by Ella Summers
“The spell I cast around you has effectively blocked your emotions from telepathically bleeding onto others,” Nyx told me. “There have been no further incidents in this Legion office or any other. But the spell won’t be effective forever. At the rate Nerissa projects your magic to be building up, it’s only a matter of time before tears form in my spell. Soon after that, it will dissolve completely.”
“You can recast it.”
“By that point, the Fever will have made your magic too wild, too potent, for any ward that I can cast around you.”
Wow. The First Angel was admitting her magic wasn’t up to the task of countering mine. I guessed the problem was my dark magic. I bet she could have held back my light magic, but she and everyone else here possessed only light magic. And light magic was weak against dark magic. It was a wonder her light magic spell was holding out against my dark magic at all, a testament to how powerful Nyx truly was.
“It sounds like you might want to explore cooperative options,” I said.
Her dark brows drew together.
“You know, like casting the spell together with someone else,” I clarified. “A god perhaps. Like Ronan.”
And to do that, she’d have to talk to him again.
“Pandora, you should not meddle in my personal affairs. What happened between Ronan and me is between Ronan and me.”
“Unless it affects the whole Legion. Aren’t we supposed to not allow our personal feelings to get in the way of our duty? And besides, you love him. You can’t let a few secrets stand in the way of that.”
Her mouth drew into a hard, flat line. “I doubt you would be so forgiving in my place.”
Not so long ago, I had been in her place. Faris had cast doubt on Nero’s intentions. After a few unsettling moments, I’d calmed down and just asked Nero about it. We still didn’t know who’d sent him the dreams of me before we met, the images that had caused him to take an interest in me, but I trusted Nero. Whatever was going on, he wasn’t masterminding it, no matter what Faris wanted me to believe. Faris was just trying to create a rift between us, so it would be easier for him to ensnare me, to make me his weapon.
“You’d be surprised how forgiving I can be,” I told Nyx.
“I’ll remember that.”
She was thinking of herself now, of how she’d lied to us and stolen the weapons of heaven and hell from Nero. She expected my forgiveness.
“Of course, forgiveness must be earned,” I added.
She dipped her chin. “Naturally.”
“You know, there’s actually a very simple solution to our current predicament, Nyx. There’s a way we can protect the Legion’s soldiers from my emotional bleed-off without using magic wards.”
“Oh? And what is that?”
“You simply give me the potion that nullifies my magic until the Fever has passed.”
A slight smile twisted her lips. “You must know that is impossible.”
“Yeah,” I sighed. “I know.”
The Legion would never waste an angel’s fertile time. Nyx needed to plan for the future, to create new soldiers to fill her army’s ranks. She especially wouldn’t block my magic now, not after Nerissa had found me to be compatible with other angels.
“Or you could go with the usual solution: you send me away so I can’t affect others.”
“Your condition is different than other angels with the Fever,” she said. “Your reach is wider. At the rate your magic is building up, I’m afraid there’s nowhere on Earth I could send you where you wouldn’t affect at least two Legion offices.”
That wasn’t exactly true. She could send me out into the middle of the plains of monsters. That wasn’t a possibility I found particularly thrilling, but out there were vast stretches of nothingness far from any Legion office.
“Besides, I can’t send you out of my sight,” Nyx continued. “I need you where I can keep an eye on you. You’re a flight risk.”
She said it like I was a criminal she was refusing to release on bail.
“A flight risk? I can’t even fly. At least not in a straight line,” I joked.
Nyx, the Legion’s mother dragon, looked at me like she was scolding me, one of her baby dragons, for setting the whole nest on fire. “You’re staying here, Pandora, until your magic peaks and your Fever has run its course. And I’ll be right here beside you, watching you.”
Being under Nyx’s watchful eye would certainly make it difficult to flee. She sure wasn’t fooling around.
“You know, Nyx, this really isn’t necessar—”
Magic rocked the corridor, throwing open the doors at the other end. Everyone stopped and stared as Nero stormed through them, his wings spread high and wide. Magic burned in his green eyes. It hissed and snapped across his dark feathers.
“You will test my magic with Leda’s,” he told Nyx, his voice cutting like a lightning whip.
He spoke the words like he was giving an order to the First Angel of the Legion.
But Nyx appeared neither annoyed nor upset. She merely replied, “You’re late, General.”
“I was detained by monsters, but I’m here now.” A fresh wave of magic flared up around him, igniting his aura, lighting up the sword he held in his hand. “And I have no intention of allowing any other angel but me to marry Leda.”
15
The Rules of Engagement
It turned out that neither Nero’s sword nor his magic was necessary to back up his heroic proclamation.
“Congratulations. Your magic is more compatible with Leda’s than any other angel’s,” Nerissa declared after testing our magic together.
“Of course it is,” he said with a charming absence of humility.
I couldn’t seem to keep the smile off my face. “You were so sure, were you?”
His hand softly brushed my cheek. “I have experience on my side, Leda. The benefit of always being right for centuries.”
“You’ve said that before.”
“And yet it’s still true.”
I chuckled.
“Your magics fit so well together,” Nerissa commented, her eyes darting between us and our test results. “Almost like they’d been designed to complement each other. You were never compatible with any soldier at the Legion before, General. So why Leda?”
