Page 43 of Leda’s Log (Legion of Angels #13)

CORONATION

“ T hat is not an option,” my dad declared.

I agreed. “There has to be another way to stop Lavinia.”

“Well, we could just kill her,” Damiel said. “That would stop her quite effectively.”

Faris nodded. “We should do it now. She cannot be allowed to perform that ritual.”

“We don’t know where she is,” Grace said. “Yet.”

Everyone looked at me.

“You’re the best magic tracker we have, Sierra,” Dad said. “Can you locate Lavinia?”

“I can certainly try.”

I closed my eyes and focused on Lavinia. It had been a long time since I’d seen her, over a decade. I hardly remembered what her magic felt like. I did remember it felt weird. All the people on her world felt weird, like they were out of phase, out of sync, with the rest of us.

There was someone else whose magic felt that way. Two someones actually. Cupid and Dreamweaver. They’d gotten their magic when my mom’s army had destroyed the Guardians’ Sanctuary. Where had Lavinia’s people gotten their magic from?

“Where are the sixteen rings?” Damiel asked.

“Safe,” Grace replied gruffly, like the question was an affront to her competence as an all-powerful demon.

I kept my eyes closed and tried to drown out their voices. I had to focus on Lavinia. I had to find her. And stop her. This whole thing was my fault. I’d activated the rings. I’d made her crazy plan possible.

Now I had to make it impossible.

“I can sense her,” I said.

I felt two hands on my shoulders.

“Where is she?” Mom asked behind me.

“She’s…in transit. Going somewhere.”

“ Where is she going?” Faris asked impatiently.

“I don’t know yet, but there’s something else. A strange presence with her. A strange power. It’s…” I opened my eyes. “It’s the rings. She has the rings.”

Faris swore. I didn’t even know gods did that.

“How did she get them?” Mom asked.

“There’s a spell book. Or maybe it’s more of an instruction manual for the rings? She used it to summon all of the rings to her. Now she has them.”

“Where is she?” Grace said. “We need to get to her now . We need to stop her now . Time has run out.”

“I can see her.” I shook my head. “But I don’t know where she is.”

Mom took one of my hands. Dad took the other.

“You can do this, Sierra,” he told me. “I have faith in you.”

“Ok.” I swallowed hard. “She’s in a cave. The rocks are glowing. And humming. There’s something special about them. They’re reacting to the rings’ magic. She’s going to use them to amplify the rituals.”

“Do you know where this cave is?” Mom wiped the sweat from my forehead. The strain of tracking Lavinia across worlds was intense. I was sweating everywhere.

“I think I can find it. Just one more moment…”

I felt a rough jolt, so sudden and strong that I toppled over.

And I took my parents with me. We fell right through the floor like it wasn’t even there.

There wasn’t anything anywhere except empty, black space.

It was a void, a pit of nothingness. I couldn’t see anything, hear anything, feel anything—except for my parents’ hands, holding tightly to mine.

And then it was over. We slammed against the ground. I definitely felt that.

“Everyone ok?” Dad asked.

“Yes.” I peeled myself off the rocks, rising, stretching. My neck cracked. A few other things cracked too.

“Where are we?” Mom wondered, looking around.

I didn’t need to. I already knew where we were. Those shimmering, humming rocks were strikingly familiar. They were still burned into my mind, an echo from my vision. I must have teleported us here without even meaning to.

“Lavinia is that way.” I pointed at the ragged, jagged opening in the rocks, like the mouth of a beast. Like a doorway to evil.

And evil we did find.

Lavinia stood in the middle of the cavern, enveloped in a glowing halo, a pulsing bubble of magical energy that changed color with every beat. Red, purple, white, blue, orange…more and more colors, flashing like a light show.

She had the rings, all sixteen of them. But they’d changed. They’d linked together, forming a long chain which she wore around her neck. The necklace, the halo, the rocks—they were all flickering and flashing in perfect harmony.

“Leda Pandora, we meet again.” She sneered at my mom. “I know why you’re here.”

“To stop you,” Mom declared, taking an assertive step forward.

“Yes.” Lavinia’s smirk stretched wider. “But you’re too late. This is my show. My coronation. I shall dine at this all-you-can-eat buffet of magic, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”

Dad drew his sword, swinging at the glowing bubble around her. The blade bounced right off.

Lavinia cackled. “As I said, there’s nothing you can do to stop me.

You’re too late. The ritual has already begun, and you can’t stop it.

I will become the most powerful magical being in the universe, and destroy all other magic at the same time.

This is the end for you.” Her gaze cut to me. “For all of you.”

“You’re a moron,” I told her.

Her nostrils flared.

“You obviously don’t understand those ancient books you read,” I continued. “Your spell won’t destroy all other magic. It will only destroy all Nectar and Venom. That’s hardly the same thing.”

“The effect will be the same, the end of dominance for the gods and the demons,” she snapped back. “It will just take longer. I can wait. And watch. And reign.”

“Who is going to follow you?” I laughed.

“They will. You’ll see.”

“No. They won’t,” I told her.

“I will be Queen!” she hissed. The magic bubble surged up around her, like an ocean wave crashing against the rocks.

“Take out that barrier,” Dad said in his angel-commander voice.

The three of us hit it with everything we had, a formidable artillery of magic. The bubble didn’t so much as whimper. It was humming faster and faster, burning brighter and brighter, building up to the finale. In a few seconds, the two rituals would be over, their spells cast.

Pulse. Pulse. Pulse.

Bam. Bam. Bam.

It was all happening so fast now. The blinking and humming. It wasn’t even really a hum anymore; it was a thump. A slam. A scream.

Lavinia was screaming in agony.

“Something’s wrong,” I said. “The spells have gone wrong.”

Power was bursting out of the chain of rings. Lavinia caught on fire. The sharp taste of metal stung my tongue. I knew that flavor. It was the taste of impending disaster.

“It’s too much magic. She never should have tried to cast both spells at once,” I said. “The rings are building up to an overload.”

Lavinia wasn’t screaming anymore. She wasn’t moving either. I didn’t think she was even breathing. And yet the spells continued on, spiraling toward catastrophe.

“No.” Dad caught Mom’s hand as she moved toward the barrier.

“I have to stop the spells.”

“No,” he growled, pulling her in close, kissing her head.

“It’s the only way, Nero. You heard Sierra. You see it for yourself. The spells are building up to an overload, and when that happens…” She glanced at me.

“This is old magic. Powerful magic.” My heart thumped. “The explosion will tear a hole in the fabric of time and space. It will destroy everything and everyone.”

“We’ll stop it,” Dad said, his hands shaking, even as they clutched Mom’s arms. “We’ll find a way. We always find a way, Leda.”

“Not this time.” A tear slid down her cheek. “There’s no time. I have to stop the spells, stop the overload. There is no other way.”

“There is,” he said. “I will do it.”

“You can’t,” she said with a pained laugh. “You heard Cadence. Only chaos can disrupt the spells. I am chaos.”

Tears were falling from his eyes too now. “I won’t let you do this. I won’t let you sacrifice yourself.”

“It’s a small price to pay to save the people I love.” She smiled at him. “It’s been fun, Nero.”

“It’s not over.” He refused to let her go.

And so did I. I wouldn’t lose either one of them. I just wouldn’t.

So I rushed toward the barrier, into the barrier. At first, I felt nothing. I was just stuck there, neither in nor out, suspended, frozen. I heard a crack, the boom before the avalanche. The forcefield shattered. It cracked like an egg, splitting open. The spells fizzled out and died.

And so did I.