Page 2 of Leda's Log

Alec laughed. “Good job, Mini Angel.”

Sierra started bouncing up and down.

“Well, at least you didn’t set the curtains on fire this time,” I said to her.

She giggled.

Alec took a big step over the napping cat in the doorway. She didn’t try to stop him—or even open her eyes.

“Some guard cat you are,” I told Angel.

She continued sleeping.

And I sighed. “What’s up?” I said, turning toward Alec.

“We just got a call from Basanti at Storm Castle,” he replied. “They’re in trouble and need our help.”

CHAPTER 2

STORM CASTLE

Angel’s pointy ears perked up at the wordtrouble. Cats had a deep-seated mistrust of any trouble that they weren’t the cause of.

“What’s the nature of the emergency?” I asked Alec, grabbing my sword from the wall stand.

“Basanti mentioned something about abnormally-large and adorable baby ducklings?” Alec frowned in confusion. “And then the line cut off.” He shook his head. “Honestly, it didn’t make much sense.”

“Since when has life at the Legionevermade sense?” I pointed out. “Ok, I’ll bring a team to Storm Castle to check it out. Get an airship prepped for departure. We leave in five.”

Angel rose to her feet with a long, languid stretch.

“Oh, and get a babysitter for Sierra,” I added.

“No!” my two-year-old protested. “Wanna come with!” She stomped her foot. “Wanna see duckies!”

Angel meowed in agreement.

I squatted down so I was eye-to-eye with Sierra. “You can’t go. It’s too dangerous.”

“Duckies!” When she stomped her foot again, all the lights in the room flickered.

“You will get to see duckies,” I promised her. “While I’m gone, Lucy will bring you to the big pond in the park, the one with all the duckies. There’s a pack of dried bananas in my desk drawer. You can feed them to the duckies.”

I felt magic ripple through me, and then the bag of bananas was in Sierra’s hand. The little rascal had teleported it out of my locked snack drawer. She tucked the bag into her cute little satchel. One hand grabbed mine, the other squeezed Angel to her like an oversized teddy bear. Space folded in around us. My office blurred out. A familiar room faded in.

I rose out of my crouch, my eyes going wide as they panned across Storm Castle’s throne room. “You brought us all the way across the continent,” I muttered in disbelief. “I didn’t know you could teleport that far.”

Sierra grinned at me.

“Leda?”

I turned at the sound of Basanti’s voice.

“Wow, you got here fast.” Her gaze dropped to Sierra and Angel. “But I have to admit, when I asked Alec to send backup, this isn’t what I had in mind. Does Nero know you brought his daughter into battle?”

“I didn’t bring her into battle,” I replied in frustration. “She brought me here. And, hey, she’s my daughter too, by the way.”

“Yeah, there’s no doubt about that,” Basanti said when Sierra giggled, and all the curtains in the room burst into flames.

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