by Ella Summers
Angel Fury
Immortal Legacy: Book 2
Ella Summers
ANGEL FURY
Immortal Legacy
Book 2
Copyright © 2019
Version: 2019.12.27
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Contents
Story Summary
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Author’s Note
Books by Ella Summers
About the Author
Story Summary
Cadence Lightbringer, daughter of a legendary archangel, has always known her gods-endowed magic comes with a price. As an angel in the Legion of Angels, she lives where the Legion commands her to live, trains how the Legion tells her to train, and marries whom the Legion instructs her to marry.
Somehow it all sounded simpler in her head.
When Cadence is ordered to marry the enigmatic angel Damiel Dragonsire, a man she hardly knows, her whole perfect, predictable life is turned upside down. The wedding, however, is cut short by a dark threat that throws Cadence and Damiel into a world of magic as ancient and deadly as the original Immortals, powerful deities who once ruled the entire known universe.
Angel Fury is the second book in the Immortal Legacy series.
1
The Wedding
I stood in front of a closed double door. In a few minutes, I would walk through those gilded gates into the grand ballroom to marry a man I hardly knew.
I had always been a rule-follower, the perfect soldier in the gods’ earthly army. I’d been raised from the day I was born to one day ascend to the highest tier of the Legion of Angels—to become an angel.
That perfect, rule-following, angel-destined soldier was quite familiar with the Legion’s rules and regulations. There were certain realities that went with being a soldier in the gods’ army. You lived where the Legion commanded you to live. Trained how they told you to train. And married whom they instructed you to marry.
I’d always known that if I did become an angel, this would be my fate. I would be wed to someone because his magic was compatible with mine. The Legion took its magic compatibility tests very seriously. The results were supposed to indicate which pairings had the highest chance of producing children with the potential to someday become angels.
I knew all of this. I’d never questioned it.
And yet, right now, with my wedding looming only minutes away, I realized that a part of me had always hoped I would marry someone out of love, not duty—as angels once did, before the Legion started dictating which people we could marry.
Yes, it had been a hopeless, naive hope, but I’d harbored it nonetheless.
Sighing, I turned and looked into the ornate mirror hanging on the wall. A pair of violet eyes stared back at me. My eyes. They looked so calm, so tranquil, so perfectly in control—everything an angel was supposed to be, everything I truly didn’t feel inside. But I’d been practicing in front of mirrors since I was a child, perfecting the art of appearing completely calm on the outside, no matter how I really felt inside.
“You look beautiful,” a voice said behind me.
I turned around to find a bronze-haired angel. He wore a well-fitted black leather uniform that accentuated his muscular physique, forged by years of rough training and even rougher battles.
Colonel Damiel Dragonsire, Master Interrogator and the most feared angel in the Legion. He stood just inside the small waiting room. A breeze slid through the open balcony door behind him, rustling his dark feathers. He’d clearly arrived here by air.
He stood before me, completely motionless. And yet there was so much power behind his apparent stillness—like a tiger crouching, collecting itself, before a single, explosive pounce. His eyes, burning like cerulean fire, considered me. Analyzed me.
Behind him and far below, the lights of Los Angeles shone through the gauzy curtains. The main headquarters of the Legion of Angels was in the city’s highest building.
The city lights, diffused through the translucent curtain, shone a halo around his body. His inky-black wings, glossy and bright, completed the angelic look.
“This is a private room. What are you doing here?” I asked Damiel.
I hadn’t spoken to him since my Dragon ceremony two days ago, the day I’d merged my magic with the Earth’s elemental sea magic and had claimed my place as angel commander of Storm Castle.
Damiel took a step forward, smooth and silky, like an eel slipping through water. “I thought I’d drop in and see how you’re doing.”
“See how I’m doing? I’m not dying, Damiel. I’m getting married.”
“Yes.” His brows arched. “To me.”
Two days ago, the afterparty of my Dragon ceremony had screeched to an abrupt halt at the First Angel’s declaration that Damiel and I would be getting married. It was a marriage approved, arranged, and mandated by the Legion, based on our magic compatibility. The news was creating quite a stir at the Legion, as two angels had never been magically compatible before.
I met Damiel’s eyes. “Doesn’t it bother you that you’re being told which person you can marry, and you’re just supposed to smile and go through with it?”
His shoulders rose in a nonchalant shrug. “Unlike my previous betrothed, I am fairly confident that you won’t try to kill me. That’s more than I can say for most everyone else out there.”
“I can’t understand how you are speaking so casually about this,” I said in exasperation.
“It’s only eternity.”
I laughed weakly. “Assuming we survive that long.”
