“Next stop: Purgatory,” the intercom roared over the rumbling of the train.

The announcement elicited a chorus of chortles from my fellow passengers. Looking up from the book I was reading, I glanced across the aisle. The proud owners of that merry laughter were six twenty-somethings—college guys, their matching fraternity rings told me. They looked like the sort of guys you’d expect to find flexing their muscles in some posh gym. Their shoulders were wide, their faces clean-shaven, and their haircuts straight out of an expensive New York City salon. A bunch of rich kids living their lives on trust funds and no-limit credit cards, toeing the line between doing stupid things for the sheer fun of it and keeping in daddy’s good graces.

“Purgatory,” one of them snickered. He was distinguished by the tangerine-orange cowboy boots on his feet.

“They have got to work on their marketing campaign,” said his companion with the tan suede jacket. It had a hundred tassels dangling from it, which was at least a hundred too many. “Paradise.” He mulled that over. “Yes, I like the sound of that.”

“People don’t come out here to experience paradise,” said their friend in the black-and-white cow pattern pants. All that was missing was an enormous cow bell around his neck. “They come here to experience the wild Frontier life.”

“And the brothels,” commented Orange Boots, which elicited cat-calls from the others.

An angel had once told me that rolling my eyes wasn’t becoming of a soldier in the gods’ army, so I kept the eye-rolling to myself.

My hometown of Purgatory didn’t usually get many tourists. Soldiers, yes, but not tourists. That was the consequence of lying at the far end of the civilized world.

But this was a special time, the one week each year when tourists left the comfort of their cities and flocked to the edge of the Frontier for the Party at the Wall festival. Tourists and townies alike partied at the base of the towering wall that separated civilization from the plains of monsters.

“I can see it,” declared Suede Jacket.

They all gathered in front of the large, wood-framed window, each one trying to catch their first glimpse of Purgatory. The window was like a looking glass that took you back in time, back to a rougher era. It was a world of rugged charm and frontier justice, a world of cowboy boots and big belt buckles—or so the tourists thought.

In reality, no one out here dressed like that.

One of the college guys had peeled away from the others. He was standing in the aisle, a concentrated squint to his eyes as he swung his gun between his fingers. The gun was glossy silver, so shiny that it reflected off the swaying iron lanterns that hung from the ceiling.

Cow Pants glanced over and commented, “Hey, you’re pretty good at that.”

“I’ve been practicing in front of the television,” Gunslinger told him.

While watching old cowboy movies, no doubt. That was how they saw the Frontier, like one big cowboy movie marathon.

Gunslinger’s grip slipped, and his gun let out an impressive, thunderous boom.

“That hurt!” Suede Jacket yelped, clutching the back of his jeans as he hopped around.

Luckily for him, his friend’s gun didn’t shoot real bullets. It just shot cartridges filled with potions that dissolved upon impact, leaving the unlucky victim with a mild burning feeling.

Suede Jacket’s friends were laughing at all the fuss he was making, but there was nothing funny about shooting people, not even with fake bullets. Guns were designed with a single purpose in mind: killing. They weren’t toys for boys playing at being men. Right now, I didn’t have to resist rolling my eyes. This time, I was resisting the urge to grab these jokers by the collars and clunk their heads together, to knock some sense into them, to show them that pain was no joke. They were naive, irresponsible even. They’d never seen the world outside their mansions and penthouses, and it was high time someone taught them a lesson.

I stopped myself at that thought. Gods, I was thinking more and more like an angel every day.

So I didn’t grab them and clunk their heads together, nor did I pull out the gun in my backpack or the knife tucked inside my boot. I couldn’t say I wasn’t tempted, though, especially as they continued in their foolish games.

They were now pretending to shoot one another in their vision of a Frontier shootout, the kind you’d see in an old cowboy movie. And this time when one of them shot another, it wasn’t an accident. It was a game. They’d come to the Frontier to play out their fantasy, hitting all the stereotypes, then they would return to their normal lives of comfort, none the wiser.

