9

Fury carried me up the hundreds of stairs to Nero’s floor—fury and the sugar rush from all those brownies I’d snarfed down. I marched down the corridor and banged on Nero’s door. And then I waited.

None of the doors on the floor opened, even though my knock had been loud enough to wake the dead. Everyone must have still been at the party downstairs. At least I hoped they were. What I was about to do was madness. You didn’t just run up to an angel and… And what? What was I going to do?

Before I could contemplate that unhappy dilemma further, Nero’s door opened. As soon as I saw him standing there, as soon as I looked into those cool assessing eyes, my anger melted into embarrassment. I remembered everything I’d said in his office—and, worse yet, done. Dear gods, this wasn’t good. Maybe if I pretended nothing had happened, this whole thing would just go away.

“I’m ready. Uh, for work,” I added quickly in case he thought I was talking about something else. “To receive my mission work.” Not to receive him. Oh shit. This wasn’t going well.

Amusement flickered across his face before it was swallowed by the cool abyss. “Come in.”

“Can’t I stay out here?”

“I have a few things to give you. Now stop hugging my doorframe and come inside.”

I followed him inside his apartment. He waved his hand at the door, and it closed with a definitive click behind me. Nero was already walking toward his dining room table. There was no food or wine waiting on it tonight, just a stack of papers.

“Here are the blueprints of the five buildings that make up the New York University of Witchcraft,” he said, handing me the first bundle of papers. “Memorize the layouts. While the rest of us are in session in the assembly hall, you will look for any evidence of the witches’ involvement in the attack on the Brick Palace two days ago. To accomplish that, you’ll need to navigate the school quickly and methodically.”

I took the folder without a word. Not talking was probably the best plan right now. He hadn’t yet mentioned what had happened in his office, and as the reality of the situation set in, I realized that I didn’t want to either.

“I’ve prepared a reading list for you,” he said, handing me a list of books ten pages long. Front and back. “You will find these titles in the Legion library on the fourth floor. They should give you a good foundation in witchcraft. You will need that in your investigation.”

I could only gawk at the list. Could that many books even fit inside of a single library?

“Now that you have received the gods’ second gift, you have the ability to put magic into potions,” he said in response to my very attractive deer-in-headlights expression. “You can do anything a witch can.”

“I don’t feel very witchy.”

“It will come.”

“So it’s just like the last time? I just have to push my way through it until I get it?”

“Basically, yes,” he said. “Though mastering Witch’s Cauldron is a mental battle, not a physical one like Vampire’s Kiss.”

Mental battle, right. I could do that. I could be brainy.

That confidence lasted about two seconds, crashing and burning when Nero handed me a second list. “Here is some extra reading material if you get through the first list.”

I mutely took it from him. I might be able to finish reading all those books if I did nothing else for the next twenty years. Who needed sleep anyway? It was totally overrated—kind of like having free time.

“It might be difficult in the beginning, but you will find that the longer you keep at it, the easier it becomes for you to absorb the knowledge,” he told me. “The gods have given you a powerful gift. You just need to unlock it.”

A tortured, strangled noise escaped my lips. “Can’t you just give me more pushups?”

“During our regular training sessions, I will quiz you on the material you’ve read. You will have the opportunity to demonstrate what you’ve learned while going through your physical exercises.”

From the look on his face, he was perfectly serious. Of course he was. Nero was brutally efficient. Why kill two birds with one stone when you could kill ten with a boulder? I hoped his efficiency didn’t kill me too.

“But there will be no training session tomorrow morning. We will leave early for our meeting with the witches,” Nero said.

“Is that all?” I asked. Something in his eyes said it wasn’t. Was he going to talk about what had happened downstairs?

“Yes, actually, I did want to speak to you about something.”

He moved in closer, and I clutched the paper bundles to my chest. They would make a pitiful shield against an angel, and an even worse sword. Well, unless angels’ mortal weakness was a paper cut.

“About what?” I asked, backing up.

“There’s no reason to feel terrified,” he said impatiently. “I’m not going to bite you.”

Was it messed up that a part of me was disappointed by that statement?

