Aetherial Annihilation (26 page)

His statement opened a meaningless debate, which did little but give us a way to pass ten minutes. I quieted everyone down and opened a portal to the next crystoid, keeping out of sight just in case.

"Oh, hey there it is," someone said from the other side. "Hello, is anyone in there?"

I poked my head into the opening and saw a small group of people near a crater bordered by fallen trees. As with most impact zones, the crystoid had made a mess.

I waved. "Hello, I'm here to neutralize the crystoid."

"Bob told us you'd be by, but—wow." A woman in a yellow raincoat stared up at me. "That is the neatest thing I've ever seen."

I noticed a man lifting a cell phone. "No pictures, please. We can't let anyone know we're doing this."

"Put that thing away, Alan," the woman said. "We don't want to get these nice people in trouble for helping us."

"I'm sorry," Alan said. "I sure don't want that to happen."

"Okay, well, stand back from the crater, please." I motioned for Ivy and she came to my side.

"I just want to thank you for being so nice," Ivy said to the onlookers. "If everyone was so nice, we could save the world super quick. Instead, they're mostly mean and have to be blasted."

A chorus of "I'm sorry," rose from the Canadians.

Ivy smiled. "It's okay. Nice people make all the danger totally worth it, plus I like blasting baddies." With that, she did her job, much to the amazement of the Canadians.

"Holy mackerel, that's some little girl," the woman said when Ivy finished. "Thank you for saving us."

Ivy crossed her arms and grinned. "All in a day's work for a hero."

Elyssa snorted.

I pulled Ivy back. "Goodbye, everyone!"

"Goodbye!"

I closed the portal and ruffled Ivy's hair. "You're too much sometimes."

"Thanks, Justin." She hugged me.

"Well, three more down," Shelton said. "Cinder called me a minute ago and said he's got a few more leads. I'll go meet with him in the conference room to see how that pans out."

"I need to speak to my father," Elyssa said. "I want to task someone to finding out who set a trap for us in North Korea."

"Hopefully, the soldiers I brought back gave us some intel," I told her.

Ivy looked up at me. "What are you going to do, Justin?"

I was tired as hell and considered taking a much-needed nap, but caught a hopeful look in Ivy's eyes. She and I hadn't spent much one-on-one time together since the war and this seemed like a good chance to get in some sibling bonding. "How'd you like to go get some ice cream?"

Her blue eyes flashed wide. "I'd love to!"

"Hey, I want some ice cream," Shelton said.

Elyssa grabbed his arm. "Unfortunately, you don't have time for that."

"Nah, I have plenty of time—"

"Shelton, don't make me knock you out," Elyssa said calmly. "Because I will do it in a heartbeat."

He threw up his hands in surrender. "Fine." Shelton jabbed a finger at me. "Get me something to go, though, okay?"

I rolled my eyes. "You got it, pal."

"Vanilla chocolate crunch with extra sprinkles," he called out as Elyssa dragged him away. They rounded the corner and I heard him shouted. "Extra sprinkles!"

"Harry is so crazy," Ivy said. She bounced on her toes. "Where are we going?"

"I know just the place." I opened a portal right in front of the Copper Goose in Queens Gate. The restaurant looked exactly like its namesake, and boasted some really good food, but it wasn't our destination. We stepped through the portal and I closed it behind us. I took my little sister's hand and we skipped up the street to Snowman's, a huge ice cream store shaped like a castle.

"Oh, this looks so neat." Ivy rushed inside and clapped her hands with delight at what she saw inside. Snowman golems whisked around on a snowy floor, delivering frozen treats to kids and adults alike.

Ivy ordered a magic truffle cone. I ordered crusty mango with fruit on top. Our snowman server delivered it a moment later.

"It's been a long time since we had ice cream together," Ivy said after she swallowed her first bit. "I've really missed you, Justin."

"I've missed you too." I bit into the crusty ice around the creamy mango and my taste buds rejoiced. "What have you been up to while Elyssa and I were traveling?"

She frowned. "Oh, just learning stuff. Mom wants me to go back to Arcane University so I can learn normal magic." She sighed. "I hate it. School's so boring."

"I was thinking about doing the same thing," I said.

