Streaks of red and orange light flickered before my eyes. I blinked, trying to clear my blurred vision. As the world slowly faded back into focus, I realized those streaks of light were flames dancing in the air. They fell so slowly, they almost seemed suspended in the air.

I reached out to touch them, and my fingers brushed up against a transparent layer, like an invisible shell. I’d surrounded my body with a telekinetic magic barrier to protect myself from the falling roof. It had been an automatic defense, something driven by instinct rather than conscious thought.

The nearby flames and particles of debris from the explosion were caught in the barrier, floating within that defensive invisible shell like a school of fish. My skin glowed, my elemental magic resisting the extreme heat.

Outside my safety bubble, things didn’t look good. Fires raged, and the walls were crumbling. My telekinetic barrier was all that was holding up the roof. If it went down, so would the roof. All that marble and gold and stone would collapse on top of me. That was, if the fires didn’t burn me alive first.

Leda.

I couldn’t see Nero, but I could feel he was so close. I drew on our connection, on the magic that linked us together. Just knowing he was there gave me the resolve to bear the pain of my failing magic.

I coughed. The smoke was slowly suffocating me. Something stung my arm. I slapped it. When I looked down, I saw it was not a bug; it was a clump of burning ash that had burnt me. It had made it through a small hole in my barrier. I forced the hole closed.

A flicker of movement drew my eyes across the room. Soulslayer. The dark angel was stuck in the room too. He was also holding up the swirling storm of fire and debris. We were two bright points in the darkness, like two stars in space, masses swirling around each of us.

“Where are my sisters?” I demanded.

“Trapped back there.” He indicated the collapsed corridor behind him.

“We have to get them out.”

He scoffed at my words. “Why would I risk myself for two girls?”

“Because you can’t let those two girls die. You are hellbent on using their magic.”

“That’s not worth my life.”

It was like talking to a wall. “Would Sonja agree?” I asked him.

“I’m a dark angel,” he said proudly. “We are priceless. Do you have any idea how much work and magic goes into creating one of us? Sonja would not have me risk my life to save two little girls, no matter how curious their magic might be. Especially not now, at a time of crisis, when we are under attack. And when you, her prized pet, is trying to escape.”

I changed tactics. “So you’ve given up. The Legion is attacking, and you’re running away scared. You’ve admitted defeat, that you’re no match for the Legion. You’re letting two unique magic users slip between your fingers.”

Soulslayer frowned at me. “Sonja told me of your silver tongue, of your siren’s song. It won’t work. You won’t trick me into risking my life to save those brats.”

“I guess that’s the difference between the Dark Force and the Legion. The Dark Force is nothing but a bunch of cowards. Just like you. That’s the real reason you left the Legion. You couldn’t cut it.”

The dark angel’s eyes narrowed. “You aren’t worth all this trouble,” he hissed viciously. “If you weren’t Sonja’s prize, I’d kill you where you stand.”

“Help me save my sisters. You can kill me later.” I was working my magic around him, trying to get into his head.

He shook himself, brushing off my magic attack. “I don’t have to kill you.” A dark smile curled his lips. “You are weak.”

His words just echoed what I was thinking myself. My magic was cracking under the strain. I’d put everything I had into holding back the debris, and it wasn’t even close to enough. That was why my siren magic hadn’t worked on him. I didn’t have enough magic to spare.

“Your magic will fail,” he said. “I need only stand here and watch the building kill you. How will you die? Will the fire burn you? Will the smoke suffocate you? Will the rocks crush you?”

His eyes shone with vicious delight as he contemplated the possible causes of my impending death, just as he’d enjoyed torturing me in the arena.

And now he was trying to kill my sisters too. Gin would survive, just to be killed again and again. And Soulslayer would revel in it all.

He was sick.

Rage flashed through my body, burning hotter than the fire in the room. No, I wouldn’t let that psychopath win. I refused to give him the satisfaction of dancing over our graves. Tiny fireflies of magic ignited around my shield.

The dark angel considered me with a bored expression. “Try not to burn yourself, sweetheart.”

The flames around me burned hotter, funneling into a pillar of fire that hit the dark angel’s barrier like a battering ram. The nearly-transparent shield shook. I caught debris in my psychic net and slingshot the pieces at him. Chunks of stone streaked across the room like bullets. They popped against his barrier, then went out.

