Page 72 of Gods' Battleground

I’d also made sure each team of four consisted of a god, a demon, and one soldier each from the Legion and the Dark Force. That made it harder for the various factions to hoard information and conspire against the others, but it also led to drama.

“I told you I had your back,” said Octavian, a god from Heaven’s Army.

“And I told you that I don’t need your help,” Neeka, the demon on his team, snapped back.

The two of them—plus Claudia Vance from the Legion and a Dark Force soldier named Jack—had just stepped through one of the magic mirrors and into the throne room, bringing half a winter storm with them.

“Any luck, Team Six?” I asked them.

“No signs of a gravesite within a hundred miles of the magic mirror on Frostbite,” Claudia told me.

“Frostbite?” I asked.

“That’s what we named that frozen wasteland of a world,” said Neeka.

“It wasn’tthatcold,” Octavian countered. “Though I suppose demons hate anything cooler than a hellfire inferno.”

“Oh, wow, yet another hell joke. How original.” Neeka rolled her eyes. “What does that bring the running total up to for today, Haddon?” she asked.

“Twenty-seven,” Jack the Dark Force soldier told her.

“There has to be an Immortal gravesite somewhere on that world,” I said, dragging them back to what really mattered. “Or it wouldn’t be on the map.”

“There were some caves not far from the magic mirror,” Claudia told me. “I bet that’s the way into the gravesite. Unfortunately, the entrance was frozen shut. Really, really frozen. We blasted it with heat for over an hour, but only managed to knock off a few chunks of ice in that time. We’re going to need a lot more firepower.”

“Ok, get yourselves something to eat,” I said. “After you’ve recharged your batteries, go back to Frostbite with Teams Seven, Ten, Eleven, and Eighteen. That should give you more than enough firepower.”

Claudia nodded, then Team Six walked away. Nero entered the throne room just as they left it. He joined me beside the block of wood I was staring at.

“What are you doing?” he asked me.

“Faris says I need a throne. So I’m making myself a throne.”

Nero looked at the wood block. “It’s very nice,” he said, deadpan.

“I haven’t actually started yet, smart-ass. I guess I have carver’sblock.” I winked at him.

He rolled his eyes at my stupid joke.

“Bah, whatever.” I threw my hands up in the air. “The silly throne is totally irrelevant. I never should have listened to Faris. I’ll worry about my throne later, when I don’t have actual important things to do.”

“And how are those actual important things coming along?” he asked me.

“Slowly,” I told him. “So far we’ve been at this for six days, and we’ve discovered exactly zero gravesites. Though Claudia’s team believes they might have found something. They think the gravesite is frozen inside some caves. They’re going to blast the entrance open. If all goes well, they’ll find Nectar and Venom—and not just a frozen woolly mammoth.”

Nero watched me, his face serious, even worried. “You should get some rest.”

“No time for that right now,” I told him. “I need to coordinate the search of the Bubble.”

“The Bubble?”

“This special ring of worlds we discovered because of the Night Prince’s map. They’re all connected to Midnight—and Midnight alone. They aren’t linked to any other world. It’s like a self-contained bubble inside the Veil. Hence the name ‘the Bubble’,” I explained. “And, bee-tee-dubs, Faris finds the namehighlyinappropriate. Which of course only makes me want to use it more.”

“You’re rambling, Pandora,” he chuckled.

“Yeah, that tends to happen when you’re operating on like two hours of sleep,” I laughed.

“You got only two hours of sleep last night?”

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