Harker’s tired eyes met mine. “Nero stayed behind to clean up the mess. He’ll be fine.” He spoke the words with confidence, but he looked worried, even as he turned toward Colonel Fireswift. “Colonel Battleborn is dead.”

Three angels had been working on a single mission? The situation must have been even more dire than I’d thought. The way Nero had spoken, it had sounded like the barrier had just been weakened. Were the monsters already really so close to breaking through the wall?

“I need to check on the wounded,” Harker said. “Basanti is in the hospital wing.”

“Is she ok?” I asked.

His expression was dark. “She’s a fighter.”

Jace, Colonel Fireswift, and I followed Harker to the infirmary, which was in a state of chaos. Every bed was taken by a soldier, and there were still more injured lying on the floor. The doctors rushed in every direction, completely overtaxed. I couldn’t remember ever seeing a Legion hospital so crowded with wounded soldiers.

I spotted Basanti. She was lying unconscious on a bed at the edge of the room, right under a window that looked out on a magnificent blue and pink sunrise. The colorful morning sky seemed to mock us with its beauty.

Harker scanned the room, taking in the devastation. He looked awful. It wasn’t the burns or dirt that stained his skin and hair, or the tears in his clothing. It wasn’t even the cuts and gashes in his body that refused to heal. It was the haunted expression in his eyes, like he was staring straight at the end of the world.

“What happened?” I asked as a doctor began healing Basanti’s wounds.

I was almost afraid to ask. And I was even more afraid of his answer.

“This whole thing was a setup,” Harker said. “The Magitech barrier at Memphis wasn’t breaking down because of monsters, and it wasn’t succumbing to the effects of old age. It was sabotaged from the inside. The saboteurs took down the barrier. They lured us in by creating a threat so horrible, so serious, they knew it would bring in the Legion’s best, including multiple angels. This was a trap, designed to deal a major blow to the Legion of Angels. We weren’t supposed to survive.”

“Did you capture the saboteurs?” Colonel Fireswift asked him.

“No. They killed themselves before we got to them.” Harker met Colonel Fireswift’s gaze with darkness in his eyes. “They were six of our own. Legion soldiers.”

Shock flashed across Colonel Fireswift’s face. It was an expression I’d never seen there before. “Deserters? Six at once?”

He looked disgusted, angry, outraged, and worried—all at once. That was another new expression for him. But a moment later, his face hardened with resolve, his cold, cruel shield sliding into place once more.

“No, they weren’t deserting,” Harker said. “They were committing suicide. The saboteurs never expected to survive this ordeal. They were hoping they’d take us down with them.”

Colonel Fireswift’s mouth tightened into a hard line. “Fanatics then.”

“No—”

Raised voices clamored behind us, drowning out Harker’s words. Doctors rushed about frantically, gathering around a convulsing female soldier on one of the beds. Her body rattled and shook, her wounds pulsing blood. Bathed in crimson, I hardly recognized her. It was Major Kendra Fireswift, Jace’s sister, Colonel Fireswift’s daughter.

And she was dying.

Her face contorted in agony as the life dripped out of her. The doctors rushed around her bed, trying to save her, but nothing they did made a difference. They were losing her.

Colonel Fireswift rushed to his daughter’s bed, pushing the doctors aside. He set his hands, aglow with healing magic, on her chest. Desperation crinkled his brow as he poured magic into her. But his angelic healing powers were no match for whatever was killing her.

Jace stood on the other side of her bed. He had no healing magic, but he wasn’t idle. His hands were a blur as he mixed potions and set bandages, trying to stop the bleeding.

Beneath the splashes of crimson, Kendra’s face had grown deathly pale. She was screaming so loud that the windows were shattering all around her.

“What happened to her?” I asked Harker in horror.

“She was poisoned,” he told me. “The saboteurs used bullets infused with Venom. She was hit. And now the dark magic is destroying her light magic, unraveling her piece by piece, strand by strand.”

I stepped forward, determined to help. I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I had to do something.

Harker caught my arm. “It’s no use,” he said in a low whisper.

“I can save her,” I whispered back. “I can suck the Venom out of her. Just like I did to Basanti.”

“It’s too late. The poison has spread too far for her to survive. At this point, sucking the Venom from her would only expose your dark magic. There’s no hope for her.”

I watched Kendra convulsing against her father’s hold, her blood splashing him and Jace. Acid rose in my throat.

“How can you be so sure?” I demanded.