The Party at the Wall was just a moment in time for these city folk, a brief escape into another world, the wild Frontier of civilization. They’d romanticized the rugged look, the cowboy justice. But they had no idea what it was really like out here, where magical resources were spread thin, most of them going to powering the big Magitech wall that separated humanity from the plains of monsters.

I stretched out my legs, which were eager for a walk. Thank goodness we’d be arriving in Purgatory soon. You wouldn’t know it from the nostalgic wood benches and soft red velvet of the carriage interiors, but this train was as modern as you could get, crossing the five-hundred-mile distance between New York City and Purgatory in only an hour.

The bundle of bells over the door jingled as three women with identical high ponytails entered the carriage. They were wearing what I could only describe as cheerleader-cowgirl outfits, leotard tops with short denim skirts and tasseled suede boots. More role-players taking part in the Frontier fantasy.

The college guys immediately stopped shooting one another with magic pellets. Frozen, mesmerized, they watched the cheerleaders walk down the red velvet runway. As the women passed by, one of the guys, a fellow clad solely in a tan leather vest and matching pants stepped into their path.

“Hey there,” Leather Vest said in a slow, lazy drawl.

The head cheerleader looked him up and down and coolly declared, “Not interested.”

Leather Vest’s friends chuckled and slapped him on the back.

“Not any of you either,” said the cheerleader in the red leotard.

“Oh, that’s cold,” Cow Pants said, trying to keep a smile on his face.

“Yeah,” agreed Gunslinger. “What’s wrong with us?”

The cheerleader in blue glanced at his play gun and declared, “You’re not real cowboys.”

Then the three ladies continued down the aisle toward the exit doors. The train was slowing. We’d be stopping at the Purgatory station soon.

The college guys watched the cowgirl-cheerleader squad go. They too had come here to live out some fantasy, to meet rugged, rogue cowboys. The sort who wore ass-hugging jeans, thumping boots, big hats, and nothing else. The sort who went around shirtless in the scorching Frontier sun.

They would be sorely disappointed. Purgatory was not the home of sexy, single cowboys just waiting to give their hearts away to some special lady. It was the home of bartenders and grocers. Of mechanics and tailors. And some more bartenders. We had a lot of bartenders. Purgatory was a little more fun with a side order of hard liquor.

I got up and made my way toward the exit. The college guys perked up as they noticed me for the first time. During the journey, I’d used magic to mask my presence, to make myself a little less noticeable. It was the best way to get some peace and quiet while I finished my book.

The one wearing the enormous yellow hat glanced at the book, then met my eyes. “Good book?” he asked in a practiced, polished voice.

“Very.”

“The Secret World of Angels,” Cow Pants read aloud the title, amusement sparkling in his eyes.

“You’re interested in angels?” Yellow Hat asked me.

They were all trying hard not to snicker now. As though my fantasy was worse than theirs.

“Isn’t everyone interested in angels?” I countered.

He nodded. “I know a fellow who can get people into Heaven,” he said, moving in closer. “You know the place?”

“The Legion of Angels club in New York.”

“Exclusive club,” he said. “It’s the favorite watering hole of top members of the Legion. Including angels.”

Watering hole? He sure was getting into his cowboy character. I wondered what the angels I knew would think of their exclusive club being referred to as a ‘watering hole’. I swallowed a chuckle.

Yellow Hat must have mistaken my amusement for a purr of glee because he was moving in even closer. “This guy I know could get us in. I could take you there. What do you say?” He went in for the kill, wrapping his arm around my shoulder.

I flashed him a grin. “I would love to pay Heaven another visit.”

He froze at the realization that I’d been there before, his play ruined. He must have been wondering how I’d gotten into Heaven because his offer was completely bogus, a cheap pickup line. He might not know it, but the bouncers at Heaven wouldn’t let in any Legion soldier under level five, not without an invitation from a higher level soldier. They wouldn’t let in a human period, not even if an angel invited them.

