Chapter 10

"Are you sure you're up for this?" I asked Gin.

"Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, you did die the last time I took you on an excursion," I reminded her.

"Leda, I'm a phoenix. I was born to be reborn."

"Still." Thinking about Gin dying made me antsy, so I was trying not to think about it. "Maybe Nero, Harker, and I should retrieve the pages."

"No way, those are our pages." Tessa put her arm around Gin. "Gin's and mine."

"That's right. You three might be some badass angels in the Legion's army, but we are all a part of this. Gin and I. Bella and Zane too. And Calli. Someone brought all of us to her for a reason. We have to figure out why." Gin looked at our foster mother. "Right?"

Calli nodded. "Right."

"It's not safe," I said.

What had happened in the Lost City last night had made me cautious. It had reminded me how very real, how very dangerous this whole endeavor was. After all, we were digging around in some pretty powerful people's plans, and they might not like it.

"Our lives will never be safe, Leda," Zane said. "Not until we figure out what's going on."

"Remember how annoyed you were when the First Angel took you out of the field and grounded you behind a desk for your own protection?" Bella reminded me. "You knew you had to figure out the past to secure your daughter's future, but Nyx wouldn't let you leave. You felt powerless. Just as we do now."

"Point taken." I looked at my family. "But if we do this, I'm not sure I can protect all of you."

"You see, Leda, that's where you have this all wrong," Bella told me. "I believe we were meant to protect you, not the other way around."

"That's what Ava meant for you to do," I said.

"It doesn't matter whether it was Ava's idea or our own." Bella set her hand on my shoulder. "We will protect you."

"From Ava," Gin said.

"And all the other demons," Tessa said.

"Guardians," Zane added.

"And gods," said Bella.

"We're in this together, Leda," Calli told me. "Let them come, whoever those foolish souls who seek to use us all might be. We will show them what family truly means."

"I love you all." I drew them into a hug.

"Of course you do. We're awesome." Tessa waved her hand, opening up a passageway that transported all of us to the Sea of Sin.

The Sea of Sin was a vast savannah on the plains of monsters. It was home to beasts and warlords alike, the world's most horrible and vicious varieties of both. The dull, brown grass stretched across the flat expanse, as far in front of me as I could see. At my back lay a dense wall of jungle.

Treasures of the past were still hidden here at the Sea of Sin, just waiting for anyone bold enough to claim them. That ‘anyone' was usually a warlord, though sometimes others braved the wild plains in search of brighter fortunes. They usually met monsters instead.

Calli stepped into the jungle. "I found Tessa and Gin in here."

Fifteen years ago, Calli had been one of those brave souls to seek treasure here. She'd found it too—and she'd found the monsters and warlord bands too. She'd also found two young girls, only four years old: Gin and Tessa.

We'd been walking for a while when Calli stopped. "Here." She pointed at the base of a very large, very old gum tree. "That's where I found Tessa and Gin."

"We'd escaped the warlord Hellfire's camp," Tessa remembered.

"We were so scared," Gin said, shivering though it was very warm here.

It must have been so horrible to live through that and at such a young age too. That's why Calli had asked Zane back then, when he'd been so young, to use his magic to make them forget. I hadn't liked it when Calli had admitted this to me and Bella, but after hearing more about what had happened to them, I got it. And, looking at my sisters here now, seeing their very real fear, I almost wished those memories had stayed buried.

"I can feel it. The parchments," Harker said quietly.

And I could feel something else. "Monsters."

Roars rumbled from deeper inside the jungle.

Nero turned in the direction of the beastly noises. "The monsters are close."

I waved my hand, using my magic to quickly dig up a box just like the last one. Then I set it into Bella's hands.

Tessa whisked us away with her magic. One moment, we were there in the jungle, surrounded on all sides by the beasts who'd broken through the trees. And the next, we were back inside our living room.

"Your magic is useful," I told her in appreciation.

