“He didn’t have much of a choice, Leda,” Calli told me. “He tried to hold out, but as soon as the criminals learned the sheriff didn’t have the manpower to keep them out, they flocked here in droves. I tried to help him. So did a few others. But it wasn’t enough. He had to make the deal or watch the town burn to the ground, its people murdered, their houses stripped bare.”
Two pieces of warped metal hit my plate. I looked down at my hand to find I’d broken my fork in half. I knew I wasn’t allowed to interfere. As long as the district lords did nothing against the gods’ will, as long as they continued to make donations to the Legion and to the Pilgrims, my hands were tied.
“Come on, Leda. Let’s not speak of these unhappy things,” Calli said. “There’s nothing we can do to change them. We’ll survive just as we always have. The tides will turn, and we’ll get our chance to right this wrong.”
“Do you really think so?”
“Of course.”
“Yes,” Bella agreed. “Hope is a powerful magic, Leda. Don’t forget that. We’ll save this town. And we’ll save Zane. Tell them what you told me, about how you saw him.”
“You saw him?” Gin said, her eyes going wide. “Where?”
“I didn’t see him in person. I caught a passing glimpse of him. He’s safe. For now.”
“How did you see him?” Tessa asked me. “I thought you wouldn’t gain that kind of magic until you became an angel.”
“I don’t have that magic. I…borrowed it for a short time. It wasn’t enough to track him down, but at least I got to see that he’s all right.”
“So the dark angels of hell don’t have him?” Gin asked.
“Neither gods nor demons have him. He is someplace where he feels safe. That’s all I know.”
“How did you borrow this magic?” Tessa asked. “Could you do it again so we can all see Zane?”
I shook my head. “It doesn’t work that way.”
“Then how does it work?”
I hesitated.
“You performed a blood exchange with an angel, didn’t you?” Calli asked.
Tessa’s jaw dropped.
“And with not just any angel,” Calli continued. “With Nero Windstriker.”
“Yes.” The word hung over the table, filling the silence.
“Leda.” Calli sighed. “He’s an angel. When push comes to shove, he will choose the Legion over your brother. You can’t trust him.”
“He’s not like that. He’s…different.”
“I thought you knew better, but you’re still just as naive as Tessa.”
“Hey!” Tessa exclaimed in protest.
“Nero knew about Zane. I didn’t tell him. He came to me, offering his help. He’s been training me, helping me get stronger.”
“And you never wondered why?”
“Because he’s a good person.”
“He’s not a person, Leda. He’s an angel. He might look like us. He might even talk like us, but he is not like us. None of them are. The gods’ Nectar has changed them. They’re no longer human.”
“Neither am I!” I shouted, jumping up. “I’ve drunk the gods’ Nectar, and I will do it again many more times before this is over. To find Zane and bring him back to us, I will become an angel, the very thing you hate.”
“I don’t hate the angels.” Calli rose to her feet. “I just want you to be wary of trusting them.”
“Will you trust me when I’m an angel.”
“Always.” She set her hands on my cheeks, pressing her forehead to mine. “Because I know you will always be you. You’re stronger than the Nectar. It won’t change you. You are too good.”
I set my hands over hers. “Nero is good too. I can feel it in his magic, in his blood.”
Calli’s brows drew together. “There is darkness in that angel.”
“There’s darkness in me too.” Darkness wasn’t evil. And light wasn’t goodness. Darkness and light were just two sides of the same magic. “Please, Calli…Mom. You need to trust me.”
“Always.” She squeezed my hands. Her expression lightened. “Though I do reserve the right to warn you about getting involved with an angel like Nero Windstriker. Mother’s prerogative.”
I laughed. “Of course.”
Calli lifted the cover off a glass dish. The delicious aroma of baked apple and cinnamon rose up. It was the sweetest smell in the world—because it smelled like home.
“We get to tease you about Nero Windstriker, you know. Sisters’ prerogative.” Tessa said, heaping steaming cinnamon apples onto her plate. “What’s it like to kiss an angel?”
“I see you’re starting with the easy questions right off the bat,” I commented.
She smiled at me. “Spill. I want to know all about that angel’s lips.”
“It’s classified.”
“His lips are classified?”
“Yep.”
“Come on, Leda. I’m dying here. You have to give me something.”
“Fine. Nero asked me out on a date.”
Her eyes sparkled in delight. “And how was it?”
“I don’t know. It hasn’t happened yet. We’ve both been too busy the past four months.”
“He asked you out four months ago, and you still haven’t gone on a date?”
“Pretty much.”
“But you have kissed him right? And exchanged blood with him? What was it like?”
Not for your ears, little sister. I stretched out my arms and yawned loudly. “Wow, would you look at the time! I have to get up really early tomorrow, so I’d best be going to bed now.”
“Coward,” Tessa muttered.
“I’m going to go to bed too,” Bella said, following me into the bathroom.
After we’d brushed our teeth, we headed into the bedroom we’d shared since we were kids. Our old bed waited for us. We dove in and pulled the blanket over our chins.
“You disappointed Tessa,” Bella told him, her mouth twitching.
“When you want to know everything there is to know in the world, you’re going to be disappointed now and again.” I hugged my sister to me. “I did want to ask you something, though.”
“Oh?”
“It’s about the gods’ Nectar.”
“I think you know more about Nectar than I do, Leda. The offices and buildings of the Legion are the only places on Earth you can find it. We witches don’t have access to Nectar.”
“But you do have access to knowledge. You must have read about Nectar,” I said.
“A little. I know it’s a poison, more powerful than any poison on Earth. That’s why Legion soldiers can’t be poisoned. Your bodies have already survived the strongest poison known to man—and it changed you, bestowing you with powerful magical gifts.”
“What do you know about what happens when someone drinks the Nectar?” I asked her.
“If the person is uninitiated, the Nectar either kills them or it unlocks their magical potential. The initiates train and then drink the Nectar again, this time in a less diluted form. Those who survive gain the gods’ first gift. With each new level, each new ability, you drink a stronger, less diluted Nectar. I’ve heard it’s an agonizing ordeal.”
“Yes,” I said, remembering the faces of everyone I ever saw drink the Nectar in a promotion ceremony. “It’s agonizing. For them. But not for me. Nectar doesn’t hurt me. It makes me drunk.”
Bella went very still. “I remember reading a case of someone who had that reaction. Both his parents were angels.”
“Nero has the same reaction to Nectar, and both of his parents are angels. He’s the only person I know of with two angel parents, in fact. Maybe you read about him.”
“Maybe. The study didn’t list names.”
“Bella, do you think it means… Do you think it means both my parents were angels too? That I’m a brat of the highest tier?”