I patted his arm. “But right now, I’m looking to meet some authentic cowboys.” Winking, I shrugged off his hand. “See you around.”

Then I pushed past them and took the exit. As I walked away, I could feel the guys’ eyes glued on me.

“Shot down again, cowboy,” Suede Jacket snickered.

“Oh, shut up,” grumbled Yellow Hat.

As they tried to get back into character by shooting one another again, I went to go chat with the conductor. He was standing on the platform, watching the passengers disembark the train.

“Hey, Jon.”

“Leda, good to see you again,” he said, his wrinkled face drawing up into a warm smile. Dressed in a navy sweater vest over a dress shirt and a pair of heather-grey wool pants, he looked like everyone’s favorite grandfather. A golden pocket watch even dangled from his vest.

Unlike the collegiate cowboys and cheerleaders, I wasn’t a tourist. Though I lived in New York now, this town, for better or for worse, was home. It had been a year since I gave up my life to join the Legion, but I could never really give up my family and those I loved.

I smiled back at him. “Good to see you too.”

He glanced down at my big bag, tensing. “Is trouble brewing here?”

“Not this time. I’m just here to visit.”

His shoulders relaxed. “Good to hear it. You don’t come back home often enough.”

Though the trip from New York to Purgatory was only an hour with the high-speed train, I hadn’t been back for an actual visit since I’d left. I’d only passed through a few times when my work for the Legion of Angels brought me to the nearby Black Plains.

But I needed a little down time from the constant training and endless battles, from fighting monsters and chasing supernatural conspiracies. And there was no place like home to kick up your feet and breathe in the Frontier air.

“You’re too busy saving the world to pay us a visit, I suppose?” Jon asked me.

“It’s a dirty job, but someone has to do it,” I replied with a smirk.

His lips spread into a smile, drawing up the wrinkles around his eyes. “You’re a good girl, Leda.”

“Well, when I want to be anyway.”

Then I walked off to the sound of his chuckles.

The tourists poured out of the train, flooding the station’s single platform. I could smell the slick city on them; I could see the innocence in the twinkle in their eyes as they stepped out into a whole new world. Purgatory was the end of the line. Literally. It was a small town that sat on the doorstep of the Black Plains, where monsters ruled and civilization ended. The Earth had been overrun by monsters centuries ago, and humanity had been caught in the crossfire of the war between gods and demons ever since.

I followed the swarms of tourists out of the station, watching them stare around in starry-eyed wonder. The citizens of Purgatory had gone all out for the festival. They’d decorated the town to appeal to the tourists’ wild Frontier fantasies, the tick box for every stereotype nicely checked. It looked so different than it usually did.

There were old wooden signs, carved and painted, that hung outside the doors of each and every business in town. The signs were one of the things the tourists wanted to see—expected to see—but they were not a part of everyday life here.

In reality, the extreme, constantly-shifting weather out here, so close to the Black Plains, would have ruined the lovely, handmade signs in no time. We often had summer and winter in one day—a mismatch of hard rain and snow, of storms and sunny skies, of scorching heat and extreme humidity. That was the consequence of the monsters, their close proximity throwing all magic and nature out of whack.

The people of Purgatory were a practical bunch. Once a year, they brought out the signs and donned the costumes for tourists who came for the Party at the Wall—and the money they brought with them.

And it worked. Mesmerized by the cowboy spice, enamored of the rugged charm, the tourists saw only the signs, the Frontier charm, the cowboy outfits. Some of the braver souls even sampled the local moonshine. Sadly, the homemade alcohol wasn’t a stereotype. It was a fact of life here, a staple of the Frontier existence.

The tourists didn’t see beyond the pretty facade. They didn’t see the monsters lurking on the Black Plains beyond, nor did they hear the soft, persistent grumble of white noise, the hum of the monsters beyond.

The monsters on the plains were restless. I could feel it. The influx of people was drawing them closer. In anticipation, the golden Magitech barrier had been turned on. It was so bright that you could see the magical glow from every part of town. The tourists certainly appreciated that glow. If they’d all been a little less drunk, they’d have appreciated it for something much more than as a light show. They would have realized that barrier was all that stood between them and being eaten by monsters.

