Chapter 16

We listened to people's petitions the entire day. One man pleaded for us to cure the deadly disease that was killing his young daughter. That one brought a tear to my eye. There was also a fair share of petty disputes—from housing rights, to fights between neighbors, to requested repairs to public buildings. There were also a few complaints about loud werewolves, some blood feuds, and a very heated dispute involving a particularly wild goat. And everything and anything in between.

Afterwards, we retreated to our garden library and just tried to unwind.

"I must say, I never realized how discontent humanity was with, well, everything," Cadence said.

"That's because you never had to live in the real world," I teased her.

As the daughter of an archangel, Cadence had lived a very different life than most people.

Alice rubbed her head like it hurt. "This isn't anything like the real world that I remember."

"I am more exhausted now than I would have been after a long, hard day of training." Andromeda sipped from her teacup.

"I found the whole thing invigorating actually," Cadence said. "So many different, varying situations to solve. It was truly fascinating."

Alice chuckled. "The story about the goat was certainly fascinating."

"Some of their problems were quite silly, but others were troubling." Andromeda frowned. "How has the world become this place?"

"Because we mostly abandoned humanity to their own devices while we were busy sorting out all the supernaturals, demonic threats, and potentially world-ending events," I said. "But it's not too late to turn things around."

Cadence handed me a cookie. "I like your optimism, Leda. You never give up."

"Your son taught me that angels aren't quitters."

"I suspect you weren't much of a quitter before you joined the Legion either." Cadence poured me some tea.

"No, I wasn't." I winked over my teacup at her. "Especially when it came to quitting to talk."

"I hadn't noticed."

I snorted.

"Leda, has your cat grown bigger in the last week?" Alice asked me.

She was watching Angel in awe. My cat, who was taking up a sofa all her herself, was busily grooming herself. Considering her size, the project would take a while.

"Angel is always growing," I said. "I wonder if she'll ever stop."

My cat was the size of a tiger now. And, if I'd wanted to, I could have ridden her like a horse.

"We might assume that Angel's size is proportional to how much magic you might need to channel through her," Cadence said. "After all, she is your Companion, a reservoir for your magic."

"Right now, my daughter's magic is too much for my body, so Angel is helping there?" I wondered.

"Perhaps. You are a very young angel, Leda. And you have much more magic than your body is ready to handle. Remember, just two years ago, you had virtually no magic at all."

Well, no magic besides my vampire-mesmerizing hair that made the bloodsuckers want to bite me. Thank goodness I'd graduated beyond that useless kind of magic.

"You gained a lot of magic in a very short time," Cadence said. "That is bound to introduce complications. But given time, your body will ripen, allowing it to handle your growing magic better."

"I think we're all about to ripen a great deal." Andromeda patted her flat tummy.

"Depends," Alice said. "My belly never popped until much later."

"Must be all the yoga," I told her.

Alice had taught us all a few yoga moves, but I just couldn't make my body contort in that way. Cadence and Andromeda were much better at it. They didn't look like complete fools doing it, not like I did. If I weren't so damn stubborn, I would have stopped trying.

Alice smiled. "Yoga: good for the body, good for the mind, good for the soul."

"But bad for the ego," I muttered.

Alice set her hand gently on mine. "You'll get it eventually."

I had a wicked thought. "Say, Alice, have you ever tried teaching yoga to your husband?"

"Long ago, but he found inner peace too boring to hold his interest."

I laughed. That sounded just like Colonel Fireswift.

Angel glanced at us, then contorted her body into a pose even Alice couldn't have managed. Then my cat continued with her grooming, moving on to her wings, a souvenir from our time in the Lost City. She could now summon the wings at will, just like an angel. She really was living up to her name. Angel was a true angel cat.

"That is one impressive feline," Andromeda said. "What does she eat?"

"You know, the usual cat stuff. Cheesecake. Oranges. Ice cream sandwiches."

Alice's brows peaked. "The usual, you say?"

"Angel also hunts the typical suspects, of course. Turkeys, rabbits, ducks. Now that she's larger, she's venturing into larger wildlife. She's sometimes gone for hours at a time, hunting."

"Or maybe she found herself a boyfriend," Andromeda suggested.

"Now that's a thought. Good for her." My smile faded. "But where would the poor girl find another cat her size? Where could she ever hope to find a companion who can keep up with her, another cat who hunts deer, not mice?" I plucked a cheese-and-cracker sandwich from the coffee table. "Such is the burden of being a kick ass woman, Angel," I told my cat. "We can all sympathize."

My cat meowed once, then hopped onto the table and took a piece of cheese for herself.

I patted her head. "That's right, treat yourself to some comfort food."

"Talking to cats now, Leda?" Calli asked as she sat down beside me.

"Calli, so glad you could join us. Have a snack."

She selected a healthy apple slice. My foster mother always set a good example.

"I have a job for you." I wiggled my eyebrows up and down. "A really good one."

Calli had been nagging me to give her something to do. She got bored if she didn't have any work to do—or people to take care of.

"I need you to contact as many bounty hunters as you can trust. I'm appointing you my Head of Freelance Stuff."

"A very important-sounding title," Calli commented.

"Give yourself any title you want."

"I think I'll go with the Director of Acquisition and Reclamation."

