“Is… everything all right?” I asked carefully.
“Charlie,” Ava breathed, and hell, her voice sounded like a song. “You’re hurt.”
I reached up to touch my cheek, which was tender from where Cameron had hit me. I was so used to the sting from the fight ring that the bruise had barely registered. No one else had mentioned anything, so it couldn’t be too bad, but nothing got past Ava. The skin beneath my eye had swollen. I supposed there had to be a red welt there. Guess he hit me harder than I thought.
I turned away from her. “It’s nothing. Just a gift from Cameron.”
“Ex-fucking-scuse me?” Ava growled.
I was shocked that she cared, honestly. And it felt good that she did, though I didn’t want to accept her concern. “It’s nothing pidg— Ava. Really. I’m fine.”
“It’s not fine,” Ava said through clenched teeth.
“It really is. He threw me out, so I don’t have to deal with taking his stupid lessons anymore. Taking a blow was a worthy trade to stop going to them.” I really meant that. One little slap was worth not having to listen to my father go on for four hours about fucking forks.
“I’m going to give him a little gift myself,” Ava muttered, and hell, her voice sounded deadly.
“Please don’t get involved. It’s not a big deal.” The last thing that needed to happen was my ex-wife confronting my estranged father. I didn’t know what Cameron would do to Ava if she set him off, and if he managed to hurt her in any way, there would be no withholding my wrath after that, because I’d fucking kill him. We were holding this rebellion together by a thread as it was. I couldn’t stand it if things got worse. I struggled to imagine how they could, but this was one way the powder keg could go off.
“But—”
“Let him handle it, sis.” Ez cut in before Ava could go further, which I was grateful for. I didn’t want to talk about my father, especially not with someone who’d hurt me far more than he ever could.
Ava fell silent, but I knew her, and I was certain the gears in her head had to be turning. Oberi was observing her, but I made it clear I didn’t want to know his thoughts about the situation, and he kept silent.
Ez planted himself in the middle of the group, and papers rustled in his hands. “Now that everyone’s here, we can begin.”
Ava rolled up to the nearest table. “What did you find, Ezekiel?”
Ez spread his papers over the table. “I think I’ve found a way to kill him.”
“Kill who?” Marcus asked.
“The muffin man,” Danny replied scathingly. “Who do ye fecking think, Marcus?”
“The Warden,” Ez clarified, and I felt my breath catch in my throat. Everyone leaned in closer as Ez shuffled through his files. He tried to keep his voice steady, but it wavered. “I’ve been researching Celestials, and I’ve found that angels will always die if their wings are severed.”
“We already know this,” Kallie said. “Fat chance of it working on the Warden, considering decapitating him didn’t work. He’s too strong.”
“Yes, but we aren’t implementing that knowledge correctly,” Ez emphasized. “You’ve tried to attack the Warden with brute force to kill him the way other angels can be killed, but as long as he’s got his magic, he’ll be able to heal himself.”
“You’re forgetting how strong he is,” I said. “He drained the abilities of other demigods to make himself one, then killed the Elves at the Main Facility to increase his magical capacity. His demigod power is immortality and invulnerability, which means even the dark gods can’t kill him. He’s completely immune to physical harm or the passage of time, which means no matter what we do to him, we can’t kill him.”
“You think that because you’ve all been going about it all wrong,” Ez insisted. “You can cut off his head or destroy his heart, and it doesn’t matter, because you aren’t playing to his weaknesses. But if you take his wings? Then he loses the source of his magic, and he dies. They’re the source of his demigod abilities, and he can’t regenerate without them.”
“Hm…” Marcus mused. “Ez might have a point. Nothing else has worked, so we might as well try.”
“That would only work if we could get close enough to him, and after what happened at the Elvish camps, I’m not counting on it,” I reminded them. “The Warden killed thousands of prisoners instantly in one blast. What we need is to find the final Divinity Key, open the Elven Gate, and restore the connection between the spirit realm and ours. Then we can obtain aid from the gods and bring the Warden down once and for all, because nothing and no one is going to be strong enough to kill him except a god.”
“Funny you should mention that,” Takahashi said as he stepped forward. “Because that’s exactly why I’ve called this meeting.”
“You found something?” Ava asked hopefully.
“Yes,” Takahashi stated. “Elliot Baine and I have been working for months combing through the files you procured from Doctor Taurus’ office before the Institute fire. We found a document written in ancient Elvish, which Emperor Cassiel was helping to translate. The translation was only half-finished by the time he passed, but I’ve since been able to translate the rest of it.”
“You think this document can lead us to the Astromancer key?” I asked.
“Yes,” Takahashi said confidently.
