Zara gaped at us, her eyes wide. “You two are angels.”
“So you’ve heard of angels,” I said.
“Just stories from passing travelers. We don’t have any angels here,” Grant told us. “Angels are supposed to be beings of great beauty and infinite magic.”
“That’s basically the gist of it.” Damiel’s laugh was a smooth, silky purr, wrapped in a crisp, arrogant crust.
“Is magic so common on your world?” Zara asked us.
“Not exactly common, but those of us who possess magic aren’t hunted down and hidden away from everyone else,” I told her.
“Here, the hunters take away all the people with any sign of magic.” Zara glanced at Grant. “If you don’t report your magic, they find you eventually.”
“The Magic Collective’s hunters seek out magic, using special tools to track it to its source,” he said. “Those people with magic are labeled ‘chosen’ and then you never see them again. They are taken away to the fortresses.”
“What is going on inside those fortresses?” I asked the question that had been bothering me since I first saw that pillar of light shooting out of the fortress, high up into the sky.
Grant shook his head. “We’ve been trying to figure that out for years.”
“Have you tried to get into one of these fortresses?” Damiel asked him.
A wrinkle formed between Grant’s thick brows. “Why do you ask?”
“The Magic Collective’s soldiers have stolen something from another world, a magic artifact,” I told him. “We intend to get it back.”
“So the Collective has stolen magic artifacts as well as magic people.” Grant slammed his fist down on the table. The teapot and all the cups rattled. “All to run that blasted spell.”
“What is that spell all the fortresses are shooting out?” Damiel asked.
“No one knows.” Grant shrugged. “The Collective has been brewing that spell for as long as anyone can remember, but no one knows what it is. All we do know is that they constantly need more magic people, more magic artifacts, to power it. That spell is the source of the Magic Collective’s power. It is what makes their magic so strong. It’s what gives them control—dominion—over everyone and everything.”
16
Wrong Turns
“Have you tried to break into any of the fortresses?” Damiel asked the rebel leader.
“My sister Naida was taken when the Collective learned of her magic.” Grant pointed to the picture of a teenage girl with big, blue eyes and a long, thick braid that reached the ground. “So, yes, I’ve tried to break into the fortress here. Many times. But it is impossible.”
“Nothing is impossible,” I declared.
“Don’t let your magic blind you, angel. I also possess magic, like my sister. Our parents kept that fact hidden from everyone. They didn’t want to lose their children, to never see us again. They died fighting the hunters who came to take my sister. And even with all my magic, I couldn’t break into the fortress to rescue her.”
“Things have changed,” Damiel told him.
“Nothing has changed.”
“Everything has changed. This time, you have two angels, beings of great beauty and infinite magic, masters of weapons and strategy. And I have a plan.”
Damiel was really dialing up the angel ego, but it seemed to be working. The rebels were gulping up his confidence like travelers coming to an oasis after days stranded in the desert.
“We can break into the fortress, but we will need a few things,” Damiel told the rebels. “We have to stop by our world to pick up a few things.”
“We eagerly await your return,” said the rebel leader, hope burning in his eyes. “Finally, we have a chance to stop the Collective’s atrocities.”
Damiel and I walked out of the room, but the rebels continued to stand there, smiling as they stared off into space.
“You compelled them,” I said as we walked back toward the garage.
“Only a little.”
“Oh, really?” I looked pointedly at the rebels frozen in place all around us, each one with the exact same goofy expression on their face.
“Ok, perhaps I compelled them a bit more than just a little,” he admitted. “But it wasn’t a lot. I’ve never met anyone so hungry to be compelled. It didn’t take much magic to convince them. Their leader is desperate to get into that fortress.”
“Yes, I noticed that too. He wants to rescue his sister.”
“If she’s been with the Hive for so long, she might not even be his sister anymore,” Damiel pointed out. “Even if we find her, there might not be anything left to save.”
“Try to be optimistic.”
He grunted, as though that were an amusing notion. “Bring us to my territory, to New York.”
I drew the Diamond Tear and cut a passage through the cosmos to Earth.
But when we stepped through, we didn’t find New York on the other side. I’d brought us to Storm Castle instead.
“I’m sorry,” I said, frustrated at my wrong turn. “Navigating isn’t as easy as it looks. The dagger can go between different worlds and between different places on a world. Just how well it works depends highly on the dagger wielder’s mental focus. I guess my mind was thinking of this place.”
His eyebrows lifted. “You were thinking about your bedroom?”
We’d landed on my bed. He seemed to find that very funny.
“No, I wasn’t thinking about my bedroom,” I said, my cheeks flushed, my words hurried. “Not exactly. At that moment, I was thinking of my father, of how he confronted me in this very room to warn me about you. But he should have warned me about himself. About how he’d lied to me my whole life.”
Damiel set his hand over mine. “You want to confront him.”
“You bet I do.”
My door thumped twice. I slid off my bed and went to answer it. Allegra stood on the other side of the door.
She looked me up and down, giving me a thorough visual assessment. “I heard you’re back.”
“How did you know that I was back?”
Allegra blinked. Her smile faded. “What do you mean?”
“How did you know I was back?” I repeated. “I only just returned a few moments ago.”
“Cadence—”
“You were spying on me. Watching me. Watching this room You probably set up magic detectors and surveillance devices.”
Allegra took a step back.
“That’s how you knew I was back,” I told her. “By spying on me.” Coming here wasn’t the only wrong turn I’d ever made; my whole life was marred by wrong turns.
“How can you say such things, after all our years of friendship?”
“You mean, after all those years you spied on me. For General Silverstar.”
Damiel glided up behind me.
Allegra’s gaze shifted uneasily between him and me. “I can see that you’re busy. Sorry to interrupt.”
“Not at all.” Damiel opened the door wider, a cold, dangerous smile twisting his lips. “Come in.”