“Leda!”

I turned to find Carmen Wilder, the daughter of Purgatory’s sheriff, running toward me. Dressed in a green tank top and very tiny denim shorts, cowgirl boots and a cowgirl hat with sparkles, she was all dolled up for the festival. Slim, tall, and sweet, Carmen was always popular with the tourists.

She squeezed me into a tight hug. Her caramel hair, braided in two pigtails, smelled like strawberries. I knew that shampoo; there weren’t many hair product choices in Purgatory. Strawberry was one and the other was vanilla. And then there was a neutral, noncommittal scent that just smelled like plain old soap.

“What you’re doing for Zane is so brave, Leda,” Carmen said.

She was referring to last year. She’d been out on a date with my brother Zane when they were attacked and Zane was abducted. He disappeared without a trace. So I joined the Legion of Angels to gain the rare magic of telepathy, to link to his mind and find him. But telepathy, the power known as Ghost’s Whisper, was high level magic. Before I could gain that power, I would need to become an angel. I still had a long way to go.

We later discovered that Zane had been taken by the Guardians, who were supposed to be the peacekeepers of the original immortals and all-around good people. But only fools believed everything they heard. There was always more to the stories. I wanted to see Zane for myself, especially since the Guardians would not allow him to leave their realm. That bothered me. This time-out from Earth was supposedly a cleansing to balance his magic, but just because he couldn’t leave, that didn’t mean I couldn’t go see him.

“The sacrifice you made to find Zane—” Carmen said.

“He’ll be all right,” I cut her off.

You never knew who was listening. There were a lot of people trying to find Zane for his magic, gods and demons among them.

I started walking toward the festival again, and Carmen matched pace beside me.

“Gods, I missed that smell,” I teased, looking around.

She laughed. “It’s not so bad right now. It rained last night.”

Purgatory was rough around the edges. It smelled like wilderness and metal and magic, courtesy of the glowing Magitech wall. And thanks to last night’s rain, the smell was almost pleasant, like a forest after a storm, which covered up the inevitable sweaty stench of so many people in such a small space.

But the rain had done nothing to cool down the town. Though the day was closing in on evening, it was hot. No, make that scorching. The weather reminded me of last summer, of how I’d started the night with a mark to catch and a bounty to collect. Then it had all gone downhill from there. My brother was abducted and then before I knew it, I was joining the Legion of Angels.

“I’m glad you survived, Leda,” Carmen told me, squeezing my hand.

I smiled at her. “Thanks.”

Half of my initiation group hadn’t survived the first sip of Nectar. Six more had died when we’d drunk the Nectar again, their wills crushed, unable to absorb the magic that tore through our bodies like a firestorm. The survival rates had gotten a little better after that. A certain sadistic angel excepted, the Legion tried not to push its soldiers up for promotion before we were ready. It did no one any good if we died.

The Legion’s soldiers were the gods’ army on Earth, and we were therefore bestowed with supernatural powers, the gods’ gifts of magic. We trained long and hard for each and every level. It was literally a matter of life or death. Each gift of magic—each promotion ceremony in the Legion—was marked by an increase in power, or you failed and died from the Nectar. The strongest soldiers, the most powerful of us, became angels. They commanded territories on the continents and led soldiers to protect the Earth from threats, mortal and immortal alike.

“What does it feel like? The Nectar?” Carmen added shyly.

“Why? Thinking of joining the Legion yourself?”

“I’ve always wanted to have magic,” she admitted, chewing on her lower lip. “But I don’t think I’d survive. I would be one of the bodies on the floor at the end.”

“Don’t underestimate yourself. You’re strong.”

I could see it in her, a strong-willed resolve. She had a decent chance of surviving the initiation ceremony.

“You think I should join?” Her voice was quiet, full of reverence, as though I’d just told her she was everything she ever wanted to be.