“Because I’ve seen this poison work. I’ve already watched half of our team die in agony to it. I tried to heal Selena. I watched her die in my arms, unraveling to nothing.” There was a haunted look in Harker’s eyes. “We very nearly lost Basanti. The Venom bullet only grazed her arm, but if Nero hadn’t been so quick to cut away the infected flesh before the poison spread, she would be dead too. Selena and Kendra were some of our best, next in line to become angels. They were both chosen for this mission for their powerful magic. And now they’re dead because of it.”

“Colonel Battleborn?” I asked.

“He was hit with a Venom bullet as well. He died even faster than Selena.”

The more light magic you had, the faster the Venom killed you—and the more it made you suffer as it ripped the shreds of your light magic apart.

“How did Legion soldiers get their hands on Venom?” I demanded.

“I do not know. But the Legion has suffered a mighty blow today,” Harker said darkly. “Colonel Battleborn.”

Kendra’s screams had stopped. She lay motionless on the bed, but even in death, she didn’t appear to be at peace.

Harker’s face was blank. He was blocking out his emotions before they overwhelmed him. “Selena and Kendra, both rising stars, both so close to becoming angels.”

Colonel Fireswift removed his bloody hand from his daughter’s forehead. He stepped back from her bed, his eyes aflame with manic energy. I saw the moment that he lost it, the moment his control snapped and his pain consumed him. I just couldn’t move fast enough to stop what happened next.

Magic exploded out of the angel. The shock wave cut through the room, toppling everyone in its path. What remained of the glass doors shattered, raining down like tears, the tears the angel himself could not shed.

The Legion had suffered heavy losses today, and we were going to lose a whole lot more people if someone didn’t stop Colonel Fireswift now. Harker ran toward him, but his brush with death had taken its toll. He was slower, less coordinated than usual. Colonel Fireswift tossed him aside easily.

The wounded soldiers in the room weren’t in any condition to restrain an enraged angel. The doctors were no match for him either. One look at Jace was all it took to realize he would be of no help. He was just standing there in shock, holding his dead sister’s hand.

Which left me.

I rushed toward Colonel Fireswift, intercepting him before he split a hospital bed—and the patient on it—in two. I put myself between the bed and the angel.

“Colonel Fireswift,” I snapped sharply.

He didn’t even seem to realize I was there. His pain had blinded him.

I’d just been arguing with him, telling him off for being inhuman, and then this happened. He’d lost his daughter. Much as I disliked him, I couldn’t feel anything but bad for him right now. His eyes glistened with unshed tears. I could see the agony eating away at him, forcing him into a rage. He actually could feel and care. Apparently, he was more human than I’d thought.

The revelation, unfortunately, didn’t do me any good. I wasn’t strong enough to contain an enraged angel. If only Nyx were here. Or Nero. My heart thumped out a sharp jab of pain.

Colonel Fireswift threw a chair at Harker. I caught the flying piece of furniture and tossed it aside.

“This is your fault,” Colonel Fireswift growled at Harker, his voice more beast than man. “She’s dead because of your incompetence.” His words dripped menace.

Harker was injured. In a fight, he wouldn’t stand a chance. Colonel Fireswift would destroy him. The Legion would lose another angel, and I would lose a friend.

Colonel Fireswift swung a punch at Harker. I slid between the angels, catching Colonel Fireswift’s fist between my hands and pushing back. Surprised, the angel stumbled back a step.

“Get out of my way,” he snarled at me, magic flashing in his eyes.

“No.”

He swung a punch at me. I tried to evade, but he was too fast. Pain exploded in my body as his fist crashed into my stomach. I doubled over, coughing up blood. He moved around me to get to Harker, but I mirrored his movements, making myself the shield between the two angels. The look Colonel Fireswift shot me declared loud and clear that he had no qualms about breaking right through me.

The rational part of me knew I was no match for Colonel Fireswift, but the rebel in me refused to listen. Sure, he was faster, stronger, and had buckets more magic than I did. By the rules of this universe, I didn’t have a chance in hell of beating him. But I also didn’t play by the rules.

As he moved in for his next barrage, I hit him hard with my siren magic, locking it around him. “Hasn’t the Legion lost enough today?” I said, my voice as soft as my magic was hard. “We can’t afford to lose Harker too.”

He slowed but not enough. He was still moving.

“Would the First Angel want you to kill an angel?” I asked him.

He stopped, his breathing slowing. The fog of his rage must have cleared enough for him to recover his mind and realize what he was doing. Disgust washed across his magic—disgust that even for a second, he hadn’t been in complete control of himself.

His hands trembling in anger, he glared at me. How dare you put your unclean magic around me, he growled in my mind.

My magic isn’t dirty. It is the same as yours, Colonel. It comes from the same Nectar as yours.

Your magic is nothing like mine, he replied, disgusted.

