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I could feel the shield too, a magic hum in the background. It felt like it was made from a similar kind of magic as the chain Mordon had used to take over my body. It pulsed with that same primordial magic, a magic even older than the ancient Immortals.

“Let the gods and demons come,” said Mordon. “If they do, their bodies shall become forfeit. And if they do not, we will go to them. And their bodies shall become forfeit. For millennia, we were denied the powers the Immortals gave so freely to others. No more.” He slashed his hand through the air. “Gods, demons, angels, dark angels…so much power, so many host bodies ready for my kin to claim as their own. Leda Pandora gathered them all together. She stupidly laid them out for us like a buffet.”

In other words, no matter what my army did, the Guardians planned to take over their bodies and usurp their magic.

Kia looked at him, her eyes calculating. Maybe she’d actually done the math now. Maybe the reality of the situation had finally caught up to her. Maybe she’d realized that once the Guardians were in control of powerful magical bodies, once they didn’t need her and Regin’s protection anymore, they’d get rid of them.

“I need to go check my armaments.” She headed for the door.

Mordon put himself in her path. “Your armaments are just fine.”

His gaze panned down her. Desire rippled through his body. Throughmybody. Yuck.

Hey, that’s my body you’re messing with!I shouted at him.

My shout went unheard. It just echoed back at me. Grrr.

Mordon’s hand slid down Kia’s ribcage. Very, very slowly.

I tried to pull away from Kia, but Mordon’s libido must have been stronger than my desire to punch him in the face. Even if it was my face.

“I think you’ll enjoy this body even more than you did the last one. It has quite a few morefeatures.” Mordon’s words whispered against her neck, trickling down her body, carried by a gentle telekinetic breeze.

Goosebumps prickled up across Kia’s skin. “I must admit,” she said, her voice husky, “I find your new body very…” She ground her pelvis against his. “…intriguing.”

Oh, no. No, no, and more no! I did not sign up for this. I totally had to wrestle back control over my body before Mordon used it to fulfill his lecherous fantasies. I was so not going to have sex with Nero’s-former-crush-turned-evil-supervillain.

I could feel Sierra gawking at Mordon and Kia—or what must have looked like me bumping and grinding with someone who most definitely was not her father.

No way this was happening. No freaking way.

I tried to pull away again, and again it didn’t work.

But Sierra felt closer than ever before. And Nero…I could finally sense him.

Pandora, his voice echoed, like he was speaking underwater.

I followed it. I had to be close to him. I had to be close to the edge of this mind prison. Just a little further and I could take back my body.

Pandora.Nero’s voice was louder this time. Clearer.

I’m coming,I told him.

Pandora.

Almost there.

Then I’d be free and…and then what? I could open the shield to let in the army, untie Sierra, punch Kia…I was really looking forward to that last one…but then Sierra and I would be all alone inside an enemy stronghold, at least until my soldiers fought their way to us. We’d always known this would be the sticky part of the plan, but we’d gone with it anyway. It was a shitty situation, but it was the best we had.

Until now.

I had an idea. A sudden, brilliant, crazy idea.

Mordon’s face moved toward Kia, lips parted, preparing to kiss her. And that’s when the connection between me and Nero vibrated, like a plucked guitar string. I pulled Nero into me, and pushed him into Kia’s body, right through her and Mordon’s open mouths.

In other words, I used the Guardians’ own trick against them.

I knew it had worked the moment Kia pushed away from me.