“Oh, gods, yes. She can set her sword on fire, and she fights like a fiend. Though sooner or later, I am going to have to kick her ass because she is just pissing me off. Oops, did I say that out loud?” I winked at him. “I guess I’m not a saint after all.”

He laughed. “Thanks.”

“For being inappropriately irreverent?”

“That. And more.”

“You can come talk to me any time, and I’ll put you right in your place, I promise.” I set my hand on his shoulder. “Look, it will all work out for you. You’re getting promoted today too, just like me. I’m not winning any race.”

“That’s for sure.”

I turned to face the unwelcome visitors, Mina and a bunch of other Legion brats. They were Jace’s friends, and they didn’t seem to get that so was I.

“Come on, Jace,” Mina said, pulling him away from me. “You need to make sure your aura is pure before the ceremony. You wouldn’t want to contaminate it.”

The brats led Jace away to cleanse his aura on cupcakes and shots of vodka. I walked over to join Ivy, Drake, and Lucy as Colonel Fireswift took the stage to begin the ceremony.

Colonel Fireswift started with Jace, making a grand speech about his son’s heroic deeds and strong constitution. His words were full of more praise than I’d ever heard from him—and they were much nicer than anything he’d ever said to his son when I’d been around.

Jace survived, and then Colonel Fireswift called up the next soldier, someone going to level five. She died a horrible death, poisoned by the Nectar of the gods. Colonel Fireswift gave his hand a dismissive wave, and the dead soldier was taken away.

From there, things only got worse. One-by-one, soldiers were summoned to the stage, in no particular order. Most did survive, but the deaths in between cast a dark shadow on the ceremony. Those people were dead because of Colonel Fireswift. He was pushing too hard because those losses were acceptable to him. But they weren’t acceptable to me. Not at all.

As a soldier spasmed on the floor at Colonel Fireswift’s feet, his mouth frothing with acid and blood, someone in the crowd fainted.

“Get her out of my sight,” Colonel Fireswift snapped at the man who’d caught her fall. “That is not the behavior I expect from a soldier of the Legion.”

Watching the man carry his unconscious friend out of the ballroom, I got an idea. I made my way slowly through the crowd to Dr. Harding.

“Nerissa,” I said quietly, stopping beside her.

“Leda.” Her voice was dark. She was usually so energetic, so talkative. She couldn’t even contain her happiness. But today she couldn’t contain a very different emotion: horror.

“This is a bloodbath,” I said.

“The First Angel made a mistake when she put that butcher in command here,” she replied in a scathing whisper. That was the bluntness I had come to expect from her.

“Do you happen to have a sedative with you?” I asked her.

Nerissa lifted her cocktail. “It’s called alcohol, Pandora. Drink deeply.” She emptied her glass in a single go.

“Actually, I was thinking of something fast-acting and a lot stronger. Something that could knock out a Legion soldier in under a minute.”

“Trying to get out of your promotion?”

“It’s not for me,” I told her, indicating Lucy. “It’s for my friend.”

“She looks as fragile as a snowflake. That sweet girl has the most extensive library of erotic deity romance novels of anyone I know of, so it would be a shame to lose her.” Nerissa took my hand, and then I felt the weight of a syringe in my palm. “This should do the trick. Thirty seconds max and she’ll be out.”

“Thank you,” I whispered, moving back across the crowd to stand beside Lucy.

When her name was called, Lucy jumped in alarm.

“It will be ok,” I promised, drawing her into a hug.

She stiffened when the hidden needle pierced her skin. “Thank you,” she whispered back.

Lucy walked toward the stage, her steps uneven and wobbly. Her hands shook as she prepared to receive the goblet from Colonel Fireswift. I bit down on the inside of my cheek, praying that the drug would take effect in time.

“Sip now of the gods’ Nectar,” Colonel Fireswift began the lines he’d already spoken so many times today.

Lucy’s eyes rolled back, and she fell to the floor.

“How dare you faint in front of me,” the colonel snapped. “I order you to wake up.”

“I don’t think she can hear you,” someone in the crowd said.

Colonel Fireswift searched the crowd for the soldier who’d spoken out of turn. When he didn’t find him, his hard voice rang out, “Dr. Harding.”

Nerissa navigated the crowd, making her way to the front. “Colonel, how may I be of service?”

“Wake her up.”

Nerissa crouched down beside Lucy, wiping back the hair from her forehead. “That would be unwise.”

“It would be unwise to disobey me,” he replied in a voice that sent cold shivers down my spine. “Wake her so she can face her test.”

“It is against regulations to submit sick soldiers to this test.”

“Against regulations,” he hissed.

“I can quote the passage if you’ve forgotten, Colonel,” Nerissa told him calmly.

A soft snort rose from the crowd.

“She is not ill,” Colonel Fireswift said, anger simmering in his voice. “She fainted.”