“What is the next ingredient?”

I charged at the machine. He swung a punch at me. I ducked and turned. He pivoted with me and punched again. His fist smashed through the wall of bricks behind me. He’d hit it with so much force that his fist got stuck inside the wall. Grinning at him, I swung my axe. The blade cut through the soft material at his elbow, severing the lower part of his arm. The chunk of metal fell at my feet.

I kicked the silver arm toward Nero. “The next ingredient is silver. The more, the better.”

Nero grabbed the arm and tossed it into the bubbling mixture. The silver melted, turning the liquid white.

Mr. Muscles came at me again, knocking the axe out of my hand. I grabbed a hammer and a handful of nails off the floor. The machine was armored, but there were weak spots. And though he was made of metal, he shared some similarities to a human body. I rolled and hammered a nail into the Achilles tendon on his right leg. The monster dropped to its knee. I hammered at the same spot on his other leg. He collapsed to the other knee. I picked up my axe again and hacked off the monster’s remaining limbs at the joints. Silver machine parts broke off in all directions, tumbling into Nero’s potion.

He looked at the mangled machine parts sinking into the white liquid, then at the axe in my hand. “You sure have an interesting style,” he declared.

I tossed the axe aside. “I aim to please.”

The influx of silver had ignited the potion. Pillars of white flames bubbled and burst out of it. There was a snap and crunch, like the breaking of an enormous tree branch. The ground collapsed under us, and we tumbled into a chasm.

8 Magic and Steam

Nero and I fell through the floor, sand and severed machine parts raining down with us. I landed hard on my butt. I squinted, trying to penetrate the darkness, but my now-human senses weren’t up to the task. The air was thick with dust. I couldn’t see it, but I could feel it. It was hard to breathe down here.

Then, suddenly, lights glowed to life all around me, illuminating the darkness. We’d fallen into a grand chamber. The floors were marble—pale white, like a sheet of ice. Runes were scattered across the icy marble surface, painted in glittering, shimmering strokes of gold pixie dust. The walls were covered in gold and green emeralds. Light shone from within the walls, basking the room in sparkling light. It looked like a king’s treasure room.

Glass display counters kissed the room’s perimeter, filled with more treasures than I’d seen in all my life. I rose to my feet, my bones creaking in pitiful protest. When this was all over, I was taking a long, hot soak in a bubblebath. I’d never felt more human than right now. Getting my ass kicked was even less fun when I was mortal.

I’d gotten so used to depending on my magic. The Legion was my life now. I was not human. Not anymore. Standing here now, feeling weak and helpless, I realized that I could never go back to being human again.

“You told me once that I was always meant to join the Legion, that my path would lead me to it,” I said to Nero.

“Yes. It is who you are.”

I squeezed his hand. “I think… I think despite everything that has happened, until now there was still a part of me that never truly believed it.”

“But you do now?”

“These changes, gaining these powers—this isn’t about becoming something else. It’s about becoming who I am. I didn’t realize it back then, but I’d never really felt whole until I joined the Legion. It was as though something were missing from my life.”

“As though a part of you were missing.”

I nodded.

“I felt the same before gaining my powers. It is a common sentiment amongst the children of angels,” he told me.

“But I am not a Legion brat. I didn’t have even the slightest hint of magic before joining the Legion, not like the children of angels do. I was completely ordinary.”

He chuckled. “You might not have had magic, but you are far from ordinary, Leda. There is magic in your soul, shining through.”

“What am I?”

“I do not know.”

“I need to know. I know it won’t change anything. I am what I am. But I just have to know.”

He set his hand over my heart. “We’ll figure it out. Together.” His voice was both fierce and gentle.

“Together.” No other word in all the worlds held so much power. I closed my hand over his.

Then we turned to face the display cases full of trinkets and treasures.

“What is this place?” I asked. “A treasury of some sort?”

Nero scanned the contents of the cases. “A magical treasury of powerful artifacts. All of them have names.” He pointed at a pure white bow. “Surefire. It is said that an arrow shot from this bow never misses.”

I moved on to the next case, which held a cloak that shimmered like a pot of liquid gold. Its magic was fluid, shifting with the light. “What about that one?”

“The Invincibility Cloak,” he said. “When you wear it, weapons go right through you without hurting you.” He indicated the next treasure, a pair of leather boxing gloves. “They’re called Meteor Shower. A strike from them is said to feel like a barrage of meteors.” His eyes dipped to the shelf below, where a necklace of a hundred diamonds lay.

“I’ve heard of that one,” I said. “Divine Tears. It heals any injuries or sicknesses, no matter how dire, of the person wearing it. I thought it was just a myth.”

“These are the stuff of myths and legends, lost long ago, but they are very real,” replied Nero. “They are all the work of the immortal magic smith, Sunfire.”

“These were made by the greatest magic crafter of all time?”

“Yes. These are powerful items,” said Nero. “Some of the most powerful in all the worlds.”

“So this is the gods’ treasure trove?”

“No. If the gods knew about this place, they’d have taken the treasures far away, not left them here for the angels they sent on their trials to find. These artifacts are too powerful. The gods crave power above all else. They could not resist using these objects of power. This is a treasure trove of the original immortals, the powerful beings who preceded gods and demons.”

“The Guardians,” I whispered.

He gave me a strange look. “You broke the seal to this room. You read the symbols. Their language.”

“I told you, I don’t know how I did it.” The sparkle of the immortal artifacts drew my gaze. “There is magic in these treasures.”

“Yes, powerful magic. But there’s no way for us to channel that magic to restart the Magitech generator. We could not break these artifacts, even if we wanted to. They are indestructible.”

“If we could channel the magic from them…” I sighed.

If only we had Lightning Spear, the lightning rod of magic kept at Storm Castle. It was one of the immortal weapons made by Sunfire. It had the power to absorb magic. We could have used it to channel the magic of these artifacts into the Magitech generator.

But we didn’t have the Lightning Spear. And, as Nero had pointed out, we couldn’t break these immortal artifacts either. Why had Damiel told us the answer was here? What did he think we could do with the artifacts?

And then it hit me. Damiel had been there when I’d controlled the weapons of heaven and hell, which were also immortal artifacts. He thought I could control these too, that I could direct their magic into the generator. I stared at the display cases full of immortal artifacts, willing them to obey my commands.

Nothing happened.

“It’s not working.” I turned to Nero. “I can’t control them.”

“It’s not your fault. You don’t have any magic right now.”

“No, it isn’t just Ronan’s potion. That magic, whatever it is, is different. It just won’t come to me again. I wasn’t able to control the weapons of heaven and hell after our return from the Lost City either.” I sighed. “Either Damiel overestimated my abilities, or there must be something else down here that can help us.” I looked past the display cases, to a large door at the back. “What about that?”