That was the scientist in her, going at it again, digging for answers.
Nero didn’t answer her. His eyes locked with mine, he leaned in closer to kiss me.
Nyx intercepted us before our lips met. “Come with me, both of you,” her voice cracked, jolting us out of the moment.
Sighing, I followed her out of the room. Nero walked beside me, looking pretty damn amused. Wherever Nyx was taking us, he found it particularly funny.
“Now what?” I whispered to him.
“Now comes the spectacle,” he told me.
“What kind of spectacle?”
“The angel kind.”
Which meant big, flashy, and full of fanfare. Oh, goody. I sighed again.
Nyx led us through the ballroom’s doors. All soldiers in the New York office—and any visitors from other offices too—were packed inside. Harker and Colonel Fireswift waited on either side of the raised stage. Nyx headed there now, motioning for me to follow her.
“Soldiers of the Legion,” she began when we were standing atop the wood stage. “As you all know, we’ve discovered the cause of the recent incidents involving soldiers at three Legion offices.” Her eyes flickered briefly to me. “Our newest angel has the Fever.”
Awesome. My fertility was being broadcast to everyone. Sure, they all must have known it as soon as Nerissa’s staff began submitting all male soldiers to magic tests, but Nyx putting me on stage and publicly announcing my condition to everyone as they all gawked at me—now, that was something else entirely.
“A match for her has been found,” Nyx said.
Excited, eager whispers buzzed from several of the male soldiers, including a few that I knew for a fact could not stan
d me. But things were different now. I had become an angel. Maybe the prospect of having sex with an angel was enticing enough to make them forget their dislike for me. And the Fever was a special phenomenon. Lots of guys eagerly embraced the idea of being screwed until they couldn’t walk. I guess you could say it was built into their biology.
Nyx motioned toward Nero. “General Windstriker’s magic is the best fit,” she declared as he came to stand beside me.
The whispered words were decidedly more shocked than excited now. It was understandable. Angels were basically never compatible with other angels.
Well, at least none of the guys were leering at me anymore. However, some of them were looking upon Nero with trepidation, as though worried he would punish them for daring to look at me.
None of them looked scared of me—which they totally should have been. I was an angel too. Just because I had breasts didn’t mean I couldn’t kick all their asses.
Nero lowered to one knee before me and presented me with a large box. The audience fell so silent I could hardly hear them breathe.
What is it? I asked him silently, taking the box.
An engagement gift. A token of my devotion.
I opened the box to find a sword inside, a weapon that required no introduction. I recognized it immediately. The sword was an immortal artifact. It was a piece in the weapons of heaven and hell set. How had Nero gotten it back from Faris?
Brushing my hand across the blade, I glanced at Nyx. Her face was impassive. If she knew anything about this, she wasn’t showing it.
“It seems your trip was eventful,” I said to Nero.
“Yes.” He rose from his knee, taking my free hand. I held the sword in the other.
“For the first time in over two centuries—and only the second time in Legion history—two angels will be joined.” Nyx’s voice was as clear as a bell. She looked upon our audience. “You are all charged with the task of making sure everything proceeds as I have laid out.”
Hundreds of phones chimed.
“You have your assignments,” Nyx told them. “Now get to it.”
As the soldiers left in a swift and orderly fashion, Nyx went to speak with Harker and Colonel Fireswift, leaving me and Nero alone on stage.
“Have dinner with me,” Nero said to me.
“Only if we’re eating in.”
“I’ve already instructed the kitchen staff to send the food to our apartment.” His smile was delightfully roguish. “It will arrive in ten minutes.”
I squeezed his hand harder, leading him off the stage. “Then we’d best hurry. I’m famished.”
“As am I,” he replied, his voice rough and impatient.
We moved toward the exit, our pulses pounding hard—and in perfect synchronicity—through our joined hands.
Nyx was waiting at the door, barring our path. “Where do you think you’re going?”
I presented her with my most innocent smile. “Having dinner.”
Her counter-smile was as hard as dinosaur-scale armor. “Nice try. But I’m going to have to put some distance between you two. General Windstriker, I’ve arranged another apartment for you.”
“Why?” I demanded, unable to keep the exasperation out of my voice.
“Because we all know you two weren’t going off to eat dinner,” replied Nyx.
“We’d have gotten around to the dinner part eventually,” I muttered grumpily.
“You can’t have sex with Nero,” Nyx said. It sounded suspiciously like an order.
I frowned at her. “I thought that was the whole point of marrying us.”
“You’re not married yet. Your magic hasn’t peaked; it hasn’t reached the peak time of fertility, the best chance of conception. Until then, no sex. No kissing. No touching of any kind.” She looked pointedly at our joined hands.
Nero dropped my hand.
“Those are the rules of engagement,” Nyx declared.
“No touching of any kind?” I repeated, frowning. “What if I accidentally bump into him in the corridor?”
“There will be armed guards posted at every doorway, exit, and intersection to make sure you don’t accidentally bump into each other,” she informed me. “Bumping leads to kissing, which leads to sex.”
