“You should ask your sister Bella to look at the potion the Pioneers take to gain their powers,” Maya said.
And then, before I could respond, the goddesses were gone. Talk about cryptic. I couldn’t decide if they thought they were helping out, or if they were just being purposefully vague. But on the plus side, they hadn’t tried to kill me. I was going to call that one step up from my most recent heavenly visits.
I browsed through the training programs on the panel and selected one called the Wall of Woe. Now that was a great name.
As soon as I activated the training program, a telekinetic barrier slid out of the floor, swallowing me in a glowing blue bubble. I poked it with my finger, and it nipped back with a hiss. It seemed like I was supposed to break through the barrier by neutralizing the telekinetic energy.
Someone stepped into the gym, but I couldn’t make out the face through the blurry barrier.
“You’re not sleeping,” Jace’s voice spoke over the hum and hiss.
“My mind is too busy to sleep.” Thinking back on what Meda and Maya had said, I decided to go out on a limb. “Have your people looked at the Pioneers’ blood?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Hardwicke told me the Pioneers supernatural powers come from a potion.”
“Before he attacked you and you had to shoot him.” Jace was not buying my story.
“Yeah, well, you know me. I talk to people in battle all the time.”
“I know. But they don’t always talk back. Especially not to volunteer important information.”
“He didn’t exactly volunteer it willingly.”
“Oh?”
“I might have crushed his mind like a nut and squeezed his secrets out of him,” I admitted.
Jace was quiet. With the blurry blue bubble blocking my view, I couldn’t gauge his reaction very well. I couldn’t even see his face.
“Jace?”
“You crushed his mind,” he said slowly. “While fighting him.”
Actually, while fighting him, I’d mesmerized him with my hair. And as he stood there frozen, I’d cuffed him to the wall.
But all I said was, “You’re not the only one who can multitask magic, hotshot.”
“Have your abilities been evaluated yet?”
“Evaluated?”
“Scored. Not everyone possesses all magical abilities equally. We all have our strengths and weaknesses.”
“Magic and counter magic.”
He nodded. “Eventually, the Legion evaluates all of us who survive long enough. It’s how they decide where to put us, where we’ll be the most useful. People with powerful witchcraft magic go to the Legion research laboratories and hospital departments. Elementals with earth and metal magic become the Legion’s blacksmiths. And people with exceptional siren magic become Interrogators.”
“I think I recall a few memos about testing on my schedule,” I said. “But I’ve missed all my appointments so far. I’ve been a little busy stopping psychopaths to play lab rat.”
“If my father finds out about your siren magic, he’ll make you an Interrogator.”
I didn’t want to be an Interrogator. “I don’t think I have the right temperament for the job.”
“He won’t give you a choice.”
“Then it’s a good thing you’re good at keeping my secrets.”
He fell silent again.
“Jace?”
“I’m still here.”
“So what did you find in the Pioneers’ blood?” I asked him.
“Nothing. No traces of magical substances. In fact, their blood was completely human. It was devoid of magic.”
The Wall of Woe zapped me. I gave it the evil eye. It shifted from dark cerulean to a blue so light that it was nearly transparent. I could finally see Jace. The haze of the bubble made his face glow; there was an unnatural glossy sheen to it, like all his features had been partially blurred out.
“That’s impossible,” I told Jace. “Hardwicke’s guards all possessed supernatural powers. Some of them could wield more than one supernatural power.”
“Including Hardwicke?”
“Yes, he pretty much had them all. So how can your lab’s test claim they possess no magic? There should be traces of the magic potion in their blood.” Unless… “Idiots,” I muttered.
“I hope you’re not talking about me.”
“No, not you. Your father’s Interrogators. They mucked this all up brilliantly.”
“How?”
“What’s the first thing Legion Interrogators do before they begin questioning a supernatural?”
“As a rule, they administer a magic-blocking potion to neutralize their powers.”
“And that’s why the labs didn’t find any magic in the Pioneers’ bodies.”
“The Interrogators’ potion obliterated any traces of it,” Jace realized.
“Right. In their attempt to make the prisoners not a threat, the Interrogators made them useless. That means if we want to analyze the Pioneers’ potion, we need to capture a fresh new prisoner. If only we knew where they’re all hiding.”
“The organization’s cells are independent. None of the common soldiers know anything about the other cells. Otherwise, we would have taken them out years ago.”
“How about you give me a go at finding the Pioneers?” I said.
“You?”
“Before joining the illustrious Legion of Angels, I used to be a bounty hunter, remember? I’m good at tracking people.”
I’d been doing it for a decade, ever since Calli had started bringing me on jobs.
“I doubt my father would agree to that,” he said.
“Because you need to get all the credit.”
“Yeah, sometimes I wonder if this is more about putting you down than about pushing me up.”
I wouldn’t have been surprised. Colonel Fireswift considered it blasphemy that a dirty street rat like me could make it into the Legion of Angels, let alone had any shot of becoming an angel before his son.
“What your father doesn’t know won’t hurt him,” I said.
He looked at me like my hair was on fire—or more like I’d tried to set his hair on fire.
“What do you know about the Legion deserter?” I asked. “Most specifically, how was his magic evaluated?”
“The Legion’s tests determined that witchcraft is Davenport’s strongest power by a long shot. He must be descended from witches.”
“Don’t you think that’s a bit too much of a coincidence?”
“What do you mean?” he asked, his eyes lighting up with excitement. He was hoping to nab the deserter as part of this after all.
“Davenport was working with the Pioneers. What if he’s the one who designed the Pioneers’ magic potion? You said his specialty is Witch’s Cauldron,” I pointed out.
Jace’s face fell in disappointment, as though he’d expected that I had something better. Apparently, my wild theory had fallen far from the mark.
“No one, not even a former major in the Legion of Angels, is so good that he could create a potion to bestow magic upon mundane humans,” he stated. “You simply cannot give people the power of the Legion without the consequences. Nectar and Venom are the only potions with the power to bestow magic. What you’re saying isn’t just crazy talk; it’s heresy.”
“Then how do you explain the Pioneers’ powers?” I shot back.
“I can’t,” he said, chewing on his lower lip. This affront to the rules of the world as he knew them was bothering him.
It was bothering me too. There were so many questions, so many things that just didn’t add up. And the deeper I dug, the more I found myself buried in uncertainty.
The Wall of Woe zapped me again, irritated that I’d been ignoring it. I swore at it under my breath.
“It’s on a timer, you know. It’s going to crush you if you don’t break through,” Jace told me.