24

After a few minutes, my head cleared enough for me to try walking again. I made it down the corridor—all the way to the big hole in the ship at the end—without tripping or bumping into anything. Nero closed up beside me. I hadn’t seen him since he’d left the captain’s office with Nyx earlier.

Outside the airship, the Legion was there in full force, loading the witches into the Legion vans so they could be taken back to the city for proper care. The soldiers gave me and Nero curious looks as we passed them on our way to Nyx. The First Angel was directing the whole scene with natural grace, like she’d been made for nothing else. She was the most powerful angel on Earth. She commanded armies and wielded great magic. She could save crashing airships and read our minds from hundreds of miles away. That must have been how she ended up here at the right place and the right time.

“Not exactly,” Nero said. “I messaged her when we came aboard the airship.”

“When did you have time to do that?” I asked. “And stop reading my thoughts.”

“I can multitask,” he replied to my first question. “And it’s hard to block you out when you want me to hear your thoughts.”

“I don’t ever want you to hear my thoughts.”

“You’re not a very good liar.”

“And you’re not a very good conversationalist,” I shot back. “So you updated Nyx when the ship was damaged?”

“No, I learned of your troubles when pieces of New York’s all-night party airship began falling out of the sky,” the First Angel said, waving us closer. “When I heard the Sunken Ship was on a collision course for the wall, I came to stop it.”

“You’re so powerful,” I told her.

“I’m the First Angel, the most powerful angel in the world, second only to the gods.” She winked at me, as though she didn’t take herself as seriously as she knew she should. “I’ve sent soldiers to bring in New York’s pack leaders for questioning. If there’s a demon behind this, we will find out.”

“The shifters framed the witches to draw attention away from themselves in the Legion’s investigation,” I said. “And they convinced an embittered witch to help them.”

“Yes, Colonel Windstriker filled me in on what you’ve discovered.” Her full, red lips tightened into a hard line. “The shifters will soon realize that their efforts have produced the opposite effect as they’d hoped. They will be at the forefront of our continued investigation into the demon incursion.”

I hadn’t expected anything different. The Legion operated under the principle of absolute authority. They had to show everyone that they were in control—and that no one could get away with undermining that control.

“You’re covered in blood and missing half of your clothes,” Nyx told us. “Get back to New York. I expect the full report on your adventure by tomorrow morning.”

We bowed, then walked toward the cluster of vans parked outside the downed airship. But Nero didn’t stop at the vans. He continued past them.

“What is that?” I said, gawking at the vehicle parked on the grass.

“A car.” He opened the door for me.

“That’s not a car. It’s a rocket on wheels,” I told him, getting in.

He walked around to the driver’s side and turned the car on. “That is an apt description,” he agreed as the engine roared to life. “It’s the latest development in Magitech. This car can travel over twice as fast as a normal car.”

“Then it’s a good thing you have supernatural reflexes.”

“Indeed it is.”

I tapped the leather armrest. “You’re not color-blind, are you?”

“No.”

“Ok, so you do realize the outside of your car is the color of dandelions?”

“It’s not my car,” Nero said.

“Oh?” I took one glance out of the window, then hastily looked away. The countryside was flashing past so fast that I was feeling dizzy all over again. “Whose car is it then?”

“Nerissa’s.”

“Nerissa Harding, the lead scientist of the Legion’s New York labs?”

“Are you surprised?”

“Actually, come to think of it, no. This gaudy thing is just her style. Totally unfiltered.”

“Yes,” he agreed.

“So why are we taking Nerissa’s car?”

“Because it’s the fastest way to get us back to the Legion. Our healers need to have a look at your injuries.”

“You already healed me.”

“I did not have enough magic in me to heal you completely.”

“I can handle a few bruises,” I told him.

“I know you can.” He glanced over at me, which, considering the speed the car was moving at, was downright reckless. His eyes flickered back to the road.

“This isn’t about my injuries. You want to talk to me,” I realized.

“Yes.”