As far as grooms went, Damiel wasn’t terrible. Yes, the Master Interrogator had a dreadful reputation. It was no wonder. His job was to seek out and expose traitors from within the Legion’s ranks, so it was to be expected that people didn’t greet his arrival with cries of joy.
But he was a good person inside. He’d proven that to me the last time we’d worked together. He’d been willing to sacrifice himself to save me.
In this cold, dark world, I could have done a lot worse for a husband.
“I only hope you don’t snore in your sleep,” he said.
I folded my arms over my chest. “Angels don’t snore.”
He winked at me.
He sure was making light of our situation. And that was what most people didn’t realize about Colonel Damiel Dragonsire—that he had such a wicked sense of humor. He didn’t reveal it to most people. No, they only ever saw the cold, stone-faced Master Interrogator. It was a shame. He was so much more than the Interrogator pin on his uniform jacket.
“Some angels snore,” he told me.
“Like you?” I couldn’t help but tease him.
He grinned. “No, you do, Princess,” he said, using my Legion nickname, one I’d acquired because I was so-called Legion royalty, the daughter of an archangel.
I hated it when most people called me ‘Princess’. The word was loaded with sarcasm. But when Damiel used my nickname, it felt different. For some reason, I didn’t mind it all that much. In fact, I kind of loved it.
“I most certainly
do not snore,” I told him.
“Oh, but you do. I should know. I was there.”
I blushed at his innuendo, his implication that we’d slept together. The incident he was referring to had taken place on the Sienna Sea, a plain of monsters, not during an intimate night in a hotel suite. We hadn’t been lovers, merely two soldiers hiding from the beast armada charging across the wilderness.
The naughty spark in his eyes made it difficult to hold on to the truth. Blushing, I turned away to gaze at my reflection in the mirror. My dress, my hairstyle, my flowers—the Legion had determined every detail of my wedding. Just as they decided whom an angel married, they also dictated how an angel married. They defined everything about an angel wedding, down to every tiny detail—especially for an important, historic wedding like this one, the first ever marriage of two angels.
Legion wedding regulations stated that an angel’s gown must be white. The neckline could not dip below the collarbone. The skirt’s hemline must touch the floor and have a train in back.
And so my dress was icy-white with a sweetheart neckline. Skintight lace sleeves hugged my arms, and a lacy layer covered my chest and back. The gown had a mermaid-cut skirt with a long train in back. In short, my wedding uniform was perfectly to regulation.
Beyond the heavy gold doors, the music changed inside the ballroom, switching from quiet, calm strings to something far more dramatic. This angelic fanfare was the signal that the wedding ceremony had begun.
“Don’t worry,” Damiel told me. “Everything will be fine. I don’t bite.” He winked at me.
Then he stepped through the doors into the ballroom. They swung shut behind him.
I waited on the threshold. Damiel really was a good guy beneath it all. I’d only recently met him, but we’d already been through a lot more than mere trials of life-or-death together. I’d seen deeper, into his soul, to the person he truly was behind the Master Interrogator facade. He’d lost friends, he’d been betrayed, but I knew there was still hope in him—and, therefore, there was still hope for him.
I’d come to trust him, respect him. Even like him. But marriage was more than that. Love was more than that. It was more than a shared adventure and a little heated chemistry.
The music in the ballroom changed again, smooth, dramatic strings pushing out the heavy percussion. That was my cue.
I quickly checked my face in the mirror—freezing it into an expression of self-assured superiority, the angel’s face—then I pushed the doors open to enter the ballroom.
I walked down an aisle adorned with golden roses, the color of an angel wedding. The blooms signified new beginnings and the gods’ will.
You look very formidable, Damiel’s voice spoke inside my head.
But still beautiful?
That goes without saying, he replied.
Are you flirting with me?
Of course. I have no shame.
I swallowed a laugh. Laughing angels weren’t very formidable.
Thank you.
I’d come to the end of the aisle.
For what? he asked as I turned to face him.
For trying to make me feel more at ease right now.
The First Angel, dressed in a uniform as black as her long hair, lifted her hands and spoke the first words of the wedding ceremony. Like promotion ceremonies, Legion weddings had a pretty set script.
But I hardly heard what she was saying. Damiel’s words drowned out hers.
I assure you that my reasons for making you feel at ease are entirely selfish.
I don’t believe that.
At a gesture from the First Angel, Damiel took my hands in his. I’ve found that women who are at ease are easier to seduce.
Very funny.
Yes, he said. And you can truly thank me later, Princess.
There wasn’t a hint of mischief on his face—or any other expression either.
Do you have any intention of behaving yourself? I asked.
Of course not. He moved in closer, his hand settling on my back.