I turned to face her, setting my hands on her shoulders. “No, I think you should live your life, staying far away from the world of angels.”

“Is it so bad?”

“Sometimes. The training, the pressure to perform, to succeed. The battles, the beasts. The Legion breaks you, Carmen. And then they leave it to you to put yourself back together again.”

“And the angels?” she asked, her voice hardly above a whisper.

“The angels might just be the scariest part of all,” I said honestly. I took her arm. “Come on.”

Then I led her toward the music in the distance. With every step that we took, it grew louder, its rhythm intertwined with the chorus of cheering people and the pop and beep of carnival games.

As always, the paranormal soldiers walked the streets of Purgatory, though there were more of them in town than usual. No doubt they’d been brought in for the Party at the Wall, a festival that drew tourists from all over the Eastern Territory.

The paranormal soldiers didn’t react to me at all. Fear didn’t crinkle their brows when they saw me.

Which was just as it should be. Before getting on that train, I’d made a conscious decision to dress in a casual halter top and a skirt rather than wear my Legion uniform. That was why the paranormal soldiers on patrol didn’t salute, bow, or cower before me. Even they feared our reputation—and our absolute authority over them and every other citizen of Earth.

The paranormal soldiers were never stationed here for more than a few months. Purgatory was just a means to an end, a gateway to more prestigious assignments. They came and left and never looked back.

So none of them had been here the last time I was in town. Otherwise, they’d probably have recognized me, uniform or not. Soldiers who’d encountered me remembered me well. Nero said it was because I created an impact crater wherever I went. A shock wave, he liked to call it. That’s why he’d given me the nickname Pandora, the Bringer of Chaos.

I, on the other hand, liked to think people remembered me for my smile. Nero hadn’t been convinced by my stellar argument. In fact, his response had been a not-so-gentle reminder to never argue with an angel.

“Hey, Carmen, introduce us to your new friend?” a paranormal soldier called out. He obviously thought I was a soft city girl, a tourist who’d come to gawk at the cowboys and dance on the wall. He had no idea.

The soldier was standing with two other bulky male soldiers. There wasn’t much to do in Purgatory, so the paranormal soldiers spent a lot of time pumping iron at their private gym.

“I don’t know if you can handle her,” Carmen called back. “She’s a sophisticated city girl, here on visit from New York City.”

Sophisticated? I contained a snort, which was apparently as unseemly for a soldier in the gods’ army as rolling your eyes.

“I’m sophisticated,” the soldier declared.

“Your favorite food is macaroni and cheese,” his comrade pointed out.

“And?” he shot back. “Yours is pizza.”

Mmm, they were making me hungry. I’d missed lunch and it was already dinnertime.

“You’re both savages,” a third soldier told them.

They all laughed.

“Hey, Brokers? How about you?” the second soldier called out. “You’ve joined us from New York City. You’re fancy. You even eat with a knife and a fork.”

A fourth soldier joined us, Brokers presumably. “Whereabouts in New York do you live?” he asked me, a pleasant smile on his face.

“Close to the Promenade.”

The Promenade was a street of high skyscrapers, each one the home of an important global organization. Among them was the black building that housed the League, a worldwide bounty hunting company. Another was the paranormal soldiers’ blue glass skyscraper. And the crown jewel of the Promenade, the focal point of the block, was a sparkling white obelisk, the east coast headquarters of the Legion of Angels. The building shone so brightly, it looked as though diamonds had been crushed into the facade. I wouldn’t have been the least bit surprised if that were actually the case. The angels at the top of the Legion didn’t spare any expense when it came to showing off how superior they were.

Brokers’s eyebrows drew up at the mention of the Promenade. “How close?”

“Pretty close,” I said evasively. Ok, pretty close was a bit of an understatement. “And you?” I added quickly, trying to take the focus off of me.

“I live on the Promenade,” he replied. “I have a pretty good view of the city from my window.”