Tessa winked at me. "Told you."

I could finally exhale. "That was close."

"Too close," Nero said. "Those were razor-backed wolves."

"I saw that," I replied. "The razors were very prominent on their backs."

"I will not put you at risk like that again." Nero looked worried. Very worried.

I smiled to show him I was all right. "There was no risk. I can control monsters, remember?"

"I remember that your control over beasts is not absolute. And right now your magic is both very powerful and very erratic. You cannot depend on it."

I took his hand. "But I can depend on you."

"Yes," he said fiercely.

"The legendary archangel General Windstriker."

He leveled a commanding stare on me. "Don't kiss my ass, Pandora."

"But, General, if you truly are to be my new angel etiquette teacher, I simply must." I reached behind me, into the fruit basket on the side table, and grabbed an apple out of it. I handed it to him. "I'm hoping to be the teacher's pet."

"You're trying to use humor to distract me from my point. It won't work. Your life is too important to me." He set his hand on my belly. "Both of your lives are."

I leaned in and kissed him slowly. "I know," I said against his lips. "It's important to me too. Both of you are."

His eyes met mine. Feather-soft, his hand traced my jawline.

Harker cleared his throat. "Do you two need a moment alone?"

"Yes, please," I said. "But make it more than a moment. Make it at least an hour."

Nero kissed me softly, then stepped away. "That won't be necessary."

Easy for you to say,I told him. You don't have the libido of a pregnant angel.

The hint of a smile touched Nero's lips.

"Leda, I'm sure you didn't mean to project that thought to everyone in the house," Harker said, amused.

I frowned. "Did I?"

"I heard it," Zane said.

Gin raised her hand. "Me too."

Calli nodded. "Yes."

"So did I," Tessa said happily.

Bella cleared her throat uncomfortably. So I guess she'd heard it too.

My cheeks warmed. "Well, shit."

Nero was right. My magic was all off. It was just too powerful right now. I'd tried to project my thoughts to only Nero but I'd overshot and sent it to everyone instead. This was worse than the Fever. It was no wonder since I had a baby magic powerhouse growing inside of me.

"So, what's the verdict?" I asked Bella, who'd meanwhile performed the dating test on the two new pages we'd collected from the Sea of Sin.

"They are as old as the other two," Bella reported.

Like there had ever been any doubt. This whole thing—my siblings' past—had been meticulously planned.

"Which makes all four parchments older than the four of you," I commented.

"Yes," said Bella.

"Those pages were buried for a long time, since before any of us were born." I voiced all my thoughts aloud. There was no point in trying to think to myself anyway, since I was apparently broadcasting to everyone. "Like someone knew exactly where Calli would find Bella, Zane, Gin, and Tessa."

"Or someone buried the pages, then made sure Calli would meet each of the four children at those exact spots," Nero said.

I nodded. "Someone like Gaius Knight. But Calli hasn't heard anything from him for so long, not since the mission that led Calli to me, the last of her children she found. After that, Gaius just vanished without a trace." I looked to Calli for confirmation.

"Yes. I thought he'd been killed on a job, but given what we've seen, now I'm not so sure anymore. More likely, after I'd taken you five in, I'd served my purpose and he had no reason to see me again."

"It seems Thea's grimoire is related in some way to not only Bella, but to Zane, Tessa, and Gin too," I said. "But why? Why did Ava lead Bella down this path? And what does the demon have planned for all of you?"

"Let's find out." Bella stacked the pages together. There was a flash of magic, then the four pages were one.

"Cool spell, but…" I stared at the still-blank page in her hand. "Wasn't something more supposed to happen?"

"The pages were supposed to combine to reveal the parchment's secret," said Bella. "I'd hoped it was a map that would lead us to Thea's grimoire."

"Maybe it is and we still need to decipher it," Harker suggested. "Look there."

Bella took a closer look at the page. "The parchment isn't entirely blank."

