Page 170

“The Guardians plan to drain all the supernaturals of their magic, and pump that power into themselves,” Arina continued. “They believe the overflow of magic will be so strong that their own nullifying magic is overpowered, and they gain the magic of all those that they killed.”

“That sounds just like what we’re doing to their barrier,” Leila said. “Using so much magic that the Guardians’ nullifying magic is overpowered.”

“But how can they channel this magic into themselves?” Basanti wanted to know.

“That’s all thanks to the Legion of Angels, the Dark Force, Leila, the goddess Meda, and others,” Arina said.

“That’s a lot of people helping the Guardians who would never, under any circumstances, help the Guardians,” Harker commented with a skeptical eye.

“Ok, let’s take them one by one,” Arina said. “One. The idea of blending magic. The Guardians got that from the Legion’s and the Dark Force’s efforts to create supernatural soldiers out of humans. It is the idea of giving magic to people without magic. The Guardians’ formula is a modification from the ones used by the Legion and the Dark Force.

“Two. The Guardians refined that potion formula using Leila Starborn’s experiments on balancing magic in monsters.”

Leila’s eyes grew wide with surprise.

“Three,” Arina said. “The Guardians also used Meda’s research on the archangel Osiris Wardbreaker and others to further refine the potion formula.”

We did know that Meda had gotten the Life potion, which she’d used in her experiments, from the Guardians. The goddess had thought she was using the Guardians. Well, it turned out they’d been the ones using her.

“The Guardians’ new potion formula will prime their bodies to receive all of that raw magic stolen from the supernaturals they’re sacrificing,” Arina said.

“How do you know all of this?” Every one of Colonel Fireswift words was saturated with suspicion.

“When the Guardians abducted my children, I followed a lot of magic trails to figure out exactly what they were planning to do with them,” Arina told him, not cowered by his glower.

She truly was a kick-ass woman.

“All right, folks, the plan is to blow open the doors of the Guardians’ Sanctuary, free all their ‘guests’, and stop the Guardians once and for all,” I declared, trying to stay optimistic. “We bearers of the Legion’s future will take care of all the magic we need. I’ll channel it through Angel—” I indicated my cat, who meowed. “We expect heavy resistance from the Guardians’ forces, given that we’re trying to blow a rather massive hole in their wicked plans. The rest of you have the job of holding them off. As soon as the Sanctuary is exposed, our army will move in.”

“The first letter of each octuplet’s name spells ‘grimoire’ when put together,” Bella said randomly.

We all looked at her.

“Gertrude, River, Inali, Mallory, Odette, Indira, Rosette, Evie. GRIMOIRE. Grimoire.” Bella smiled at us.

My clever sister. In our house, Bella always won when family game night involved a bit of mental gymnastics.

“You’re having a lot of epiphanies today,” I told her.

Bella nodded earnestly. “I know.”

“Before we march onto the battlefield, are there any questions?” I asked our army.

“Yes, actually.” Colonel Dragonblood turned to Nero. “Windstriker, does she always make things sound so easy?”

“Yes.” Nero looked fondly upon me. “Pandora has a knack for not only making the impossible sound possible, but also for making the impossible actually possible.”

I pumped my arm in the air. “And on that happy note, let’s go kick some Guardian ass.”