Page 28

AN IMPOSSIBLE THEFT

A n angel was waiting for us when we arrived at the research facility.

“Sunstorm?” General Fireswift said, his eyes narrowing to suspicious slits. “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask the same,” Harker replied, unruffled. He and Nero had been dealing with Xerxes Fireswift for so long that his biting personality didn’t even faze them.

“I do not need to explain myself to you,” General Fireswift said, his voice cutting like glass. “This facility lies within my territory. Which means you should have contacted me before you came here.” His gaze snapped to Nero. “Both of you.”

“The First Angel does not require your permission or your approval,” replied Harker.

“Of course not. But she is not here.”

“ He is.”

General Fireswift’s agitated brow furrowed further. “What nonsense are you?—”

“Nyx promoted Nero,” Harker told him. “He is the new First Angel and your supreme commander.”

“If this is a practical joke—” Fireswift’s eyes predictably turned to me. “—I am not amused.”

“It’s not a joke,” I told him. “Nero is the First Angel now. See?” I pointed at the new pin on Nero’s uniform.

“In that case,” General Fireswift said, bowing to Nero, “Congratulations.”

He said ‘congratulations’ like he was speaking a curse. He’d spent the last couple centuries despising Nero. This new development couldn’t have been easy for him.

“We are here to take a look around the facility,” Nero said.

“I know why you are here.” General Fireswift’s lips thinned. “And of your… theory .”

“It’s not a theory!” Sierra exclaimed.

General Fireswift’s brows lifted in surprise at her sudden appearance. She’d squeezed herself between me and Nero.

“I saw the thief,” she said, meeting the angel’s hard stare without a shred of fear. “I saw him steal a magic artifact from this facility.”

General Fireswift looked at Nero. “Is this how you will command the Legion of Angels? At the whims of a young girl?”

“Diligence is not a sin, General,” Nero replied coolly. “Nor is our presence here a challenge to your authority.”

“What it is, however, is a monumental waste of my time,” countered General Fireswift.

“There was no attack, and nothing was stolen. If anything were amiss, I would know about it. But there’s been nothing on the security cameras and nothing on the magic sensors.

The guards patrolling the facility have all been questioned.

They’ve reported no unusual activity. And to top off this massive waste of time, we just performed a full inventory.

Nothing is missing. No magic artifacts. No weapons.

Not even a single roll of toilet paper is unaccounted for. ”

“If everything is perfect, you won’t have any problem if we look around a little.” I winked at him. “For the sake of all the toilet paper.”

He shot me an annoyed look. “Yes, by all means, waste your time as well as mine. None of us has anything important to do whatsoever.” Every word dripped with sarcasm.

But he showed us to the treasury anyway. Then, while we took a look around, he just stood there with his arms crossed and his jaw clenched, watching us with an air of irked indulgence.

Sierra went up to him. “Hello.”

“Go away. I don’t like children.”

Her eyes darted to the name on his jacket. “You’re General Fireswift.”

“Congratulations, small one. You’ve learned to read.”

“I’ve heard about you. People say you’re grumpy,” she observed.

“Yes.”

“Why?” she asked.

“Because I do not like it when people waste my time.”

“Why?”

“My time is valuable.”

“Why?”

He glanced down at her, looking rather pompous. “I’m an angel.”

“Why?”

“Because the Legion of Angels made me one.”

“Why?”

“Because I am very good at my job.”

“Why?”

“Some people are simply more competent than others.”

“Why?”

“Incessant child, do you know any other words?” he hissed.

“Sure.” She shrugged. “When I need them, I’ll use them. Words are like weapons. You need to choose them wisely.” She arched her brows. “Do you choose your words wisely, General?”

He stared at her like he was seeing her for the very first time. “You are a very odd child.”

She nodded, grinning. “I know.”

It surprised me, seeing how content they both looked in this conversation.

Then again, maybe it wasn’t so surprising after all.

Sierra loved to ask questions. And Fireswift had always been happiest when he was the center of attention.

He liked to have people hanging on his every word, peppering him with questions.

I suppose he saw it as an invitation to wax poetic about himself.

“Sorry to interrupt this enthralling conversation, but I need Sierra’s help,” I told them.

“See you later, Gramps,” Sierra told him with a wink, then followed me to the back wall.

“This is where it happened.” She pressed her palms against the smooth wall. “There was an explosion.” She walked, dragging her hand across the wall. “Here. This is where the thief entered the building.”

“She is clearly delusional,” General Fireswift commented, joining us. “The wall is perfectly intact. There are no signs of forced entry.” He tapped his fist to the wall. “Or of an explosion.”

“Tell us what you saw in your vision, Sierra,” Nero said. “Exactly, step-by-step.”

“Well, there was a man…” Her nose scrunched up in concentration, like she was trying to remember details that had eluded her before. “…he was a…djinn. A teleporter. He had a halo, a djinn halo. Kind of a greenish color. He teleported into the facility. That’s how he got in.”

“Doesn’t this facility have anti-teleportation wards?” Harker asked Nero.

But General Fireswift answered. “It does. Dragonsire installed them. So what she’s describing simply isn’t possible.”

“The teleporter nullified the wards,” Sierra said. “He was holding a book…” She squeezed her eyes shut. “…an ancient book with magic unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. It allowed him to get past the wards and teleport into this room. Then he grabbed the ring and stuffed it into his bag.”

“Ring?” I asked. “What ring?”

Sierra’s eyelashes fluttered open. She pivoted and pointed at a display case. There had to be over twenty different rings in there, each one with its own velvet-coated pedestal.

“That one.” She pointed at a gold ring. The gold wasn’t just in the material. It seemed to come from within the ring itself, the warm golden kiss of a summer sun. “He took that one.”

“The ring is clearly still there,” General Fireswift said in his typical, clipped, no-nonsense style. “All the rings are still there.”

“Looks can be deceiving,” I said, moving in for a closer look.

Sierra cut in front of me, moving quickly, impatiently, like a string was drawing her toward the display case. Her gaze didn’t deviate from its target. Harker stayed by her side, just as he’d promised Nero.

“She’s in a trance,” I realized.

A murmur of movement, a slight tickle in my fingertips—that was the only warning I had of the impending explosion—and it came too late.