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“You can’t hurt me,” I told him.
He didn’t say anything at all. He just kept moving toward me. And I moved toward him. His armor was pulsing. I wanted it to explode. I wanted to bathe in the ecstasy of its Venom and…
I shook my head.
“No,” I said, coming to a sudden, grinding halt.
I couldn’t absorb that much dark magic again. If I did, I’d be so high on magic that I’d just roll over helpless and limp, a dopey smile on my face. And that enormous demon would crush me like an egg.
“Sorry, can’t play right now,” I told the demon with a wink, then dove through the door.
I turned as I fell, blasting the mountain with enough telekinetic magic to set off a rockslide that buried the exit. I followed that spell up with a few more of the same, just for good measure. And by the time I was done, the base didn’t resemble a mountain so much as a very large pile of boulders. It would take the demons a good long while to unbury themselves, no matter how powerful that big demon was.
I caught up with Stash and the others, and soon after that, we escaped the world through the magic mirror. We split up after that. They headed to Faris’s castle to report in. And I headed home to check on my daughter.
“How is Sierra?” I asked Alec as I stepped into my living room.
“All’s well, boss.” He rose from the sofa and clicked off the TV. “She’s asleep. Finally. Your daughter is a real angel.” He smirked at me.
“That bad, huh?”
He snorted. “She is certainly a handful. Did you know that she likes to set literally everything on fire?”
“Yeah.” I kicked off my boots. My feet were killing me. “But I’m sure you rose to the challenge.”
Alec gave me a flat look. “I’m your head of security, not a babysitter.”
“Sierra’s security is vitally important.”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it, boss. The savior. Coveted by deities and immortals and so on.” He moved toward the door. “Seriously, Leda, can’t you even do motherhood like a normal person? You had to go have a savior for a kid?”
“Believe me,” I sighed, “I wish she could just have a normal life.”
“Nah, normal is boring. I think we all always knew that the progeny of Leda Pandora and Nero Windstriker wouldn’t be anything short of exceptional.”
“I’m sorry exceptional is so hard to babysit.”
“Don’t worry. The cat helped keep Sierra in line,” Alec said with a chuckle, then walked out the door.
14
SAPHIRA
In the darkness of night, the gods’ grand hall glowed like a magic beacon, a symbol of their greatness and everlasting light. But I didn’t stop to drink in the opulence. There would be plenty of time for that later, during Saphira’s ceremony. Today she would officially ascend to the gods’ council, replacing the disgraced goddess Valora.
Faris had invited me to the ceremony—except the invitation was not so much a request as it was a command. But for once I didn’t mind the politics. In fact, this was the perfect opportunity to finally get to the bottom of whatever Zarion was up to with that demon-killing weapon. I was also going to poke around a bit and hopefully figure out how many of the other gods had lost worlds to humans with magic batons or that Venom-shooting mega-demon.
And I’d start with Saphira.
I found the goddess in her dressing room, preparing herself for the ceremony. She sat at a dressing table made of pale wood. Its tabletop was a shimmery sheet of dark marble. A gold-framed mirror hung on the wall, brightly lit.
“Leda Pandora,” Saphira said, her voice as smooth as whipped cream. She finished glossing her lips, then turned in her chair to face me. A slight smirk was buried beneath her perfect goddess smile. “What brings the Angel of Chaos to my dressing room?”
“Nothing chaotic, I assure you,” I replied.
Saphira rose from her seat. She wore a deep blue ballgown with a velvet bodice and layered chiffon sleeves, like butterfly wings. The long, full skirt—blue with silver stars and swirls—looked like the midnight sky. And it swished majestically as she moved toward me.
“Nothing chaotic?” Saphira’s gaze panned down me—I was dressed in a purple dress that was plain by comparison—and the goddess’s brows lifted slightly. “I find that hard to believe. The first time we met, you turned the Lords’ Gala upside down.”
