Angel Fury (Immortal Legacy #2) - Ella Summers Page 0,29

are not alone.”

A man stepped out from behind a column. His face was young and his clothing old. The bottom of his brown traveling robes was frayed, as though he’d traveled far and long to get here. And he surely had traveled far because he was not of this world.

“Illias,” I said. “What are you doing here?”

“I witnessed your battle with the tainted one.” The bald Magic Eater priest glanced down at Colonel Spellstorm’s body.

“Are you working with him?”

“No.” He folded his smooth hands together. Though he’d come far to get here, his skin appeared clean, freshly-shaven, and undamaged. “I simply made use of his machinations to bring you here. We need to talk.”

“You were the voice in the smoke at the wedding,” I realized. “The one to lure us here.”

He nodded. “Yes.

“But why?”

“Because I need your help,” said Illias. “Danger looms on the horizon, a threat to both my people and yours.”

“The demons?”

“No, not the demons. Something far more dangerous. The Hive.”

The Hive was the group of people who’d figured out how to pool their magic to become insanely powerful. Just a few days ago, Damiel and I had fought them on Nightingale, the Magic Eaters’ world. We had not truly defeated the Hive; we’d merely banished them using the power of the immortal daggers.

“The Hive can’t hurt anyone,” I said. “They are now trapped on their world, unable to travel to any other.”

“Not for long,” replied Illias. “We’ve learned that they have the means to break the spell that has trapped them on their world. And once they’re free, what do you think their first stop will be?”

“Earth,” Damiel said immediately. “To take revenge on the two angels who thwarted their plans and trapped them.”

10

The Moons of Nightingale

“How will the Hive break the curse?” Damiel asked Illias.

The priest shook his head. “We cannot discuss this here.” He looked at me. “You must use the Diamond Tear to bring us to my world, where neither gods nor demons have eyes.”

“There’s an army waiting on the other side, ready to take us into custody,” Damiel told me drily.

I would have told him that he was just being paranoid, but after this recent experience, after I’d been wrong about Colonel Spellstorm, I wasn’t feeling all that confident in my gut feelings anymore. Maybe there was something to be said about not trusting everyone. Just because I wanted to see the good in everyone, that didn’t mean there actually was good in everyone.

“Take us to Nightingale,” Damiel told me.

He pressed the tip of his sword to Illias’s back. If we did pop up in the middle of a Magic Eater army, he already had a hostage. I hated that paranoia had to rule our actions, but at this point, it would have been foolish to blindly trust Illias. Especially when he and his people had celebrated our first arrival on their world by throwing us into prison.

But when I used the Diamond Tear dagger to return us to Nightingale once again, an army wasn’t waiting to take us down. That gave me some hope. I had been wrong to trust Colonel Spellstorm, but I was glad I hadn’t been wrong to have faith in Illias.

I’d brought us to the woods outside of Illias’s town.

“The sky looks different than it did last time. Everything feels different,” I told Damiel.

“It’s the moons.” Illias pointed at the two crescent moons in the sky. “They are waning now, growing smaller, unlike last time. That’s why you feel weaker.”

“Explain.” Damiel’s voice snapped like a whip.

“The moons of Nightingale determine the balance between active and passive magic. The conditions of any given world affect the magic on that world. Most worlds were made like the Earth was, where the magic is constant. But there are many worlds that were not made that way. Nightingale is among them.”

“What do you mean by ‘made’?” I asked.

“On those Earth-like worlds, even with the waning moon, you shouldn’t notice much difference in your magic,” the priest continued without expounding on the ‘made’. “But there are other kinds of worlds. Big worlds, small worlds. Worlds with more than one moon or no moon at all. Worlds with many suns. Worlds with lots of water, or hardly any water at all. On each of these worlds, your magic acts slightly differently.” He waved his hand to indicate his world. “On Nightingale, the balance of active and passive magic is tied to our two moons. If both moons are full, active magic reigns dominant. If