Yep, my inner cynic told me. That is really messed up.

“It’s about Harker,” he said.

I stopped backing up. “Has he been judged?”

“No, he is still being questioned,” Nero said.

“Still? But it’s been a whole month!” I protested.

“Yes, but his situation is difficult. I could not tell the High Angels about the dose of pure Nectar he tried to give you. They would want to know why he gave it to you, and they wouldn’t hesitate to use any means necessary.”

The meaning of his words could not have been more clear. Nor could the look he gave me. “They would torture me.”

“Yes.” The soft hiss of that single word was as damning as a chorus of accusations.

“So if the High Angels don’t know the truth of what happened, what do they think Harker did?” I asked.

“There was only one reason I could give them for taking Harker into custody: his unsanctioned execution of Rose Crane. He could have taken her into custody during the battle at Sweet Dreams, but he killed her instead. And by doing so, the Legion was robbed of the opportunity to question the mastermind behind the demons’ supernatural recruiting scheme in New York.”

Disgust rolled over me. “They would have tortured her, Nero. I might not agree with Harker trying to use me to find my brother for whichever god he’s working for, but he killed Rose to spare her years of torture. Between death and torture, I know she would have chosen death herself. I don’t know why he did it, but it was an act of mercy.”

“I know why he did it,” Nero said quietly. “Because despite everything he did, Harker still cares about you. He spared Rose to spare you the guilt of knowing that by going after her, you had doomed her to eternal agony.”

“I…I don’t know what to say about that.” No one had ever killed someone for me before, and I was torn between appreciating his mercy and despising his callous disregard for human life.

Nero watched me closely, as if my face held the key to the world’s greatest mystery. “Only time will tell how this plays out—and what the High Angels’ response will be. Or, I should say, what Nyx’s response will be. She heads the High Angels, and she is personally handling Harker’s interrogation.”

“Will Harker tell them about the Nectar he tried to give me? Or about Zane?” I asked Nero.

“No,” he said immediately. He must have thought this through already. “Harker is acting on the orders of a god, one who is scheming without the knowledge of the others. Just as the demons spelled their followers to withstand interrogation, this god would have done the same to Harker.”

“Will the god step in and save him?”

“I don’t believe so,” said Nero. “He is making a power play of his own. So far, none of the other gods know about your brother.”

Right. If all the gods knew about Zane, they’d have already arrested me and forced me to take the Nectar to find him. Only someone with a close connection to Zane could mentally link to him without knowing where he was.

“So the god cannot tip his hand by helping Harker now. At least not directly. In the meantime, I’ve been trying to figure out which god we’re dealing with.”

“How?” I didn’t think Nero planned to barge into one of their meetings and demand to know which of them was pulling Harker’s strings.

“I’ve been talking to Nyx, asking her discreet questions about the gods to figure out which one might be preparing to make a power play against the others. She knows them better than any of us.”

“Because she meets with the gods?” I asked.

“Because one of the gods is her lover,” he told me.

Oh, wow. Now that was interesting. I’d never heard of any god taking an angel for a lover, but Nyx was clearly not just any angel. There had to be a reason she was the First Angel.

“Does that relationship make her more impartial or less impartial in dealing with Harker?” I asked. “What if her lover is the god Harker made a deal with? Then she might already know what Zane is.” I felt the need to do something, to find my brother now and protect him, but I was still so far from the power I needed to do that. And even if I became an angel and gained that power, I would be no match for a god.

“If Nyx knew about your brother, she could easily concoct a reason to take you into custody. You’re not exactly an obedient soldier.”

“If you’re referring to how I went back out on the Black Plains to rescue you—”

“Nyx doesn’t even need a reason that big,” he said. “But that reminds me that I still haven’t come up with a suitable punishment for your misconduct.”

“What do you call all that extra evening running you made me do for the last month?”

“Training. Punishments are less pleasant.”

I sighed. “Maybe you’ll just let it slide?”

He gave me a hard look. “Does that sound like me?”

“No, not really.” I smiled at him. “But how about if I cross my heart and hope to die that I will never do it again?”

