I fell down to the City of Ashes. I couldn’t see Nero. The raging sandstorm had pushed us apart. My eyes watered, my throat burned, and my heart was galloping so hard that it was a wonder it hadn’t burst through my chest. Through the swirling wind funnels, I could hardly see more than a few feet in front of me.

I dropped through the whirlwind of sand and smoke, and then I could see again. The old city was right below me—and the ground was coming fast. Past the city’s borders, far in the distance, I saw the golden glow of the Magitech barrier that separated the wild lands from human civilization in the west. The barrier around the city itself, the old final line of defense, was out. It didn’t glow with that distinctive gold magic. It looked so sad, so empty, so forlorn.

A piercing screech cried out from above me. Monsters—giant black birds—circled over the city. There were two of them, each the size of a large Legion truck. On the ground, they would have towered over me. Here in the air, I felt even smaller. I was the tiny worm they fed to their monstrous young.

The birds screeched again and dove for me. They were so close that I could see the murderous gleam in their eyes. Those eyes! They were blacker than their feathers, blacker than the bottomless abyss.

I was dropping fast with no way to slow my fall—and no way to fight the monsters. I had no elemental magic. The potions I had on me weren’t potent enough to take out something that big. And my vampiric strength and speed were of zero use to me during a free-fall. I reached out with my siren’s magic to compel the beastly birds, but their minds were too strong, too intent on eating me. I couldn’t override the primal instincts of the hunt. Nero had always warned me that it was easiest to take control of a beast’s mind when it was caught unawares.

It was just as well. The gods were watching, and if they found out I had some power over the beasts that they themselves had lost control over, they would try to figure out why. Finding out would surely involve turning me into a human pincushion, which was a fate I’d prefer to avoid.

The birds screeched, their cries so close that my eardrums rang. In a few seconds, I would be bird food.

A gust of wind punched through the air, knocking the birds off course. No, it wasn’t the wind. It was Nero. He flew past the birds, his dark wings beating fast. Blasts of telekinetic energy shot out of his hands, tossing the beasts aside. He swooped under me and caught me.

“Got you,” he said.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Don’t celebrate yet.” As he dove straight down toward the city, my heart jumped.

The beastly birds had already recovered. They were closing in on us fast. And they were spitting fire. Nero zigzagged through the air, dodging the flames.

And then I felt it—another flash of cold, like jumping into an icy ocean. Ronan’s potion was striking again, chipping away at my magic once more. For me, that meant the power of Siren’s Song. But for Nero… We shook and dropped. Oh, shit. Soon, he wouldn’t be able to use his angel magic anymore. He wouldn’t be able to fly.

He recovered from the drop, steadying us. But I couldn’t help but notice that his wings were beating more slowly now. They weren’t strong enough to hold my weight.

“You have to let me go,” I told him.

He held stubbornly to me. “I am not sacrificing you.”

“Believe me, I don’t want to be sacrificed either. Without me, you’ll never survive this test.” I struggled to keep the smirk on my lips—and the panic out of my voice. “Toss me up to that bird.” I pointed at the shadow of the beast flying above us, blacking out the stars in the sky.

“I am not using you as a weapon.”

“This is the only way. Your wings are fading. You need to trust me, Nero.”

He met my eyes for a long moment, then he tossed me. As I shot up toward the giant bird, I prayed that it didn’t move out of the way. I was betting on the beast’s arrogance, its confidence as an alpha predator. I used what was left of my siren magic to get into its head, to control the beast—not to fight its instincts, but to work with them. To feed its ego.

Nero was right. I couldn’t force beasts to do things they didn’t want to—with the notable exception of that herd on the Elemental Plains, the monsters engineered to be a perfect mix of light and dark magic. However, I could use the monsters’ own wicked natures against them. I could feed the predator instinct, the beasts’ feelings of superiority, their arrogance.

The bird didn’t dodge out of my way. As I collided with it, I grabbed onto its back, my fingers digging through the glossy black feathers, clawing deep to the skin beneath. The bird shook with shock and anger. It bucked hard, trying to throw me off. I clung to it, grabbing fists of feathers, just trying to hold on.

