by Ella Summers
“Six months ago. You sure waited a long time to tell me,” he said. “Besides your sister, who else knows?”
“No one. I have been in solitude for the past several months, engaged in the Magic of the Faith rituals. Sonja showed up unannounced at the temple and barged into the Room of Solitude. She saw the fruit of our labor.” Grace’s hand slid over her belly. “Some of the priests were close enough to see inside the room. Sonja killed them so they couldn’t spread the word.”
“How kind of her to protect your secret.”
“Sonja wants the child for herself,” Grace growled. “There has never been a child conceived with demon and god magic. Sonja wants to weaponize the child.”
“Sonja cannot be allowed to wield such a weapon, to groom it, train it, control it.”
“Agreed. But I’m not giving you such a weapon either, Faris.”
A twisted smile curled his lips. “You already have.”
He grabbed for her, but Grace was quicker. She vanished in a cloud of black smoke.
And so did we.
We watched Grace give birth to me in a hidden place, far from the eyes of demons and gods.
I winced. “I didn’t realize childbirth involved so much screaming,” I said to Nero.
He took my hand and squeezed it as Grace howled in agony once more. A psychic blast wave shot out of her, shattering all of the windows.
I slammed my eyes shut. My birth wasn’t a pretty sight, and I made every effort to forget everything I’d just seen.
I watched a baby sleeping in a large wooden crib. Baby Leda. Me.
Grace was in the next room, pouring herself a glass of Venom. She looked so pale, so tired. I wondered how long she’d been hiding here, wherever here was.
My quick glance out the window offered no answers. The view was obscured by a snowstorm. Ok, so we were somewhere totally inhospitable.
“Grace is in hiding,” Nero said.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “She’s hiding from the other demons. And from Faris.”
“She didn’t hide well enough.” Nero pointed out the masked figure who’d just lifted me out of my crib and then snuck out of the room.
Grace was still sitting in the other room, slowly sipping her Venom. She was so drained of magic, so tired, that she hadn’t noticed a thing.
“Who was that masked person?” I wondered. “Who took me?”
“Let’s find out,” Arina said.
“It’s called Purgatory.”
The woman who’d stolen baby Leda sat on an old park bench, surrounded by wild grass. This must have once been a well-maintained city garden, but nature had reclaimed this piece from civilization. I could see the glow of a Magitech wall in the distance. She was casually sitting with a baby on the plains of monsters, totally unafraid of the monsters.
The man who’d spoken sat next to her. I recognized him instantly as Gaius Knight. Calli had shown me a picture of him. That messy black hair and long, crooked nose were unmistakable.
“I know all about Purgatory,” the woman replied.
The baby thief had ditched the mask, so now I could see her real face. And I recognized her too. Those big blue eyes. That long red hair. Those well-toned arms that were strong enough to move large pieces of furniture all by herself.
Back when she’d been my foster mother, I’d known her as Julianna Mather. I’d later learned that Julianna Mather had been just an alias, and that her real name was Aradia Redwood. Major Redwood had been a soldier in the Legion of Angels, but she’d supposedly died in battle around the time I was born. Yeah, there were a lot of things that didn’t quite add up here.
“You took this baby from the demon Grace,” Gaius said.
Wow, he knew a lot.
Aradia seemed to be just as surprised. “How do you know about that?”
Gaius smiled. He didn’t answer the question, but his next words demonstrated that he knew much more. “You work for Sonja. Or, rather, you did work for Sonja. You were the demon’s eyes and ears inside the Legion.”
So Aradia had been a spy for Sonja.
Aradia grew very still. “Are we going to have a problem?”
“Oh, I don’t care about the gods or demons,” Gaius said lightly. “Or about their politics.”
“Then what do you care about?”
“Larger issues,” Gaius said with a casual wave of his hand. “You’re loyal to Sonja, and yet you’ve run away—and with the child she ordered you to steal for her, no less.”
