I watched the infected supernaturals leave the city, running fast toward the Black Plains like a river of lost souls. I wasn’t sure if their departure was good or bad. At least it meant Angel Fever wouldn’t continue to spread inside the city. But why were they leaving? Whoever was controlling them must have had a reason to engineer this magical infection—a reason beyond mere mass hysteria. Was summoning them onto the Black Plains just the next stage in this master plan? Was it an omen of a great war to come?

Harker had ordered our building to be locked down. Now that Angel Fever had spread to the Legion, we didn’t want to add our numbers to the collective might of the swelling army outside.

“It’s taking longer for the magic contagion to infect our soldiers than it did to infect other supernaturals, thanks to the amount of Nectar in our blood. And our willpower,” Nerissa said when we returned to her lab. “The higher a soldier’s rank, the longer it takes for Angel Fever to set in.”

Harker frowned at her. “We agreed we weren’t using that name.”

“You agreed that Harker,” Basanti said as she entered the room.

“I’m in charge.”

“I don’t think anyone is in charge of this situation.” Basanti looked at Nero. “The building is fully locked down.”

“Good,” he replied. “You, Leda, Harker, and I will follow the army to the Black Plains to assess the threat.”

Bella walked into the lab with the two vampires, Constantine Wildman, the Sea King, and the Fire King.

Harker shot them a look loaded with nightmare promises. “If any of you know what’s going on, speak now.”

The supernatural leaders remained stubbornly silent.

“He knows something.” I looked at the Sea King.

The leader of the city’s water and ice elementals lifted his hands in feigned innocence. “I know nothing.”

I pulled out my phone.

“We have a problem,” the Sea King’s voice spoke out of the speakers. “We need to deal with it before the other elementals find out—or worse yet, the Legion. Tell Holden to come to me.”

I paused the recording, smiling at him.

“I…”

“Before the other elementals find out?” the Fire King repeated, his jaw clenched. “Now look what your secrets have cost us.”

Harker’s hard gaze fell on me. “You bugged his office without asking for my approval.”

“We’re beyond that now, don’t you think? This problem has escalated too far,” I pointed out. “A magical contagion has infected hundreds of supernaturals, including the Legion’s own soldiers, and you’re worried about procedure?”

Harker just shook his head slowly. He looked at the Sea King and said, “What do you know?”

“We’d noticed some changes in Serenity and in some other elementals before the Tsunami Incident,” the Sea King admitted.

The Tsunami Incident. That was what it was being called now.

“We locked away the others, but we didn’t get to her fast enough.” His gaze darted nervously between Harker and Nero. “I swear I don’t know anything else.”

“There’s no time for a thorough interrogation to see if he’s lying,” said Nero.

“My gut tells me he’s telling the truth,” I said.

“As does mine,” Nero agreed.

Harker turned to the other supernatural leaders. “What about the rest of you? Now is the time to come forward and confess your sins.”

“This is not our work,” the Vermillion vampire insisted. “We don’t wave our hands around and conjure spells.” He looked pointedly at the two elementals.

Fire erupted on the Fire King’s hands.

“Put out that fire,” Harker told him.

The Fire King continued to glare at the vampire through his orange flames.

Harker repeated his order.

“See what I’ve had to deal with?” I told him.

Harker ignored me. His hard eyes drew together, burning with wrath. “Put it out.”

I could see his siren’s magic working on the Fire King. The flames on the elemental’s hands went out.

“Now, sit down,” Harker told him.

The Fire King sat in one of Nerissa’s chairs. The other leaders followed suit, before Harker could turn his fury on them.

“Some of you have withheld information,” he said.

The vampire tried to speak, but Harker silenced him.

“Withholding that information from the Legion is what allowed this situation to blow up. The Legion’s Interrogators will sort it out later, after we’ve cleaned up this mess. We’re heading for the Black Plains now. We’re going to follow that army to its source. And you are all coming with us.”

“The Black Plains are no place for civilized people,” the Snowfire vampire protested.

“Coward,” Constantine Wildman chided him.

The vampire bared his fangs at the witch. “This is suicide. What is to stop the infection from getting us too? Then this will all be for nothing.”

“I have a potion to protect you against the effects of Angel Fever,” Nerissa said. “At least for a while.”

She didn’t tell them that the potion was made from my blood. I didn’t know if that would excite or repulse them, but I was glad she was keeping it a secret.

“The stronger your will, the longer this potion will help you resist the effects of Angel Fever,” she told them.

“That means the vampires won’t last long. They are such physical, savage creatures.” Constantine Wildman turned up his nose at them.

The Snowfire vampire launched himself at the witch. Harker froze him midair with a telekinetic wave.