Ice froze my blood—and my breath. I felt the last of my siren magic leave me. The magic slipped through my fingers like oil. And then it was gone.

I held onto the bird. My magic was abandoning me, but my stubbornness would not fade. My time at the Legion hadn’t just grown my magic and combat skills. I’d become stronger inside. That was what Nero had taught me.

Oh, no, Nero.

I looked down, searching for him. My siren magic was gone. That meant his angel power was gone too. I found him. His wings had disappeared. No longer an angel, he was free-falling down to the ground.

The bird I was riding saw him too. It dove for him, opening its mouth to shoot fire. The other bird was flying in from the other side of Nero. The two beasts were in a hot race to eat him first.

We weren’t far now from the city’s upper peaks. I kicked and pulled with all my strength, turning my bird as it opened its mouth. It shrieked in pain and swerved into the other bird. I jumped off the beast and grabbed Nero, knocking us onto a rooftop. Above us, the two birds collided in a fiery explosion. Wow, they sure had a lot of fire in them.

I shot Nero a crooked smile. “Got you.”

He looked over the edge of the building; a few more inches and we’d have missed the roof and fallen to our deaths. Then he looked up at the burning black feathers raining down on us and chuckled.

“What?” I demanded.

“I really did pick the perfect name for you, Pandora.”

“I’m glad you find this all so amusing. Now how about we climb down to the ground before some other beastie decides we’d make a good snack.”

“Agreed.”

We hadn’t made it even halfway down to the ground when another cold flash hit me. My next ability abandoned me, the power of witchcraft. I couldn’t mix a potion now if my life depended on it—which, down here, it probably did. Even if I could have remembered the spells now trapped behind a thick, impenetrable curtain in my mind, I didn’t have the magic to mix them. I couldn’t infuse life into the mixture. And without that magical spark, the potions were nothing more than glorified vitamin drinks.

But there was nothing I could do about any of that. I just had to keep going. Keep climbing. I stole a glance at the city—at the ruins, the decay, the broken barrier that we were supposed to fix. Somehow. The city looked so old in some places and yet so new in others. The monsters’ magic, the magic of the wilds, was a mystery. Sometimes, the wild lands took over quickly. Sometimes, their magic moved at a snail’s pace. The wild magic was unpredictable, uncontrollable. And dangerous. Most of all, it was dangerous.

Most of the decay was at the city’s borders. The inner sections appeared mainly untouched. The weather was just as chaotic. Hot, wild sandstorms raged along the eastern edge of the city, but the air was cooling fast as the sun’s final rays faded from the darkening sky. The sandstorm was becoming a blizzard. Tiny snowflakes fell onto the scorching sand. A layer of white flakes coated the ground. For some reason, it didn’t even melt.

Weather and magic were completely out of sync on the plains of monsters. Not long ago, the angel Colonel Leila Starborn had conducted magical experiments to correct the bizarre weather in the wilds. Maybe if she’d succeeded, she could have put the magic of the wild areas back into sync with the rest of the world.

Nero and I touched down on the ground. Sweat drenched his body, and I didn’t think it was from our climb down the building. This was Ronan’s potion at work. His muscles twitched. He looked weaker than I’d ever seen him.

“Are you all right?” I asked him.

“I must admit, after two centuries with my magic, it’s been quite a shock to my body to lose it. And to my mind.”

“I don’t feel so great myself.”

“You look almost normal. You are strong.” Admiration shone in his eyes.

“I don’t feel strong. I feel sick and weak. My head feels like it’s going to explode, and my stomach is twisted into a hard knot.”

“You are still on your feet. You’re handling it better than I am.”

“I guess it helps that I lived most of my life without magic. Losing it was not as big of a shock to my system as it was to yours.” I planted a big smile over the gaping hole inside of me where my magic used to be.

Nero wasn’t fooled. “The loss of that much magic is always a shock, Leda. You are handling it not because the effects of the potion are weaker on you. You are handling it because you are strong.” He set his hands on my shoulders and kissed my forehead. “And I need you to stay strong.”

A short burst of pain trickled through our bond, and then it was gone.

