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I put up the privacy spell I’d learned from Harker, then I joined Jace and his mother at the bar. Jace had made tea for both of them, and they were drinking it.

He glanced at me. “The room cleared out fast.”

“I asked them all to leave. I need to discuss something very important with you.”

And I wanted Alice to feel like she could speak freely, without fear that anyone might overhear her.

“You look very serious, Leda,” said Jace.

“This is very serious,” I told him. I looked at Alice. “It’s regarding your husband’s Archangel Trials.”

Recognition flashed in Jace’s eyes. He knew what I was going to say because I’d told him it before. But I hadn’t yet told his mother, and she was the key to making Colonel Fireswift see reason.

“As you know, I accompanied Nero as his second during his Archangel Trials,” I said to Alice. “What you don’t know is that I was not supposed to survive the Trials. None of the seconds are supposed to survive. That’s the whole point of the Archangel Trials. The gods present the prospective archangel with an impossible problem, one that can only be solved by sacrificing the companion they’d brought with them, the person they love most in the world. The Archangel Trials aren’t about proving your magic or might. They are about proving you would sacrifice anything and everything for the gods. Only then do they make you an archangel.”

Alice’s eyes were wide. “Why has no one noticed by now that an angel’s second always dies in the Archangel Trials?”

“I suppose because the Archangel Trials are such a rare event,” Jace said. “And we’re all told how dangerous they are.”

Alice gave her son a hard look. “You knew about this?”

“Leda told me a few weeks ago. I’ve wanted to tell Father, but I just don’t know how to bring it up. You know how he is.”

“Yes, I do.”

“He always has to follow the rules, no matter what.” Jace frowned. “The person Father loves most in the world is you, Mother.”

“Your father has already asked me to be his second.” Alice swallowed hard. “The gods really want him to sacrifice me?”

“Yes,” I told her. “To prove his loyalty to them. In exchange, they will make him an archangel.”

“How did you survive?” she asked me.

“I wasn’t meant to survive. Nero and I cheated, and we almost didn’t get away with it. The gods nearly sentenced us both to death for what we did. We were only saved by some convenient political infighting between the gods on the council. But they made it clear that such a thing will not happen again. They won’t allow anyone else to circumvent their rules. Even now, the gods insist the Archangel Trials will remain as they are.” I pounded my clenched fist down on the countertop. “But the Archangel Trials are nothing more than a sacrificial ritual. They are against everything I believe, everything I am trying to do now with the Angels’ Court. I want to gain people’s trust, to help them, not demand horrible sacrifices out of them.”

“Leda is trying to make the Legion’s initiation ritual safer for initiates,” Alice told Jace. “Dr. Harding is experimenting with Nectar to see if it can be done.”

“That’s ambitious.” Jace looked at me. “Most angels won’t like that any more than they like your Angels’ Court. They want people to believe the Nectar is only for the chosen few. They don’t want too many people to be worthy. It’s about sacrifice.”

“It’s exactly that kind of thinking that leads to the Archangel Trials, where an angel needs to sacrifice the one they love most,” I said. “Sacrifice. This is all about sacrifice. When we join the Legion of Angels, we’re told our lives are over, that we belong to the Legion now. They separate us from our past, from humans and supernaturals. And then the sacrifices continue. To become an archangel, you need to sacrifice even more. You need to kill the person you love most.”

“Have you told Xerxes?” Alice asked me.

“I’ve tried to speak to him, to warn him, but he refuses to hear anything at all I have to say about the Archangel Trials.”

“Xerxes is very proud. He wants to win by playing by the rules.”

“In the Archangel Trials, even if you win, you lose,” I told her. “The gods designed it that way. The Trials aren’t about how strong or how good you are; they’re about if you are willing to sacrifice what you love most in this world.”

Jace looked at his mother. “Her.”

“They won’t do it now, not while she’s pregnant,” I said. “When Cadence was pregnant with Nero, they had Damiel’s best friend go with him to his Archangel Trials. They sent Jiro there to be sacrificed. But now, I don’t even know who else they’d send with your father. Jace, you’re an angel. The Legion is very short on angels right now. The gods won’t sacrifice one angel to promote another to archangel. They will wait until Alice has given birth.”

“And then they will send her off to die,” Jace said darkly.

“Not if we can help it,” I told him. “I’ve asked Ronan to try to change the others’ minds about the sacrifice, but he is only one god. I can’t imagine Zarion or Aleris agreeing to change anything, and the other four gods won’t be easy to convince either.” I offered Alice and Jace a smile. “Still, we have eight months to figure this out. And we will. I promise you we will save your mother, Jace.”

He clasped my hands. “Thank you for helping us, Leda, even though it’s against the rules.”