I whistled. "Fancy."

I handed Calli a folder of missions Alice had put together from today's petitions. Colonel Fireswift's wife was so orderly and organized. That must have been one reason he was so in love with her.

"There are a few good jobs in here," I told Calli. "A search and rescue operation to start. And a few missing person cases. I'm sure I'll soon have more for you."

Calli leafed through the folder. "Sounds pretty straightforward."

"Let me know how much you need to budget for the bounty hunters."

"Will do." She put down the folder. "Leda, I appreciate that you're giving me something to do, but you know I still don't like being stuck here in this protective bubble."

"Neither do I, but you raised me to always make the best of any situation. And right now, even stuck here on this airship, we can all make a big difference. We can turn around the lives of so many people of Earth. We can change their fate."

"Well, it is hard to argue with my own advice. And I'm very proud of what you're trying to do for all these people who've never had anyone look out for them." Calli grabbed the folder and rose to her feet. She tapped the front cover. "I'll get back to you on this," she said, offering me a smile.

Then she left the room.

I turned to the other ladies. "Where were we?"

"Your cat has eaten all of our cheese," Andromeda told me. "That's where we are."

"Not all of our cheese," I said. "Stash ate at least half of it himself."

I glanced back at Stash, who popped one of the aforementioned cheese pieces into his mouth. From the Court Chamber to the garden library, he was never far from my side. When Faris had assigned him to watch over me, he must have known my cousin would take my personal safety very seriously.

In another life, my father's gesture might have been heartwarming, but this wasn't another life. It was my crazy life. Faris only cared about keeping me alive because he saw me as an investment, as a unique weapon—and that went double for my unborn child.

"Pandora, when we were assigned the task of protecting the Angel of Chaos, I expected something a lot more exciting," Punch complained. "Instead we get a long, boring Angels' Court and tiny hors d'oeuvres."

"You seem to be enjoying those hors d'oeuvres," I pointed out. "You've had at least twenty of them."

"Because they're tiny." Punch squeezed two fingers close together. "And I'm big." He spread his arms wide.

"That's my brother Punch in a nutshell," Patch declared.

The whole team from Heaven's Army was here in the garden library right now. A few of them had been stationed in the Court Chamber at any given time during the day.

"I was sure something would attack the airship by now," Punch said. "Seriously, I'm disappointed. You're not living up to your name, Pandora. You're supposed to be the de facto trouble magnet. That's why I took this assignment."

I smirked at him. "I thought you took this assignment because when Faris says jump, you ask, how high?"

Punch snorted and patted me hard on the shoulder.

"I must agree with Punch," Octavian said.

Arabelle laughed. "That's a first."

Octavian's fingers drummed on the knife strapped to his arm. "I too was hoping for something more exciting than the Lords' Gala."

"But this is so much more important than fighting monsters or listening to bickering gods," I told them. "We are helping people who can't help themselves."

"Why ever would you want to help someone who can't even help themselves?" Devlin asked me.

"Indeed," said Theon. "How can the humans help you if they can't help themselves? What's the gain in that?"

I rose to my feet. "Because it's the right thing to do. It's not all about gain. It's about mercy. And compassion. Maybe helping some of those people will allow them to turn their fortunes around. And maybe they will help us later. But more importantly, helping people shows everyone that the Legion cares. Then other people will come forward to help us, to volunteer, because they know we have their back, that we will look out for them and for the greater good. Nyx told me to build up the trust of Earth's people, and that's exactly what I'm going to do."

Arabelle looked me over, then declared, "You might be wiser than your frazzled appearance would indicate."

"And your out-of-the-box thinking does often seem to work out," Devlin said. "You, Leda Pandora, might be just what this situation calls for."

That was high praise from the rule-abiding team leader of these godly soldiers. I smiled at him to let him know I appreciated his words.

The door opened, and two of the kitchen staff walked in, carrying tasty reinforcements.

"The next round of food is here, thank the gods," I said.

Octavian's mouth twisted into a smile. "You're welcome, Pandora."

I snorted.

Bella and Harker stepped into the room, right behind the people from the kitchen. Bella looked frazzled. Her hair, finally back to strawberry-blonde, was half falling out of her bun. It was no wonder. She'd tried to secure the bun with a pencil. My usually-composed sister was quite unravelled at the moment.

"What's wrong?" I asked her.

"Nothing is wrong, Leda. I've done it!" Bella grabbed a handful of crackers and stuffed them into her mouth.

"She hasn't eaten all day," Harker explained.

"How could I eat when I knew I was so close?" She grabbed more crackers.

"Close to what?" I asked her. "What have you done?"

"I finally found the right chemical to expose the parchment we put together in Purgatory. I've made it reveal its secrets." She grabbed a blueberry muffin and quickly ate it too.

"And?" I asked her. "Where does the map lead?"

"It's not a where, Leda. It's a who."

I frowned in confusion.

Bella showed me the parchment. The image now prominent on the surface was a hand-drawn illustration of a woman's face.

"This parchment is older than we are, right?" I asked her.

"Yes."

I knew who the woman in the drawing was: Arina Phoenix. Arina couldn't have been a day over thirty, but the picture of her on this decades-old parchment showed her exactly as she appeared today.