My bedroom door was hanging off its hinges. Pretty much everything inside my room had been destroyed. Pillow feathers floated in the air. Torn shreds of clothing decorated the carpet like confetti. Some of my leather uniforms appeared to be intact. So they didn’t just look badass; Legion uniforms could also survive an explosion.
I worked my way through the apartment, looking for Drake. And for Ivy. She always changed out of her sports clothes before going to work. She had to be here somewhere. I had to help her before Drake hurt her.
My eyes felt like there was glass in them. Feathers and dust filled the air like a thick fog, mixing with the wild magic. I choked on the stench.
I followed the sounds of a fight spilling out of Drake’s room. Ivy’s voice was strained. She was in pain. I closed in carefully, my sword drawn.
But when I passed into Drake’s room, I realized it wasn’t Drake who’d been infected. It was Ivy. She was hurling elemental spells she shouldn’t possess at him, one after the other. Crazed, tormented by the monsters inside of her mind, she didn’t stop.
Drake tried to tackle her to the ground, but he was not aiming to kill. Ivy was. She shot a stream of fire at him, and he ducked behind what remained of his overturned dresser.
I crouched next to him. “How’s it going?”
“Oh, you know. My best friend is infected with a contagion that’s made her gain scary new magical powers and lose her mind. Just another day at the Legion.” He was trying to sound casual, but I could hear the worry in his voice. And the fear.
“We have to knock her out. Then we’re going to save her. I promise.”
“How do you intend to stop her?” he asked me.
“Do you happen to have that Magitech trap lying around?”
“No. It’s in the garage.”
“I need you to go get it,” I told him.
“It’s too heavy for me to move alone. I’ll need to find Alec first.”
“Alec is infected too. Find someone else to help you carry it.”
Drake’s expression hardened with determination. “I’ll figure out something.”
“Go. And hurry. I’ll cover your retreat.”
As Drake ran away, I leapt over the toppled dresser and shot a swirling ball of dark fire at Ivy. She cringed and jumped back, cradling her burned arm, snarling like a savage wounded animal. If there was something of my friend in there, I didn’t see it. I just hoped Nerissa found a cure, so I could get her back.
I hit Ivy with magic again, and I didn’t hold back. I knew she could take it. All of the infected supernaturals had resilience to spare. That was the problem.
Ivy hissed at me, patting out the flames in her hair.
“Stings, doesn’t it?” I said.
She rushed forward, tackling me. I projected my shifting magic, animating the furniture to look like me. Since the chairs and tables weren’t alive, I had to infuse a lot of magic into the spell.
Together with my army of lookalikes, I closed in on Ivy. The shifted furniture couldn’t do much besides circle around her, but they were a decent distraction. Ivy froze, perplexed, not sure which of my lookalikes to go after. So she attacked everything that moved. She punched through one of my lookalikes. Shards of wood splintered off of her arm.
A shock ripped through my body when my other self fell. I severed our link, and she turned back into a chair. Ivy was already tearing through another lookalike. This battle was going on too long. I was starting to have trouble maintaining the spell. Nero had told me that shifting people outside yourself was harder than shifting yourself. And shifting non-living beings was harder yet.
Drake ran into the room, carrying the mini-generator on his shoulders.
“You carried it all the way here? Alone?” I said in shock.
“I couldn’t wait. Ivy is in danger.”
Wow. He really loved her. Who said romance was dead? Too bad Ivy was too out of her mind right now to comprehend what he’d done for her.
“We need to get the generator closer to her,” I told him. “Do you see how she’s not moving out of that spot. It’s like she knows this thing will trap her.”
Which was weird because the infected people didn’t seem to think all that much.
I grabbed one end of the generator. “Gods, Drake. This is even heavier than it looks.”
“And you’re stronger than you look, Leda.”
We ran at Ivy, throwing the generator. She dodged, but the generator was close enough. A golden barrier slid around her like a veil, enclosing her.
Harker and Nero came running into the apartment with a group of soldiers.
“You’re late, boys,” I told them, dusting off my hands.
The two angels looked at Ivy, who was pounding against the barrier with magic fireworks. The barrier buzzed but held.
“My idea worked,” I said to Harker.
“I can see that,” he replied. “But unfortunately we don’t have an unlimited supply of Magitech generators. How did you trap her?”
“We threw the generator at her and activated it.”
“You threw the generator at her?” He wasn’t able to keep the surprise out of his voice.
I looked at Drake. “Well, Drake helped a little.”
“A little? Thanks, Leda.”
“I trust there’s no point in lecturing you about the Legion’s policy on throwing expensive machinery?” Harker said.
“Why on Earth would the Legion need a policy on that?”
“Nero implemented one shortly after you joined the Legion.”
I looked at Nero.
He shrugged. “You do like to throw things,” he pointed out.
“Yeah, water bottles and rocks. Not Magitech generators.”
“A preemptive move,” Nero said. “I figured it was only a matter of time before you grew strong enough to expand into heavier objects.”
I almost laughed. Harker’s expression checked that urge.
“So am I getting punished?” I asked.
Nero looked at Harker. Right, it was his call. Nero was just observing. And taking notes for his report. He wouldn’t interfere with Harker’s decisions, no matter how much he wanted to protect me. Maybe he’d even applaud a little discipline. Nero valued things like order and dignity. He was an angel after all.
“Pick up the generator, Pandora,” Harker told me.
I stepped toward it. Drake moved to help me, but Harker cut him off. “Stop. She’ll do it alone.”
I tried to lift the generator off the ground. It stubbornly refused to cooperate.
I tried again. This time, I succeeded, powered by stubborn will. Ok, so I also drew a little on my bond with Nero for extra strength. I knew he felt it, but he didn’t say a thing. That was the great thing about Nero. He let me handle things that I could do alone and helped me without question when I really needed his help. Now was one of those times.
“Bring it to Dr. Harding’s lab,” Harker said.
“You want me to carry it all the way there?”
Ivy was thrashing above me, adding to the weight I was carrying. It was a good thing the Legion of Angels had buildings with high ceilings or Ivy would have taken out the ceiling. Unfortunately, high ceilings also meant lots of stairs.
“Yes,” Harker said as I gaped at the stairwell looming before me. “Down the stairs. It is a good reminder of the consequences of throwing things.”
As I walked, that weight pressing down on me, sweat drenching my skin, I muttered, “You won’t be so smug when I throw you.”
“I heard that,” Harker told me.
“You were meant to, genius.” I resettled the generator’s weight when we reached the bottom of the stairs. “I can’t believe you carried this thing all the way from the garage,” I said to Drake.
“Maybe you need to increase your weight training.” He grinned. “Practice with me.”
“No thanks. I see the weights you lift. No way.” I stumbled, but caught myself before I fell.
“Perhaps instead of smarting off, you should concentrate on the task at hand,” Harker said.