Alice and I walked out of the gym and saw Victor at the door, accepting a rolled paper from a man I had never seen before.

I stopped and watched as Victor nodded to the man, then closed the door, his eyes on the rolled paper in his hands. Uninterested, Alice went to the kitchen.

I wiped the sweat from my face with my towel. “Who was that?”

He looked up from the paper. “I’m not entirely sure,” he said, his voice low, distant.

He unrolled the paper and read it. His forehead creased and his lips pressed into a thin line. Not good.

Finally, he rolled the paper and beckoned me to follow him. Wary, I went with him to his bedroom, where Ceris was seated in an armchair reading a book about the creed. She closed the book and raised her eyebrows at us. At the little table beside her, a wild rose-scented candle burned.

He marched to the bed, sat on the mattress, and swept his hand in front of him. The map I had left in my bedroom appeared on the mattress.

“I need you to find someone for me,” he said.

I walked to the bed and looked down at the map. “Who?”

He extended his hand between us and a bolt of white power appeared floating over his palm. The bolt morphed into a symbol. A round circle, like the other gods and goddesses, with lines of varying width crossing each other in the center.

“Find this symbol. Please.”

I sat down beside him and focused on the map. The symbols sprouted to life, their white shine blinking all over the map. I still hadn’t figured out what that meant. Were these deities teleporting like Ceris did every time we left our apartment, or was their energy lost and spread throughout the world?

Ceris stood from the armchair and sat on the other side of the bed. “Whose symbol is that?”

Victor lifted one finger, as if asking her for a moment. “Do you see it?”

I focused on the map. It didn’t matter who it was, as long as we could find him or her, and convince this deity to join us. Our time to assemble an army was running out.

I searched for over twenty minutes, while Ceris and Victor breathed down my neck, waiting and making me tense.

“I don’t see anything,” I finally said. “Maybe this deity is hiding his aura.”

Victor shook his head. “I think this deity is dead. I wanted to find her weapon.”

“Why?” Ceris asked.

Victor looked at the paper rolled in his hand. “It doesn’t matter now.”

Ceris pointed to the paper. “What is that?”

Victor waved his hand and the paper disappeared. “Nothing.”

Ceris glared at him but didn’t say anything.

Meanwhile, I continued staring at the map. If the deity were dead, I couldn’t find her, but if her weapon was still around, I should be able to find it, just as I had found Victor’s and Micah’s scepters.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, emptying my mind. Feeling silly, I called on the magic, whatever magic was hidden in me—if any. I opened my eyes and concentrated on the map. I searched each millimeter, ignoring the blinking and moving symbols I saw all the time. They weren’t the ones I was looking for.

Then I saw it. A faint little thing, hidden under several of the blinking, moving symbols. It never moved or blinked, and with the other symbols jumping around it, its shine became almost imperceptible. Almost.

“I found it,” I said.

Victor stiffened. “You did?” I nodded and he rushed to my side, leaning over the map. “Where is it?”

I pointed to the Coliseum in Rome.

Ceris crossed her arms. “All right, now tell us. Who is this deity?”

Victor sighed. “A long time ago, there was a goddess who ruled separately from the Everlasting Circle, but adjacent. Her name was Diana, the goddess of justice, courage, wisdom, and honesty. She could overrule us.”

Ceris’s brows dipped into a frown. “Wait, I don’t remember any goddess named Diana.”

“Like I said, it was too long ago. We forgot about her.”

“But … how did we forget her?” Ceris asked.

“That doesn’t matter,” Victor answered. “What matters is that Nadine may have found Diana’s spear.”

“What is so special about that spear?” I asked.

Victor stood from the bed and looked at us, a revived shine in his blue-green eyes. “As the goddess of justice, Diana had the power to pass judgment over us, and her spear had the ability to render any deity immobile while doing it.”

Ceris gasped. “So, with the spear we can capture Imha and Omi.”

The corners of Victor’s lips tugged up and he nodded. “Exactly.”

“But if this spear is like your scepters, only you can use it,” I pointed out. “And this Diana is dead.”

“Well, this is where the next bit of information comes in,” Victor said. Now he sounded like a crazy scientist going over his incredible finding. “I have reason to believe Alice isn’t a hero.”

I frowned. “Then what is she?”

He smiled. “The same thing you are.”

“W-what?”

“Along with Diana, there was a group of females called the ladies of Diana. These females were accomplished warriors, much like heroes, who helped Diana with her duties. They rose in rank and the highest-ranking lady was known for several abilities. Finding deities, minor healing, a little magic …”

I gasped.

“Nadine and Alice are ladies of Diana,” Ceris whispered with wide eyes.

“And Keisha was one too,” Victor added.

“But …” I couldn’t find any words for this new discovery.

“It makes sense,” Victor said. “Look at everything you did, everything you can do. It’s not a coincidence. We knew you were something. Now we know what.”

I stood. “That’s … impossible.”

“Why?” Victor asked. “By now, you should have realized nothing is impossible.”

I did realize that, but this was different. This was me, my life. It was one thing to think, to presume, there was magic in me, and another to know there was magic in me and to know where it came from.

Lady of Diana. And not just any lady. Judging by the many abilities I possessed, a high-ranked one.