I squeezed my hands together. “Oh, well, ok.”

For someone so eager to talk to me, he sure wasn’t very talkative. We passed the rest of the drive in silence. That silence stretched on as we parked under the Legion’s New York building, and it held as we walked down the hall to his office. It was only after he closed the door behind us that Nero spoke.

“Please sit down,” he said, taking the seat behind his desk.

“Am I in trouble?” I asked as I sat down opposite him.

He folded his hands together on the tabletop. “Do you remember what I said to you all when you joined the Legion?”

He’d said a lot of things.

“About obedience,” Nero continued.

“Ah, so that was a yes to being in trouble.” I cleared my throat. “You told us that when we’re in a crisis, you need to know we will follow your commands without question.”

“Your memory far exceeds your execution. You did not follow my commands tonight.”

I didn’t say anything. What was there to say? He was completely right.

“You gave me your blood even when I told you not to. You put yourself at risk.” I opened my mouth to speak, but he cut in. “I’m not finished. You were reckless and disobedient. I should punish you for it.”

“But you’re not going to?” I said, shooting him a hopeful smile. “Because I saved your life.”

“This is the second time you disobeyed me directly. And I can’t even count the number of times you’ve done something you knew I wouldn’t approve of.” He tapped his fingers across his desk. “Last month, you disobeyed me and went after me on the Black Plains. Why?”

“Because you’re obviously incapable of taking care of yourself,” I teased.

“No jokes. Tell me why you did it.”

“Because it was the right thing to do,” I said.

“Perhaps, but it wasn’t the right thing for you to do as a soldier of the Legion. I need my soldiers to obey me, and time and time again, you refuse. You know you need to follow the rules to survive the Legion, to receive more of the gods’ gifts of magic, gifts you need to save your brother. This is essential. And yet you still disobey me. Why?”

“Zane wouldn’t want me to turn off my compassion to save him. He wouldn’t want me to stop being who I am. When I see my brother again, I want to be able to look him in the eye and not hate what I’ve become.”

Nero was quiet for a few moments, then he said, “You are a good person.”

“Thank you.”

“But you are a lousy soldier,” he added. “How am I supposed to help you when you don’t even listen to what I say? How will I get you to the ninth level?”

He seemed to be talking to himself, but I answered anyway. “I guess you have your work cut out for you.”

“Yes.” He frowned.

“Nyx wants me to be an angel,” I added.

“How do you know?”

“I heard you talking to her.”

“That conversation wasn’t for your ears.”

“Embarrassed?”

“No, I have not hidden anything from you, Leda. You know how I feel.”

“You want to sleep with me.”

“That is what I want. It’s not how I feel.”

“Is there a difference for you?” I asked.

“Yes, a big one. There’s something between us, Leda. It’s not just raw attraction. That is merely a consequence of our connection.”

“So you do have feelings,” I said, smiling. “Amazing. I thought angels were immune.”

“Not immune. Not at all. Just as our senses are stronger, so are our feelings. We feel more—deeper—than others. Which is why we must control our feelings.”

“Well, when I’m an angel, I’m going to feel everything.” I smirked at him.

“Yes, I think you will. You will tear the heavens asunder.” He set his hand on my cheek. “And I’m helping you on that catastrophic path.” He shook his head slowly, as though he couldn’t believe what he was doing.

“Nyx wants you to help me,” I told him.

“Nyx is…an unusual angel. She feels too.”

“So the Legion didn’t squeeze that out of her.”

“She didn’t work her way up the ranks.”

I looked at him in confusion.

“Nyx wasn’t made an angel. She was born one,” he explained.

“I didn’t know that could happen.”

“She is the only demigod ever born.”

And that explained a lot about Nyx—and her complex, often contradictory personality. She was of two worlds, of heaven and Earth.

“But I didn’t want to talk about her,” Nero said, standing.

“You wanted to talk about my punishment.”

“I will have to punish you. There is no way around it. I cannot allow everyone else to think they can disobey me.”