Her eyes perked. "Oh, really? Well, school is boring, but we should totally go back and learn Arcane magic."

I repressed a chuckle.
It's so cool having a sister who looks up to me.
"Seraphim magic is powerful, but Arcane magic has a lot of utility."

"Utility?"

I nodded. "Yeah, you can do cool stuff with it."

"Oh, yeah, totally." Ivy ran her tongue around the ice cream. "Mom also said I need to socialize with kids my own age, but I don't know why. I like adults a lot better."

"She's right," I said. "It's nice making friends close to your age."

"But the kids I went to school with were so stupid." Her forehead pinched. "And mean, too. Sometimes I wanted to blast them to ashes."

I grimaced. "You wouldn't do something like that, would you?"

Ivy smiled. "Well, Bigdaddy—I mean Jeremiah—told me that just because Daelissa said something was okay didn't mean it was really okay. Otherwise, I probably would have blown up a bunch of meanies."

"Do you ever miss Jeremiah?" I asked. Ezzek Moore had posed as Jeremiah Conroy for several decades, raising my mother as his own, and continuing the charade with Ivy, telling her he was her grandfather. While he hadn't been the best role model, and had tried to kill me on a couple of occasions, he hadn't really been a bad person—just someone obsessed with revenge at any cost.

Ivy looked down. "Is it okay that I do miss him sometimes?"

I reached across the table and touched her hand. "Of course it's okay. I didn't know him very long, but I wish he was here too."

"He lied to me, but we did fun things," Ivy said in a wistful voice. "He played dolls with me sometimes. It seemed to make him happy, at least for a little while." She sighed. "Bigdaddy was a very sad man."

"Daelissa killed the woman he loved, Ivy." I shook my head slowly. "Jeremiah never recovered from it."

"Even with thousands of years to find someone else?" Her eyes flared. "Is it really that hard to find someone to love?"

I snorted. "No. I think Jeremiah stopped looking for love because he wanted to kill Daelissa so badly."

"Oh, okay." She licked her ice cream. "I suppose I can see that now."

I lifted my cone to my lips and saw something that made me stop. Victus and Delectra had just entered the shop, a little boy by their side. They seated themselves on the opposite side of the large crowded room and ordered something.

Ivy turned and looked. "What are you looking at?"

"Victus and his family."
This can't be coincidence.

"Oh, do you want to blast him, Justin?" Brilliance flickered at the tips of her fingers like candle flames.

I shook my head. "Not unless I find he's the traitor."

"His son looks super pale." Ivy pooched out her lips. "Poor thing."

The boy looked about Ivy's age, which made me all the more suspicious. A couple with a young girl approached Victus's table, faces beaming with smiles. I noticed the father glance my way and hurriedly avert his eyes when he saw me looking.

"Must be admirers," I said. Talking to Victus in this environment wasn't an option I planned to entertain. It might be possible he was trolling Queens Gate for votes. After all, the majority of voting Arcanes lived here. If he'd shown up here because of me, his agenda was too subtle for me to detect.

"I don't like him," Ivy said. "He reminds me of the people who came to Jeremiah begging for favors. Those people will say anything to get what they want."

I chuckled. "I have a smart sister."

"Thanks, bro." She blushed. "I want you to be proud of me."

"Ivy, I'm always proud of you, unless you start blasting people for no reason." I winked. "But I know you won't do that."

"Nope." She flashed a grin. "I'll always come up with a reason before I do that."

I remembered the first time Ivy and I had gone out for ice cream together. I'd just started attending Arcane University and was trying to find a way into my sister's heart. But my sister had grown up with Daelissa as one of her mentors and it didn't help that she thought I was evil.

We've come a long way.

My sister still had issues, but she was proving to be as resilient as she was powerful.

I ordered Shelton his ice cream cone, extra sprinkles and all, and we headed outside.

Victus stood up from his table and turned around just as we passed his table. "Justin, what a pleasant surprise."

I managed a fake smile. Though I dearly wanted to interrogate him about North Korea, I simply nodded and said, "Hello, Victus. We were just leaving."

"Ah, well, our son, Conrad, has been dying to come here." He looked at the pale boy. "Isn't that right, young man?"

"Yes, father," the boy replied in a monotone voice. "Thank you so very much for bringing me."

