Angel Fever (Immortal Legacy #3) - Ella Summers Page 0,45

his voice hard. He was using a lecture to cover up his heartache.

“You and Damiel have both warned me. But you two aren’t angels to me. You’re so much more. You’re family.”

More tears splashed my cheeks. I couldn’t seem to stop them today.

“I need to go now. But first I have this for you.” My father handed me something.

I unfolded the paper. It was a map, written in code. It was a code he’d personally developed, one that he used only with me. No one else could read it. It was our own special language.

“This will lead you to the portal to Sundry,” he said. “The journey will not be easy. It will take you through the Western Wilderness.”

The Western Wilderness was one of the regions that lay beyond civilization. Like the other wild lands, it was completely overrun by monsters.

“I’ll be fine,” I assured him.

“I’m afraid I cannot come with you.”

“I know.”

Now that my funeral was over, my father had to return to his territory. And he would bring Nero with him. With me and Damiel dead, my father had become Nero’s guardian.

The Legion would grow suspicious if General Silverstar flew off toward the Western Wilderness when he had no mission there. Colonel Holyfire would grow suspicious.

This charade had to be perfect, flawless. No one could suspect us, or else the whole thing would be over. And then everything we’d worked to accomplish would come crashing down. It would all be for nothing.

“I can’t send any soldiers with you either,” my father said.

“I know.”

Colonel Holyfire was watching every move that my father made right now. Sending soldiers to a wilderness far from his own territory would arise suspicion.

“And I don’t need your soldiers,” I told him. “I can fight off a few monsters by myself. Don’t you remember how you left me alone in the Black Forest for two days when I was eight years old?”

“I will never forget it. When I returned, you’d befriended a family of vampire bunnies by killing the wolves who’d been hunting them. Piles of wolves’ bodies were stacked up all around the cottage. And wild vampire bunnies were eating flowers out of your hands. They didn’t even try to bite you.” His stance stiffened. “Stay calm and focused, Cadence. Trust in your training. You can do this.”

“Of course I can.” I wiped my tears away and shot him a wide grin. “I can do anything I set my mind to.”

In truth, I felt less than confident right now. The tears were only the tip of the iceberg. Anger. Fear. Exhaustion. Adrenaline. Aggression. I was a real rollercoaster of emotions right now.

Taking the Living Death potion, tanking my magic at the height of my Fever, had certainly exacerbated the situation. I’d gone from insanely high magic to almost no magic. And my elemental magic had been put through the blender when I’d cut myself off from the Earth’s Sea powers.

All of that was enough to make even an angel lose confidence.

But I had to keep going. For Nero. I clung to that thought, using it to steel myself for what was to come. This wasn’t over yet.

“We will see each other again before you know it,” my father promised me.

He touched my cheek, then spread his wings and flew off.

I couldn’t fly. I had to keep low and out of sight. Which meant I had a long walk ahead of me. I hiked deeper into the Crystal Forest. From here, I’d head east to the Western Wilderness. The Elemental Expanse was on the west coast. The monster-infested Western Wilderness lay further inland.

The Western Wilderness. There I would find the magic mirror to transport me to another world. And to Damiel.

13

The Western Wilderness

I walked over a sandy ground strewn with the corpses of dead desert birds. The fight with the aggressive monster flock hadn’t gone smoothly. My magic was still weak, so when they’d attacked me, I hadn’t been able to merely obliterate them all with a single psychic burst. I’d had to do it by hand. And now my hands were tired. As well as raw, blistered, and covered in blood—much of it my own.

I was covered in sand too, and lots of it. It was in my boots and in my hair. It weighed down my feathers. It covered my skin, scraping against the cuts, settling inside my open wounds.

I hated deserts, and I hated the Western Wilderness most of all. It was so dry, so lifeless. Well, except for the hostile, hungry