Phoenix’s Refrain by Ella Summers

2

A Clash of Heaven and Hell

Igawked at Faris. “Do what we came here to do?” I repeated his words.

“Learn who is sending you these visions, of course.”

I cast a suspicious look on him. “Why do you care?”

“I care very much that someone is trying to manipulate you. That someone has control over you. That someone can make you see things. I will free you of this invasive force.”

It didn’t require much thought to read between the lines.

“You wouldn’t want someone else’s finger on the trigger of your weapon,” I said.

“Don’t be so melodramatic, Leda,” he replied coolly.

I snorted. “Says the right person.”

“I took time out of my very busy schedule to be here.”

His busy schedule of admiring his reflection in the mirror and getting his hair done. And—as the small droplets of blood on his outfit told me—torturing people. And planning his complete and total dominion over the known universe and everyone in it, at least if the hard, upward lift of his mouth was any hint to his motives.

“I am here to help you,” Faris continued. “Now do you want to get to the bottom of these visions or not?”

I didn’t trust the God of Heaven’s Army for a second, but I did want to figure out these visions. And much as I hated to admit it, I could really use Faris’s help. This place was teeming with monsters, and I didn’t have a Legion support team with me because I wasn’t supposed to be out here in the first place.

“These visions…could it be Faith again?” Tessa asked.

“The telepath’s powers still have not returned,” Faris said bitterly. “And I don’t expect them to. Thanks to Grace.” Then he glowered at me like it was all my fault.

“You called?” Grace said pleasantly, suddenly here beside us.

Faris glared at her. “What are you doing here?”

Grace met his hard scowl with an easy smile. “The same thing as you: looking out for our dear daughter.”

“You expect me to believe that you came here out of feelings of motherly love and concern?” Derision dripped from every word that Faris spoke.

Nodding, Grace folded her hands together. “Of course.”

“You aren’t capable of love, Grace.”

“I am capable of a great deal more than you, Faris,” the demon shot back.

“A great deal more evil,” Faris said. “Leda sees right through you. You must know that.”

“Leda knows I have only ever looked out for her best interests.”

“You poisoned her with Venom,” he said, obviously more for my benefit than for hers. “And you manipulated a crazed telepath into attacking her mind in order to fulfill your purpose of Leda’s child absorbing that telepath’s power.”

“And you threatened to destroy her mind if she didn’t completely surrender her free will to you.” Grace’s smirk was pure venom. “But who’s keeping count?”

They locked gazes like two stags locking horns. Each of them was keeping a careful tally of the other’s evil deeds. And each of them was trying to manipulate me, to control me, to get me to side with them and become their own personal weapon.

No way. That just wasn’t going to happen.

“If you two are just going to fight, how did you ever agree on anything for long enough to create me anyway?” I quipped.

Faris and Grace said nothing, but their expressions told all.

“I see. You each believed you could gain the upper hand and steal me for your exclusive use. So how’d that work out for you? Not at all. You fought over your precious toy, and in the end, no one got me.”

“I will admit that I underestimated Faris,” said Grace. “Or perhaps I overestimated my soldiers’ martial prowess. I never imagined Faris could make it past my defenses and steal you from me.”

“I did not steal her.” Faris’s voice had frozen over.

“Ah, ‘claiming what is rightfully yours’ then?” Grace snapped. “That’s how you see it, right? Calling it by another name doesn’t change the essence of what you did, Faris. Stealing is stealing.”

“We had a deal, Grace. The child was to be shared.”

“A deal you had every intention of breaking.”

He kept his face carefully blank. “I suppose we’ll never know now, will we?”

“I suppose not.”

They were glaring at each other so hard that the walls were covered in frost. Literally. Gin was still busily working to open the door, so she hadn’t noticed, but Tessa looked at me as if to say ‘your parents are so messed up’.

Yeah, didn’t I know it.

It was Faris who broke the steely silence. “I didn’t make it past your defenses, Grace.”

She blinked in confusion. “What?”

“I didn’t steal Leda. Or reclaim her.”

Grace laughed. “You expect me to believe that?”

“At this point, I expect very little of you, Grace.”