“I think Nadine can take and use the spear,” Victor continued, adding to my shock. “As Diana’s highest-ranked lady among us, you should be able to.”

“But … what if this is all a mistake?” I asked. “I mean, what if we’re not ladies of Diana. What if we’re something else?”

Victor sighed. “If you aren’t a lady of Diana, then we’ll know when you try to take the spear and can’t.”

I swallowed. I was trying to reason against gods. Better to just do whatever they were telling me. If they were right, good. If they were wrong, we could scratch this and focus on another theory.

“All right.” I filled my lungs with air as if it could provide me with courage. “When are we leaving?”

“Not we. Just you,” Victor said.

“What?” Ceris asked, her blue eyes hard on him. “Levi, can I talk to you for a minute?” She walked to the other side of the bedroom.

With a heavy sigh, Victor stood and walked to her. They exchanged a few harsh whispers while I pretended I wasn’t seeing anything.

After two minutes, Ceris walked out of the bedroom and Victor turned to me. “Go gear up and pack. You’re leaving now.”

I opened my mouth to ask more questions about it—What did he mean leave now? Where was I going? How would I find the spear by myself? And if I ran into a band of demons? Or Imha? But his cold eyes told me not to question it. Not now.

I swallowed my protests and marched to my bedroom.

I put on our beige armor and boots, packed a small leather satchel with an extra change of clothes and some food and water, grabbed a sword and two small daggers from the training room. All the while trying to ignore the nervousness rising in me.

Oh my God, that was what I was? A lady of Diana? We had finally found out? How had Victor stumbled on this information? He didn’t just find it this morning, lying around our living room.

When I was ready, Victor escorted me out of the building—quietly, almost as if he didn’t want anyone else to see me.

“You have four days to find the spear and come back. On the fifth day, we’ll have all of our allies gathered here, and we’ll march on Imha.”

Four days. If I didn’t have someone to teleport me, I wasn’t sure how to get there and come back in four days. I still couldn’t believe he was sending me away. How the hell was I supposed to cross the ocean alone in four days? Make that two days since I had to go and come back.

“Are you giving me any details, or I’m supposed to figure out what to do and how to get there by myself?”

“You won’t be alone,” Victor said as we crossed the protective shield. He touched my arm and teleported us to three random places before arriving at what looked like an deserted road in Japan—that was what I assumed by the looks of the abandoned buildings along the road.

With a frown, I looked around. “So?”

A new form flashed in front of us. My heart lurched and I took a step back.

“Hi, darling,” Micah said. His face was serious though, without his usual confident smirk.

I raised my sword, ready to defend myself, but Victor closed his hand around my arm. “It’s fine,” he said. “Mitrus is on our side.”

I gaped. “W-what?”

“He’s our main spy inside Imha’s army.”

I looked at Micah. But … “The town. Those lives. What about Aruhi?”

“An illusion,” Micah said, his black eyes on mine. “Aruhi helped me evacuate the town before we burned it, and then he used his magic to make it look like everyone was still there. As for him, he volunteered to be captured and taken to Imha. I didn’t like the idea, but I was able to convince Imha to let me handle his torture sessions, which are another illusion.”

“This way, she can’t doubt Mitrus,” Victor explained. “She really trusts he is on her side.”

On her side …

Nausea rolled in my stomach. Nausea and rage. Oh my God, he let me believe he was on her side. That he was helping her and killing innocents.

Without thinking, I advanced on him and punched his shoulder. “Do you have any idea how sick I was, thinking you had turned on us?”

“Ow.” He stepped back, getting away from me before I punched him again. “I’m sorry, but it had to be this way.”

I glanced from Micah to Victor. “So, that fight and argument was for show?”

Micah and Victor exchanged a tight glance.

“Yes,” Micah answered. “On our last mission together, Levi and I found out we have a real spy in our midst. So, we decided Imha should have one too.”

“We already have one spy inside Imha’s army,” I said, my voice low. “One of the scouts volunteered for that.”

Victor nodded. “Yes, but as a regular deity, he will never rise in rank or know everything she’s plotting.”

“And you do?” I asked, watching Micah, trying to see through all the layers he had raised around himself.

He stared at me, not answering. My heart plummeted. What did his damn silence mean? He was close to her? He was with her? I wasn’t sure whether I should feel disgusted or relieved.

Victor spoke up. “Thanks to him, we now have every reason to believe we’re ahead of Imha.”

Micah offered me his hand. “Ready to go?”

I stared at his hand. “You’re going with me?”

He nodded.

“Mitrus was the one who found out about Diana and her ladies,” Victor said.

Micah shook his head. “You helped, Levi. And Morgan too.”

“Morgan deserves a big reward,” Victor said. “Now, you two better get going. You have four days. Only four days.”

“Don’t worry,” Micah said. “We’ll be back before that.” He turned to me. “Are you ready?”

Ready to go away alone with Micah to find a spear that would change everything? Not really.

Victor put a hand on my shoulder. “Be careful. Both of you.”

Micah shrugged it off as if we were going for a stroll on the park. He extended his hand to me again. Oh, God. To teleport with him, we had to touch. This quest, this mission, would be awkward.

I inhaled and took his hand. “I’m ready.”