Page 76 of Leda's Log

“Yes, I remember. So if they’re so much more powerful than normal supernaturals, why didn’t the Immortals make more of them?”

“The beasts are difficult to control and quite violent. I suppose they got all they wanted out of those experiments, so they decided to move on. It was always the Immortals’ goal to create magical beings in human form, in our form. They made gods, demons, Guardians, eidolons, spirits. And all thesupernaturals we know today.” He closed the book. “And by then, they weren’t using the rings anymore.”

“Why did they stop using the rings?” I asked.

“The rings turned out to be a bit too random, too finicky,” Eva said. “They didn’t always work. Half of the time, they made beasts with no magic, which the Immortals had to kill. It wasn’t efficient. They came up with better methods, methods with a higher success rate.”

“The rings don’t even work properly?” I frowned. “This makes even less sense. Why would anyone want to steal something that’s defective?”

Eva chuckled. “Oh, the rings aren’t entirely defective, young one. They just didn’t work well enough for the Immortals’ experiments. The rings still make very good magic converters.”

“Magic converters?”

“They take someone’s own magic and convert it into other types of magic,” she explained. “In this way, someone can use magic they do not possess. For example, a vampire’s natural magic could be converted into, say, shifter powers that the vampire could then use. Or a djinn wearing the ring could have their magic converted into phoenix magic.”

“So with these rings, someone could wield all sixteen kinds of magic?” I asked. “Just like an Immortal.”

“Yes,” said Eva.

I swallowed. “That sounds very powerful.”

“But it’s not so simple,” Jiro told me. “A person has only a given amount of magic. The ring doesn’t increase your magic; it just converts your magic into other kinds of magic you might want to use. The ring won’t turn a witch into an angel, even if it allows the witch to choose from all of those powers. An angel simply has more magic than a witch. So even with the ring, the witch is no match for an angel. Or a god, for that matter.”

“What about if someone had all sixteen rings?” I asked. “Would that make a difference?”

Eva shook her head. “No. Not really. It doesn’t matter if you wear one ring, two, or even all sixteen. They can’t increase your power. Your power level remains the same.”

“So why did the thief collect all sixteen?” I asked. “And why send them away to different worlds? Would the rings being on those worlds maybe increase their power?”

“The rings are already made,” said Eva. “It’s done. According to the book, their power cannot be increased.”

I sighed. “Then none of this makes sense.”

We tried brainstorming for a while longer, but neither Eva nor Jiro had any insights. They had no idea what the thief was up to. Jiro and Eva were Immortals, thousands of years old. If this had them stumped, then I didn’t know where else to turn.

CHAPTER 4

SLEEPOVER

Cadence and Damiel borrowed a few stacks of books from Eva and Jiro. They planned to research the rings further. That’s it. Research.

“We must know what we’re up against before we make our move,” Cadence said when I complained. “We can’t just go rushing in. We need a plan. We need to be prepared.”

“And you need to be patient,” Damiel added.

I hated being patient.

“So do I,” Eira said as we settled into her room in the Palace.

Besides a bedroom, she also had her own living room with two huge sofas. Her cat Bonbon was asleep on one of them. My cat Snow had taken the other. That left just the beanbags for me and Eira.

“Why are your parents always so boring?” I asked her.

“I don’t know.” She tossed me a fluffy pink blanket. “I guess because they’re old?”

“Not as old as Damon’s parents,” Troy Fireswift declared as he and Damon stepped into the room.

Damon’s parents were Nyx and Ronan. Nyx was the oldest angel. And Ronan was a god. I had no idea how old he was, but he definitely counted his birthdays in millennia.

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