“I know what happened, Faris, and I know you were behind it. Leda was only a few weeks old when you came for her. I was staying in a secluded fortress, guarded by my most loyal soldiers. I thought Leda was safe, that no one could penetrate our defenses.”

“I didn’t—”

“You did,” Grace cut him off shortly. “One day, I was tired, worn out from all the rituals I’d performed on Leda during my long pregnancy. I’d spent those weeks since birth recovering, trying to regain my strength, to grow strong enough for the final ritual on Leda. To make Leda strong. I went to get a drink of Venom from the next room. When I returned, Leda was gone. She’d disappeared without a trace. Vanished into thin air. Like magic.”

“You believe I did this.” His halo flashed briefly red before it returned to its usual golden hue.

“I know you did this,” Grace growled. “For centuries, you have been collecting magical beings with unique powers, Faris. A djinn could have teleported in and taken Leda and been gone the next instant, before I returned. That’s how you got past my guards.”

“I don’t have any djinn.” Faris cast a speculative look on Tessa.

“Don’t even think about it,” I warned him.

“Very few would dare speak to me in such a manner.” He shot me a look laden with threat.

I allowed a smile to stretch my mouth, but my eyes remained locked on to him. “Well, I guess I’m just special.”

“Yes, you are. One of a kind, in fact.” His tone was icy. “Fortunately for you.”

“Ah, Pops, stop it. I’m tearing up here.”

“You are a very peculiar…”

“Weapon?” I filled in the blank for him.

“He was going to say person, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it,” Grace laughed. “To refer to you as a person would be an admission that you’re actually a living being with a will of her own.”

“You might want to remember that too, the next time you devise ways to manipulate me,” I told her.

Faris’s maniacal laughter rang in my ears. “I told you Grace is a master manipulator.”

I turned sharply toward him. “Don’t celebrate too soon. I don’t trust either of you as far as I can throw you—blindfolded. And with both my hands tied behind my back.”

“As usual, your attempt to ‘lighten the mood’ with humor falls flat,” he said in a bored voice, cutting out with his sword as a newly arrived monster jumped at us.

Grace shot a spell at another monster—and she shot snark at Faris. “As does your attempt to turn Leda against me.”

“Don’t you two ever stop bickering?” I demanded of both my insane parents, joining them in attacking the winged rat-like monsters trying to swarm us.

“No,” Grace said.

“Such a task is impossible as long as she continues talking,” Faris added.

Grace rolled her eyes; it was such a human gesture. “You know, if I didn’t have my hands full killing monsters, I’d kill you right here and now.”

Faris’s sword burst into flames. “You and what army?”

“I don’t need an army to take you down, Faris. I don’t even need any magic. I could do it with nothing but this knife.” She held up a short knife in front of his face.

Faris gave the knife a cold, derisive look. “Pretty trinket. Try not to hurt yourself with it.”

Grace and Faris rushed toward each other, murder screaming in their eyes. I should have let them do it. Their deaths would have saved me a lot of aggravation. But two deities engaged in a fight to the death was not a pretty sight. They didn’t look out for anyone, and collateral damage wasn’t even a problem in their book. Well, it was a problem in my book. A big problem. My little sisters were here, and I was going to keep them safe.

So I planted myself between my fighting parents. “Behave yourselves, or I’ll kick both your asses. Seriously, two deities should be able to behave with better manners than a pair of lovestruck teenagers.”

“What did you say?” Anger boomed in Faris’s voice.

Grace stiffened. She puffed out her chest and rolled back her shoulders. “I beg your pardon?”

“You heard me,” I said. “And, yes, you should be begging my pardon. And my sisters’ pardon too. Get your shit together or get a room.”

Grace was stunned to silence. Faris looked like he was going to smite me. I forced myself to keep my eyes on him and not look up at the foreboding sky, even though I could hear it swirling up a storm past the big hole in the ceiling.

Tessa snickered, but the sound was so soft, I could barely hear it over the clinking of Gin’s tools. My crazy parents and I didn’t say anything for the next few minutes while Gin worked, Tessa helped her, and the rest of us fought off the flying rat monsters.

But at a lull in the wave of charging beasts, Grace turned to Faris. “So you are really going to continue this pretense that you didn’t take Leda from me?”

