He peeled his hand off the panel and brushed it gently down my cheek. “I’m glad to see you again too, Leda. But I didn’t visit you in your dreams.”
“Not even once?”
“No.”
“So you didn’t tell me to come here?
“No.”
I’d hoped that it had really been Nero in my dreams, but I wasn’t really surprised that it had been nothing more than my own mind fulfilling my deepest wish to see him again. Honestly, I’d known it was just a dream.
“Leda.”
I smiled through my disappointment. “Yes?”
“I’m going to need my arm again.”
“Right.” I ducked under his arm, giving him space to work.
“I’ve found it,” Nero declared after a few long, silent minutes. “I know where the magic is going.”
Aerilyn pressed her hands together. “Well? Don’t leave us hanging, pretty boy.”
He shot a cool look at her. “How long have the demons known about this?”
“Since the Magitech barriers first went up. It happened at the same time, so it was rather obvious, you know.” She smirked at him. “Makes you wonder why no one at the Legion has figured it out by now.”
“What is she talking about?” I asked Nero.
“All that extra magic, three times as much as what goes into the Magitech barriers that protect humanity from the monsters…” He pointed at the graph on the screen. “…it’s all going into powering the ward the gods cast to keep the demons off the Earth.”
For a moment, I couldn’t say anything, but then the words started tumbling out. “This is the real reason the gods had humanity build the walls and Magitech generators, isn’t it? Their design, our labor. They didn’t do it to save us from the monsters. They used us to banish their enemies from this battlefront.”
“Indeed,” said Aerilyn. “But the monsters have continued to breed and evolve over time. They’ve grown stronger and developed new magical abilities. All the while, the barrier that is supposed to keep them out remains the same. Already, some of the monsters are strong enough to pass through it. Right now, their numbers are so few that you might be able to fight them off. But the monsters’ magic evolves quickly. Give it a few years, or maybe as little as a few months. There will be so many of them who can pass through the barriers that you won’t be able to stop them. The Earth’s cities will fall. And humanity will fall along with it.”
I looked at Nero. “The gods won’t let that happen, right? They want the Earth.”
“The Magitech generators can make enough magic to keep out all monsters, but only by sacrificing the ward that keeps out the demons,” said Aerilyn.
“What do you think?” I asked Nero.
“I think that as much as the gods want the Earth, they’d rather see it all burn to the ground than yield a single inch to the demons,” he replied.
I sighed. “I think you’re right.”
“The gods’ choice is clear,” said Aerilyn. “The question is, Leda Pandora, what is your choice? Will you break the gods’ ward to save the people of Earth from the monsters? Or will you uphold the gods’ will and spearhead the end of humanity?”
I clenched my fists. “My choice is clear too. I choose the people. I swore to protect them, and that’s just what I’m going to do. Their lives matter more than immortal politics.” I glanced at Nero.
He nodded. “Agreed.”
Nero returned his attention to the control panel. The flash of light across the Magitech barrier—followed by the sudden end in monster snarls and the cheers of people on the streets—told me that we’d succeeded. We’d saved the Earth from the monsters. And from the looks of the barrier, it would stay safe from them for a very long time. A bright white glow had replaced the barrier’s dull gold sheen. It was more powerful now than it had ever been before.
“Congratulations, Leda Pandora. You’ve passed the demons’ test.” Aerilyn clapped her hands together, a sardonic smirk lifting up one corner of her mouth. “You’ve proven you aren’t just some mindless puppet who blindly follows the gods’ orders. You really are a champion for the greater good, and the demons welcome you as a true ally.”
I’d done it. I’d accomplished the impossible task Faris had set me when he’d made me Heaven’s Emissary to Hell. However, I didn’t think he’d be pleased by how I’d gotten the job done.
“The demons can freely roam the Earth now,” Nero commented. “There will be consequences to what we’ve done here today.”
“Bring them on, gods and demons, and their stupid immortal war,” I declared. “Their war has been here all along. It didn’t leave with the demons; the Earth simply became a battlefield by proxy. It’s time now for gods and demons to finally put their differences aside. They need to stop fighting one another and unite to fight the real threat: the Guardians.”
I looked up at the sky for a sign that gods and demons had heard me, but there was no sign to be seen. Figured. Deities always made such a show when it suited them, but when you needed them to give you a sign that they were listening, they were completely silent.
“Well, my work here is done.” Aerilyn jumped up onto the ledge. Bright, shimmering silver wings unfolded from her back, their feathers rippling in the wind. “Be seeing you around, Leda.” Grinning, she saluted me, then stepped off the edge of the tower.
“She is so weird,” I commented to Nero as I watched her fly away from town.
“Well, you two are related.”
“You really amuse yourself with your own jokes, don’t you?”
“I have my moments.”
His gaze ensnared mine. I couldn’t look away, and I didn’t want to either. I took a step toward him.
He stepped back. “Our work is far from done.”
“Of course.” I checked the urge to slouch in disappointment—and the need to grab him and demand what the hell I had to do to make things right between us again. “The curse. If Leila was never infected, do we think angels are immune? Aerilyn seems to think so if she’s flaunting her wings.”
“Dr. Harding is investigating that possibility.”
“Investigating? So we still can’t use our magic?” I asked.
“I’m afraid not.”
“Great.” I looked down, over the tower’s edge, our way back to the ground. “Somehow, it looked less steep on the way up.”
Humor flashed in Nero’s eyes. “It’s a wall, Pandora. All walls are built perpendicular to the ground.”
“Not the walls I build,” I said proudly.
He laughed, and that made me laugh too.
“So do you want to go down first, or should I?” I asked him.
We ended up climbing down side-by-side. Doing things the hard and human way sure brought back memories of my days as Nero’s initiate. As we descended the tower—with nothing standing between us and an untimely drop except our hands, feet, and sheer strength of will—I wondered if he was remembering those days too.
When we were back on street level, I saw that a Legion airship had just reached the edge of town.