Normally, Colonel Fireswift didn’t have a problem telling me off in front of everyone, but he wasn’t shouting at me now. It wasn’t for my benefit; he just didn’t want to show weakness in front of his soldiers. He didn’t want any of them to know that my magic had frozen him, if only for a moment, just long enough for him to regain control of himself.

I come from a long and prestigious legacy of angels. You came out of some trashcan on the Frontier.

I’d have liked to give him the benefit of the doubt and said it was his pain talking now, but he was always like this. He made it really hard for anyone to feel sorry for him—which, I guess, was completely the point. He thought anyone worthy of sympathy was weak by definition. He didn’t get it at all.

I did feel sorry for him and Jace, though. My friend’s face was pale, his eyes red. He was trying really hard not to cry right now. As far as I was concerned, he had every right to cry. He’d just lost his sister.

The Legion did not agree. It was expected of Jace and his father to show no emotion. That’s what it meant to be a soldier in the Legion of Angels, to be above mortal affairs and human emotions.

“Finish your report, Sunstorm,” Colonel Fireswift barked at Harker.

“We managed to get the magic barrier back up, but not before a few hundred monsters poured through the hole.”

“The city?”

“Memphis was destroyed by the monsters in the aftermath of the wall’s collapse,” said Harker. “We hunted down and killed the monsters, but it cost us. Half of our team is dead, killed by monsters or Venom bullets.”

“And the traitors?”

“None survived,” Harker told him.

“Why did our own soldiers turn on us?” I asked.

“I questioned one of the dying Legion traitors. He told me the Pioneers were pulling their strings.”

“The Pioneers?” I gasped.

“So you’ve heard of them.”

“We’ve exchanged blows,” I said darkly. “What in the world would compel six Legion soldiers to help the Pioneers?”

“Leverage,” he replied. “The Pioneers abducted the soldiers’ loved ones and threatened to kill them if they didn’t cooperate.”

“Teenagers?”

“Yes.”

“Abducted from their homes or vacation spots all across the Frontier?”

His brows arched in surprise. “Yes.”

So that’s what the Pioneers had been up to when they’d kidnapped all those teenagers. They’d targeted the loved ones of Legion soldiers. To not arouse the Legion’s suspicion, they’d taken lots of other teenagers as well and sold them as slaves to rogue vampires. The rest they were keeping as leverage. The question was, what were the Pioneers planning next?

“Only six Legion traitors were involved in this catastrophe,” I said, thinking it through. “Only six, and they took down a large part of the wall. If the Pioneers manage to extort enough Legion soldiers, they could take down the whole wall. The barrier that has stood for hundreds of years between civilization and the wild lands would fall, and monsters would flood through the gates. They would kill our people and lay waste to our cities. Centuries ago, we built the walls and pushed the monsters back. There’s no guarantee we’ll be able to do the same again. This could be the end of humanity.”

“The Legion’s defenses are only as strong as its weakest link,” Jace spoke, emerging from his cocoon of misery.

He had a point. Whether or not the Legion wanted to admit it, its soldiers still had some of our humanity and ties to the mortal world.

Jace pulled out his phone. “I have the names of the kidnapped people who are still missing.”

Jace was trying to pull himself together, to push through the pain. Even as his father struggled to stay calm, to not explode again, Jace was really stepping up.

“We need to check which missing teenagers have a connection to a Legion soldier,” he said. “We should lock up those soldiers now, just to be safe. We can sort out the guilty later.”

Harker nodded. “Agreed.”

Jace began reading off the names of the people still missing. He paused when he got to Tessa and Gin, giving me a pointed look. It was the sort of look that reminded me of Colonel Fireswift. He was really channeling his father right now.

“I haven’t received any blackmail notes from the Pioneers. They haven’t tried to coerce me into doing anything. And if they’re stupid enough to try, they’ve got another thing coming. They’ve picked the wrong person to manipulate. I’m not betraying the gods or the Legion. No way, no how. I won’t help the people who took my sisters. I am going to make them pay for what they’ve done, for all the lives they’ve ruined and all the people they’ve hurt. And they will woe the day they took my sisters,” I finished, my voice ringing with emotion. Anger flushed my cheeks, conviction pounded in my pulse.

Harker and Jace exchanged glances, then returned to the list, apparently satisfied by my answer. Because it was all true. I would make those bastards pay. After what they’d done, they deserved nothing less.

What I didn’t say was that this wasn’t just about manipulating Legion soldiers. There was something bigger happening. My sisters’ magic was playing into the Pioneers’ plans in some other way. But how? What exactly were Gin and Tessa, and why did the Pioneers want them so badly?