I blinked. “Four kinds of magic?” My mind worked to sort this out; it was scooping up all the events it had previously discarded because they couldn’t be explained. “That’s where all that special magic comes from. The unique abilities of angels. Like how Stash can read someone’s soul. And how Harker can track magic.”
“Yes,” said Cadence. “Those eight abilities you know—Vampire’s Kiss, Witch’s Cauldron, Siren’s Song, Dragon’s Storm, Shifter’s Shadow, Psychic’s Spell, Fairy’s Touch, and Ghost’s Whisper—are all kinds of active magic. But there are eight additional abilities out there. Passive magic abilities, where the power to cast the spell comes not from within the spell caster, but from somewhere else.”
“The power of the djinn, or teleportation. The power of the mermaid, the spell breaker or magic eater. The power of the genie, the wish granter. The power of the phantom, to negate magic. The power of the unicorn, a magic tracker or hunter. The power of the phoenix, to be reborn. The power of the elf, the magic artist and crafter. And the power of the changeling, the copycat, who can absorb the magic of others to mimic their power,” Damiel rattled off.
“Eight active powers, eight passive. Each one manifested as either light or dark magic. Thirty-two different possibilities.” Cadence’s enthusiasm sang in every syllable that she spoke. “And the original Immortals possessed them all.”
“So do you.” I looked from her, to Damiel, to Nero.
“With a lot of practice, we’re starting to figure out how to use that magic.” Cadence reached out to Nero. “We can help you.”
Nero didn’t take her hand. He didn’t say anything either. He did not forgive easily. I knew he still hadn’t forgiven his parents for faking their deaths when he was only ten. He’d grown up believing he had no parents anymore, and a part of him probably wished it had stayed that way.
“How does any of this help us fight the Guardians?” I asked, changing the subject for him.
Cadence sighed, but her gaze shifted from Nero back to me. “I’m not sure yet, but one thing is for sure: you need to understand your enemy in order to fight it. We’ve always believed the Guardians had no magic because they nullify the magic in potions and artifacts. But there is a kind of magic that nullifies magic.”
“The power of the phantom, to negate magic,” I recalled from Damiel’s descriptions of passive magic abilities. “The Guardians are phantoms. Their seeming lack of magic is their magic.”
“And their weapon,” said Cadence. “They can nullify any spell before it’s even cast, any potion before its thrown, any artifact before it’s used. No magic can stand against their power of oblivion.”
“And yet they want nothing more than to gain other magic.” I frowned. “Why?”
She shrugged. “The grass is always greener on the other side. And people always envy what others have.”
“Everything the Guardians have done is to gain new magic. They’ve manipulated gods and demons, all without either side ever realizing it.” I chewed on my lower lip. “And Nero…” I looked at Cadence and Nero. “You said the fallen Immortal had a plan for you. But Arina told us it was the Guardians with the plan, that they’d manipulated Nero’s heritage so he would be born. So which is true?”
“Neither.” Damiel braided his fingers together. “Or perhaps both.”
“Cryptic as always, Damiel.”
“Of course.”
“Tell me about this Arina,” Cadence said to me.
“Well, she can read someone’s magic, seeing into the events of the past that made them what they are today.”
Cadence glanced at Damiel. “The power to read into someone’s soul. She sounds like a unicorn.”
“Indeed.”
Cadence looked at me now. “You need to ask Arina for another reading. And we’re coming along this time.”
“I’ll add it to my todo list.”
“Leda, this is important.”
“I know,” I said seriously. “But so is forming an alliance between gods and demons against the Guardians. That alliance might be the only thing powerful enough to stop them. I’ll contact Arina when I have the chance. I promise.”
Cadence dipped her chin in acknowledgement.
“In any case, it sounds like you two had one hell of a journey,” I said.
Cadence looked upon her husband, and a smile melted her serious face. “From the day I met Damiel, it’s been one hell of a journey.”
“As it will be from now on.” He reached out to her.
She set her hand in his. “It hasn’t always been easy, but I feel like it was all meant to play out like this. After all, it was through our journey that we learned about this passageway to the demons’ council chamber.”
“Wait a minute, if you gained all these Immortal powers, why can’t you just teleport us to the demons?”
“It’s not so easy.” Cadence looked frustrated. “I can’t bring us to a place if I don’t know where that place is, unless there’s some kind of magic beacon to track. The location of the demons’ council chamber is a closely-guarded secret. All we know is there’s a portal here somewhere that will bring us there.”
“How did you learn about this passage to the demons anyway?” I asked.
“A demon told us,” Damiel replied casually.
I blinked. “And you trust this demon?”
“Not at all,” he laughed. “But she owes us a favor. And favors between immortal beings hold weight. Debts have an intangible kind of magic attached to them. They must be reconciled.”
“And how did you come to have a demon owing you a favor?” I asked.
Damiel opened his mouth, but I never heard his answer, for a wall of flames shot up all around us. And the next moment, the massive tree before us shifted into an even more massive creature. Made of stone, the monster mountain had a woman’s head stuck to a beastly body. Its long tail swooshed, whistling through the air. In case we’d had any ideas of fleeing, stone tentacles shot out of the ground behind us, cutting us off. They swayed as if possessed, ready to smash us the moment we tried to get through.
In other words, we were pretty thoroughly screwed.
7
Orderly Chaos
“There’s a monster in our way,” I said drily, glancing at Cadence and Damiel.
Cadence’s brows drew together, and a slight frown touched her lips. “The demon might have told us the way, but she didn’t make it easy for us.”
“That is not the demons’ way,” said Damiel.
“If she thinks this settles her debt, then she and I will need to have a little chat.”
Harker stared at the monster who stood in our way. “Why is it just staring at us instead of attacking?”
“Maybe it’s waiting for us to state our intentions.” I looked up at it and declared, “I’m Leda Pandora. This is Nero Windstriker. Cadence Lightbringer. Damiel Dragonsire. Harker Sunstorm. And Bella Pierce. We’re here for an audience with the demons’ council.”