“Will you swear an actual oath to that effect? An oath bound by blood, not gilded over in teenage girl bubblegum promises.”

“Well, I…” I snorted. “Sorry, no. I can’t. If you got yourself captured today, I would totally go save your ass all over again.”

“I had the situation under control,” he said coolly.

“No, you didn’t. You could at least be honest enough to admit that.”

His eyes narrowed as he continued to stare at me. “You’re incorrigible.”

“Why, thank you. It’s one of my better qualities,” I said brightly. “And you’re changing the subject.”

He stiffened, and indignation rippled across his face. “I most certainly am not.”

“Are too.”

“I refuse to engage in this juvenile dispute.”

“Too late. You already did,” I told him.

“Let us return to the matter at hand,” he said, folding his hands calmly together. “Even if Nyx’s lover is the god behind Harker’s actions, it is questionable as to whether he would tell her anything about it. The gods don’t share everything, even with their lovers.”

“They’re a lot like angels then.” I blushed, realizing what he might imply from that. “I mean about not being big sharers of information. In general. Not specifically about lovers.”

Nero laughed—like really laughed. I’d dug such a big hole for myself that I couldn’t even see the top anymore, but at least he was enjoying my senseless fumbling. I glared at him.

“Unless you have the magic to back up that glare, I suggest you quit while you’re ahead, Pandora,” he said with perfect calmness.

“Ahead? You call this ahead?”

He shrugged. “Things can always get worse.”

“And on that happy note, I think I’ll head to bed now,” I said, walking toward the door.

“On your way down, don’t forget to pick up the first two books on your list. There will be a quiz tomorrow evening.”

I froze in the doorway, then pivoted around. “Are you serious?”

“No, I’m joking. Please pick up a trashy tabloid magazine instead so you can tell me all about Angel Fancy Pants’s latest lover. I’m dying to know.”

He said it with such a straight face that I couldn’t help but burst into laughter. I was still chuckling to myself as I checked out Magic Botany and The History and Politics of Witchcraft in New York City from the library, which drew a disapproving look from the night librarian, a man who defied the librarian stereotype. Well, he was wearing a vest. He just wasn’t wearing any shirt under it. As to why he was grumpy, I had no idea. Maybe he didn’t approve of fully-clothed people reading books.

I returned to my apartment with my new books in my hands—and, seared into my brain, was the image of the librarian’s pierced nipples puckering up under the vest. That piercing must have hurt like hell.

“I thought you were going to see Colonel Sexy Pants,” Ivy said as I shut the apartment door behind me.

“I did.”

“So you mouthed off to him, and he punished you with homework?”

“No, this isn’t punishment homework. It’s just regular homework. Tomorrow morning, I’m on Nero’s team to visit the New York University of Witchcraft. While he, Captain Somerset, and Jace are grilling the witches about inter-coven disputes, I’m supposed to sneak around to look for evidence that they’re behind the poisoning at the Brick Palace.”

“Ah, so that’s why you and Mr. Brat drank from the Nectar tonight.”

“Right.”

“Do you want to talk about what happened after that?”

“Which part?”

“The part where Nero Windstriker handcuffed you to his desk.”

“No, I don’t want to talk about it,” I told her.

“Leda, your underwear were on the floor when Drake and I came in.”

“Ok, I experienced a moment of Nectar-induced insanity and might have tried to jump Nero’s bones.”

Ivy laughed. “You two have an interesting relationship.”

“We don’t have a relationship.”

“Uh-huh. Right.” She winked at me.

“It was the Nectar,” I insisted.

“Honey, the Nectar just made you drunk. It got rid of your inhibitions. And as soon as those were gone, you made a move on him. What does that tell you?”

I sighed. “Nothing good.”

“It’s telling you that you’re into him.”

Yeah, like I needed the Nectar to know that. I knew I was into Nero. But that was a bad thing. A bad, bad thing.

“I have to get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a long day,” I told Ivy, yawning as I walked toward my room.

I was taking the coward’s way out, and I knew it. Then again, being bold had only ever gotten me into trouble. And right now, I had all the trouble I could handle.