“I thought you didn’t care about demon and god politics,” Aradia said shrewdly.
Gaius chuckled.
“Sonja is the reason that Thea is dead.” Aradia’s voice teetered with emotion. “Sonja set her up to die.”
“The dark angel Thea was your friend.”
“My best friend,” Aradia declared.
“Then I can understand why you would not wish to serve Sonja anymore.”
“I’m not going to allow Sonja to use and abuse this child as she did Thea. I will keep her hidden from Sonja.” Aradia sighed. “I’m not sure why I’m even telling you this, except, well, Thea once told me you could be trusted. I hope she was right about you. Or this will be a very short-lived escape. For both me and the child.”
“I will not betray your secret,” Gaius assured her. “You’ve asked me to find you a safe place to hide with the child, and Purgatory is it. It’s an overlooked, out-of-the-way town at the edge of Earth’s Frontier, the safest place there is for you both.” He opened his hand to reveal a very old-looking key. “This is the key to your new life in Purgatory.”
Aradia reached over to take it.
He held back the key for a moment. “I said Purgatory is the safest place there is for you both, hidden beneath the deities’ radar, in this old, insignificant town. But be warned. There is no truly safe place in all the worlds for the child.”
Aradia looked down at the baby in her arms. “What is she?”
“One of a kind.”
“You know more than you’re saying,” Aradia accused him.
Gaius smiled. He handed her the key. Then he stood up and walked slowly away.
“Wait,” Aradia called out.
He turned around to look at her.
“You don’t wish to be paid?”
“You have saved this child from a terrible fate. There is no greater payment,” he told her.
The baby cried. Aradia looked down and rearranged the blanket bundled around her. One of the tucked corners had come loose and fallen away from the baby’s head.
When Aradia looked up again, Gaius was gone.
I glanced at Nero. “So Gaius Knight led Aradia to Earth. He led me to Earth. Where I would be outside of the demons’ reach.”
“He clearly knew what you are,” replied Nero.
“But what is he?”
“Hard to say, but he clearly does not serve the interests of either the gods or the demons.”
“Guardians?” I wondered.
“Perhaps. We need to see more.”
The memory dissolved into the next.
I saw Aradia in the kitchen of the tiny house where she’d raised me. She wore an apron over a stylish summer dress. Her red hair was braided over the top of her head, like a headband. She looked exactly as I remembered her.
A fire was lit below the large black cauldron that she stood over. A thick, blue liquid bubbled inside. She gave the potion three slow stirs with a long, metallic spoon. Then she filled up a small glass and carried it over to the ten-year-old girl seated at the small kitchen table.
I knew that girl. I had been that girl. I looked at young Leda’s pale hair, divided into two messy braids. My clothes were full of holes, my knees scuffed, and my head bleeding. I looked so out of place next to Aradia’s stylish, witchy wardrobe and the immaculate house.
Aradia set the glass down on the table.
The girl frowned at the potion before her. “It looks like cooler fluid.” She sniffed it, and her nose scrunched up in disg
ust. “It smells like cooler fluid too.”
“All actions have consequences, Leda,” Aradia said. “The consequence of picking a fight with children bigger and stronger than you—well, that happens to be injuries which require an unpalatable remedy.”
“You could have at least tried to make it palatable,” young Leda said.
“And you could have at least tried to not get into a fight. Again.”
“Hey, they started it. I just finished it.”
“Finished it indeed.” Aradia tapped a wet cloth to the deep cut on the girl’s forehead. “A few more hits like this to the head, and you would have been finished.”
“You should see the other guys.” Young Leda flashed Aradia a smile. “They look much worse. In fact, they’re probably still unconscious.”
“Do you mean to tell me that you fought two fourteen-year-olds and won?”
“Try not to sound so surprised, Julianna.” The girl used the name I’d known Aradia by.
“But how did you do it?”
