Page 22 of Gods' Battleground

Tessa smirked at her. “Yeah, but you already knew that when you told me yours, so you have only yourself to blame.”

“Wait, so this boyfriend of yours, it’s not Jace, is it?” I asked Gin. “I was just working with him.”

And I’d sensed Jace was keeping a secret. Maybe he had more than one.

I considered the possibilities. How many single male angels were there? I started tallying them up.

“No, it’s not Jace,” Tessa said, cutting into my counting.

Her interruption totally messed up my count. I had to start tallying up angels again.

“Gin’s love life can wait,” Calli said in her serious, no-nonsense mom voice. “We need to go after that grimoire. And then cure Bella.”

“Luckily, they are in the same place,” Tessa said breezily. “Lucian tracked Bella through the immortal artifact linked to her.”

“Your beau has some pretty handy skills,” I commented.

“Well, he’s an Immortal,” she replied. “Sometimes he can be a little surly, but I can’t really blame him since he was stuck in that prison for so many years and worried about Eira?—”

“Eira?” I asked.

“Yeah, Eira. Did I forget to mention that Eira is his sister? Eira as in Cadence’s mother, not Eira as in Cadence’s daughter,” Tessa chatted along happily.

My little sister was dating Nero’s mother’s brother. My mind might have just been blown. Again.

“Is there anyone in this universe that I’m not somehow related to?” I wondered.

“At this point, I’m really starting to doubt it,” Tessa said brightly. “But anyways, Lucian says Bella is on this world called Midnight, which is apparently in some super-shady part of the Veil called the Forgotten Territories. The whole region is ruled by crime lords.”

“Yeah, I know. Vertigo told me.” I stepped aside to reveal the trembling telepath hiding behind me. “She can see the future.”

It was a true testament to the insanity of our lives that not a single one of them so much as blinked at that statement.

“Harker was at Jace’s office,” I told my family. “He knows where Bella is. He ran off alone after her. I couldn’t stop him.”

“Why would you even want to?” Tessa said. “He’s an angel, Leda. He can take care of himself.”

“I hope you won’t try to stop us from going after Bella too,” Calli said. “Because we are definitely not sitting this one out.”

“Actually, I’m here because I need your help,” I replied. “According to Vertigo, weallhave to go save Bella: you, Tessa, Gin, Zane, and I.”

Tessa studied Vertigo with her gaze. “What do you know about this woman anyway? Can we even trust her?”

“Well, her story matches yours, so, yeah, I think that in this case, we can trust her,” I replied. “And I guess some introductions are in order. Family, meet Vertigo.”

“Excellent performance! Bravo!” Vertigo clapped her hands enthusiastically. She was giving them a standing—no, make that ahopping—ovation. “Excellent performance! Bravo! Bravo!”

“Uh, Leda?” Tessa frowned. “I think your new friend is insane.”

“Yeah, well, she’s a powerful telepath who can see the future. And she says if we want to save Bella’s life, weallneed to go to Midnight together.”

“Good,” Calli said, folding her arms over her chest. “Because we were going to go there anyway.”

Tessa and Gin nodded in agreement.

“It’s a dangerous area of powerful people who’ve collected great wealth and ancient artifacts,” I warned them. “It’s a hotspot for Immortal treasures, which is what attracted all these bad players there in the first place. That means we need to play this smart. If we do it wrong, Bella will die.”

“What do you suggest, Leda?” Gin asked.

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