“I think they had those exact lines printed on a poster at my high school,” I quipped.
“And having sex prematurely, before your magic peaks, disrupts the upward trajectory of your magic, fizzling out the Fever,” Nyx continued. “I will be assigning chaperones to you and guards to Nero to make sure you comply with these rules.”
“There’s no need,” I snapped at her. “I can behave myself.”
“Leda, you’ve never been able to behave yourself. And as you approach your Fever’s high point, as your magic peaks and your hormones surge, it will grow increasingly difficult to do so. Even now, I can feel a weakening of the spell I cast to shield others from you. Your magic feels my ward—and it’s fighting back.”
I wasn’t surprised. My magic didn’t like being told what to do any more than I did.
“But I haven’t seen Nero in a long time,” I protested.
“You can still see him. At a distance,” she amended. “Or, when a face-to-face meeting is absolutely necessary, it will be in the company of armed guards.”
“This is ridiculous. I don’t need a babysitter.”
“You do, in fact, and many of them. Or would you prefer that I locked you up in a cell?”
I threw my hands up into the air in exasperation. “Fine. Assign your chaperones.”
She nodded in approval. “Good girl. Now, according to Dr. Harding’s latest magic readings, your magic should peak in five days. Your wedding will be held in the afternoon of the fifth day. Do you think you can control yourself for that long?”
I looked at Nero, rolling my eyes to let him know how I felt about this. I could keep my hands off him for five days if I wanted to. I wasn’t a complete nymphomaniac.
The smoldering look Nero gave me in response set my magic on fire, testing that assertion. I could feel my body moving toward his, like there was a taut rope linking us, drawing us together.
I resisted that draw—and all the fun that came with it. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, listening to all this nonsense has made me hungry,” I told Nyx.
She didn’t move from the doorway. “You will eat your meals in the canteen.”
“Great,” I said brightly. I pasted a broad smile over my immense annoyance at her overbearing micromanagement. “I’ll head there at once. I hear they’re serving lasagna today.”
“Go with them,” Nyx told Harker, then she stepped aside.
Harker followed me and Nero out of the ballroom.
“So you’re first on bride babysitting duty,” I said.
“So it would seem,” replied Harker.
I glanced sidelong at Nero. “If it comes to a fight, I think we could take him.”
Harker shook his head. “So much for behaving yourself. This is going to be a very long five days.”
“Relax. I was just kidding.”
“You might be kidding now, but just wait a day or two. You won’t be kidding then,” Harker promised me. “I remember when Leila had the Fever. Nyx assigned me to chaperone her. Leila stapled my hands to a post.”
“But Leila is so nice,” I said in surprise.
“Exactly. And if a nice angel can do that, imagine what the Angel of Chaos can do.”
“Angel of Chaos?” Nero asked, the corner of his mouth twitching.
“That’s what people are calling me,” I told him.
“It’s very fitting.”
“So true.” I glanced at Harker. “You want to imagine what the Angel of Chaos can do? How about tie your shoelaces together? Or glue your butt to your office chair? Perhaps spike your morning orange juice with sneezing powder?”
Harker looked horrified. “That wasn’t an actual invitation to imagine the possibilities, Leda.”
I laughed.
“But even if you got through me, Nyx has posted guards every twenty feet in all corridors and rooms,” he warned me. “You won’t make it far.”
So those were the assignments she’d given everyone back in the ballroom. That’s why everyone’s phone had chimed. I wondered if anyone here in the New York office was doing anything else besides babysitting me right now.
“Why do I feel like I’m in prison?” I said to Nero.
His wide shoulders rolled back in a slow, unbothered shrug. “Did you expect anything else from the First Angel?”
“No,” I admitted. “Not really.”
I reached for his hand, but Harker moved between us.
I scowled at him. “We aren’t even allowed to hold hands?”
“Holding hands qualifies as touching,” Harker reminded me.
“Barely.”
“It’s for your own good, Leda.”
“Why do people always say that when they’re doing something decidedly not for my own good?” I grumbled.
“Just because something is good for you, that doesn’t mean it’s enjoyable. Like the vitamin Nerissa gave you.”
“What vitamin?” Nero asked me.
“Nothing,” I said. “Nerissa doesn’t approve of my dessert diet, so she made me take a vitamin.”
“A prenatal vitamin,” Harker told Nero.
Nero glanced at me, his expression decidedly blank.
I blushed. I couldn’t even say why I did it. We all knew why the Legion was marrying me to Nero: procreation. But somehow it was easier to concentrate on how much I wanted to have sex with Nero than it was to think about why we were supposed to do it.
“I wonder what they’re serving for dessert in Demeter today,” I said quickly.
Nero watched me as I stepped up my pace, but he didn’t comment on the vitamin, my fertility, or the Fever at all. I wondered what he thought of any of it. He’d flown in, my angel in shining armor, to rescue me from marrying someone else. That meant he wanted to marry me. Right?
Just a few weeks ago, he’d proclaimed that he would do anything to keep us together, even if it meant leaving the Legion he’d dedicated the last two centuries of his life to. But we hadn’t discussed marriage. He hadn’t told me his thoughts on it. I didn’t even know my own thoughts on it.
