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“Who is Darkstorm?” I asked.

“Darkstorm was a rogue dark angel, turned Pirate Lord of the Sienna Sea,” Cadence explained.

“I’ve never heard of him.”

“That’s no surprise. He died centuries ago, long before you were born.” Damiel looked at Nero and added, “Before either of you were born.”

“It happened during my first mission with Damiel,” Cadence said. “I’d just become an angel. Damiel and I set off across the Sienna Sea to search for Darkstorm—and for the immortal weapon he’d stolen, the Diamond Tear. Darkstorm was killed during the mission.”

“What do you mean ‘was killed’?” Nero asked. “You weren’t the ones to kill him?”

“No,” Cadence said. “It was Eva.”

Eva the Immortal was Cadence’s aunt, her mother’s sister.

“Darkstorm had a failsafe. His life force was linked to his fortress. When Eva killed him, the fortress was destroyed,” Cadence said.

“But if this fortress was destroyed centuries ago, isn’t it kind of to be expected that it’s finally gone?” I pointed out. “Reclaimed by the expanse, eaten by the sands, and all that.”

“The ruins were still there a few months ago.” Damiel glanced at Cadence. “They looked almost exactly as we’d left them.”

“What were you doing back there, Damiel?” Cadence asked him.

“Retracing our steps—every step we took together before you disappeared. I thought doing that would give me some idea of how to find you.”

Cadence took his hand. “And you did find me. Or, rather, I found you.”

They looked at each other with so much love burning in their eyes, love that hadn’t faded after two centuries apart.

Nyx cleared her throat. “Yes, the ruins of Darkstorm’s fortress were right where you’d left them—until they weren’t. Last month, a Legion team found the ruins had disappeared.”

“Did the soldiers try digging a little deeper?” I asked.

“An extensive excavation of the area unveiled nothing of consequence. Every bit of rock, metal, and glass that had once made up Darkstorm’s fortress had vanished, leaving no hint behind that it had ever even existed at all.”

I frowned. “Ok, that’s…creepy.”

“Indeed. That’s why I sent Spellsmiter and Silvertongue to investigate. When they did not return, I sent in another team of soldiers. That team found the bodies of Spellsmiter and Silvertongue. And this is even stranger yet: the angels’ bodies were laid out at the center of Darkstorm’s ruins.”

“The ruins had returned?” Nero asked.

“As though they’d never been gone,” Nyx confirmed.

“That is really weird,” I declared.

Everyone was silent—in agreement of my words, I guessed.

“Wait, this happened last month?” I asked.

“Yes,” Nyx said. “Last month, we discovered the ruins were gone. I sent Spellsmiter and Silvertongue out immediately. The Legion team found their bodies a few days later.”

“So they’ve been dead for a month.”

“Approximately.”

“Two angels have been dead for a whole month.”

“I said that already, Pandora,” Nyx replied impatiently.