I offered him a small smile. “Pushups?”

“I think we are beyond that, Leda.”

“I know,” I sighed. “So what will it be?”

“You will clean the Legion’s common area toilets once a day for a week.”

“That’s not a very supernatural punishment,” I pointed out.

“Sometimes the simple ones are the best.”

“Or the worst.” I crinkled up my nose. I could almost smell the public toilets from here. “I’d rather take the pushups. Or how about I fight those hell dogs every day for a week?”

“You don’t get a choice in your punishment. That defeats the purpose. Punishments aren’t meant to be pleasant.”

“Then I guess I’ll just have to hope the toilets don’t fight back.”

He gave me a strange look. “I don’t want to hurt you, you know.”

“I know.” I set my hand on his. “Vile as the toilets may be, they won’t kill me. If you really wanted to hurt me, you would have assigned me extra training.”

“You will be receiving that as well. Starting tomorrow, you can look forward to getting up half an hour earlier.”

“So much for not wanting to hurt me,” I muttered.

“That is not a punishment. I want you to train more because I know you can do better if I just push you hard enough.” He intertwined his fingers with mine. “Even though it hurts me. Every punch. Every time I hit you when we’re training.”

“Maybe you need to learn to punch better,” I teased him.

“Not that sort of pain, Leda.”

I looked into his eyes and saw something unexpected. “You have feelings for me. Like real feelings.”

“Yes.”

“But that’s so…human of you.”

“I know,” he said. “I can’t afford to be human. To feel. To doubt. To be irrational… On the airship, when you lost consciousness, I had to go to you. I had to heal you, even though I was not fully healed myself. I needed every bit of magic in me to be an effective soldier, and I gave some of it to you. It was a decision devoid of reason.”

“Feelings have no reason, no logic. They just are,” I said.

“My behavior was unbefitting of a soldier of the Legion.”

Amusement tickled my lips. “Maybe you’ll have to punish yourself too.”

“Yes,” he agreed seriously.

“Pushups?” I struggled to keep a straight face.

“Not harsh enough.”

“How about if I sit on you while you do them?”

Laughter burst from his mouth, beautiful, unchecked. I loved to hear him laugh. Something about it filled me with silly, sappy happiness.

“I feel the same, Nero. About you,” I told him.

He watched me, saying nothing.

“I’m not rational when you’re hurt either,” I continued.

“Even so, I cannot excuse your disobedience, no matter how good your intentions were. I can’t let you off the hook.”

“I know,” I sighed.

“The angel in me cannot allow it, even though your words make the man in me dare to hope.”

“Hope about what?”

His voice dipped lower. “Hope that you will be amenable to my proposition.”

“I don’t think I’m ready for any propositions, Nero. I’m too deep in this already.”

“Deep in what?”

“In you,” I told him.

A smile twisted his lips. “I wasn’t talking about that kind of proposition.”

“What other kind could you mean?”

“I just want to ask you to dinner.”

There was no such thing as ‘just dinner’ for us. Warning sirens blared inside of my head. If anything, his proposition was more dangerous than the other—because it came with feelings attached. His eyes burned with intentions unspoken but not unfathomable. I knew his endgame. He didn’t just want to seduce me; he wanted to make me fall for him through and through, heart and soul. That didn’t scare me nearly as much as my eagerness to jump into the fire after him.

“I accept,” I said. Wasn’t facing your fears the best way to get rid of them? “But we have to go somewhere public, not to your apartment.”

“You don’t like my apartment?”

“It’s lovely, but I think we both know what will happen if we have dinner there.” In fact, I was having lurid memories of this office right now. It was making it hard to focus.

“As you wish.” He kissed my hand. “I will take you someplace nice.”

“And will this date happen before or after my punishment?

“I’ll let you pick.”

I laughed. That angel sure had a crazy sense of humor. And the crazier thing was I couldn’t wait for our date. Or was it really so crazy? We worked together, fought together, had been through life and death together. What was a little dinner and dessert compared to that?