s brows drew together. He wasn’t buying our story. He sensed something was off.
He paced in front of us, blocking us with his huge, armored body. “Where did you get the girl?” He shot me a critical look. “And what is it that she’s wanted for?” He took a closer look at me. “She seems familiar.”
“She should look familiar since her face is gracing wanted posters from New York to Los Angeles,” Calli countered.
Folding her hands together behind her back, Bella dropped a tiny device on the floor. As Calli continued to argue with the Commander, stealing his attention, the device discreetly rolled across the floor, climbed up the wall, and plugged itself into a power outlet.
A man came down a spiral staircase and walked up to the Commander. He was wearing an expensive suit, the sort you often found on the bankers and businessmen of New York. It was a suit that screamed you had something to prove. No one who was comfortable in his position would feel the need to wear a suit like that all the way out here. He wasn’t just showing off that he could survive out here beyond the veil of civilization; he was demonstrating that his expensive wardrobe could survive the wilderness too.
I assessed him. He was somewhere in his early forties. His head was shaved completely bald, a style he’d chosen to hide his receding hairline. Dark, intelligent eyes shone out brightly, assessing me and my family. From the looks of him, he wasn’t a fighter. He didn’t even carry a knife. Not that he needed to. The big Commander beside him was a human weapon.
“What’s going on here?” the man asked.
“These bounty hunters brought in this girl, Hardwicke,” the Commander explained.
So this was the infamous slave trader Hardwicke. I’d expected more hair grease—and more hair.
“I don’t like the look of her,” the Commander added, still glaring at me.
His eyes critical, Hardwicke stopped in front of me and flipped down my hood to reveal my face. Recognition flashed in his eyes. The game was up. He knew who I was. Honestly, I was surprised this charade had lasted as long as it did.
“That is a Legion soldier,” Hardwicke told the commander of his guards. “You’ve allowed a Legion soldier inside my castle. And not just any Legion soldier. Pandora, the bringer of chaos, who leaves devastation in her wake wherever she goes.”
I smiled. “Aww, you’ve heard of me.”
I twisted my wrists, snapping out of the handcuffs. I went straight for the big Commander. Calli headed off the group of guards who’d turned and run at us following Hardwicke’s declaration. Bella hit a button on her phone. A series of booms went off throughout the castle, set off by the devices she’d placed. The castle’s power went out, including the Magitech barrier that surrounded the whole place. That would give Jace’s team one fewer obstacle to worry about.
The Commander swung his sword at me. Daylight streamed in through the majestic windows high above, sparkling off the massive blade. I dodged and rolled, grabbing two swords from a pair of guards on the ground who’d fallen victim to Bella’s sleeping potion. I brought the swords up to meet the Commander’s next attack. He blinked in surprise when my arms didn’t collapse under the weight of the impact. I guess it had never happened to him before.
“Don’t feel bad. Everyone underestimates me,” I said, disarming him.
His sword clanked against the stone floor. His hazel eyes flickered to his fallen weapon.
“I wouldn’t. You’ll never make it. I’m faster than you,” I warned him.
He made a run for it anyway. Shaking my head, I went to cut him off from his sword. Even as I stood in front of it, he kept running full-speed at me. The crazy bastard was going to ram me. He’d obviously never fought a member of the Legion before. We got punched, kicked, and rammed each and every day of our lives. He couldn’t phase me.
When we were just inches away from an imminent collision, he surprised me by pivoting to the side and launching an enormous fireball at my head. There wasn’t enough space for me to dodge, so I hastily cast a shield of ice in front of me. It went up just in time. If I’d been a moment slower, he’d have set my hair on fire.
Muscles and elemental magic didn’t generally come hand in hand. I was still coming to terms with the unexpected realization that the huge tank of a man was also a fire elemental, when he hurled an even bigger fireball at me. I countered fire with ice, freezing his flames around him like a steel cage.
He punched through his prison, his fists shattering the ice. His hands locked around my arms, and he threw me at the nearest wall. My body pounding from the impact, I rose to my feet and faced him once more.
“Where are you keeping the prisoners?” I demanded.
“You will find out when you join them.” He’d recovered his sword from the ground and set the blade on fire.
“You’re not very cooperative,” I muttered, dodging the burning streaks of his sword as he swung it continuously at me.
“How many Legion soldiers are with you?”
“Oh, at least a thousand.”
“You’re lying.”
The Commander grinned savagely, withstanding my punch. He grabbed hold of my ponytail and tried to set my hair on fire. The flames didn’t take, thanks to the elemental immunity I’d worked so hard to build up. Shock flashed across his face and he paused. I took advantage of his surprise and slammed my fist hard against the side of his head. He went down.
I looked for my next target. Across the room, Bella was fighting a witch in a duel of powders and potions. Why were all these different supernaturals working together like they were part of a team, as though they were fighting for a common cause? I’d had more than my share of firsthand experience with bickering supernaturals. They didn’t even get along with their own kind, let alone with other supernatural groups. What had brought all these people here together?
Bella knocked out the other witch with some sparkling purple dream powder. But as she caught her breath, a guard snuck up on her from behind. I ran forward, tackling him to the ground before he could grab her. The guard kicked me off. Magic exploded, fur burying flesh, and he transformed into a giant tiger. A shifter.
A snarl curling back his lips, he lowered into his haunches and prepared to pounce. Then, suddenly, he froze. A low whine broke his mouth, and he toppled over. Bella looked down at the sleeping beast
, a sparkly blue powder glistening on her fingertips.
“Bad kitty,” she reprimanded him.
I burst into laughter.
“What?” Bella demanded.
“You’ve turned into such a badass,” I told her.
She frowned at me.
“It’s not a bad thing, you know. Even prim and proper witches are allowed to kick ass now and again. I bet Harker thinks it’s sexy.”
She sighed. “You’re incorrigible, Leda. You know that, right?”
I blew my sister a kiss. “I love you too.”
The soft clink of metal drew my attention. I turned to see Hardwicke surrounded by a dozen armored guards. They shielded him from all sides as they fled.
“They are going to secure the prisoners,” I said to Bella. “Or kill them on their way out.”
I had to get to Hardwicke before that happened. The only problem was the horde of armored guards standing between us and him.
17
The Pioneers
A flicker of movement caught my eye. I glanced up at the ceiling. Davenport the deserter ran up the vertical wall like it was nothing. Balancing on a stone ledge, he shot me a wink, then he slipped through the window. Damn it. He was getting away.
I couldn’t afford to worry about the deserter right now. I couldn’t have gotten to him if I’d tried. But if I hurried, I could get to the prisoners.
Gunfire and magic sounded from the front gates. Jace and his soldiers were now inside the castle, but it would take them too long to fight their way here. We didn’t have time to wait for them to help us cut through the guards covering Hardwicke’s escape. We had to get to the prisoners now, before there weren’t any prisoners left to save.
More guards poured out of the courtyard into the building, surrounding us.
“We are completely outnumbered,” Bella said.
“The women of Pandora’s Box know a thing or two about having the odds stacked against us,” Calli declared.