“Rage will only get you so far. You’re weak,” Soulslayer sneered, but his jaw was tight with concentration.

I didn’t stop hitting him with magic. Pieces of debris came at him from all corners of the room, adding to my bombardment.

The dark angel fought back. Burning debris shot at me like a school of fish, flowing as one continuous river. Streamers of rock and metal crashed against my shield. Most of them sizzled out, but a few broke through small holes in my defenses, slashing my skin. I hardly even felt the pain. At this moment, I knew only the fight: my defenses and my attack.

I formed a few debris streams of my own. My streams and his collided in a clash of fire and stone as we each tried to make it past the other’s defenses. Fire burned my skin. I slapped out the flames on my body and kept fighting.

The ceiling groaned. Heavy chunks of rock crashed down on us, each flicker against my magic shield like a punch to the head. The back wall split open, revealing Gin and Tessa. I extended my barrier around their huddled bodies, protecting them from the fire and debris.

Once the shield was secure around them, I took a closer look at them. They were dirty and covered in scratches, but they didn’t appear seriously wounded. And at least Gin had some clothes on now. Tessa was still wearing the magic-jamming bracelets that prevented her from teleporting.

Soulslayer charged at me, pushing me out of his way as he bolted for the exit. The force of his magic collapsed the area around me and my sisters. The psychopath was leaving us all here to die to save his skin.

I jumped out, shouting, “You coward!”

I drew in the power currents sizzling from the walls, weaving them into a magic whip. I swung my lightning lasso and latched it around the dark angel’s ankle. I yanked him back across the room.

“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.

It all played out in silence. I couldn’t hear anything anymore. I was so busy putting all my magic into my shield that my senses were shutting down. My legs felt like lead. I could hardly stand.

Something brushed against my arm. I glanced to the side. Tessa was tapping my shoulder. She was speaking to me, but I couldn’t hear a word. I had to read her lips to decipher what she was saying.

Your ears, Leda.

I lifted my fingers to my ears, and they came back coated in blood. No wonder I couldn’t hear.

Fire and debris swirled and spun around me, repelled by my psychic spell. Close to me, the pieces moved slowly, but further out they were whirling around fast, crashing and clashing in explosions of fire and stone.

Nero and the others stood at the doorway to the dungeon, watching us from across the pool of swirling debris. The Dark Force soldiers had fled.

I felt a phantom nudge. It repeated. The third time it brushed against me, I realized it was Nero. It smelled like him. As though a sound could smell like something, but somehow it did. I opened up my mind.

Come to me, Leda, nice and slow, Nero’s voice spoke inside my head.

Panic froze me as I looked across the burning, churning debris field. The columns holding up the room had already shattered. Only my magic was preventing the whole roof from collapsing on us.

The pieces of the stone columns swirled around inside the wreckage. As soon as I moved, the debris would change course. I couldn’t adjust my psychic shield fast enough to keep up with it. The barrage would tear my shield apart, and if it collapsed, so would the room.

Of course, it would all collapse soon anyway. I couldn’t hold it up much longer. We were all going to die. I’d defeated the dark angel, but I hadn’t won.

Nero’s voice cut through my panic. I will help you hold up the ceiling. His voice was calm, reassuring. I won’t let it fall on you. I promise. Just start walking to me.

Swallowing the fear bubbling inside of me, I grabbed my sisters’ hands and began to walk toward the doorway of fire. The marble and concrete chunks shifted, but Nero’s magic was right there to hold them back, even as my own strength faded.

Behind him, the Dark Force had regrouped, their numbers swelling to strike back hard. Calli, Bella, and Damiel went to hold them off, but there were too many enemy soldiers. They wouldn’t be able to hold them off for long.

Don’t worry about them. Focus on coming to me, Nero told me.

I continued to walk slowly, holding tightly to my sisters’ hands. The debris grew wilder, restless. Nero’s magic knocked the pieces of broken rock aside.

Keep walking.

My hearing came back all at once. I heard the crash and smash of debris like rocks on a rooftop, the hiss of fire, the rattle and shake of my barrier. It was a storm of sensory overload. I heard every pebble trying to cut us, every boulder trying to crush us, every wisp of ash trying to suffocate us—like death taunting us from just beyond the veil.