The Fire King chose that fine moment to lose his mind. Fire flamed up on his hands. He swung his fiery fists, hitting the Snowfire vampire hard. Too hard for an elemental. Here we went again.

I looked at Nero, who nodded at me. I ran over to the cell holding Charlotte. Nero blasted the Fire King with a psychic burst. I slammed my hand against the controls, lowering the barrier just long enough for Nero’s magic to knock him into the cell. Then I pounded the button again, and the gold barrier zipped back up over the cell.

The Fire King jumped to his feet. He blasted the barrier with magic once, then he fell unconscious to the floor. I’d shot him with one of Nerissa’s magic tranquilizers on his way into the cell.

“You four will join us in our mission on the Black Plains,” Nero told the four remaining supernatural leaders.

Harker looked at Nerissa, Bella, and Marina. “You three stay here to work on a cure.”

“There’s no guarantee we will find one,” Nerissa told him.

“Just try your best,” Nero said. “Slow the spread as much as you can with your potions.” He looked at the rest of us. “Now let’s go hunt down whoever is controlling the swarm.”

* * *

I stood on the airship’s upper deck, looking down on the Black Plains. As the name suggested, the lands were black, scorched as though hellfire had rolled across them, burning everything in its path. Even centuries later, there was nothing left. Nothing but the twisted plants and savage beasts that now reigned supreme in these wild lands.

Even the air smelled like ash. I coughed. No matter how many times I visited this place, it just didn’t grow on me.

“You have lovely hair,” the Snowfire vampire commented, watching as the wind blew my hair across my face. He reached for it.

I blocked his hand. “You touch my hair, and I’ll cut off your hand.”

“You don’t have it in you, a sweet thing like you.”

I drew my sword and launched myself off the floor, slashing out with my blade. A small flying monster, about the size of a turkey, dropped dead to the deck. I plucked it off the wood planks and tossed it at the Snowfire vampire with a smirk. He caught the dead bird, speechless.

I leaned over to wipe the blood off his cheek. I’d nicked him just a smidgen. On purpose, of course.

“You have to watch your back out here in the wild lands,” I warned him. “There are monsters everywhere.”

His eyes grew wide. I wiped his blood off on his shirt, then walked away.

“Showing off in front of vampires?” Harker commented as he joined me at the edge of the deck.

“They are easily impressed by flashy moves.”

“And you managed to scratch him without seriously maiming him.”

“Well, I do have skills, you know.”

“You’ve improved.” Harker looked thoughtful.

“Do I detect a hint of approval in your tone?”

“Perhaps just a hint.” His eyes hardened as they panned across my body. “You’ve changed,” he repeated. “But you still have a long way to go if you want to hold your own with the angels.”

I leaned on the railing, lifting a brow at him. “Are you challenging me to a duel?”

“Are you accepting?”

“All right. When this is over. But I have to warn you, I fight dirty.”

Harker laughed. “Indeed.”

Nero came up behind us. “We’re here. Time to go.”

The supernaturals covered the lands beneath us. There were hundreds of them. The airship circled around them, flying over a small forest a few miles away. The plan was for us to drop down there and stealthily sneak up on the army.

Basanti pushed the vampires, witch, and elemental toward the edge of the deck. “Come on, time to go.” She spoke loudly, command ringing in her voice. It was the sort of voice used to train Legion soldiers.

“We’re not descending,” the Sea King observed.

“Of course not,” she told him. “We can’t land. The monsters feed on magic. They will tear the ship apart. It needs to stay up here.”

“Then how will we get up to the ship again?” the Sea King asked, panic straining his voice.

Basanti showed off her watch. “I have a remote to summon the ship back to us when we’re done.”

The Vermillion vampire glanced at her watch, calculation gleaming in his eyes. “And any of us can activate it?”

“Any Legion soldier can.”

“And what about the rest of us? What if we need to activate it?” the Snowfire vampire demanded.

“Ah, planning on taking off without us?” Constantine Wildman said.

“Of course not. But what if we don’t all survive this? If we can’t get back to the airship, we’ll be stranded here.”

Basanti grinned at the vampire. “You really believe that you will survive when four soldiers of the Legion do not?”

The Snowfire vampire shut his mouth.

“Enough talk,” Nero said, his voice crisp. Like a whip. “Jump.”

Constantine Wildman looked over the edge of the airship. “We’re several hundred feet up in the air.”

“Then you’d better all hold onto your buddy.” Basanti grabbed the witch and swung him onto her back.

Harker took the Sea King. Nero carried the Vermillion vampire. And I got the Snowfire vampire who’d admired my hair. Lucky me.

“You can’t fly,” my passenger pointed out.

“No, but I excel at falling.”

Then I jumped. The two angels dove over the edge of the airship, their dark wings extended. Basanti and I didn’t have the luxury of feathers. We fell, using our elemental air magic to ride the wind currents down toward the ground. Basanti moved so gracefully, like a swan dancing on the wind. Or a surfer riding a wave.

