Nyx smiled. “Yes.”
She typed a message into her phone. A moment later, two men in black cloaks led five sirens into the room.
The sirens were beautiful. There were four women and one man—all with long silver hair, braided back from their faces. All with eyes that shone like sapphires and skin that shimmered like crushed diamonds. They looked exactly how I’d always imagined unicorns in human form to be.
The sirens wore headbands adorned with gems that matched their necklaces, bracelets, and ankle jewelry. Strings of gemstones were woven into their bright and colorful clothes too. And into the sandals on their feet.
Nyx waved to the cloaked men, a silent gesture to execute the beautiful sirens, to end this just as she had killed Constantine Wildman on the battlefield. The men in black moved quickly, their blades slashing like lightning. The sirens dropped all at once to the ground, dead.
“What are you doing?” Stash asked, horror shining in his eyes as they panned across the beautiful corpses on the ground.
“The same thing I did back on the battlefield: keeping your secret,” she told him. “Besides the people in this room, the sirens were the last living souls who knew what you truly are.”
“What will happen if someone finds out what I am?” he asked.
“One step at a time.”
I looked closely at Nyx’s two henchmen for the first time, the men the First Angel was trusting with Stash’s secret. The two men looked unremarkable, plain. They had the sort of faces that blended into a crowd, that thousands of men just like them had. Each one was a stock model henchman, the kind you ordered out of a catalogue. Someone you weren’t supposed to spare a second glance—or remember after the fact.
And yet there was something else about them. Something familiar. Nyx’s revelation had reminded me that things weren’t always as they appeared.
I squinted at them, trying to figure out who they really were. They weren’t just henchman cookie cutouts. They were more than that.
Nyx looked from me to her two henchman, a smile curling her lips. “Very good, Pandora.”
She nodded at the men in black. Their disguises melted away, revealing Ronan and Damiel.
25 Angels, Gods, and Demigods
Nero stared at his father in shock. “What are you doing here?”
“Did you really think I wouldn’t notice the return of one of my angels? Especially one as colorful as Damiel.” Nyx made a sound that was almost a giggle. “It’s adorable that you think I’m so gullible, Nero.”
“How long have you known?” he said with false calmness. Through our bond, I could feel his unrest.
“Since right after your glorious escapade in the Lost City,” she said. “After I left Leda’s house, Damiel came to me in secret with news of the sirens sleeping in the City of Ashes. He also told me rumors of another demigod, one whose true identity was hidden away by an immortal amulet that belonged to the sirens.”
“Did you know it was Stash?” I asked Damiel.
“No. I had no idea who it was. For all I knew, it could have been you.”
“Me?”
He shrugged, a gesture so casual for an angel. “A demigod orphaned twenty years ago. It seemed to fit. And you have to admit that you are unusual.”
Nyx’s blue eyes met mine. “Indeed, she is.”
“All I knew was the sirens trapped in the City of Ashes were the key,” Damiel said.
“Damiel also brought me rumors of a god who wanted to see those sirens released, wanted to have the demigod exposed—and create controversy and strife for the other gods,” said Nyx.
What a shocker. “Which god?” I asked.
“When you two broke the seal in the City of Ashes, you released the sirens,” Ronan told me and Nero. “One of the gods wanted them released, wanted this whole thing to blow up. But until Nero’s evaluation after the trials, we didn’t know which god it was.”
“It was Faris.”
I turned in surprise at Harker’s voice.
“Faris wanted the sirens released,” he continued. “And sirens aren’t the only thing that got loose. Much, much more was trapped in that vault. Including ghosts.”
Ghosts. That was another name for telepaths, who were so highly valued for their magic that the gods hunted them all down and ‘invited’ them to come work for them.
Nero had once told me that unlike every other supernatural on Earth, telepaths’ powers weren’t born from the gods’ magic. They’d been here first, before the gods and demons had come to the Earth. And because of that, they possessed some telepathic abilities that were even beyond the gods’ powers. In fact, the ghosts were why the gods and demons had come to Earth in the first place. The armies of light and dark magic had fought over telepaths on many other worlds—so much so that there were hardly any ghosts left.
“How do you know telepaths were trapped in that vault in the City of Ashes?” I asked Harker.
“After you returned, Faris gave me a heads-up to look for escaped ghosts, to capture them for him,” he said.
Nyx gave Harker an approving nod.
“Interesting,” Ronan commented. He looked upon Harker with surprise, which wasn’t an expression you often saw on a god’s face. “Nyx knows you well. She said you were an honorable man. Misguided, but honorable. She was sure that when confronted with everything, all the trouble one god went through to swing a punch at another, that you would turn on him.”
Nyx smirked at Ronan. “He is Leila’s protege, after all.”
The God of War sighed like he’d just lost a bet.
I turned to Harker. “Faris is the god you serve. The God of Heaven’s Army.”
“Yes,” Harker said, his jaw tight.
“Faris has been collecting telepaths since the gods’ arrival on Earth. That is no secret,” said Nyx.
“What was a secret was his brother’s indiscretions,” Ronan added.
“Zarion?” I gasped. “The God of Faith and patron of the Pilgrims? His high and holiness himself slept with a mortal?”
“Apparently,” Nyx said. She didn’t look the least bit surprised. She knew the gods a lot better than I did. “And Faris, ever looking for ways to take a stab at his brother, wanted to expose him, to embarrass him in front of the other gods on the council.”
“This was set up by Faris to expose Stash,” I realized. “Everything, including Nero’s trials. Faris knew we would break the seal to power the barrier—and that it would release the sirens, who’d been trapped and plotting their revenge for twenty years.”
“Yes,” said Ronan. “Faris knew the sirens would find a way to expose Stash, which would in turn expose his brother’s indiscretions. The two of them have been fighting for centuries. It was only a matter of time before one of them found something he could use against the other.”
“But why? They’re brothers. Why would they want to hurt each other this badly?” I just couldn’t get my head around that. I’d do anything for my brother and sisters. It didn’t matter that we weren’t related by blood. I loved them with all my heart.
“It is the way of gods and demons, pulling strings, playing with mortals,” Ronan told me. “We’ve been doing it for millennia on many worlds.”
I mulled that over, then said, “You are a god.”
“Yes.” His dark eyes twinkled with magic. He looked amused. The expression reminded me of Nyx.
“And yet you want to help us?” I asked.
“Nyx is very persuasive. And I once made the mistake of choosing the other gods over her, one I came to regret for centuries.” Ronan reached out and took Nyx’s hand. “I won’t make that mistake again.”
“How romantic,” I teased them.
Nero shot me a disapproving look. Apparently I shouldn’t tease demigods or their godly lovers.
Except I wasn’t joking. I was dead serious. Ronan’s words were very romantic. Especially for someone who was a soldier—and a god.
Nyx just chuckled. “Don’t let Ronan fool you. This is as much business as pleasure. There’s a divide amongst the gods. Factions are forming in heaven. The demons know it. That’s why they’ve been testing the waters so much lately, trying to get a foothold on Earth. They are just waiting for the gods’ council to stumble.”