“I did not take her. If I had, she would have grown up by my side, not on the streets of Earth’s Frontier like a dirty urchin.” When Faris looked at me, his nose scrunched up like he’d smelled something particularly foul.

Grace’s eyes narrowed to slits. “So I suppose a newborn baby just got up and walked away all by herself?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he said impatiently. “Isn’t it obvious who took her? It was your sister Sonja.”

Grace laughed at him. “If Sonja had taken Leda, she’d have grown up by my sister’s side. Or under her boot.”

“Yes, but Sonja has never been very good at holding on to her toys.” His brows arched. “Or at keeping them in one piece, especially the toys she steals from others.”

“Thea,” Grace said.

Faris nodded curtly. “To name just one of many examples. Instead of making a nuisance of yourself here, Grace, what you really should be doing is talking to Sonja.”

Grace seemed to be considering the idea, but then she shot him an incredulous look. “You’re trying to get rid of me.”

“Yes, of course I wish to be rid of you. You’re getting on my nerves. But that doesn’t mean I’m wrong about Sonja.”

Grace’s eyebrows furrowed. “I will deal with Sonja later. I’m not leaving.”

“In that case, I hope you at least came armed with more than your charming wit and that adorable knife. More beasts are closing in on us.”

Grace’s lip twitched at the word ‘adorable’, but she unhooked a weapon from her back. It was an enormous trident glowing with purple magic, sizzling with telekinetic energy. “You should know by now, Faris. I always come prepared to fight.”

An odd look crossed Faris’s face, one I had never seen there before. One that I hardly recognized hidden beneath the smug mask of divine arrogance. Humor? Yes, humor. Something Grace had said amused him.

“I’m glad that you two have made up,” I said, allowing my sarcasm to seep through. “So now we can deal with the actual problem.”

A second army of flying rats had arrived, and they were even bigger and uglier than the previous ones. Their fur was bright green, like acid, and their eyes were as black as tar. I fought off the monsters, my god father and demon mother by my side.

But even working together, we weren’t making a dent in their numbers. In fact, there were more of them here than ever before. And the monsters just kept coming.

I had to hand it to Faris and Grace. They were lousy parents but excellent warriors. They cut the beasts down like they were nothing at all.

A flash from Sierra’s past hit me. I saw her fighting monsters. Monsters just like these. The vision froze me for a moment. I blinked, trying to pull myself back to the present.

The first thing I saw back in my own time was a monster jumping at me. Faster than I could think, Grace had thrown herself between me and the winged rat. She extended her hand toward the beast. I could feel a buildup of combined telepathic and telekinetic energy all around us.

The monster froze in place. It was just stuck there, mid-air, its body frozen by telekinetic magic, its mind crippled by her telepathic attack. Then Grace cut her trident, burning with magic, across the immobile beast, slaying it.

Her attack brought an old question to the forefront of my mind. “Why don’t gods and demons have the magic of telepathy naturally? Why did you have to breed it into yourselves?”

“Because the Immortals were power-hungry fools,” Faris replied.

I didn’t even try to hide my smirk. “That assessment means a lot coming from you, Faris.”

Grace was more serious. “The Immortals didn’t want to give us the power to read their minds,” she explained.

“Why not?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” said Faris. “The Immortals were hiding something from us. And from them.” He pointed at Grace.

“Both gods and demons have spent centuries trying to figure out what it is the Immortals were hiding,” she said.

“And have you learned anything?”

“No. But I will.” Faris’s voice was determined—and dangerous.

“I’ve managed to open the lock on this door,” Gin announced.

I patted her on the back. “Great job.”

I gripped the handle. The others stepped back to make room for me to open the door. Once open, I could see a curtain of glowing magic in the doorway. I poked the curtain with my finger. It felt like touching liquid caramel.

There was a growl and a scream from behind. I spun around to watch a final flying rat burst onto the scene out of nowhere. The monster jumped on Gin, throwing her to the ground.

Grace hit the winged rat with a spell, shattering it to pieces. Tessa rushed over to Gin. She set her hand on Gin’s bloody throat.

Tessa looked up from our sister’s motionless body. “She’s dead,” she declared, her eyes wide. “Gin is dead.”