“Tell me of your great deeds, oh powerful one,” Mere Mortal said down on the stage. “Is it true you can move objects with your mind?”

“Of course.” Fake Nero lifted his hands, and the rocks on the stage rose into the air. I could see the shimmer of the transparent wires, but that didn’t detract from the fun.

“And you can control the elements themselves?” asked Mere Mortal.

“Ha! That is child’s play,” Fake Nero said as fake flames burst to life on the chair beside him and the stage floor began to rumble. “Whether fire or ice, air or earth, I am the master of—” He froze, and so did the cheesy effects.

“Don’t stop on my account,” a familiar voice said.

I leaned forward over the banister to see the real Nero walking across the club. People parted before him, a mix of wonder and fear shining in their eyes. He took a seat on the sofa in front of the stage. Captain Somerset sat down beside him. What were they doing here?

“Continue,” Nero told the actors. “Do tell me more about my great and powerful magic.”

The room was so silent I could almost hear the sands of time pouring out. Then the lights over the stage faded out. The two actors shuffled away, and when the lights flared up again, a choir of men and women in long robes were standing in neat rows. They opened their mouths and began to sing. Their song was so eerily beautiful that it took me a few verses to realize it was a hymn from the Book of the Gods—and then I nearly laughed. Their hasty attempt to appease Nero was funnier than all of the comedy skits that had come before it. It was even funnier than Lyle’s karaoke. And it proved that they didn’t understand Nero at all. He wasn’t moved by songs or praise or outward displays of piety. No, if the angel of New York was moved by anything, it was action.

“You sure are a mood killer,” I heard Captain Somerset chuckle during a lull in the hymn.

“I told them to continue,” replied Nero.

“No one is brave enough to make fun of you to your face. Well, except Pandora.”

I leaned back. They hadn’t seen me yet, and I wanted to keep it that way.

“What are they doing here?” I hissed at Ivy. “I thought the officers of the Legion had their own fancy parties going on tonight.”

Ivy glanced at Soren, who said, “We do. I decided to forgo those festivities in favor of sweeter company.” He flashed her a charming smile and wrapped his arm around her.

“Wise man,” she said, resting her head on his shoulder.

“It looks like they had the same idea,” he told me, his eyes flickering to the lower club.

I followed his gaze to the two fairies who’d just stopped in front of Nero’s sofa. One of the fairies was pink—like really pink, from head to toe. Pink hair tied up into a high ponytail. A pink sequin dress with a frilly pink chiffon skirt. Pink gemstones dangling from her bracelets. And pink slippers, of course.

Where Miss Pink was pink, her friend was blue. She had chin-length blue hair, a sequin cocktail dress that shimmered like an undersea light show, and blue slippers with blue ribbons that criss-crossed up her legs, ending in big bows at her knees.

Captain Somerset waved the two fairies forward, and they slid onto the sofa, Miss Blue to her and Miss Pink to Nero. A double date. So that’s why they’d come here. Now, wasn’t that just kill-me-with-a-machete awesome. As Miss Pink climbed onto Nero’s lap, my party high crashed.

“I have to go,” I told Ivy. “Early morning tomorrow.”

I turned away from the pitying look she gave me. There was no reason for her to feel sorry for me. I was an adult. I could handle this. As I walked down the stairs, I concentrated on how early I’d have to wake up tomorrow for training. Suddenly, the prospect of Nero kicking my ass from one end of the gym hall to the other at five in the morning didn’t sound all that appealing.

My path to the exit would bring me right past Nero’s love seat. Luckily for me, right now he was busy looking at the fairy whose hands were all over him. Gritting my teeth, I skirted the edge of the stairs, hoping to avoid notice. Captain Somerset and Miss Blue were making out like there was no tomorrow, but as Miss Pink dipped her mouth to kiss Nero, his head snapped to me. His stare bore into me, his eyes burning with an emerald fire so intense that I felt the temperature in the room rise. Invisible flames licked my skin, enveloping my whole body, drowning me in a fever that just couldn’t break.

His mouth parted, and his tongue flicked out, tracing his lower lip so slowly that time seemed to stop. A warning screamed inside my head, unfreezing me. I turned and ran out of there, not looking back.

Nero’s date shouldn’t bother me. Really it shouldn’t. So why did it? Why did I care? What was wrong with me? I growled in frustration. I really needed to get my mind off that angel. And I had just the trick. I pulled out my phone and called Bella.

“Hey, Leda,” she answered on the first ring. “How are you?”

Crushed. Broken. Furious. “I’m fine,” I told her. “Do you still want to help me get to the bottom of the poisoning at the Brick Palace?”

“Of course. How can I help?”

“We’re going to break into Morgana’s lab.”

13

Poison and Steam

After a quick stop at my apartment to change into something more appropriate for breaking and entering—and another stop at Nerissa’s lab to beg for something that could assist me with said breaking and entering—I headed back to the New York University of Witchcraft. The school looked creepier at night than it had during the day, either thanks to the spindly silhouette of naked trees against the full moon or just thanks to my nerves.