We sealed the marriage with a quick, professional kiss. The ceremony was already over. Legion weddings were run like Legion training sessions: quick and right to the point.
The music changed again, this time to quiet, serene strings. Background music. That was our signal to proceed to the next phase of the wedding: the reception. We took our seats on a raised sofa with gold-threaded cushions and bright red trim. Legion soldiers, the witnesses to our wedding, formed a perfectly-straight, single-file line in front of us.
First in line stood a man with golden eyes and black hair worn in a low ponytail. I didn’t recognize him. Tall and muscular, he looked like a combat soldier. The metal pin on his jacket, the symbol of a hand, identified him as a captain, a Legion soldier of the sixth level.
“Damiel,” the captain said, bowing his head.
“Jiro.”
They were on a first name basis. Could it be that the Master Interrogator, nightmare of the Legion, had a friend?
“Aren’t you going to introduce me to your lovely bride?” Jiro asked.
His tone was bold, almost impertinent. They had to be friends. No one spoke to Damiel like that.
“You know who she is.”
Jiro’s lips spread back into a grin. “And yet protocol must be followed. Humor me.”
I was surprised when Damiel did. The Master Interrogator never humored anyone.
“Jiro Goodman, this is Cadence Lightbringer, the Sea Dragon and angel of Storm Castle.”
“And daughter of General Silverstar.” Jiro lowered to one knee before me. “I’ve heard a lot about you, Cadence Lightbringer.” He shot Damiel a significant look.
So Damiel had been talking about me. I tried to decide if that was good or bad. Maybe he’d just needed someone to bitch about after being sent on a mission with a new angel who couldn’t even fly.
“Damiel tells me you’re the only angel he can stomach,” Jiro continued.
I arched my brows at the Captain. “High praise.”
“From Damiel, yes. It really is.”
The next in line, my friend Allegra, was watching Jiro intently. Her dark eyes, set in purple-brown eyeshadow, were watching every move that he made. She slid her tongue slowly across her bright red lips. It seemed she was…checking him out. Allegra was always looking for a date for the night. She never held on to a man for longer than that.
When Jiro left the line, her gaze trailed him for a few steps, then her head snapped back around to me and Damiel. She stepped forward, her sleek black ponytail slipping off her shoulder as she moved.
She opened her mouth to speak, but she never got the chance. A thunderous boom shook the ballroom. I rose from the sofa, looking around for the explosion, but there was none. Instead, the projection of a head, as large as a small car, floated in the middle of the room, smoke swirling around it.
“Attention, Legion dogs,” the smoky head spoke in a deep, ominous voice. “Your days are numbered. Very soon, you will all be dead. The gods’ reign is coming to an end.”
2
A Horrid, Honeymoon Battlefront
The projection hadn’t even faded out completely, and the First Angel was already standing beside Damiel. Nyx moved so fast that I had to wonder if she possessed teleportation magic she hadn’t told anyone about.
“The demons are feeling boastful tonight,” Nyx commented to Damiel.
So the First Angel thought the message was from the demons. I wasn’t so sure. Why would they clue us in to their plan, giving us a chance to stop them?
“It appears your suspicions were correct, Dragonsire,” said Nyx. “You must resume your investigation immediately. The very fate of the Earth may depend on it.”
Damiel’s eyes flickered to me, then back to Nyx. “I require Lightbringer’s assistance.”
Being able to assign soldiers to his missions was one of the special perks of being the Master Interrogator.
Nyx gave me a brief, assessing glance. “If it�
�s necessary.”
“It is. Her abilities will be crucial to this mission’s success.”
“All right, Colonel. But involve no one else. This matter is too sensitive.”
He nodded. “Understood.”
“You will both leave at once.”
With that said, Nyx turned and strode back across the room.
“Come with me,” Damiel told me. Without waiting for a response, he started walking toward the door.
I followed.
“You will need to change clothes and arm yourself appropriately,” he said as we walked down the wide hallway.
“All right.”
I didn’t ask where we going or what the mission was. Whatever it was, it was obviously highly confidential.
He glanced sidelong at me. “So, it seems that you’re stuck with me for a while longer.”
“We’re married now, Damiel. I think we’re stuck with each other for more than a little while.”
“Indeed.”
“Truth be told, I’m glad to be going on a mission with you right now.”
“Oh, really?” he said with an amused grunt. “I would have thought you’d had more than your fill of the disagreeable Master Interrogator last time.”
“No, I didn’t. And we need to talk.”
“About what?”
“About this.” I indicated him, then myself. “About us. Our new circumstances. Our marriage.”
“Ah.” He looked amused.
“We didn’t have a choice in the matter, but since we’re married now, since we’re ‘stuck’ with each other, we really should get to know each other better.”
