Page 110 of Gods' Battleground

CHAPTER 35

GODS' BATTLEGROUND

Mordon was right about one thing: this was all going exactly to plan. My plan. But only if I wrangled control of my body back from him. Otherwise, this would prove to be the biggest mistake that I’d ever made.

My consciousness was still trapped in the stupid black box he’d stuck me in while he played games with my body. But we’d known this would happen.

This is all going to plan.

I kept repeating that line over and over again to myself.

“Mordon, this is not what we discussed,” Kia said, hitting him with a hard scowl-glower.

The two of them—actually, the three of us—were in Mordon’s elaborate private chambers. This room was awash with purple-and-silver tapestries on the walls, ruby-and-gold rugs on the floors, and life-size jade sculptures of elephants, horses, and a whole zoo of statuesque animals everywhere else.

And he’d calledmycastle garish.

Sierra was here too. Mordon had chained her to a tiny table. He’d given her a stack of coloring books and like fifty big boxes of crayons. I guess he expected that to keep her busy for at leasta decade, until her body had matured enough for him to use it as a host.

But Sierra hadn’t even touched the crayons or the coloring books. She was just sitting there in silence, staring at him, unblinking, a big smirk on her lips.

Kia hit her with her best angel glower, but Sierra just kept on smirking. “The small one is staring at me, Mordon.”

“You could just ignore her,” he replied.

“And you could just throw the little brat in a prison cell like any self-respecting villain,” she countered.

Mordon shook his head. “I need to keep her close.”

Nero and I had known that he would. Just as we’d known that no matter what he promised—and no matter what we did—he’d take Sierra, even after he got my body. So we’d worked her into the plan. In fact, shewasthe plan.

Through the blood exchange, I was connected to Sierra, Nero, and our whole army for that matter. If I could just stay close to Sierra for long enough, I could tap into that connection. And through it, I could reach Nero and the others. Then I could break free and take back control of my body.

But this was all taking too long.

And I didn’t like the way Kia was looking at Sierra, like my daughter was a mosquito she yearned to smack.

“You really should lock her up,” she told Mordon. “She is a security risk.”

He laughed. “She’s a child.”

“She’s not just any child.” Kia’s gaze cut past him, locking on to Sierra. “She’s the daughter of Nero Windstriker and Leda Pandora.”

“All the more reason to keep an eye on her,” replied Mordon. “And keep her close. Windstriker won’t try anything as long as his wife and his daughter are here.”

I wished I could wrangle enough control over my body to smack Mordon with his own hand—or at least let out a big yawn. Being a fly on the wall in the villains’ den was far less enlightening than I’d imagined.

“I trained Nero,” Kia said. “He isn’t as stupid as you think he is, Mordon. In fact, he’s a master strategist. He definitely has a plan to get back his wife and daughter.”

“Whatever his plan is, it won’t work. Did you see the look on his face when I took his daughter?” Mordon winked at Sierra. “He wasn’t prepared for that at all! If Nero Windstriker were such a master strategist, he would have seen that coming. And then there was Leda’s witchy sister. Her attack only made me stronger!”

Which was also part of the plan. That magic boost hadn’t just fueled my body. It had also turbocharged my bond with everyone. Unfortunately, that turbocharger was on a timer. And if I didn’t regain control of my body before it ran out, well, then this whole plan would crash and burn. And we would have given Mordon and the other Guardians exactly what they wanted.

I kept searching for a way to free myself. I could feel Sierra’s magic. It was so close. Through our bodies’ blood bond, I could sense her, but the path was still so long. I had to find a way to reach her.

“They will send an army to this castle,” Kia warned Mordon.

“Yes, perhaps they will eventually grow that desperate,” he agreed. “But they will not be able to breach the shield, not even with all their combined power.”

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