“Cheers,” I said with a small smile, raising my vial.
We clinked glasses and drank. The potion poured down my throat like liquid ice, chilling me. It felt like I’d just swallowed the Arctic. A wintery storm took root inside of me, freezing my blood, making it flow as slow as molasses.
Beside me, Nero clenched his fists, shattering the empty vial. He didn’t shake. He was as solid as a mountain. But I could feel something now—a profound sense of loss, as though a piece of him had been ripped away.
I shivered, my hands shaking as I dropped the vial. I felt cold—so very cold. My elemental magic felt muted, cut off. My pulse raced, my mind panicking as I tallied off all the other magic I still had to lose. Siren’s Song. Witch’s Cauldron. Vampire’s Kiss. And then, at the end, I would be mortal again. Weak again.
I was hit with the overwhelming urge to run away and hide myself. A tiny sane part of my mind reminded me that there was no hiding from this. It was too late. I had already drunk the potion. My magic would abandon me. The only way to get it back was to see this through.
Somehow, that wasn’t the least bit comforting.
“Good,” Ronan said, looking at us. “Very good.”
Then he lifted his hands. A blast of psychic energy tore out of them. His magic slammed into us like a hammer, knocking us over the side of the airship.
4 The City of Ashes
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.”