I lived dead center on the Promenade, at the top of the highest tower. I could look over the whole city from my living room window. I didn’t say that, though. I hadn’t come here to be the center of attention. I’d come here to blend into the crowd—and then find my family and live a few normal days before I had to go back to work.

“After the festival, I’m heading back to New York,” he continued. But he was looking at Carmen now. She was obviously more his type. You know, cuter. Sweeter. More innocent. Less likely to break both his kneecaps if he got cheeky.

As we walked toward the heart of the festival, he kept talking, telling Carmen about where he lived and praising the beauty of New York, filling her head with silly notions about clean streets and orderly garbage removal.

Ok, yes, you could literally eat off the streets of the Promenade. Some people actually did that, believing that brought them closer to the gods. But they were the same sort who scoured the sidewalks and city parks for angel feathers.

When we reached the wall, Brokers parted ways with us, giving Carmen a gentlemanly bow before climbing up the ladder to one of the watchtowers. From there, the paranormal soldiers could stare across the Black Plains, looking for signs of gathering monsters. But they didn’t go out onto the plains themselves. When danger brewed beyond the wall, the Legion of Angels was brought in.

It was only fitting, I suppose, for the gods’ army to clean up this mess. Long ago, the monsters had been the battle beasts of the gods and demons, but the deities had lost control over them, and so the monsters had overrun the Earth.

Humans didn’t know this. They thought the demons, at the eve of their defeat, had unleashed the monsters on Earth. The truth was both gods and demons lost control over the monsters when the beasts began to interbreed, the new monsters of mixed light and dark magic being immune to the deities’ control. The gods had won the war, and the people of Earth were still paying the price. Humanity was protected in our cities past the walls, but we were not safe. Not as long as monsters still lurked past the wall. Not as long as we were caught in the epic war between gods and demons, between light and dark, a war that spanned worlds and stretched back millennia.

“The tourists look happy,” Carmen commented, watching them laugh as they played carnival games and ate deep-fried snacks.

The deliciously unhealthy smell of it made my stomach growl in hunger.

“The locals look happy too,” I said.

“This morning, an extra hundred paranormal soldiers arrived in town. Of course we’re happy. For a few days, we’re all safe.”

That was the point of the extra paranormal soldiers: to keep things safe for the wealthy tourists. It was easy to let the flashing disco balls, the colorful carousels, and the bubblegum music fool you, but at its core the Frontier was a dangerous, uncivilized place to be. A place where the monsters on this side of the wall were as dangerous as the ones out on the plains.

“How bad has it gotten?” I asked Carmen.

“Bad.” Her voice was solemn. “The district lords rule this town now. My father hardly has any power left.”

The sheriff didn’t have the resources to keep the city criminals from flooding to our town and using it as a convenient hiding place. The district lords did have those resources and then some. People here looked to them for help, even as they knew they were trading one devil for another.

“You have to do something, Leda,” Carmen pleaded with me. “The Legion could end this.”

Except the Legion of Angels answered to the gods. And the gods didn’t give a damn about earthly matters. As long as the district lords paid tribute to the gods, as long as they did not impede the Pilgrims, the voice of the gods’ teachings, from doing their work, the Legion of Angels would do nothing. And it was that indifference that the district lords had been thriving on for years.

“We’re not allowed to interfere in local affairs,” I told Carmen.

She frowned at me. “Now that’s just bullshit.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. We at the Legion of Angels, the hand of the gods, dealt only with threats to the Earth, to the gods. We were not supposed to interfere in mortal affairs. We were told that such things were beneath us, that we were not to sully our hands with squabbles between mortals and so-called ‘lesser’ supernaturals. Those were to be left to the local sheriffs and other law enforcement.

Except the local law enforcement didn’t get the resources they needed to keep the people safe. So the district lords had stepped in, and now they ruled like kings. That’s how they saw themselves: as cowboy royalty.

It was disgusting, I thought as I watched one of the district lords walk down the street in his expensive royal-blue cowboy boots and hat, surrounded by an entourage of bodyguards. He was acting like a king, like he owned this town. My town. And he was just one of many district lords in Purgatory.

