Leaving me there at the bar, he headed back over the vampires. He tied them all together. With that done, he lifted them as one onto the counter, his muscles bulging under the combined weight of three vampires. Holy shit, he was strong. I began to turn away, to move toward the door, but his hand flashed out, catching mine.

“Leda Pierce, I will be watching you,” he promised as six Legion soldiers marched into the bar to carry away the vampires.

6

The Last Day of My Life

Two hours to say goodbye to my old life. I almost wished the angel had made me stay in the Legion building until the blood-letting, collective torture, or whatever else the Legion had in store for me this afternoon. Staying would have made what was coming much easier.

But life was rarely easy and never fair. That’s something I’d learned long before Calli had taken me in. I’d been making the tough choices for years already, but she’d taught me to make the right ones. And this was right. Saving the brother I loved was right. I knew in my heart that it was true.

It was nearly time for our return train to Purgatory to leave. I messaged Calli that I’d meet her and the girls at the station, then I headed there. The train was just pulling in as I arrived at the platform.

“Cutting it close, aren’t you, Leda? What happened? Did you have a steamy rendezvous with a sexy man in the Armory?” Tessa smirked at me.

Not a man, an angel. And it wasn’t in the Armory.

“Something happened. Just look at her face,” Tessa said to Gin. “He must have been some guy.”

“Not everything is about boys, Tessa,” I replied.

“Of course it is, silly. You just haven’t realized it yet.”

Calli took my hands, looking me right in the eye. Her gaze slid over me like a search scope, her fingers tracing the scratches on my face, down to where the broken glass from the mirror had cut into my hands. “What happened? Were you attacked in the city?”

“I’m fine,” I assured her. “It was just a few vampires.”

Calli gave me a hard look. “What’s going on here, Leda?”

“I’m not coming with you.”

Calli stiffened, her grip on me tightening. I didn’t trust myself to speak without my voice breaking, so I peeled her hands from mine, then reached into the back pocket of my jeans to recover the paper I’d received from the angel, the one accepting me into the Legion of Angels.

Calli’s eyes widened as she read the text printed there. “Dear girl, what have you done?”

“What had to be done. You knew what Rose was saying as well as I. In order to save Zane, we first have to find him. We have no idea where he is. He’s probably not even on Earth anymore. To find him, one of must gain telepathic powers. And the only way to do that is to move up the Legion and earn that magic.”

The Legion of Angels was structured into a rigid hierarchy. With every level you advanced up the ranks, you gained a new power.

“You sweet, foolish girl,” Calli sighed. “That magic is a level nine spell, a second-tier angel spell. You not only have to make it through the ranks, you need to actually become an angel. Do you know how few people make it that far?”

“Very few,” I said. “But I’ve never believed in being a victim to the odds.”

“There’s no going back now.” Calli shook the paper. “They won’t let you leave the Legion. Not ever.”

“I know, and I’m sorry. I promised to help you with the business, and now I’m bailing. I just have to save Zane. I can’t leave him at the mercy of the demons.”

“I don’t care about that silly promise I never wanted you to make. I care about you, Leda. One way or another, the Legion will claim your life. Even if your body survives, your soul does not. The Legion changes who you are inside.”

“I will never change,” I promised her, even as I couldn’t help but think back to the angel’s words, those words that echoed Calli’s. But just because he’d changed, that didn’t mean I would. I had to believe that.

“It’s the only way, Mom,” I said, tears burning my eyes, blurring my vision. “The only way to connect to Zane. And only I can do it.”

“No,” Tessa’s voice cut in, sharp as a whip. “You could have told us. We could have decided together who joined the Legion.” Enormous tears rolled down her cheeks, which only made it harder for me to hold back my own tears.

“You and Gin can’t do it,” I told her. “The Legion only accepts initiates after they turn twenty-two.”

“We could have lied,” Gin said. She and Tessa were holding to each other, wailing. “We have fake ids.”

“That works on bartenders, little sister, not on the Legion.”

Calli’s mouth tightened into a hard line. “Leda, what’s our number one rule?”

“We always stick together,” I said automatically, then sighed. “But things are different now. We aren’t all together. We won’t be until after we get Zane back.”

“We’ll never be together again, even if you save Zane. Because the Legion won’t let you leave,” Gin sobbed.

I smiled sadly at her. “A small price to pay to save our brother from being exploited. You know what the demons will do to him. They’ll crush his mind, making him spy on their enemies until he burns out—or goes mad.” And, if Rose was right, they’d also try to breed him to make more ghosts. Like an animal. I shuddered at the thought.