“What the hell is the matter with you?” I held him trapped inside my band of lightning, enduring the pain of his magical backlash as he struggled to free himself.
In a flash of magic, his wings shot out. They flapped hard and fast. He was trying to leverage his wing strength to overpower me and break free. My pulse pounding in my ears, I gripped tightly to my whip. I wasn’t letting him get away like that, not after all that he’d done to us.
I pulled him around, and his back slammed into my chest. I locked my arms around him. His wings were now trapped, unable to move. I had his arms pinned to his sides.
He pushed against me with all his strength. He was bigger and stronger than I was, and anger was a poor substitute for food. My grip was slipping. He was going to break free.
I hit his mind with my siren magic. It was a punch as hard as any telekinetic strike. I might have been no match for him physically, but he was no match for my mind.
I pushed him into his own mind, trapping him there. Even as his body went still, his mind banged against mine, thrashing to break my hold over him. Blood poured out of my nose and my head rang, but I held on, refusing to budge. Soulslayer wouldn’t be getting out. He had tortured my sisters; he was fully prepared to kill each and every one of us. And if he got free, he would torture and kill a whole lot more people.
No, he wouldn’t. I wouldn’t allow it. He wouldn’t be hurting anyone ever again.
I slammed my mind against his, crushing his will under the weight of mine. His mind stopped fighting. It was mine. He was mine. I’d broken a dark angel. Adrenaline surged inside of me at the realization of my power. I wasn’t weak anymore. I could do anything. I could control anyone. Humans, supernaturals, angels…gods?
I laughed at the delightfully crazy idea. Imagine me barging into the gods’ council and making them all behave themselves. Then I’d go to hell and do the same to the demons. This immortal war would be over once and for all, the realms finally united under a single glorious banner. My banner.
I laughed again, even as a little voice inside of me whispered quietly. What was it saying?
Leda, Vanquisher of the Corrupt. Empress of Heaven and Hell and all the Realms? it said.
Yes, I replied defensively.
And why not? I’d bled for this Earth. I’d sacrificed to keep its people safe. The humans were too busy fighting one another to rule themselves. And the gods and demons didn’t understand mortals; they didn’t know what was best for them. But I did. I’d been mortal. I had the light and dark magic of gods and demons. I was the perfect choice to rule over them all.
The gods and demons each believe the same, said the voice. As do the Pioneers.
That’s different, I scoffed.
No, it’s not. The gods, demons, and Pioneers see themselves as champions of peace and freedom—as long as your freedom doesn’t challenge their authority. We all know what happens when someone doesn’t fit into their world order.
They were labelled as corrupt, as unclean, as tainted. Just as the gods had done to Nero’s father.
Nero. The thought of him quelled the euphoria of madness burning inside of me. I began to remember where I was—and what I’d been contemplating.
The thrill of crushing Soulslayer’s mind had gone straight to my head. I’d lost my mind. I’d succumbed to the fantasy that I could take on the gods and demons too. In that moment of madness, I’d truly believed that I could control them all and rule over not only heaven and hell, but over all the realms. I didn’t have enough power to pull that off. And even if I could do it, I certainly shouldn’t do it.
My siren’s song hadn’t just seduced Soulslayer’s mind; it had seduced mine too. I’d been so caught up in the thrill of having that much control over someone so powerful—bolstered by the knowledge that I could make him do anything I wanted—that I’d gone crazy with power lust. I’d lost myself.
I pulled back from the sweet temptation of my magic, the layer that I’d wrapped around Soulslayer’s mind. I wasn’t this person, and I didn’t ever want to be.
I released my hold on the dark angel and stepped back. He didn’t run. His legs just gave out, and he fell to the floor. A few seconds passed, but he didn’t get up. I went to him, flipping over his heavy body. I felt his pulse, but there was none. He was dead.
“How could this be?” I gasped in shock.
“You really are everything I’d hoped you to be,” Sonja said.
I whirled around to find the demon standing there. It was not quite a smile on her face. It was more like a sense of elation, of things realized. It was all her hopes and fears bundled into one tidy package.
Sonja was standing too close to Gin and Tessa. I rose slowly to put myself between my sisters and the demon. Magic flashed, blinding me. When my vision cleared, the demon was gone. Tessa and Gin were still there.
I stared down at the dead dark angel. How was he dead? Had I killed him?
I took a closer look at his body. His neck was broken. After I’d crushed his mind, high on the power, I’d gone further. I’d crushed his body too. And I’d had him so under my spell that he hadn’t even fought me.
Angels were nearly indestructible, and yet I’d broken him. I looked down at my shaking, bloody hands, the hands of a monster. I’d lost all control over my magic. Worse yet, when I was caught up in the moment, I didn’t even want to control it.
My sisters approached me.
“Stay away,” I said, backing up. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“We know you would never hurt us, Leda,” Gin told me.
“You came to save us. And now we’re all going to get out of here,” added Tessa.
I just stared at the dead dark angel, frozen, Sonja’s words looping over and over again inside my head.
There has never been another like you.
Forget the beasts on the plains. I was the true monster created in this unending war between heaven and hell.
“Leda!” Gin shouted, shaking me.
There was a creak from above, and the ceiling came crashing down. That snapped me out of my mind’s prison. I pumped more magic into the telekinetic barrier to hold off the chunks of stone. It was withstanding the barrage of the collapsing columns—for now.
I spotted a doorway lit up with flames—and beyond that, part of the building was still intact. “Let’s get out of here,” I told my sisters.
As soon as we began to move, the debris and flames floating around us grew heavy. Seams split open across my barrier. I stopped. We couldn’t make it through the debris field. I wasn’t strong enough to adjust the barrier to handle the shifting streams of debris and fire as we walked. We were stuck.
I saw Nero past the doorway of fire. My heart skipped in relief—and alarm. Nero was battling a dark angel. Magic flashed between them—streaks of fire and lightning, of wind and ice. Chunks of marble burst out of the ground and broke off the walls. The two angels shot the polished stones between them.
Nero avoided one of the dark angel’s rocks, but a second one grazed his arm, the sharp, broken edges cutting his skin and drawing blood. Nero didn’t stop. He just kept fighting, as though he weren’t injured at all, a look of fierce, unrelenting determination etched into his face. A vicious glean shone in his green eyes. His leather clothes shone with blood, and most of it wasn’t even his own.
Damiel was fighting two dark angels at once. They were bombarding him with everything they had. Damiel managed to evade most of it, but not all. The pieces that got through didn’t seem to bother him. Deflecting and reflecting, he shot most of the dark angels’ spells and debris back at them.
Calli and Bella were there too, battling the soldiers of the Dark Force. Bella brewed and threw potions. She conjured smoke and curses, explosions and pepper mist. And all the while, Calli stood back-to-back with her, shooting the soldiers. When she ran out of bullets, she pulled out a bow and shot arrows coated in Bella’s potions.