Ok, so maybe this wasn’t the best time to be recruiting new soldiers, but sometimes you had to seize an opportunity before it was gone. I might never see Aerilyn again—or many of the other bounty hunters on my team, for that matter. I’d recruited them for one mission, but what if I could make that arrangement more permanent? What if I could make some of them Legion soldiers in my territory? Their sideways thinking would do the rigid Legion a lot of good. And that would do the Earth a lot of good too.
“Working with the Angel of Chaos? Now, that’s an intriguing offer.” A dreamy look fell over Aerilyn’s face. “You’re someone I could actually stomach working with, Leda. But I’m afraid I have other plans.”
She didn’t elaborate on her plans, but I expected they involved seeing the world and working alone, the two reasons she’d given me for not wanting to become a soldier.
“Let me know if you change your mind,” I told her.
“You’ll be the first to know if I do.” Her gaze panned across the rooftop terrace, homing in on a metal panel in the floor. “The controls must be under there.”
I was already moving toward it. The panel had hinges on one side, so it must open somehow. I slid my fingertips under the edge on the opposite side. I was pleased to discover that the panel opened easily. Given how we’d had to get up here, I’d expected a magic ward or at least a lock. I could have picked a lock, but a ward would have been a bitch to break without my magic.
With the panel open, I reached in and pulled out the mechanical arm that held the barrier’s control panel.
“You know what I’ve been wondering,” I said, logging in to the control panel. “This curse affects people with magic, turning their magic against them, right? I went to one crime scene after the other and saw the effects of the curse for myself, and more and more reports of dead supernaturals are pouring in with every passing day.”
I drummed my fingers on the control screen, waiting for it to finally accept my Legion credentials. The system was dead-slow today; maybe the monsters had taken down a communication tower.
“Every crime scene seemed to fit the bill,” I continued. “All the victims were connected to the rogue vampire nest that the Legion found in Purgatory, or the victims were connected to people who were connected to that nest. The curse started with the vampires and spread out from there.”
I wasn’t sure why I was talking to Aerilyn about this. Maybe I just needed to go through it aloud to figure it out. And I was still waiting to be logged in to the control panel.
“But there is one incident that doesn’t fit in at all,” I said. “The witches who were injured at Desert Rose when they tried to repair the Magitech barrier. No, not even repair it. The barrier was still up. The witches were trying to track down some minor fluctuations in the barrier that Major Horn’s technicians had reported. The witches were running a diagnostic. And then… What did Major Horn say? Oh, right.” I snapped my fingers. “Five minutes into their diagnostic, several Magitech generators overloaded, opening up a few holes in the barrier. At the same time, a burst of concentrated magical energy pulsed off the controls and hit the two witches, knocking them out instantly.”
I knocked on the lagging control panel, which was still working on verifying my credentials. “All along, we’ve seen that the moment an infected supernatural tries to access their magic, that magic backfires on them, typically resulting in their death. But we can all use potions and Magitech and little balls with stored psychic magic because the magic is already in them. We don’t need to tap into our own magic to throw potions or use tech.
“And here’s where this all falls apart. The witches at Desert Rose never used their magic. They only used a Magitech machine to run a diagnostic. And then their diagnostic was running for a whole five minutes before the machine overloaded and hit them with the burst of energy that knocked them out. Do you know what this means? It means the curse didn’t attack the witches at Desert Rose. It means that we are dealing with two entirely different things. One, the curse that’s ravaging the supernatural population. And two, whatever, or whoever, hurt those witches.
“You know what I think? I think that whoever hurt those witches at Desert Rose is also responsible for what’s happening here at Pandemonium. In both cases, monsters passed through the Magitech wall while it was still up. Yeah, these two incidents are definitely connected—and they’re both disconnected from the curse.”
I turned away from the control panel and looked at Aerilyn. “But that would mean that the Earth is facing two distinct threats right now.”
“One battle at a time, right?” she replied.
“Right.” I took a deep breath. “You’re right, of course. We’re here, so let’s deal with the Magitech barrier and these monsters first.”
I’d never before simultaneously fought two threats to our world. The weight of the dual threats pressed down on me. Even if I defeated one, the other would still be there.
“I can hear something coming,” Aerilyn said, drawing a throwing knife.
I’d heard it too. Something on the tower wall. Slowly, cautiously, I moved toward the edge. I held my sword in front of me, not that it would do much good if another herd of those small dinosaurs streamed over the wall and buried me in their green scaly bodies. I inched a little closer, my heart racing.
“If you’re planning on challenging me, Pandora, I’d suggest otherwise.” As smooth and quick as liquid lightning, Nero pulled himself over the top of the tower wall and landed in front of me. “I’ve just fought my way through two crocodiles, a Tyrannosaurus rex, a dozen giant spiders, and a deranged bunny-like creature that farts firebombs. My patience is thin, so if you challenge me too, I promise I won’t go easy on you.”
I couldn’t hold back my grin. “Nero.” I sheathed my sword, jumped forward, and hugged him. “I’m so glad to see you.”
He held me for a moment, one perfect moment. But it was over too soon. He dropped his arms and stepped away from me.
“We don’t have time for this.” He seemed to be chiding himself, not me. His sharp eyes, glowing like a rich green forest lit up by the rising sun’s light, snapped to Aerilyn. “Arrest her.”
“Why?”
“She injured the witches at Desert Rose, and she’s the reason Leila Starborn was in a magic coma until just this morning.”
I looked at Aerilyn. She didn’t even try to refute Nero’s accusations. Instead, she smiled and shrugged.
“Leila was after Carver Spellsword,” I said.
“And she found him,” Nero told me. “Except Spellsword doesn’t exist. He’s just another one of Aerilyn’s aliases.”
I drew my sword again and took a step toward her. “You are behind this. You killed all those people.”
27
One Choice
“I am not behind everything,” replied Aerilyn, her stance relaxed. “Only some of it. You said so yourself, Leda. There are two different supervillains wreaking havoc on the Earth right now.”
How could she remain so calm with two angels closing in on her? Granted Nero and I couldn’t use our magic right now, but we were armed, well-trained, and outnumbered her two-to-one. And yet she hadn’t even made a move to draw her weapon.