weren’t around. It was the person he was when he didn’t have to pretend to be a humorless hardass, just to maintain his reputation or ward off other angels. Angels interpreted humor and kindness as signs of weakness. When they sensed it, they moved in without mercy, like a shark who’d smelled blood in the water.
When I saw Damiel like this, funny and even a little flirtatious, it gave me hope that he could hold on to the person he was. I dared to believe that the Master Interrogator persona would not totally consume the true Damiel.
I knew the tangled monsters wouldn’t be out for long. They might have been dumb, but they were also resilient. Eventually, they’d pull at each other so hard that their tentacles would snap off and then get absorbed back into the beasts’ larger masses. Then the angry beasts would come after us, aiming for some payback, to deal a lot of pain.
Damiel and I set down on the island he’d identified. Very little life lived on the rocky lump, and all of it came from the sea. There were a few sea plants and flowers. Some sea muscle shells were glued to the rock face. They provided some grip on the slimy, slippery ground.
“We need to search the island for the way down into an underground cavern,” Damiel said.
I sneezed. The sharp scent of sea salt in the air burned my nose. Damiel didn’t comment on my transgression, and I was glad. My father would have. He’d often told me that sneezes, hiccups, and snores were beneath an angel—and the child of an angel, for that matter. According to his mantra, any and all bodily functions could be silenced at will. It required only a disciplined mind.
“What could Colonel Spellstorm be planning?” I wondered aloud as we searched the island. “Why did he come here? And how will he break the curse on the demons that keeps them away from the Earth?”
“We’ll ask him when we find him.”
Damiel leaned over and grabbed on to the ground—no, it was a hard stone hatch in the ground. He pulled it open. He’d found the way down into an underground area—and that hatch definitely didn’t look like a natural formation. Someone had used this island to hide at some point. Was Damiel right? Was it Colonel Spellstorm? And was he still here?
There was only one way to find out.
I looked down at the hole in the ground. “There’s no ladder, no steps, no grips of any kind. It’s just a straight, sheer drop.”
“It’s too narrow for us to fly down,” said Damiel.
“Ok.” I stretched out my legs. “Then we’ll just have to go back to basics.”
Before we’d possessed wings, we’d had to just jump down large drops—and trust to our residence, boosted by our acquired magic, that we wouldn’t break our legs.
I gazed into the dark hole. I couldn’t even see the bottom. “Someone has cast a shifting spell on this hole, shrouding it in darkness.”
“If we break the spell, it might set off an alarm.”
“Yeah, if it were my hideout, I’d tie an alarm into the spell.”
Damiel nodded. “As would I.”
“Ok, then. The best way forward is down.” I stepped up to the edge of the opening. “I hope the cavern is down there.”
“It’s there,” Damiel said with perfect confidence.
I balanced my toes on the edge of the hole. I’d done a lot of crazy things in my life, even before I’d joined the Legion and gained the magic to reliably survive my own madness. So I’d had to depend on more than magic for a long time already. When you were crazy, you had to be smart too.
On the other hand, I apparently had at least a little Immortal blood in me, so hadn’t I possessed magic all along?
That was a question for another time.
I jumped into the hole. After a long drop, my feet hit hard rock. I cast a spell on my sword, igniting flames across the blade.
A moment later, Damiel landed beside me. Then he busied himself weaving spells over the opening in the ceiling.
I’ve warded the exit, he spoke in my mind.
You hid your wards well, I replied.
I couldn’t even see his spells, nor could I feel the distinctive ripple of magic in the air that wards often caused.
The interwoven field of psychic spells will bounce back anyone who tries to leave this cavern, he said.
“It’s a long way up again,” I spoke, aloud now. “We’re going to have to jump