I glanced at Damiel, but what I saw didn’t fill me with confidence. He was watching me with cool trepidation. Most likely, he was still thinking about the magic I’d just performed with the daggers. Knowing the Master Interrogator, I’d wager he was concerned about anyone having that much power—and he was wondering if there was a Legion regulation against it.
Everyone knew power could be dangerous. Especially that much power. Maybe Damiel was worried it would all go to my head, and then I’d try to take over the world. Or the whole universe, while I was at it. He sure didn’t look all that pleased about the potential dangers of the so-called Immortal Heir.
He wasn’t the only one watching me. Nyx and five other Legion soldiers stood at the edge of the woods, watching us. Had the First Angel witnessed my magical exodus of an entire army? The dark looks on the Legion soldiers’ faces certainly weren’t encouraging.
“We should go,” Damiel told me, his eyes locked firmly on the First Angel and her entourage.
How had they gotten here?
“We followed a band of Dark Force soldiers to this world,” Nyx answered my unasked question as we joined her in the woods.
I didn’t think she’d read my mind. I’d been working hard on masking my thoughts. Since Damiel hadn’t responded to my thoughts lately, I’d considered my efforts to be successful.
“We dealt with the Dark Force soldiers following you,” Nyx continued.
How had the Dark Force even been following us? We’d left from Storm Castle. Did that mean the demons had spies in the castle?
But even if they did have spies in the castle, we’d used the daggers to transport to this world. Could they have followed us here, perhaps using a magic mirror?
“We have neutralized the Dark Force soldiers, but there are undoubtedly more,” Nyx said. If she could read my mind, she wasn’t waiting for my internal meanderings to finish. “We must return to Earth at once. Before the Dark Force has a chance to claim this prize.” Her eyes dipped to the daggers strapped to my thighs. “We need you to use the Diamond Tear’s magic to bring us back to Earth.”
Weird. If Nyx and her soldiers had gotten here by magic mirror, couldn’t we just return that way?
I frowned.
“Hurry,” Nyx pressed me. “Your dagger will be faster. It’s a long hike to the magic mirror. Bring us to the throne room of Storm Castle.”
There she was, reading my thoughts again. And I’d thought I had figured out how to keep angels out of my head. It appeared I still had a long way to go to boost my powers enough to block the First Angel.
I knew the First Angel didn’t appreciate repeating orders, so I drew the Diamond Tear and made a portal back to Earth. Magic swirled around us, then we were in the throne room of Storm Castle.
A force of Legion soldiers filled the room. As soon as they saw me, they moved in, as though they’d been waiting for me all along. They aimed their guns at my head.
“Cadence Lightbringer,” Nyx declared. “You are charged with treason against the Legion of Angels.”
21
The First Angel's Court
I stood in the middle of the Storm Castle throne room. Nyx sat upon the Sea Dragon’s throne, the throne I was supposed to claim in just a few hours’ time.
Of course, with charges of treason looming over my head, that future now seemed highly unlikely.
“Colonel Dragonsire, I tasked you and Cadence Lightbringer to recover the second immortal dagger,” Nyx said. The water drop etched into the throne pulsed sapphire blue.
Damiel was sitting in the chair for the Fire Dragon, another vacant post. Soldiers surrounded the room. Their guns were still pointed at me, ready in case I tried something.
I looked around for a friendly face, but I didn’t see Allegra. Or my father, for that matter. He should have still been at the castle, waiting for my Dragon ceremony. Maybe the guards weren’t letting him in. The thought dropped like a heavy stone to the pit of my stomach. My father would have stood by my side. He would have defended me.
“Three Dark Force soldiers followed you to Nightingale,” Nyx said to Damiel.
Nightingale was the name of the Magic Eaters’ world.
“Colonel Dragonsire, can you explain what the Diamond Tear does?” Nyx asked him.
“The dagger has the power to create magic portals between worlds.”
“Such as the portal between Earth and Nightingale that you and Lt. Colonel Lightbringer took.”
“Yes.” Damiel’s face was distinctly blank.
“And did you know, Colonel, before you stepped through the portal, where it would take you?”
“No,” he replied. “The Diamond Tear is magically connected to the Sapphire Tear. To what extent they are linked, I do not know. I do know they can sense each other. Lt. Colonel Lightbringer tapped into the Diamond Tear’s power. It led us to the place where the Sapphire Tear was kept.”
“So you believe she didn’t know your destination was Nightingale either?” asked Nyx.
“Neither of us did.”
“How can you be sure?”
Damiel folded his hands together on his lap. “I’m good at reading people.”
“And people’s thoughts,” said Nyx.
“Yes.”
“And can you read Lt. Colonel Lightbringer’s thoughts?”
“I could read some of her thoughts during our mission on the Sienna Sea, but she has since fortified her mental defenses.”
“Just to be clear, during the mission to Nightingale, you could not read her thoughts?”
“No.”
Nyx glanced briefly at me, then back at Damiel. “Neither can I.”
Well, that answered that. Nyx couldn’t read my thoughts after all. I was relieved. Kind of.
“She went from not being able to conceal her thoughts, to blocking the most powerful angel in the Legion, all in the course of just a few days,” Nyx said. “That is an impressive feat. Don’t you think, Colonel?”
“It is,” he agreed. “But it’s also not uncommon for a new angel’s mental defenses to be weakened for a few days after the transformation. Perhaps she was simply building her magic back up.”
Nyx’s lips curled in a wry smile. “Perhaps.” Her head snapped around to me, her blue eyes glowing. “Or perhaps she got a different kind of magic boost.”
What kind of magic boost? From the daggers? She couldn’t be upset that I controlled an immortal artifact. After I’d returned from the Sienna Sea, she had told me to keep the Diamond Tear.
“Let’s return to the trio of Dark Force soldiers who followed you to Nightingale,” Nyx said, her attention back on Damiel. “They used a magic mirror to travel there, which means they knew where you were headed. But how could they know you were headed for Nightingale if you didn’t even know where you were going when you entered the portal?”
“Major Doren and her pirates were searching for the Sapphire Tear,” replied Damiel. “The Diamond Tear was at one point in the Dark Force’s possession. It’s reasonable to assume that the Dark Force was trailing the pirates, trying to recover the Diamond Tear. And that while following the airship, they learned the pirates were hunting for another immortal artifact, the Sapphire Tear. Just because we didn’t know the dagger was on Nightingale, that doesn’t mean the Dark Force didn’t.”