Page 6 of Gods' Battleground

And people calledmereckless.

The people of Old Earth had lived so dangerously. The bus-without-seatbelts hailed from a time before anyone on this planet had had supernatural healing or magic potions to put themselves back together again when they’d had an accident, or had done something otherwise stupid.

“Leda?”

I blinked, then looked at Jace. “Sorry. Um, no. Vertigo’s not in here either. We should move on to the next room.”

“You’re pretty distracted,” he commented as we continued our search of the museum. “Even more so than usual.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m trying not to be,” I said. “I just have a lot on my mind. So many problems to solve.”

“It might help if you talk about it,” Jace said.

“I doubt it.” But I told him anyway. “Ok, so I need to find Bella and cure her curse, track down the Guardians, protect my daughter, locate new sources of Nectar and Venom—or life as we know it will be over. The gods are already rationing Nectar, you know. The Legion hasn’t gotten any Nectar in months. No Nectar means no new angels, no leveling up Legion soldiers, and no new soldiers. Legion initiations have been paused, for goodness sake. When hasthatever happened?”

“Not in the entire history of the Legion, as far as I know,” said Jace.

“Right! Which just goes to show how messed up everything is right now.”

“How scarce is the Nectar?” Jace asked me.

“Scarce enough that the gods don’t want to waste it on people who might die,” I replied.

He nodded. “That is prudent.”

“It might be prudent, but it’s also really problematic,” I countered. “Without the Nectar, the Legion can’t make new angels to command all the new territories we have on Earth thanks to the destruction of the Guardians’ Sanctuary. That is a lot of land, Jace, and right now it’s allmyproblem. I have to deal with building lots of new citiesandextending the infrastructure. That means new roads, new train lines, new police forces, new everything…I can’t keep up with everything I have to do. I was supposed to have given up my territory when I ascended to my new positions, but there’s no angel to take over from me!”

“Perhaps the Legion should divide up your territory between the current angels,” Jace suggested.

“Nyx is working on that, but you know this is a sticky situation. No matter how she divides up my territory, the angels will fight.”

“Angels are soldiers. They will do as the First Angel commands.” Jace said it like he didn’t have a single doubt about it.

Yeah, he was pretty good at hiding what he really thought.

“Yes, angels are soldiers, but they’re also a bunch of drama queens. They have a real flair for the dramatic,” I said. “The only creatures in the universe more dramatic than angels are deities. You should see their council meetings. Totally nuts. And so long! All the gods and demons ever do is fight and backstab. So here I am, trying to learn the ropes of being a goddessanda demon, fulfilling all my new responsibilities on the councils, dealing with deity politics…and all the while, running my territory on Earth.” I exhaled.

“I don’t know how you do it, Leda,” Jace said.

“Yeah,” I said with another exhale.

Just listing everything I had to juggle right now had left me winded. Being an angel was tough enough. Being an angelanda goddessanda demonanda mother all in one sometimes felt impossible.

“Honestly, there’s no way I could have done it without Nero,” I said. “He’s really helped out, even though he has so little time left over after he’s seen to his own duties as Nyx’s second in command at the Legion of Angels and the new commander of the Vanguard.”

The Vanguard was the elite of the elite of the Legion’s soldiers. Nero had taken over that role from Damiel when he and Cadence had retired to a life that didn’t include politics and warfare. They’d offered to take us with them, and honestly, some days I really regretted not saying yes.

I’d had a lot of those days lately.

“So, yeah, life is crazy,” I told Jace. “If I could just find a way for Legion soldiers to always survive the Nectar, which I’ve been wanting to do anyway, then Imightbe able to lighten my workload. But I have no idea how to do that, and after years of looking into it, Nerissa has no clue either. Maybe I should pay Eva and Jiro a visit and ask them. They’re Immortals. They might know something that could help me solve the Nectar mortality problem.”

I made a mental note to add ‘ask Eva and Jiro about Nectar’ to my to-do list. If only I weren’t just one person, maybe I’d actually be able to make a dent in that epic to-do list.

“Leda, I had no idea you were dealing with so much,” Jace said. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s ok.” I set my hand on his shoulder.

“Have you ever considered taking a vacation?”

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