The royal blue lord crossed paths with a cowboy lord from another district. They took a moment to stop and glare at each other. Tension brewed between them, heavy and thick, approaching a boiling point.

But then, just like that, they each moved along. It hadn’t come to a fight—at least not today. Who knew what tomorrow held? Each of the district lords was a different strain of the same disease, and that disease was consuming Purgatory from the inside. It made me sick.

“I know, Carmen.” I unclenched my fists. “I don’t like it any more than you do.” I had to get a hold on my anger.

The Legion told us it was wrong to get caught up in earthly matters. We needed to be separate, above humanity, not mixing with it. Connections with humans were discouraged. They were seen as a weakness.

Except I saw them as a strength. My friends and my family were part of who I was. My connection to them helped me stay human, even as I grew closer to becoming an angel. My humanity was my anchor. You see, sometimes, it was not only about being ‘right’ or ‘just’; it was about being kind. About caring for others. Compassion—that’s what was too often missing when you tried so hard to do things in a perfectly orderly manner.

“I couldn’t join the Legion,” Carmen said, her voice trembling with anger. “And not just because I’m scared. I think it would be even worse to have all that power and yet be completely powerless to use it, to stand by as everything crumbles to ash. I don’t know how you do it, Leda.”

Well, the truth was I didn’t always follow the rules. I was the black sheep of the Legion. Soldiers in the gods’ army were trained to fight with proper technique, with dignity. With finesse.

I, on the other hand, was a dirty fighter. I had no qualms about using anything around me, fighting not only with swords or guns. I was not above fighting with a water bottle, a clothesline, or a car antenna. Or even the dirt beneath my feet. Many Legion soldiers—especially the angels—saw that as abhorrent behavior. But it did give me an advantage. Fighting with dignity was too predictable and not always practical. I’d learned to fight out here on the streets of the Frontier, in the dark alleys of Purgatory, where survival was more important than how polished your steel was and more relevant than how shiny you kept your leather.

“Adjusting to the Legion’s ways has been challenging,” I told Carmen. Honestly, adapting to the code of conduct had been harder than the training or the poisonous Nectar I had to survive to gain new magic.

I waved at Dale and Cindy as they passed us, their hands inside the back pockets of each other’s jeans. Dale, my sixty-year-old former neighbor, was a kind man, though he enjoyed the moonshine a little too much. The curvy, buxom Cindy with her long legs, full lips, and bouncy locks, looked like a retired model who spared no expense when it came to looking fabulous. Her crimson lipstick was a perfect match to her hair, and her dark eyeshadow really made her green eyes pop. I’d been present in the Witch’s Watering Hole, Purgatory’s favorite bar, at the dawn of Dale and Cindy’s relationship. It had been that same fateful night Zane went missing.

“Your secret admirer is stalking us,” Carmen whispered to me.

I turned around and waved at Jak, the shy nerdy kid who’d had a crush on me since third grade. “Hi, how’s it going?”

“F-fine,” he stuttered, looking even more nervous than usual. No, forget nervous; he was downright intimidated. “You j-joined the Legion.”

“Yep.”

“I’ve h-heard scary things about the L-Legion.”

“Those stories are exaggerations,” I said, which was only partially true.

I’d heard all the stories too. At least half of them were pretty close to reality. In the case of the other half, reality was much worse than the rumors. Still, there was no reason to scare Jak any more than he already was. He was actually a nice guy.

“Is it true angels’ wings glow?” someone asked.

The townies were gathering around me.

“Is it true that you drink poison for breakfast every morning?”

“Do you really set each other on fire?”

“She’ll set you on fire, Mick, if you don’t give her some space.”

They all laughed. If I’d been any other Legion soldier, they’d never have dared bombard me with their questions, but they’d known me for years. And they knew Calli had raised me not to set my neighbors on fire.

“Are your uniforms made of dragon leather?”

“Are your swords made of angel tears?”

“Show us some magic tricks, Leda,” Mick said.