"It looks pretty blank to me," I told her.

"There's a…shadow. I can't read it." She shook the parchment. "The pages combined together into one, so there's magic at play here. There has to be info in there, secrets hidden inside the parchment. I will need to decipher the page in order for us to use it."

"So, a recipe for some really good cookies?" I asked hopefully.

Bella was already grabbing a few books. "There must be some way to expose the secrets of the paper. I must consult my books."

But Calli closed Bella's books and pushed them aside. "There will be plenty of time for that later. Right now, we have more pressing matters. This is the first time in two years that we've all been together, the first time in too long that Zane is with us. We must savor moments like these, for who knows when they will come again." With that said, Calli set a cheesecake on the table.

Some time later, after a lot of cheesecake—and a lot of familial banter—dessert was over. Calli had been right. It was about time we were all together again.

I helped Calli clear the table. I even did it without magic, just in case I accidentally overshot the sink and shattered Calli's favorite cake plates against the kitchen wall.

Zane had gone outside with Gin and Tessa. From my place in front of the sink, I could see them throwing small balls at the cans they'd lined up on the fence, just like we'd done back when we'd been kids.

Bella stood beside me, drying the dishes that I washed. It all felt so normal, so completely unlike everything else going on in our lives. It was nice to be normal for a spell.

I had just finished telling Bella about my misadventure with Faris and Grace.

"Grace claims you were taken from her," Bella said.

"Yes, but she doesn't know who did it. She did accuse Faris of doing it, though." I handed over the plate I'd just washed.

She grabbed a new, dry towel. "Ava claims Grace sent you to Earth."

"Then one of them is lying. Or both of them are."

"The question is why."

"I don't know. And trying to think like a deity gives me a headache." I winked at her. "And a god complex."

Bella laughed at my joke. She had such a pretty, proper laugh. It was not at all like the wild chortles that came out of me.

"All I know is Ava has a plan for me," she said. "And that this plan seems to involve finding Thea. Maybe my efforts to locate Thea's grimoire will help me find her. But that really makes me wonder if I should be looking for it."

"Ignorance is not bliss when it concerns gods and demons," I told her. "Our best weapon against their machinations is to arm ourselves with enough knowledge to realize when they're trying to manipulate us, so that maybe we can even outfox them."

Bella said quietly, "Knowledge truly is power."

"Yep."

"Still, I feel conflicted, you know? I don't want to do as Ava wants, but I do want to find my mother. I want to understand how I came to be without either of my parents knowing I even exist," she said. "And I want to know how Thea, who doesn't know her own daughter exists, could have created a grimoire made up of four pieces, each one hidden where Tessa, Gin, Zane, and I met Calli."

Tessa popped into the kitchen—literally—and grabbed Bella by the hand, dragging her away from the sink. "Stop worrying, Mistress Witch, or you'll give yourself worry wrinkles. Come out and play." Tessa turned a reproaching glance on me. "I would invite you too, Leda, but your overbearing archangel considers throwing balls at aluminum cans to be too dangerous for you in your delicate condition. You might want to have a chat with him about that. I think all that overdosing on Nectar has made him paranoid and kind of crazy. Sexy too, of course. But so crazy."

Then Tessa pulled Bella outside, chuckling all the way. I joined Nero in the living room. Calli was there too, grilling Harker.

"You and Bella have been spending a lot of time together lately," Calli said calmly.

Uh-oh. It was that exact kind of calm she exuded when she was preparing to shoot someone.

"So we have." Harker was leaning casually against the wall, doing a superb job of looking unperturbed despite Calli's sniper stare.

Calli pursed her lips. "Dare I ask what your intentions are?"

"You may dare, but you might not appreciate the answer," he said smoothly.

"Now, see here, young man—"

"I am over two hundred years old," Harker said.

She frowned. "What's your point?"

"I am not a young man. In fact, I am older than you."

