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I couldn’t see much of the two people, besides their silhouettes. But as they came closer, my breath caught in my throat. I gasped. One of them was Zane, my brother, the very reason I’d joined the Legion of Angels and set off on this mad, mad path of deities, danger, and drama.

The other person was someone I didn’t recognize, a woman with long black hair braided along the left side of her face. She was dressed in a leather suit that perfectly fitted her tall and slender body. She carried a long sword on her back.

My brother Zane wore a fitted t-shirt and a pair of thick pants made of a durable fabric, the kind you’d put on when you had to trek long distances across the wilderness. He’d cut his light brown hair since I’d last seen him. It was cropped short—and a little spiky. And he’d been working out. His chest was broader, his shoulders wider. It looked like I hadn’t been the only one to step up my physical exercise these past two years.

I rushed forward to hug my brother. “You’ve gotten bigger,” I teased him, pinching his biceps.

“So have you.” Zane set his hand on my belly.

I looked down, blushing. “There really isn’t anything to see yet.”

“There is for me,” he told me.

Zane was a telepath and a powerful one at that. He could see things that others could not, things that were there but hidden to the naked eye.

“In any case, congratulations, Leda,” he said with a bright smile. “I know this isn’t how you ever envisioned bringing a child into the world, but we will make it right. We will make it safe for her. I promise.”

I set my hand over his, my eyes tearing up. “I know I can always count on you to have my back, Zane.”

“And I can always count on you to have mine,” he replied. “Joining the Legion of Angels to gain the magic to find me…” He whistled, clearly impressed. “You are the truest, bravest, craziest sister that I could ever ask for.”

“But I didn’t have to find you. You found me. How ever did you escape the Guardians?” I asked him.

“River got me out.” He glanced at the woman at his side.

I looked at her. Something was…well, weird. Something was very off about all of this. I could feel it. Right now, my gut was warning me that this woman was a liar. It was warning me not to trust her.

But it was Grace who voiced my concerns. “That woman is a Guardian.”