“Yeah, show us, Leda.”

I folded my arms across my chest.

“Show us! Show us!” chanted the crowd, over and over again.

“I’m not a stage magician,” I said drily.

I glanced at the magician performing nearby. Though he was dressed in a very nice silk robe, he wasn’t using any actual magic. His fire-breathing display was just a trick. Not that there weren’t real fire elementals out there. It’s just this guy wasn’t one of them. In fact, he was as human as they came. What he lacked in magic, however, he made up for in showmanship. He was a natural performer, possessing an innate ability to captivate an audience. When the townies realized I wasn’t nearly as entertaining as they’d thought, they peeled away from me and went to watch the magician’s show.

Over the roar of the fire and the clink of fake magic, I picked up a soft scratching noise. It was a few blocks away but coming in fast. Running footsteps. Four pairs. I looked past the houses and blinking carnival lights. I saw three women in the distance running after a man. They were bounty hunters, their outfits of shorts and tank tops complemented by light-colored scarves and goggles to protect their eyes from the sand in the air. From the looks of them, they were Magitech goggles with information readouts, high-end tech that allowed you to lock onto a target and track them through thick crowds and behind blind spots.

That ability was coming in handy for them as the man they were chasing darted behind the carousel and cut through the sea of people. He was running fast, but they were gaining on him. Realizing he was cornered, the man grabbed a child from beside the balloon booth.

“Don’t take a single step!” he shouted at the bounty hunters.

They stopped. The crowd fell quiet. Everything was silent, all except the mechanical tune of the turning carousel and the little girl’s howl of despair as her airship balloon floated up, lost to the wind.

“No one move!” the man snapped, holding the little girl in front of himself as a shield.

Now that just made me mad. No matter how desperate he was—which was very desperate from the manic twitch in his eyes and the stain of sweat on his silk suit—you didn’t take children hostage. But if the man had ever possessed any moral boundaries, they’d dissolved under the weight of his desperation. He looked like he would do anything to not be captured. He would cross any line.

From the looks of him, he wasn’t a hardcore criminal. His crimes were probably really minor. But that was then, and this was now. Taking a child hostage was worse than whatever he had done to get a bounty on his head. And it wiped away any sympathy I might have had for him. My foster mother Calli used to say that most people only showed their true colors when put under enormous stress, and he’d done that surely enough. By taking a child hostage, he’d shown the world that he was a piece of shit.

“How can you just stand there?” Carmen demanded of me as the man began backing up with the little girl. “You have to do something!”

Despite my feelings, my humanity screaming at me, I wasn’t allowed to interfere. Those were the Legion’s rules. I could only fight monsters and threats to the gods’ order. These lesser matters were not relevant to the gods. They were handled by local law enforcement and bounty hunters.

The gods didn’t get that these small things—how we acted in everyday life—all added up to one big picture. It determined what kind of people we strived to be. We had to fight for what was right. We couldn’t just battle the monsters beyond the wall. We had to tackle the monsters within head-on.

I was considering interfering anyway, Legion rules be damned, but before I could act, the bounty hunter in the blue outfit pressed a button on her arm band. A tiny flying robot, roughly the shape of a ship and the size of an alley cat, flew through the crowd and shot straight at the man. It stopped mere inches from his face, a cannon pointed right between his eyes.

“Put your hands in the air, or I’ll blow out your brains,” the robot’s mechanical voice declared cheerfully.

He raised his hands. The bounty hunter in the stylish outfit of dusk pink and light beige ran forward, whisking the little girl away. The bounty hunter in black tackled the man. She pulled his arms behind his back, slamming him to the ground when he struggled against her hold. And she wasn’t too gentle about it either. I didn’t blame her.

Her knee pressed to his back, she cuffed him. Then she slid up her goggles and pushed the scarf away from her face, revealing my foster mother Calli.

“Hi, Leda,” she said, glancing over her shoulder at me. “You’re late. You missed all the fun.”

Fun was tackling criminals to the ground. What could I say? That was my family.