“They jumped me,” young Leda said. “My head hit the ground. It really hurt, but I knew that I had to fight back, or it would hurt even more. They weren’t going to stop hitting me. I was on the ground. When they moved in closer to kick me, I grabbed two fistfuls of dirt and threw them in their faces. That blinded them for a while, long enough for me to get up. My head was ringing pretty badly.”
Aradia frowned. “You probably have a concussion.” She put her hand in front of the girl’s face. “How many fingers am I holding up?”
“Twelve,” young Leda said flippantly.
“Concussions are no joke, Leda.”
“You asked what happened, and I’m telling you.”
“At least drink some of your medicine.”
Young Leda lifted the glass to her mouth and took a sip. “This tastes like cooler fluid too!” she exclaimed.
“Don’t spit it out, or it won’t heal you.”
Young Leda took another sip, shook herself, then continued her story. “So my head was ringing, and I was getting real dizzy. Luckily, the two bullies were rubbing their eyes, trying to get the dirt out of them. They were shouting bad words at me so loudly that they didn’t hear me throw a few rocks in front of them. They tripped over the rocks and hit the ground.”
“That wasn’t very sporting of you, Leda.”
“And it wasn’t very sporting of them to gang up on someone so much younger and smaller than they are,” young Leda pointed out. “I had to take every advantage I could get.”
“Why did they attack you anyway?”
“They found me after school to torment me with insults.”
“Such as?”
Young Leda shrugged. “The usual. They called me a dirty orphan. Said my parents were monster-blood-drinking freaks and that’s why when I was born, I was cast out by the Pilgrims for being a dark, evil child. They said the Pilgrims banished me to the Black Plains, where a pack of wild wolves raised me until you found me.”
“That is nonsense.”
Young Leda looked up into Aradia’s eyes. “What did happen to my parents?”
“They died shortly after you were born. They were friends of mine. And they certainly did not consume monster blood.”
“How did they die?” young Leda asked.
“It’s an unpleasant story, one you don’t need to hear at your age. Someday, perhaps, I’ll tell you. But rest assured, they were not evil people.”
Nice how she twisted the truth to avoid lying. Yeah, my parents weren’t evil people. They were evil, power-hungry deities who’d made me in order to create a powerful living weapon.
Young Leda blinked her big, wide eyes at Aradia. “I’ve always wanted to know more about my parents.”
Maybe my first foster mother would have indeed told me the truth someday, but if so, she’d never gotten a chance. She did not long outlive this conversation.
“You shouldn’t allow the other children to goad you,” she told my younger self. “They’re only looking to make themselves feel strong by pushing down the weak.”
“I am not weak. And I showed them that today. I showed them they cannot insult me. As you said, actions have consequences.”
“You threw the first punch?”
“No. After they called me all those names, I informed one of the bullies that his real father is actually his next door neighbor. And I told the other bully that I knew his mother had actually shoplifted everything they had in their house.”
“How could you possibly know all of that?” Aradia said in surprise.
“It’s obvious. Anyone with eyes could have figured it out. The first bully looks nothing like his ‘father’—and exactly like his next door neighbor. And I regularly see the second bully’s mother walking around town in the middle of the day, so she obviously doesn’t work. And she’s always wearing a big and bulky coat, even in summertime. She could fit a lot of stolen merchandise under that coat.”
Aradia looked her over for a moment, then declared, “You’re too smart for your own good, Leda.”
“Hey, I didn’t tell them anything until they insulted me. They just wouldn’t stop. I had to make them shut up. And they were pretty silent for a few moments after I told them their family secrets.”
“Until they attacked you,” Aradia pointed out.
“Right.” Young Leda frowned. “I really thought they’d run straight home and confront their parents.”
“Not everyone wants to know their past like you do, Leda. Most people are content to ignore all the dirty little secrets in their family tree. They really don’t want to know these kinds of things about themselves. And they will do anything to not face reality. That’s why those boys attacked you. To distract themselves from the truth—and to punish the one who’d delivered that unwelcome truth to them.”