I was…well, less graceful. With the help of my magic, I followed the air currents, but it was a bumpy ride. It was a vast improvement over the last time I’d fallen out of an airship, however.

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” the Snowfire vampire asked me.

“Yes.”

I felt the air currents rippling against my skin, hard and ragged. The vampire gripped me tightly.

“We’re experiencing turbulence.” His voice shook.

“That’s nothing. The last time I fell out of an airship, it was so much worse. There aren’t even any monsters trying to eat us this time.”

He buried his head in my hair.

I threw an annoyed look over my shoulder. “Did you just smell my hair?”

“It’s so pretty,” he cooed. “It soothes my nerves.”

“If you bite me, Fangs, I’ll give you an express ticket all the way down to the ground.”

I concentrated on slowing my fall, on making it smoother. I passed into a calmer patch of air. The wind was gentle, soft, caressing. Like silk ribbons tickling my skin.

We hit the ground a bit harder than I’d expected, but at least I stayed on my feet. We were even the first ones down. Obviously. We hadn’t coasted so much as dropped.

The angels followed, landing smoothly. Nero set down like a black swan on a serene lake. Harker’s landing was nearly as smooth, but from the look of intense concentration on his face, I could tell he was still getting used to his wings. Basanti set down last. She moved almost like she had wings herself. Her magic was that easy, that smooth.

She grinned at me. “It’s not a race, Pandora. There are no points for being first.”

I returned the grin. “You’re only saying that because you lost.”

She laughed.

The Sea King slid off Harker’s back. He staggered to the side and threw up.

“Oh, look. The Sea King is seasick,” taunted the Vermillion vampire.

The Sea King straightened, wiping his mouth. “That’s airsick, you moron.”

“You are all pathetic,” Constantine Wildman declared. “What will you do when we’re surrounded by a horde of mindless, super-charged supernaturals?”

“We have the Legion here to protect us,” the Sea King said.

The Vermillion vampire looked me up and down. He was clearly unimpressed. “You’re putting your faith in the wrong hands. They ran scared from just two of these infected supernaturals. They are no match for a whole army of them.”

I gritted my teeth. “We had to save a witch’s life, to get her to safety.”

The Vermillion vampire shot me a patronizing look. “Of course, dear girl.”

I could tell he thought I was a coward, but I didn’t have time to dwell on that right now. Plus I’d just remembered that I didn’t give a shit what he thought.

We pressed on across the Black Plains, following the river of supernaturals. They didn’t seem to notice us at all. As we walked, I heard a voice in my head. It tugged at my mind, whispering commands, telling me to go to it.

“Do you hear that voice?” I asked the others.

Harker nodded. “Whoever is commanding this army is telepathic.”

“Do you recognize the voice?” I asked him.

“No. But it sounds so…”

“Godly,” I supplied.

He frowned. “Yes.”

So was a god actually behind this?

The Snowfire vampire spun around, magic sizzling across his skin, building up.

“He’s succumbing!” I shouted.

Basanti shot him in the chest.

I looked down at the vampire’s unmoving body. Man, she’d moved fast. She’d managed to get him before he’d powered up, before he’d grown too strong to take down just like that.

“He’s not dead,” I noticed.

“No. It’s a heavy sedative, something from Nerissa,” she replied. “It will only last a few hours.”

“What if it takes longer than that to stop this?”

“If it takes longer than that, we’re likely already dead anyway,” Harker told me.

“Since when did you get so dour?” I asked him.

“Becoming an angel is like a kick in the teeth, a splash of ice water, of reality,” Nero said.

I looked at them, frowning. “Am I the only one who thinks we aren’t marching to our deaths?”

The Sea King’s body quaked. Basanti shot him too. “Yes.”

“Is she kidding?” I asked Nero. “I can’t really tell.”

He gave her a long, hard look, then declared, “Neither can I.”

“Basanti, you’re getting stronger,” Harker said. “Dare I hope that you’ve decided to join us in the dog race to the top?”

Basanti grinned at him. “I find myself suddenly motivated.”

“Leila’s influence?” he asked.

“That and my desire to kick your ass.”

Chuckling, Harker set his hand on her shoulder, and Nero gripped her other shoulder. They were having fun. Genuine fun. The three of them had once been best friends. I could see a hint of that former bonding between them, of that camaraderie they’d lost. That alone almost made this catastrophe worth it.

We passed by infected supernaturals, none of whom paid us any notice. Their eyes were all turned upward, up to a raised platform. We’d made it to the core of the army, where their commander stood, staring down on them.

It was Stash. He was the voice I’d heard in my head. He was the one controlling the supernatural army.