“Any news on Davenport?”
“No.” He bit out the word.
Jace thought it was my fault that Davenport had gotten away, but I hadn’t been lying when I’d told him there was no way I could have made it to the deserter. There had been too many soldiers. Even if my path had been clear, I’d never had made it all the way up the walls to him before he slipped away. He was too fast, and I couldn’t fly. I wondered how he’d gotten way up there so fast.
“We’ll find him,” I told Jace.
He rose to his feet. “I spoke to some of our Pioneer prisoners.”
There was no doubt as to what he meant by ‘spoke’. After all, he was the son of a Legion Interrogator.
“The deserter has disappeared without a trace,” Jace continued. “We can’t track him, and no one knows where he was going.”
“You’re not going after him,” I realized.
“No.” He didn’t look happy. He’d been tracking Davenport for months. Catching the deserter was important to him—and to Colonel Fireswift, who hated traitors even more than he hated me.
“The First Angel has decided that we have bigger fish to fry,” Jace said. “The Interrogators will question our prisoners to find out where the rest of the kidnapped teenagers are being held. Then we will free them.”
“But not before you destroy the Pioneers for daring to defy the gods.”
Save the prisoners and punish a whole ban of traitors all at once? Nyx was nothing if not efficient.
“That’s how things are done, Leda. All threats to the gods’ order must be obliterated. If criminals get away with defying the gods, then others see that. They will think the Legion is weak. More criminals will rise, swarms of them, too many to control. A plague of crime will consume the Earth. More innocent people will get hurt. I know your sisters are important to you, but they are just two people. Many more will suffer if we don’t put everything into stopping the Pioneers’ rebellion.”
He had a point. Centuries ago, when the world fell to the monsters, many people had turned on one another. Back then, it had been every man for himself. Crime rose as gangsters competed in the scramble to the top, battling one another to fill the power vacuum. That continued until the gods stepped in and brought back order. So as viciously merciless as the Legion could be, they were looking out for the greater good. Sometimes the greater good meant not making any single person important; it meant making the collective of people important.
I was all for serving the greater good—most of the time. But Gin and Tessa were not random numbers in a casualties-of-war spreadsheet. These were my sisters we were talking about. They were important to me. Very important. The Legion could make the Pioneers their priority, but I was making Tessa and Gin mine.
The thing was, if the Legion found out about my sisters’ magic, they would suddenly make them a priority too. That just wasn’t the sort of priority we wanted. If their magic was really so unique, the Legion would turn them over to the gods, who would use my sisters for their own purposes. People had gone to war over their magic; their powers surely weren’t something as innocuous as making the world’s best pizza.
In that way, Jace’s indifference toward my sisters was reassuring—because that meant the Legion didn’t know about their magic. As long as there were other kidnapped people still missing, my sisters blended into the crowd. They didn’t stand out as special. The Legion was more focused on people like the missing daughter of an angel. She was just a few months shy of her twenty-second birthday, when she could join the Legion and claim her magical legacy.
Jace met my gaze, his eyes hard. “I know that look.”
“What look?”
“That look of calculation in your eyes.”
“Oh?”
“It’s the same look you got just before you went off alone to rescue General Windstriker on the Black Plains during our first mission. It’s the look you get when you’re about to take matters into your own hands.”
I snorted. “That’s my default look. I always take matters into my own hands.”
“For once, let the Legion Interrogators do their job instead of going off your own reckless adventure,” he said, his voice almost pleading.
“Now what would be the fun in that?” I countered with a smirk.
“I’m serious, Leda.”
“Of course you are.”
A heavy sigh rocked his chest. “If you get yourself into trouble, I can’t protect you from my father’s wrath. I’ve already covered for you enough as it is.”
“What do you mean by ‘covered for you’?”
“My father wasn’t happy to learn that Hardwicke is dead. He would have been a valuable source of information.”
And that’s why Calli had killed him, so the Legion wouldn’t find out about Gin and Tessa—or how the Earth’s criminal underworld was going to war over their magic.
“I told him Hardwicke was killed in the crossfire,” Jace continued. “Because if he knew it was you, he would find a way to punish you.”
I didn’t doubt that. That’s why I’d said that I’d shot Hardwicke, to protect Calli from the Legion’s wrath. And now Jace was covering for me.
“You didn’t have to do that,” I told him.
A smile twisted his lips. “Sure I did. If my father killed you, he’d ruin our competition. And I want to see the look on your face when I get my wings first.”
“Keep on smiling, Fireswift. You’ll need these happy memories to make it through the day when I win.”
“Oh, really? From where I’m standing, I’ve already won.”
“Then you must be standing on your head, doofus.”
“Watch your mouth, Lieutenant,” he snapped, but a hint of amusement tainted his sharp rebuttal.
I drew my mouth into a smile. I could tell from his shaking shoulders, Jace was trying really hard not to laugh.
“Have you ever considered that I’m just letting you think you’re winning?” I asked. “Then, at the last moment, I’ll jump out ahead, leaving you in the dust.”
“There’s little time left for your miraculous save, Pandora.”
True. He had just two levels to go before he became an angel, and I still had three. Plus, right now I had more important things to worry about than leveling up my magic. Like saving my sisters.
And I wasn’t doing very well on that task either. I still had no idea where Gin and Tessa were being held. I’d broken Hardwicke’s mind, and he hadn’t been lying when he’d said he didn’t know where they were. Maybe some of his soldiers would know. Maybe they’d overheard something during a prisoner transfer. That was an awful lot of maybes.
“Your mind is somewhere else,” Jace said seriously.
“Yes, sorry. As fun as this competition between us is, I have a lot on my mind right now.”
“Understandable. You should give your mind a break and try to get some sleep while you still can.”
He had a point. I hadn’t slept much last night. And who knew when we’d have to head out again.
“I’ll let you know as soon as I know anything,” he promised, setting his hand on my arm.
I forced a cheerful smile; lately, it had been hard to keep my spirits up. “Thanks,” I said, then I left the office.
But I didn’t go to my room. My mind was too busy, buzzing with worries. Sleep would be impossible. I hurried down the hall, my body as restless as my mind. There was only one remedy for that.
I went to the training hall, hoping to tire myself out. I found Meda and Maya waiting for me there instead. Though the sister goddesses were dressed in identical green satin dresses, their accessories differed. Meda had embellished her dress with a gold belt; potion vials dangled from it like tree ornaments. She wore a slender dagger at her waist as well. Silver strands of gemstones hung from her sister Maya’s belt. And they were both wearing gold headbands set with emeralds.
“You have quite a problem,” Meda said.
Her tone was very relaxed, very casual, but I knew there was magic beneath those innocent, sweet facades. The two sisters were powerful and dangerous goddesses.