“People are dumb,” Young Leda declared.
“What happened after you tripped the boys with the rocks?”
“They were pretty upset. They got up and ran at me, but I was ready for them. I’d moved behind a bunch of clothes lines. The fall must have mixed up their heads because they didn’t even see the lines. They ran right into them and got all tangled up like in a spider web. They might still be stuck in them.”
“You’re supposed to be keeping a low profile, not attracting attention to yourself,” Aradia sighed.
“But why do I need to keep a low profile?” Young Leda asked her. “It’s because of who my parents were, isn’t it? And because of who you used to be?”
Aradia shook her head.
“I know you had to have been someone important, Juliana,” I told her. “You can do magic. Anyone who can do magic in this world is important. Magic is power. And witches are in high demand.”
“You’re too smart for your own good,” Aradia said again.
“Tell me.” Young Leda pressed her palms together in a pleading gesture. “You can trust me.”
“You picked a fight with two bigger and stronger opponents, Leda. Do you know what that demonstrates?”
“Great skill,” the girl answered proudly. “I won.”
“You won this time, but only through unscrupulous means. No, your actions demonstrate that you still have a lot to learn.”
“Julianna, I—”
Aradia’s hand shot up, silencing young Leda. “Someone is outside,” she whispered quietly.
“How do you know?” young Leda whispered back.
Aradia didn’t answer. She grabbed young Leda and pulled her into one of the bedrooms. She had only just closed the girl inside the room and cast a spell over it when the front door of the house flew open. Two men in black uniforms marched inside.
“Those are Dark Force uniforms,” Nero commented.
I recognized them too by the symbol of the Dark Force on their uniforms. That symbol consisted of the nine signs of magic—vampire, witch, siren, elemental, shifter, telekinetic, fairy, angel, ghost—all surrounded by the emblem of hell.
“So that’
s who killed her,” I said. “I always thought it was monsters.”
One of the Dark Force soldiers spoke, a big, muscular man with legs as thick as tree trunks and shoulders so wide that they nearly scrapped the doorway as he stepped through. “Aradia Redwood. It’s been a long time.”
“You didn’t honestly believe you could hide from Sonja, the great and powerful Demon of the Dark Force,” the second man added.
He was even bigger and wider than the other soldier. His shoulders actually did scrape the doorway as he stepped through, just as his head brushed against the wooden frame.
“And yet Sonja couldn’t find me, Harrows,” Aradia said, her stance confident. “For ten whole years.”
Harrows glowered at her. “Hiding on Earth was a dirty trick.”
“So was Sonja killing Thea!”
“Enough.” Harrows had a voice that scraped like shifting gravel. “There can be no excuse for your treachery. Sonja is your deity. You were sworn to obey her. You broke that vow, and now Chambers and I will punish you in Sonja’s name.”
“If Sonja wanted me punished, she should have sent a few more soldiers.” Aradia drew her sword. Bright orange flames flashed across the blade.
Harrows and Chambers moved in from either side. They were much bigger than Aradia, and they had her surrounded. That didn’t seem to bother her. She spun like a tornado, flames engulfing her entire body. Harrows tried to grab her but quickly drew his hand away, repelled by the flaming tornado. And when Chambers shot a telekinetic spell at her, it bounced right off the storm she’d swaddled herself in.
The fight continued, even as my younger self remained trapped behind the bedroom door. I remembered that day. Loud as the battle was, I hadn’t heard a thing that had gone on outside the bedroom. Aradia’s spell must have muffled the sounds, as well as trapped me in and everyone else out.
Aradia had the two Dark Force soldiers on the retreat. Harrows grabbed a device from his belt. It looked like a communication device.
Aradia knocked it out of his hand with a telekinetic punch. “You won’t be reporting back to Sonja.” She crushed the device with her boot.
“Sonja already knows we’re here,” Harrows said.