After what felt like an eternity in hell, we finally made it to Nero. He parted the curtain of fire to allow us to escape the dungeon. The flames snapped back in place behind us.

Nero drew me into an embrace. He was here. He’d come all the way to hell for me.

“Don’t you ever do that again,” he hissed harshly into my ear.

“Go to hell?”

“Yes.”

“It wasn’t by choice, you know,” I said.

He squeezed me tightly to him, but it didn’t hurt. In fact, I wished I could just collapse into his embrace. I knew he would catch me. He always caught me.

But I couldn’t do that. I had an image to maintain, after all.

“I’m never letting you out of my sight again,” he said.

“That might prove difficult given our line of work.”

“I’m not joking, Pandora.”

He kissed me. It was a rough and desperate kiss—one loaded with his fear of my life, his powerlessness, his turmoil, his annoyance at me for running off and getting captured, and his relief at having me back again.

He pulled back and faced the collapsing room. The debris in the dungeon dropped all at once to the ground. Nero’s magic held back the avalanche of marble and concrete. Everything crashed together in wild directions, reforming into thick columns of melded material to hold up the new ceiling that had formed. It was just in time too because if the dungeon had collapsed, our room would have been next.

I just stood there and gaped, shocked at the scale of power he’d used.

Damiel had built a barricade to block off the Dark Force soldiers. He walked over to us, looked at Nero’s columns and ceiling with a critical eye, and declared, “They’re not straight.”

Nero folded his arms across his chest and gave his father a cool look. “Feel free to do it yourself next time, old man.”

Damiel smiled. “I wouldn’t dream of denying you the opportunity to practice. You obviously need it.”

Nero just glared at him.

“You’re contemplating leaving him here in hell,” I said.

“The thought had crossed my mind.”

“You can’t do that,” I told him.

“And why is that?”

“First of all, he’s your father.”

Nero snorted.

“And he’s injured,” I added.

Nero gave his father’s minor wounds a cursory glance. “He’ll heal.”

Damiel’s blue eyes twinkled.

“And he came all the way here to help you rescue me,” I said to Nero. “Leaving him behind wouldn’t be honorable.”

Nero’s mouth hardened.

Damiel chuckled. “She’s got you there.”

“Thank you for coming.” I turned toward Calli and Bella. “But how did you get here?”

“I did some research in the forbidden dark magic books Damiel got for me,” Bella explained.

Damiel looked as modest as an angel.

“I found a spell that can create a passage to hell,” Bella continued. “It was very complicated, but finally I managed to make it work.” She actually did look modest.

“A passage that is closing soon.” Damiel pointed out the subtle, near-invisible flicker in the air. It was only a few feet from me, and I hadn’t even noticed it. “Let’s get out of here.”

Calli picked up Gin. Nero picked up me.

When I protested, he leveled a hard, commanding stare at me. “Have you seen what you look like?”

“No, actually. I haven’t had the chance to look in a mirror recently.”

I glanced down at my body. The battle arena hadn’t been kind to it—and my battle with the dark angel had only made things worse. Gashes, deep holes, and cuts marred my skin. Parts of my flesh were missing—burned, torn off, or both. There was blood everywhere. Most of my clothes were missing too. My tattered shorts had once been full-length pants, my jacket was gone, and my tank top was hardly more than a sports bra now. I didn’t even have shoes on anymore.

“I look like a zombie,” I said glumly.

“No, you’re far too pretty to be a zombie,” Nero stated.

There was nothing romantic about the matter-of-fact way he said it, but it still made my heart melt. I leaned my head against his shoulder, just happy to let someone else worry about how we were getting out of here for once.

Damiel lifted Tessa into his arms. A few weeks ago, she’d have blushed and gushed like a silly, angel-obsessed schoolgirl. Now, she simply thanked him for coming. Remembering her past, living through the torture Soulslayer had inflicted on her and Gin, had made her grow up fast. I just hoped the experience hadn’t destroyed who they were.

And what about me? When I’d battled Soulslayer, a monster had come out, taking me over. Had I changed too? Or was I just starting to become who I’d always truly been deep down inside of me?

For me and my sisters, our origins had come knocking, ripping away the bandages that concealed the past, exposing what we truly were. As we escaped hell, I wondered how things could ever be the same.