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“Everyone ok?” Damiel asked.

“Yes,” said Cadence.

Nero nodded. “Indeed.”

Angel meowed.

“We’re ok too,” I said, setting Sierra down next to the cat.

“Fluffy teddy bear!” she squealed, hugging her.

“And more importantly,” I said, smiling, “we now know where the Guardians are hiding.”

CHAPTER 32

THE ONLY WAY FORWARD

“The Guardians’ fortress is too well-guarded for us to breach their defenses with a direct assault,” Damiel declared.

We’d all gathered in the war room. Like most of the rooms in my castle, it was an enormous open hall with brick walls, sky-high ceilings, and a serious lack of modern central heating. We’d thrown a bunch of large rugs over the cold stone floor. We’d also started fires in the room’s six fireplaces.

None of that helped very much.

“We need to take down the big, glowing magic energy shield protecting their castle,” Stash said, his breath steaming in the cold air.

“I sent a team to test the shield’s strength,” Nero said.

“How did that go?” Devlin asked.

“Badly,” Nero told him. “The shield is impenetrable.”

“Maybe your boys just did it wrong,” Aerilyn suggested, smirking.

Why was every word that came out of her mouth soaked in innuendo?

“We did it just fine, sweetheart,” Alec told her, matching her smirk.

“The shield is made from a very odd kind of magic,” Li said. “Magic I don’t recognize. None of our spells had any effect on it. The shield didn’t react at all, as though it didn’t even notice that we were hitting it with everything that we’ve got.”

“Which brings us right back to what I already said,” Damiel spoke loudly, drawing everyone’s attention back to him. “A direct assault won’t get us inside the Guardians’ fortress.”

“Then what will?”

It was Jace who’d asked the question. And no one had an answer.

Except me. The perfect plan had just come to me. Well, ok, maybe notperfect. It was more like the only plan, the only shot we had of breaking into that castle.

“I might have an idea of how to get into the Guardians’ fortress,” I said. “But it’s kind of unconventional.”

Octavian snorted. “Do you ever have any other kind of plan, Leda?”

“No, she doesn’t.” Punch grinned at me.

“What is this amazing plan?” Basanti asked.

“I need to discuss it with Nero,” I replied. “Alone.”

No one moved. My commanding deity voice must not have been very commanding after all. But Nero’s was.