This time when he said it, he wasn’t paying me a compliment. No, this wasn’t like all those other times. He wasn’t engaging in playful banter; he was telling me in no uncertain terms that I’d hurt him.
“Nero, I was trying to give our daughter her best chance at life. I want her to come into the world when it’s at peace, not be born a pawn in a war she doesn’t even understand.” I clenched my fists in desperate anger. “I’m not going to let anyone jeopardize my daughter’s life.”
“Even me,” he growled.
“Yes, even you, Nero,” I snapped. “I was born a pawn in this immortal war, caught between heaven and hell. My entire existence is nothing but another ploy. Another move on some big galactic chessboard. I’m a tool. A weapon. You can’t begin to understand what that feels like.”
“Can’t I?” His laugh was almost a snarl. “My mother was ordered to hunt down and kill my father because the Legion thought he’d betrayed them. I’m every bit as much caught in this struggle between heaven and hell as you are. My whole existence, in fact, came to be because of some psychotic so-called Guardians on the hunt for magic. So don’t tell me that I don’t know what it’s like to be a pawn in this immortal war, Leda.”
Then he turned on his heel and stormed out of the room.
“Damn you, Nero Windstriker!” I shouted out.
I lifted Nerissa’s chair over my head and threw it at the door. When that didn’t make me feel any better, I knocked over a few desks too.
Nerissa just watched me coolly and asked, “Are you done punishing the furniture?”
I looked around at the enormous mess I’d made, and all I could do was laugh. It was a desperate, miserable laugh.
“So, you’ve finally cracked,” Nerissa said.
My chest still shaking with miserable laughter, I slouched forward. “I really screwed up this time.”
Nerissa’s gaze panned across her ruined furniture. “Yep.”
“I can’t believe I shouted at him like that.” I rubbed my head. “I was just so angry.”
“You’re all worked up trying to protect your daughter.”
“A daughter who does not exist yet.”
“She exists to you, Leda.” Nerissa gave my arm a comforting pat. “And she exists to General Windstriker.”
I straightened. “I need to talk to him. I need to fix this.” Uncertainty weighed on me. “But how? What’s done is done. And, you know, I’d do it all over again to keep her safe.” I clenched my fists. “I have to make Nero understand that.”
“In my experience, you can’t make an angel do anything they don’t want to do.”
She wasn’t wrong.
“I have to try,” I said.
“Good luck,” she called out as I left her office.
I pulled out my phone and texted Nero. I tried not to feel discouraged when he didn’t answer. Nero was right about one thing: Leda Pandora did not give up. I had to make him understand why I’d done what I had. Since I wasn’t sure how I was going to do that yet, maybe it was good he hadn’t answered any of my texts.
“Way to see the silver lining, Leda,” I muttered encouragement to myself.
I refrained from thanking myself for the encouraging words. That would have just been crazy.
I continued walking the halls of my office building. Nero must have been long gone by now, but it didn’t matter. Walking calmed my turbulent spirit. Training would have been even better, but there weren’t any other angels around. Damiel, Cadence, and General Silverstar had left after the ill-fated charades game. Harker had left for New York even before dinner. And now Nero was gone too.
I was all alone.
In absence of another angel to fight, maybe I’d go clear some monsters from the Black Plains at my doorstep. Sure, they kept coming back, no matter how many times I cleared them out, but it would keep me busy for a while. I knew Nerissa had instructed me to take it easy for a few days following my coffee table accident, but right now, I felt like my body could handle a lot more than my aching soul.
I was about to turn and head to my apartment to change into something that was still in one piece, when my assistant Lucy found me.
“There’s been a disaster at the Legion base in Desert Rose,” she reported.
Lucy’s temperament might have buckled under the strain of battle, but as an angel’s administrative assistant, she had nerves of steel. She was the perfect orderly counterpart to my chaos. Thanks to her organizational skills, my territory was running smoothly.
“What happened?” I asked her. “Is the Magitech barrier down at Desert Rose?”
Desert Rose lay on the Elemental Expanse, and there were a lot of pretty feral monsters just beyond the wall. If it went down, the monsters would flood the expanse—and send the Earth’s elements spiraling into disarray.
“The state of the Magitech barrier is unknown,” replied Lucy. “And neither the base at Desert Rose nor Storm Castle is responding to our calls.”
“That can’t be good. Ok, I’ll go check it out,” I told her.
She frowned. “Alone?”
“Don’t give me that look. I’ll be fine. If I need reinforcements, I’ll give you a call.”
“That is hardly reassuring, Leda,” she replied. “Desert Rose called for help, and now the whole Elemental Expanse has gone silent.”
“You worry too much.”
“It’s my job to worry about you.”
“Don’t worry too much, or you’ll have a heart attack. And then who will keep my todo list organized?” I flashed her a grin.
She humphed. I winked at her, then ran for the exit. It was actually my duty as the Angel of the Plains of Monsters to check out disasters along the wilderness border. That’s why I had to go: duty. Certainly not because I needed an excuse to get my mind off of Nero.
11
First Light
When I arrived, the sun was just rising over the Elemental Expanse, bathing the lands in pink and blue light. From the deck of the airship, I had a marvelous view of the expanse. At its center lay Mount Cornerstone, and atop that peak, the Legion fortress of Storm Castle. Beyond the inner ring of magic that surrounded the mountain were the four lands of the Elemental Expanse, each domain under the protection of one of the four Dragons, Legion soldiers who possessed extraordinary elemental magic.
Fire and stone dominated the Fire Mountains. Lightning crackled on the Sky Plains. Water, snow, and ice thrived in the Wetlands. And the power of earth and flora trembled and blossomed across the Desert Rose.
A Legion base also lay in Desert Rose, right at the northern border of the expanse, where only a Magitech wall stood between humanity and the Western Wilderness that had consumed a larger piece of the continent.
My airship was heading toward the base at Desert Rose now, the site of the disaster. The golden shimmer on the wall told me the Magitech barrier was up, which was good news considering the herds of monsters currently standing before it, waiting for it to go down so they could break past this last barrier and ravage the lands of human civilization.
“I have to go check it out,” I said to my cat Angel.