“You,” I gasped. “You’ve been blocking me. You don’t want me to feel what you’re feeling.”

“It’s better this way. I will not burden you with my weakness.”

I grabbed his hand and set it on my heart, a heart that ached for him. “Don’t hide it, Nero. Don’t hold it back. We’re in this together. Let me take some of your pain.”

“I cannot ask that of you.”

“You’re not asking me. I’m telling you. We’re stronger together.”

“Are you sure?”

“That I’m right?” I grinned at him. “Of course. I’m always right. I thought you’d realized that by now.”

But Nero didn’t laugh. He lifted his hand to my cheek.

Agony lashed out at me, cutting through my body. My legs gave out. The pain filled the wretched emptiness inside of me. Hot and cold, fire and ice—it boiled higher and higher, drowning me, swallowing me, consuming me. I couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, couldn’t speak. I could barely breathe. There was nothing but the pain. I knew with horrible, undeniable certainty that it would never end. I would never be free of this torment—not as long as I lived.

Leda!

There was only one way to end it. Death was an escape. The pain could not follow me there.

I can’t block it off. You have to fight it!

Nero?

I grabbed onto the sound of his voice, focusing on that tiny beacon of hope in a sea of despair. I could almost see him now. The pain lessened to a dull, constant ache.

“Leda.” His voice wasn’t only in my head now.

“I’m all right now,” I croaked, my vision clearing. The first thing I saw was his face. “I was just caught off guard. I…” I choked back tears. “I didn’t realize your pain was so…so…”

He touched my face. “I should never have let you feel that.” Frustration crinkled his forehead. “Now that I opened our connection, I can’t seem to close it.”

“Don’t try to close it.” I set my hand on his. “I can handle it.” I smiled at him. “I can hardly feel it anymore.”

“Leda, you don’t need to pretend with me. I know exactly what you are feeling.”

Like my soul had been shredded apart, then stuck back together with sticky tape.

“We’re in this together,” I told him. “And I’m not arguing with you. Yes, it hurts, and it sucks. If you really want us both to stop feeling this, then let’s fix the Magitech barrier and get the hell out of here. Where do we begin?”

“We will start with your cuts and burns,” he said.

I cringed as his finger pulled back the scorched corners of the big hole in my jacket.

“Didn’t anyone ever tell you that it’s reckless to jump off of monstrous, fire-breathing birds?”

I put on a sassy smirk. “I distinctly remember you only warned me to stay away from giant thunder birds, not fire-breathing ones.”

Nero sighed. “You shouldn’t have shielded me from the fire with your body. My magic is stronger. You should have allowed me to shield you.”

“Nero Windstriker, let’s just get one thing straight. I might have lost most of my magic, but I am not useless. I don’t need magic to be a human shield.”

He set his hand on my arm, then he jerked back, like he’d been shocked. “I can’t heal you. I’ve lost that magic.” He looked so helpless, so lost, but he covered those emotions quickly. “I’ll use a potion.”

He reached into the potion pouches on his belt. He pulled out three vials—then he just stopped.

“Nero?”

“I can’t remember the spell.” He spun around and blasted away a pile of rocks in frustration.

“Are you finished?” I asked him.

“Yes.”

“Feel better?”

“A little,” he admitted.

Laughter burst out of my mouth.

“This is not funny, Leda.”

But I couldn’t stop laughing. Maybe I’d finally lost my mind.

“Are you finished?” he asked me.

I swallowed a final chuckle. “Yes.”

“Feel better?”

“A little.”

His lower lip twitched, and though no laughter escaped him, I could feel him laughing inside.

“Let me see your potion pouches,” I said, holding out my hand.

He detached them from his belt and handed them to me.

I peeked inside the pouches. “You can use the lavender and lily water to make a salve for the burns.”

“How do you know? Is Ronan’s potion not affecting you completely?”

He meant because I had light and dark magic.

“No, it’s affecting me completely. It’s blocked out the magic I gained from Nectar and Venom, light and dark,” I replied. “But I knew this recipe before I joined the Legion, before I drank the Nectar of the gods. My sister Bella used to make it for us all the time. I just don’t have the magic to mix it myself.”

