Page 26

“I want to talk to you about the Big Birthday Bash,” she replied.

My sister was in charge of planning the birthday party for Sierra and the six other Legion babies born on the same day.

“Sure thing,” I said. “Do you need my help picking out something for the party?”

“Uh, no.” Tessa laughed. “The party is tomorrow, so we’ve long since moved past the picking point. Besides, I already had everything picked out for this party before those babies were even born.”

I didn’t doubt it.

“Ok, so then what do you need?” I asked, grabbing a glass from the kitchen cabinet.

“I have a…ok, so don’t panic, but I’m kind of currently dealing with a mild party-planning catastrophe.” Her voice was unusually high-pitched, teetering at the edge of panic.

“What kind of catastrophe?” I asked her, pouring orange juice into my glass.

“Nothing big.” She reeled in the panic, burying it under a mountain of self-confidence. “I’ve had trouble finding a few ingredients for the party buffet. Like cheese for the mini pizzas. So, how about you pull some strings and get me buffalo mozzarella cheese?”

“What can I possibly do? I don’t know any cheese makers.”

“You are an angel, Leda. You control a vast territory.”

“A vast territory of mostly nothingness,” I reminded her. “It’s only been three years since we reclaimed the Plains of Monsters, and building back humanity is slow work. All of my resources are going into that. If you can’t find any mozzarella cheese?—”

“I can find mozzarella,” she cut in. “But I need buffalo mozzarella.”

“What’s buffalo mozzarella?”

“Mozzarella made from the milk of Italian buffalos,” she said with an impatient sigh, as though everyone knew that.

Well, I didn’t know much about cheese. Or buffalos.

“Why can’t you just use regular mozzarella cheese?” I asked her, but I was pretty sure I already knew what she was going to say.

“If I wanted plain, boring mini pizzas, then sure.” I could hear the eye roll in her voice.

“Ok, then how about replacing the mini pizzas with something else?” I suggested. “Like mini bagels?”

“No.” Tessa sounded horrified that I would even suggest it. “I have done exhaustive research to make sure this party is a complete success.”

I frowned. “And it can’t be a success without mini pizzas?”

“I have it on good authority that all the birthday children love my trademark buffalo cheese mini pizzas. So I’m certainly not going to replace them with something they might like.”

“Ok.” I scratched my head. “But it sounds like you don’t have the ingredients to make your trademark mini pizzas.”

“That’s where you come in, Leda.”

“Much as I love the idea of mini pizzas, I don’t have any cheese for you, Tessa. I don’t even have any food in my own fridge.”

“That’s hardly anything new, Leda.”

I rolled my eyes at my sister, even though she wasn’t really here. “Try calling Harker?” I suggested. “His territory is having a very fruitful year. And they always have cheese in his office.”

“I already tried Harker.” Tessa sighed. “And Nyx.”

“You asked the First Angel for baking ingredients?”

That was pretty hilarious.