“Carmen?” Calli asked, rushing to her. “You need to calm down so we can understand you.”

“They…took Zane.”

I rose to my feet. “Who?”

Carmen’s eyes darted erratically around the room, her mind clearly looping inside of a nightmare. “Dark angels. The messengers of hell.”

3

Gods and Demons

“Here, drink this,” Bella said to Carmen with a kind smile, handing her a warm cup of milk.

Carmen’s hands shook as she took the cup from my sister and lifted it to her mouth, but her jitters slowly quieted, thanks to whatever calming potion Bella had mixed into the milk.

“Can you tell us exactly what happened?” Calli asked, setting her hand on Carmen’s shoulder.

“Zane and I had just finished sharing an ice cream sundae at Sweets and Treats. He was walking me home, and we decided to go through the Summer Gardens. He took my hand.” A slight smile curled Carmen’s lips.

It all sounded so peaceful, so innocent. I paced across the room, knowing it couldn’t last.

“Then the dark angels came.” The smile wilted from Carmen’s mouth. “Four of them. They swooped in on wings as dark as midnight. They grabbed Zane, and then, before I could blink, they were in the air again, flying off with him.” Her hands shook, her fear overriding Bella’s calming potion. “You have to get him back.” She held onto Calli’s arm like she was drowning. “You just have to get him back.”

“We will,” Calli promised, hugging the girl to her.

“Why did they take him?” Sobs burst from Carmen’s lips. “Why?”

“The reasons of the dark angels are a mystery.”

It was an evasive answer. Calli knew as well as I did why the dark angels would want Zane: for his magic. The angels would have wanted him for the same reason, but as it was, the dark angels had found out first.

A knock sounded on the door, and Bella went to answer. A few moments later, Sheriff Wilder walked into our living room, his heavy boots thumping against the floorboards with every step. As soon as he saw his sobbing daughter, he hurried forward and swooped her up into a comforting hug.

“Thank you for calling me,” he told Calli. “And for looking out for my girl. I promise I’ll do everything in my power to find Zane.”

Calli inclined her head. Then the sheriff and his daughter left.

As soon as they were gone, I turned to Calli. “He won’t be able to find Zane, not if the dark angels have him.”

Angels were at the top of the Legion of Angels hierarchy, and the dark angels were their counterpart in hell. They served the demons just as the angels served the gods. The Book of the Gods claimed that the demons, desperate to win their war against the gods, set loose the monsters on Earth. And humanity was caught in the middle. Now, two centuries later, Zane was caught in the middle of that same game between gods and demons.

“No, Sheriff Wilder won’t be able to find him,” Calli agreed. “Zane is out of his reach.”

“And is Zane out of our reach?” I asked her.

Calli’s hard face was answer enough.

“There has to be something we can do,” I said desperately.

“What is our rule number one, Leda?” Calli asked.

“That we stick together and always look out for one another.”

Bella took my hand.

“And we never give up on one another,” Calli said. “We will find a way to get him back.”

“They took him because of his magic, didn’t they?” Bella said quietly.

Zane was a ‘ghost’, someone with telepathic magic. It was a really rare ability, one that usually only angels possessed. For a human to be born with that power was almost unheard of. It was one in a hundred million. Or even rarer.

Calli nodded. “Yes.”

“But why take him now, all of a sudden?” Bella asked. “Zane has always managed to keep his power hidden before.”

“By not using it in public. This is all my fault,” I said, my shoulders slouching under the wait of my own guilt.

“Leda—”

“No, Mom. It is. He used his power to disable that vampire tonight. To save me. If I’d been faster or stronger…he’d still be here with us. Someone must have seen him use his magic. The agents of hell have eyes everywhere.”

“Don’t blame yourself, Leda,” said Calli. “We all make our own choices, and Zane chose to use his power to save your life. And he would do it again, even knowing that he’d get captured. You know he would.”

I laughed helplessly. “Yeah. He’s a fool. Just like all of us.” I plopped onto the sofa.

Bella put her arm around me, rubbing my back.

“What do we do?” Gin said quietly. “How do we get Zane back?”

Calli pulled out her phone, another Magitech splurge that we’d purchased for the family business, and began typing. “We need to get to New York tonight. We need to talk to Rose.”

“Rose?” I asked.

“An old friend. She is a telepath.”

“Will she be able to track Zane?” asked Tessa.

“I hope so, dear. I really do. Because it’s the only chance we have of saving him.”

We were supposed to leave for New York tomorrow morning to see Bella off to school, but Calli managed to get our train tickets changed to tonight. So after quickly packing Bella’s bags, we all headed to the train station.