Nero quickly mixed the two ingredients into a thick paste, which he spread across my burns. I breathed out in relief as my burnt skin cooled.

“I wish I could truly heal you,” Nero said.

Unlike many of the Legion’s favorite battlefield balms, this one wasn’t potent enough to heal my wounds instantly, but it did take away my pain.

“Hey, don’t worry about it. I’m a tough girl.”

“My blood would heal you.”

“I’m not going to drink from you, Nero. That would weaken you. I can manage.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. It doesn’t hurt any more than training with you.” I smirked at him.

“Don’t be cute with me, Pandora.”

“I’d never dream of it, Colonel.”

He made a gruff noise that might have been a snort. “The Magitech generators should be in there.” He pointed at the brick building across the street.

“Great,” I said brightly as we headed for the power building. “Let’s give them a power boost, get the barrier back up, and then get the hell out of here. This will be easy. I bet we can get it done in record time, well before you lose all your magic. The gods will be so impressed. In addition to promoting you, they’ll grant you any favor you want.”

“Grant me any favor I want? Obviously, you don’t know the gods very well.”

I gave my hand a dismissive wave. “Don’t be a party pooper, Colonel Hardass.”

His brows lifted. “Colonel Hardass?”

“Just a little nickname that Ivy and I used to call you when we first joined the Legion, way back when you were making our lives a living hell.”

“I had no idea you took an interest in my ass so early on in our relationship.”

“Relationship? The only relationship we had back then was of torturer and trainee. I hated you with every aching fiber of my being.”

The grin Nero gave me was almost evil. “I knew you’d come around eventually.”

“How could you possibly know that?” I demanded.

“You have a dangerous habit of always trying to see the best in everyone. Even in angels. And I am a patient man.”

“Oh, you were plotting to win me over, were you? You must have realized that pushups are the surest way to a girl’s heart.”

“Your training was completely independent of any intentions I might have had.”

I gave him my most skeptical look.

“All right. My intentions might not have been entirely honorable. Especially when I was sitting on you while you were doing pushups,” he admitted.

“Ha! I knew it! You should be ashamed of yourself, Colonel.” I shook my head. “Seducing a sweet, young initiate with promises of pushups.”

“I’m crying inside.”

I snorted. “I’m sure.”

“If it makes you feel better, next time you can sit on me while I’m doing pushups,” he said with a sly smile.

Heat scorched my cheeks. I didn’t know why I blushed, but I knew it was all his fault.

“So,” I said. “When the gods grant you a boon for your stellar performance here…” I stopped when his lower lip twitched in amusement. “What’s so funny?”

“The gods don’t grant boons, Pandora.”

“Thinking is being. Be positive.” I slapped him on the back. “You could ask for your old job back. Then you’d come back to New York and kick Harker out of your office.” I grinned at him. “We’ll do it together. It will be fun.”

Nero stopped and stroked his hand down my face.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Nothing.” His mouth brushed against my neck.

I blushed—again. “What if the gods are watching?” I couldn’t see them, but that didn’t mean they weren’t watching us. In fact, I was pretty sure they were.

“Let them watch.”

His words were as smooth as honey, as decadent as silk. And when he kissed me, heat poured out of his mouth, igniting my blood, burning away the cold ice of the gods’ potion. I dug my nails into the hard muscle of his back, drawing him in closer.

He pulled away, breaking off the kiss. “Later,” he whispered against my ear.

“I’m going to hold you to that.”

“I’d be disappointed if you didn’t,” he replied.

“I’d hate to disappoint an angel. You angels are such a moody bunch.”

“Yes.” Gold flashed in his eyes. “We are.” His face grew serious again. “We need to get to the Magitech generators and fix them before I lose the power of witchcraft. This test was designed to challenge me, so we can be sure that restarting these generators won’t be easy. I will need all the technical knowledge and magic I have left.”

“So if we don’t hurry, we might not have the knowledge and magic to be able to fix the generators?”

“Yes.”

“Well,” I said, swallowing hard. “On the bright side, none of that will matter if the monsters eat us.”

I pointed at the giant spider headed our way.