"He's our little treasure," Delectra said. "We're thinking of adopting war orphans so he'll have siblings to play with."

I want to throw up.
These people proved that politicians would do absolutely anything for a vote. "That's great." I put my acting skills to the test, filling my voice with enthusiasm. "I'm glad to know there are good people out there." I pointed to the ice cream in my hand. "Unfortunately, I really must go. I got this for a friend and don't want it to melt."

"Of course," Victus said. "We'll stop by Templar headquarters later for a progress report."

"Please do."

Ivy waved at the boy. "Would Conrad like to come back with us? I'd like someone to play with."

"I'm afraid he isn't feeling well," Delectra said. "We brought him for ice cream to make him feel better."

Ivy walked around the table and put a hand on the boy's forehead. He hardly reacted, staring almost blankly at her. "He feels fine to me."

I felt an embarrassed blush creep up my face. "It's okay, Ivy. Maybe another time."

"Until next time," Victus said.

When we got outside, I turned to Ivy. "Was it really necessary to do that?"

Ivy nodded. "Yep. Don't you think it's strange?"

I furrowed my brow. "What do you mean?"

She huffed. "That boy smells like a demon."

Chapter 22

I didn't know what to say at first, but my mouth tried to talk anyway. "A demon?" I hadn't gone close enough to smell a demonic influence, and I certainly wasn't going to go back inside for a sniff. "How do you know that's what he smells like?"

Ivy shrugged. "It's the same thing I smell when you, Dad, or one of his people are around." She put a finger to her chin and furrowed her forehead. "You know, I only recently started noticing that odor."

"Maybe you got a little bit of Dad in you after all." It made sense. I hadn't developed my demon abilities until well into puberty.

Her nose wrinkled. "Ew. You mean I might be a stinky demon someday too?" Her eyes flared. "Oh, I'm sorry, Justin. I shouldn't have said that." Ivy came closer to me and sniffed. "You don't smell that bad."

I laughed and ruffled her blonde locks. "Thanks. I'll wear extra deodorant from now on."

"I don't think it'll help." Ivy touched my arm. "Don't worry, I still love you even if you stink." She grinned.

"Aww." I hugged her. "I love you too, Ivy."
I'm so glad we did this.

We returned to the Ranch. Shelton's ice cream, thankfully, was charmed to prevent it from prematurely melting. His eyes lit up when I held it out to him.

"Man, extra sprinkles and everything." He licked it. "Thanks, bud."

"No problem."

Bella patted Shelton's belly. "Harry, you really need to stop eating so much junk food."

He gave her a defensive look. "Hey, food this good ain't junk." He licked the ice cream again and got sprinkles on his nose.

Bella burst into laughter.

We went to the conference room and found Elyssa there with her father. She turned to us. "Good, you're back."

"Any news from our North Korean guests?" I asked.

"They didn't know much, which isn't surprising." Elyssa looked at her phone and read from the screen. "They claimed that a western man showed them how to operate the airships."

"What did he look like?" I asked.

"I'm getting to that." She continued reading. "They were supposed to guard the crystoid at all costs because it was supposedly a weapon of great power." She lowered the arcphone to her side. "I showed them pictures of people at Science Academy, and they positively ID'd Chancellor Frankenberg and two of his assistants."

"Frankenberg." I smacked a fist into my palm. "He must have seen this as a chance to make Science Academy number one in the Overworld."

"Yes, well, we made inquiries with the academy, but Frankenberg retreated to one of his secret labs after the war and hasn't been heard from until now." She shook her head slowly. "Let's just hope he hasn't handed out his toys to any other governments or mercenaries."

"David and Kassallandra supplied additional intel," Thomas said. "Their contacts in several European governments have paved the way for us to disable the crystoids there."

"Good news," I said. "I'm ready to get started."

"I've got the images we need," Elyssa said. "Alysea is on the way to help us and should be here soon."

I nudged Ivy. "How are you feeling? Think you can disable any more crystoids today?"

She nodded. "I need to feed first. I'm a little tired."

"I could use a bit more soul essence myself," I told her. "What's the Colombia situation?" Katie, Ash, and Nyte usually worked from La Casona in Bogota, Colombia, and I wanted to see how they were holding up during the current crisis.