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“But angels do not welcome change,” he told me. “Especially the old angels.”

“Neither do gods,” I said. “But, the creep factor of that Janger dude aside, this might just be the miracle we’ve been waiting for, the solution to our biggest problem. Now that the Guardians are gone anyway.”

“They are a problem I will certainly not miss at all.”

I smiled at his comment. I never missed my problems, but then again, I wasn’t one of the old angels Nero had referred to.

“Mommy! Daddy!” Sierra cried out in distress, running up to us.

“What’s wrong?” Nero asked, reaching for his sword.

“Angel no want to play!” Sierra stomped her foot down, pouting out her lips.

Nero withdrew his hand from the hilt of his sword. And I chuckled. It was nice to worry about normal problems like this for a change.

“Where is Angel?” I asked Sierra.

“There!” She ran toward Angel.

We followed. The cat took one look at Sierra, then scrambled up the climbing wall, escaping into the forest.

“Sierra want Angel!” our daughter cried.

“Maybe she ran off because you’re too rough with her?” I suggested.

“Too rough?” Nero snorted. “Pandora, your cat is a lion.”

Sierra nodded. “Fluffy teddy bear lion.” Her voice was solemn, almost reverent.

“Well, I could try talking to Angel,” I said.

Sierra nodded, grabbing my hand. She pulled me toward the climbing wall. Angel was sitting atop the tallest tree, looking down on us from her high perch.

“Angel?” I called up to her. “Hey, want to come down here?”

The cat didn’t move a whisker.

“You’re going to have to be much more convincing than that, Leda,” Basanti said, joining us at the base of the climbing wall.

“She’s a cat,” I retorted. “I’m not sure you can convince cats to do anything.”

“Ok, so with normal cats that’s true,” Basanti agreed. “But your cat isnotnormal. You have a magical link to her. Maybe you can use that to summon her to you.”

I wasn’t sure that was a good idea. Sierra was kind of rough with the cat. On the other hand, like Nero had said, Angel was as tough as a lion.

I felt for the magical connection and tugged, calling Angel to me. And, almost to my surprise, she jumped out of the tree, gliding down to the ground gracefully on white wings. She landed right in front of me.

Sierra sprinted toward her.

The cat flinched.

I held out my hand to Sierra. “Wait a minute, ok, little warrior? We just went through a tough battle. I want to make sure Angel’s ok.”

“Angel hurt?” Sierra asked, sniffling.

“That’s what I want to find out. But if she is hurt, Nerissa will fix her right up.”

Nerissa sidled up to me. “Great, so I’m a vet now?” But amusement twinkled in her eyes.