"In matters of love, all men are boys, no matter how old they are," Calli said.

"Or how angelic they are?" He gave one of his brows an enigmatic lift.

"All angels are trouble," Calli declared.

"Even Leda?" Harker posed.

"Especially Leda."

"Hey!" I protested.

"But Leda is family," Calli continued. "She would do anything to protect us, just as we would do anything to protect her. We love her."

I hiccuped.

Everyone looked at me.

"Sorry." I hiccuped again. "Calli's words have made me a little emotional."

Nero wrapped his arm around me and I nestled up closer to him.

Calli's level stare snapped back to Harker. "But you aren't family, Colonel. How do I know you aren't going to drag Bella into all your angel drama?"

"To be fair, Calli, Bella is the one who's dragged Harker into all her drama," I pointed out. "And, from the looks of it, he has loved every moment of it because it meant spending time with her."

"You are hardly impartial, Leda. He is your friend."

"Which means I know him well enough to vouch for his character," I told her. "And you trust Nero, right? Nero can vouch for him too. They've known each other forever."

"Sure I can vouch for Harker. He only kills people who actually deserve it," Nero told Calli seriously.

Harker shook his head. "You call that helping?"

Nero shrugged.

"I know you care for Bella, but I also know exactly how the Legion of Angels works," Calli said to Harker. "If the Legion discovers that you are magically compatible with one of their female soldiers, they will order you to marry her. And where will that leave Bella?"

With a broken heart. I'd been so excited to see Bella and Harker together that I hadn't thought about that. But Calli had. And one quick look at Nero told me he'd considered the possibility too.

Harker was silent. He looked like he didn't know what to say.

"Nyx is in no hurry to find Harker a wife," Nero told Calli. "It often takes years to find a soldier compatible with an angel. We're not a very fertile bunch."

"Whether it takes years or centuries, it doesn't matter," replied Calli. "It will happen eventually. In fact, the longer it takes, the more Bella will grow attached to him. And the harder the end will be for her."

"It's pointless to worry about things that are mere speculation," Nero said. "Perhaps the Legion will never find Harker a wife. Some angels never marry. Nyx had all but given up on finding someone magically compatible with me." He looked at me with love in his eyes.

"I'm happy things worked out for you and Leda," Calli said, her tone softening a tad. "But most Legion soldiers are not so lucky. And it's certainly not pointless for me to be concerned about Bella's future."

"This is a matter between Harker and Bella," Nero said. "In the end, it's not up to you or me."

"That's my point. In the end, it will be up to the Legion."

"They both know what they're getting into. Would you deny them happiness now because it might not work out later?" Nero asked her. "If no one ever took a chance on love, then no one would ever experience love."

Calli was quiet for a moment before she spoke again. "Angels aren't known for taking a chance on love. You've changed, General. For the better. If more angels allowed themselves to feel emotion, the world would be a brighter, kinder place."

"Does that mean you aren't going to stand in the way of Bella and Harker?" I asked her.

"I couldn't stand in their way if I wanted to. Bella is as stubborn as you, Leda. She's just better at hiding it." Calli shook her head, and her gaze shifted back to Harker. "Take a chance on love then."

Harker dipped his chin to her in acknowledgment.

"All right. Who's up for a cup of tea?" Calli said brightly, as though she hadn't just interrogated Harker.

She soon returned from the kitchen, holding a tray loaded with a steaming kettle and four cups.

For a few minutes, we all sat there in silence, sipping our tea. I could hear the ding of balls hitting aluminum cans—and the crash of those cans hitting the ground outside. And laughter. Lots of laughter, mixed with joyous shouting and cheering. It was good to have the whole family together again.

But then the shouts soured. Followed by screams. And gunfire.

I jumped to my feet and ran for the front door. Nero, Calli, and Harker were right behind me. I threw open the door and rushed outside.

That's when I saw her. Bella was lying on the ground, bleeding out everywhere.