long, thick braid that reached the ground. “So, yes, I’ve tried to break into the fortress here. Many times. But it is impossible.”
“Nothing is impossible,” I declared.
“Don’t let your magic blind you, angel. I also possess magic, like my sister. Our parents kept that fact hidden from everyone. They didn’t want to lose their children, to never see us again. They died fighting the hunters who came to take my sister. And even with all my magic, I couldn’t break into the fortress to rescue her.”
“Things have changed,” Damiel told him.
“Nothing has changed.”
“Everything has changed. This time, you have two angels, beings of great beauty and infinite magic, masters of weapons and strategy. And I have a plan.”
Damiel was really dialing up the angel ego, but it seemed to be working. The rebels were gulping up his confidence like travelers coming to an oasis after days stranded in the desert.
“We can break into the fortress, but we will need a few things,” Damiel told the rebels. “We have to stop by our world to pick up a few things.”
“We eagerly await your return,” said the rebel leader, hope burning in his eyes. “Finally, we have a chance to stop the Collective’s atrocities.”
Damiel and I walked out of the room, but the rebels continued to stand there, smiling as they stared off into space.
“You compelled them,” I said as we walked back toward the garage.
“Only a little.”
“Oh, really?” I looked pointedly at the rebels frozen in place all around us, each one with the exact same goofy expression on their face.
“Ok, perhaps I compelled them a bit more than just a little,” he admitted. “But it wasn’t a lot. I’ve never met anyone so hungry to be compelled. It didn’t take much magic to convince them. Their leader is desperate to get into that fortress.”
“Yes, I noticed that too. He wants to rescue his sister.”
“If she’s been with the Hive for so long, she might not even be his sister anymore,” Damiel pointed out. “Even if we find her, there might not be anything left to save.”
“Try to be optimistic.”
He grunted, as though that were an amusing notion. “Bring us to my territory, to New York.”
I drew the Diamond Tear and cut a passage through the cosmos to Earth.
But when we stepped through, we didn’t find New York on the other side. I’d brought us to Storm Castle instead.
“I’m sorry,” I said, frustrated at my wrong turn. “Navigating isn’t as easy as it looks. The dagger can go between different worlds and between different places on a world. Just how well it works depends highly on the dagger wielder’s mental focus. I guess my mind was thinking of this place.”
His eyebrows lifted. “You were thinking about your bedroom?”
We’d landed on my bed. He seemed to find that very funny.
“No, I wasn’t thinking about my bedroom,” I said, my cheeks flushed, my words hurried. “Not exactly. At that moment, I was thinking of my father, of how he confronted me in this very room to warn me about you. But he should have warned me about himself. About how he’d lied to me my whole life.”
Damiel set his hand over mine. “You want to confront him.”
“You bet I do.”
My door thumped twice. I slid off my bed and went to answer it. Allegra stood on the other side of the door.
She looked me up and down, giving me a thorough visual assessment. “I heard you’re back.”
“How did you know that I was back?”
Allegra blinked. Her smile faded. “What do you mean?”
“How did you know I was back?” I repeated. “I only just returned a few moments ago.”
“Cadence—”
“You were spying on me. Watching me. Watching this room You probably set up magic detectors and surveillance devices.”
Allegra took a step back.
“That’s how you knew I was back,” I told her. “By spying on me.” Coming here wasn’t the only wrong turn I’d ever made; my whole life was marred by wrong turns.
“How can you say such things, after all our years of friendship?”
“You mean, after all those years you spied on me. For General Silverstar.”
Damiel glided up behind me.
Allegra’s gaze shifted uneasily between him and me. “I can see that you’re busy. Sorry to interrupt.”
“Not at all.” Damiel opened the door wider, a cold, dangerous smile twisting his lips. “Come in.”
Right about now, all the panic bells must have been going off in her head. “I wouldn’t dare intrude.”
“It wasn’t a request, Captain.” Damiel snared her with his psychic magic and dragged her inside.
The