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SIXTEEN

W hen I returned home the next morning, I overheard my parents talking in the living room. They were discussing my adventure in the Immortals’ library. Cadence and Damiel must have told them all about it. I waited just outside the closed door, listening.

“Sixteen rings,” Dad said. “With sixteen magic abilities. On sixteen origin worlds. Guarded by sixteen original supernatural monsters.”

“So, in other words, just another day in the life of an angel,” Mom quipped.

“I don’t have time to deal with the end of the world today, Pandora,” Dad replied. “I have meetings with each of the angel territory commanders. Nyx didn’t promote me. She cursed me to a life of paperwork and bureaucracy.”

“There’s no rest for the wicked. Or the Top Angel.”

“Wicked and Top Angel.” Dad chuckled. “We make quite the team, don’t we?”

“Nero Windstriker, are you flirting with me?” I could hear the smirk in my mom’s voice.

“Of course,” he replied in that assertive, no-nonsense tone he liked to use.

My parents were admittedly sort of cute together. Well, as far as parents went anyway. Even so, I felt obligated to step in and break up their flirting session. I opened the door and walked into the room.

They were sitting on the sofa together. Actually, my mom was sitting on my dad’s lap.

“How was the sleepover?” she asked me.

“Good.”

Snow strutted past me and plopped down on the big rug in front of the sofa.

“You look hungry,” Dad observed. “I’ll make you breakfast.”

Breakfast was pancakes. He used eggs and sausages to make a crown and wings for the pancake stack. A crown and wings: that was the symbol of an archangel. Ok, so maybe I was supposed to be too old for stuff like that, but I couldn’t help but love it. And my dad.

“Ooh, these are so good.” Mom snatched one of the sausages out of the skillet. “Are they infused with maple syrup?”

“Among other things,” he replied cryptically.

“I will know your secrets, Windstriker,” she said in a faux-serious voice.

“You already do,” he countered, intercepting her before she could steal another sausage. “Here, Sierra.” He refilled my plate. “You look like you’re still hungry.”

Snow rubbed himself against my dad’s leg. Dad locked stares with him for a few long seconds, then tossed him a sausage. The cat caught it in his mouth and swallowed it whole. Then he looked to Dad for more.

“A warrior must learn self-discipline.”

“Is Dad lecturing the cat?” I asked Mom.

“Shh, don’t interrupt. They’re both enjoying themselves immensely.”

She was right. Dad enjoyed having a captive audience. And Snow enjoyed eating the sausages he was awarded for sitting there and listening so nicely. It was a win-win.

Too bad Angel wasn’t here because that would have been even more fun. She was probably out hunting.

While we ate, I told my parents all about the rings.

“So Lavinia is back,” Dad said.

“And she’s the one who sent the djinn to steal the ring from the Legion research facility four years ago?” Mom asked me.

“I believe so.”

She frowned. “That woman is trouble.”

After breakfast, we all headed back into the living room and watched the news.

Dad always watched the news before heading off to work, and Mom always added her own brutally-honest commentary to the news reports.

He pretended to chastise her for it, and then they got into heated debates that usually ended with their kissing and my leaving the room.

They were great parents, even if they quite frequently drove me completely crazy. As I watched them today, Aunt Bella’s words were echoing in my head.

Your parents always wanted to have more children.

They just hoped they could grow that love.

For all of you.

But it never worked out.

It was very likely that they would never get their wish.

Nyx arrived before we’d finished watching the morning news. And as always, the former First Angel didn’t waste any time getting straight to the point.

“I know about the sixteen rings,” she declared.

Mom’s gaze slid from me, to Dad, to Nyx. “How?”

“Damon told me.”

Eira never should have invited Damon over for a sleepover. He was such a goody-two-shoes. And a tattletale.

“I sent soldiers.”

“Legion soldiers?” Dad’s face was blank.

And so was hers. “Yes.”

“If you want to be First Angel again, Nyx, you should have just said so.”

“I don’t.”

“And yet you are giving orders to my soldiers.”

“There wasn’t time to contact you, Nero. We had to move fast.”

“And?” Mom said. “What happened?”

“Our soldiers encountered complications on the ring worlds,” Nyx replied. “The demons had sent soldiers as well.”

“How did they know about the ring worlds?” Nero asked.

“Apparently, Troy Fireswift told one of his buddies in the Dark Force,” Nyx said tightly. “According to Damon, his friend likes to ‘mix things up’. Troy thought it would be amusing if both the gods and the demons sent soldiers after the rings.”

“I bet his father was amused,” Mom said.

Nyx’s eyes hardened. “Unlikely.”

“What happened on those worlds?” Dad asked. “Did our soldiers and theirs fight?”

“Not exactly. It was mostly posturing. Arguing over who got to recover the rings.”

“How many rings did we get?”

“None.”

Dad frowned. “I expected better of our soldiers. Even against demons. I will institute a new training regimen at the Legion immediately, a program designed to teach our soldiers how to fight deities. It’s about time they learned how to fight something stronger than they are.”

“I have a lot of experience in that,” Mom said. “Want some help?”

“No. I don’t think teaching my soldiers how to get deities tangled up in a clothesline will help, Pandora.”

Mom shrugged. “It always worked for me.”

“Yes, but you’re one of a kind,” he said with a twinkle in his eyes, then looked at Nyx. “So the demons got all sixteen rings?”

“No. They didn’t get any.”

“We didn’t get the rings. And the demons didn’t get the rings.” His eyes drew together. “So who did?”

“No one.”

“No one?”

“Both sides brought in more specialists. Search teams and scientists and trackers,” Nyx said. “They found nothing. No rings.”

I rose to my feet. “They are there,” I insisted. “I know what I saw.”

“She was right last time,” Mom told Dad.

“We will join the search,” Dad declared.

Nyx nodded. “Glad to have you, Windstriker.”

When they moved toward the door, I followed.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Dad asked me.

“I am going with you.”

“Not this time,” he said in his First Angel voice, the one my dad always used when he was pulling rank.

I hated his First Angel voice.

My parents left with Nyx, and they left me behind. I considered following them. I did have way more magic than they did, after all, so it’s not like they would be able to stop me.

But in the end, I decided against that course of action. If I followed them, they’d send me back, and then we’d get into this big fight, which would totally distract us from the mission: finding the rings.

Well, no matter. When they failed to find the rings, they’d come to me for help. That was how I was going to play this. It would be faster. And immensely more satisfying.

In the meantime, I had another mission. I was going to pay a visit to Cadence and Damiel. They had the knowledge of the Immortals. If anyone could figure out a way to help my parents have more kids, they could.