Angel Fury (Immortal Legacy #2) - Ella Summers Page 0,37

I had no one and nowhere to go.

“But I wasn’t the only one. The war had left thousands of children orphaned and homeless. I’d heard of a nearby camp of humans, a safe haven where monsters didn’t go. We feared it was a myth, but Evander and I were about to go there when we were attacked by monsters. I made my way there alone now. And what I saw shocked me.”

“What was it?”

“A wall of magic that repelled the monsters. The beasts stalked before it, but they never came close enough to touch it.”

“The first Magitech barriers,” I said.

“Yes. The generators were enormous then, and the walls were small, hardly large enough to protect a few buildings. The monsters prowled in front of them for most of the night, but many of the beasts slept during the day. The people of that town let me in while the monsters were sleeping. And I lived there, in that tiny haven of civilization, for the next few years. Over time, our witches learned to make more powerful Magitech machines. The town grew. And so did other havens of humanity. Years passed. I was eighteen now.

“And then one day, all the monsters outside our wall burst into nothingness. They dissolved before our eyes. Some time later, we heard the monsters had been exterminated from many cities and pushed back from others. We learned that walls had been built over the years to block the beasts, walls powered by generators much bigger than our own. Humanity had reclaimed a small part of our fallen world. Our town was within one of these reclaimed territories. When the wall went up, the monsters were purged instantly.

“There were victory celebrations. We had only taken back a small piece of what we’d lost, but hope blossomed inside the ruins of humanity. Slowly, the natural elements on the right side of civilization fell back into harmony. Beyond the walls, the monsters and weather was still as wild as ever, but we had reclaimed something.

“There were cheers for the gods, who’d finally sent the demons away. The gods had put a wall between us and the monsters. We’d all forgotten that some of the monsters who’d ravaged our world had once been the gods’ beasts; people only remembered that the demons had brought the monsters to Earth. The Pilgrims, voice of the gods’ message, told humanity that the demons had set the monsters on us. That the demons had destroyed our world. They said the gods had saved it—and saved us along with it.

“People spoke of an important new organization, the gods’ earthly army. The Legion of Angels. The Legion had been instrumental in pushing back the monsters.

“The Legion’s soldiers had once been human, just like most of us, but the gods had given them magic. It was supposed to be a grueling, difficult process that many did not survive, but I didn’t allow that to deter me. I had to join. I had to gain power to be strong, to take care of myself and anyone I cared about. I had seen too many people die. I’d been too powerless for too long.

“I wanted to fight the demons who’d ruined my life, my family, and my world.”

So that was why Damiel had joined the Legion of Angels: to protect himself and others, to get revenge on the demons, and push them out. Even now, the urges which had brought him to the Legion guided his actions. That’s why he hunted down any and all traitors to the Legion.

“I traveled far to the Legion of Angels, which back then was only a single office in Los Angeles. However, Nyx would not allow me to join until I was twenty-two, when my body would be ready to receive the Nectar.”

The Legion had long since determined that twenty-two was the optimal age for a soldier to join. At that point, the human body had the highest chance of surviving the gods’ Nectar and gaining magic.

“Nyx sent me away, but I was persistent. I refused to leave. Finally, I managed to convince her to let me stay. To train and work and serve the Legion before sipping the Nectar. So for four years, I cleaned and cooked and squeezed in any training whenever I could. They thought I would give up and go away, disgusted with these menial tasks. But I kept going. And the day I turned twenty-two, I took my first sip of the gods’ Nectar and became a soldier