“How many divisions?” Nero asked.
“Too many,” said Ronan. “Gods are not good at group acts. We prefer a solo performance, to be the main attraction. Alliances form, but at the end of the day, it will be every god for himself. Or herself.”
“We cannot allow this to happen,” Nyx insisted. “The gods must stick together. We must all stick together. Divided we are weak. Divided we fall.”
“What about him?” Damiel looked at Harker. “You trust him, Faris’s lackey?”
“I wouldn’t have agreed to make him an angel if I didn’t think he could be swayed. Leila always did say he’s loyal. He just sometimes needs a kick to the head to realize which way was right.” Nyx winked at Harker. “That’s a direct quote, by the way.”
“Leila is too soft, but she is an excellent judge of character,” Damiel allowed. “She can see right through people.”
“Cadence is the same way,” said Nyx. “She always saw something in you, Damiel, past the darkness and scathing sarcasm. She loves you.”
Damiel kept his expression guarded. Thinking about Cadence must have hurt. “All verbal flourishes aside, Nyx, you cannot deny what Harker has done.”
“You have done far worse,” she reminded him. “And it didn’t take Harker two hundred years to come around.”
“I’m not coming around. I’m simply choosing the lesser of two evils. Faris is a menace. Left to his rule, we will all burn—mortals and immortals alike.”
“Plus he’s trying to manipulate your son’s beloved Pandora into exposing her brother.” Nyx’s smile was as ruthless as it was kind. She sure was an interesting contradiction. “Getting sentimental in your old age, old man?”
“Are you?” he retorted.
Nyx laughed, even as Nero glared at his father.
“Don’t look at me like that, boy,” Damiel said, his voice as hard as granite. “She already knew about Leda and her brother. She knows everything.” His expression softened as he turned to wink at me.
I wondered if Nyx did indeed know everything. Did she know about the Guardians? She had spoken of Cadence in the present tense, as though she knew Nero’s mother was still alive.
I decided not to share my thoughts. Instead, I bottled them up, hiding them behind my growing mental wall. That’s what the angels and gods would have done—not shared their secrets unless they had to. I really was starting to think like them more and more.
“I did not realize Faris was acting against the other gods,” Harker said. “But this recent situation has been…”
“Eye-opening?” I supplied.
“Yes,” he agreed. “Eye-opening. It has made me realize Faris has his own agenda. When I joined the Legion, I swore to serve all the gods, not one single god. And I vowed to protect humanity. Faris is acting against that, against everything the Legion stands for. Against everything that I stand for. I wanted to end suffering, but my actions have instead caused so much of it.”
“Good speech,” Damiel said when Harker was finished. “How long did you practice it?”
I frowned at Nero’s father. “How did you get to be so skeptical?”
“I was the leader of the Legion’s Interrogators for many years, honey. I was paid handsomely to be skeptical.”
“I know he is genuine.” Stash spoke up. He set his hand on Harker’s shoulder. “He regrets all that happened—and the part that he played in it.” His gaze shifted to me. “Especially how he hurt you, Leda. He wants to make it right.”
“How do you know this?” Nero asked him.
“Because I can see into his soul,” Stash said, as though that were the most normal thing in the world.
Nyx folded her arms across her chest, her black leather suit a soft whisper of movement. “Interesting.”
“Interesting?” I asked.
“Every archangel and god has a few unique powers,” she explained. “Looking into someone’s soul, seeing who they truly are past the armor and magic, appears to be one of Stash’s.” She looked at Nero. “And you, General Windstriker? You’ve been watching Harker. What do you think? Can he be trusted?”
Nero met Harker’s eyes for a moment. He looked at me, then back at Nyx. “I agree with Stash’s assessment.”
“Well, then. It’s all settled.” Ronan extended his hand to Harker. “Welcome to the right side. Screw up, and I’ll kill you myself.”
Harker did not look surprised by Ronan’s bluntness. He met the god’s eyes and shook his hand.
“Splendid,” Ronan said. “Now here’s what I need you to do.”
26 Training with Angels
I crossed the line on the running track, which marked the end of my forty-seventh mile this morning. But Harker, who was running in front of me, didn’t slow down. He kept going. Nero was close on my tail, making sure I didn’t slow down either. Man, it was a good thing we weren’t human because my heart might have already given out. As it was, it just felt like it was going to burst through my chest. The two angels didn’t believe in doing anything half-assed.
It had been several months since we’d faced Stash on the Black Plains. Nero hadn’t completely forgiven Harker, but things were slowly getting back to the way they’d once been, back when they’d used to be friends.
“I can feel your eyes burning a hole through the back of my head, Nero,” Harker said.
“Gods, I hope that’s an exaggeration,” I said. I was running between the two of them. Any laser stare would cut through me first.
“If you don’t feel comfortable with me behind you, we could switch places,” Nero told Harker.
“So you can accuse me of staring at Leda’s ass? I think I’ll dodge that bullet.”
I chuckled.
“Leda,” Nero warned.
Uh-oh. I knew that tone.
Harker supplied Nero’s words, the words I knew were coming. “If you can laugh, you’re not running fast enough.”
I was the reason for the rift between them, so it was only fitting that I was the reason for the mending of their friendship. They were united in their commitment to level up my magic by thoroughly kicking my ass.
Nero gave me a little psychic nudge in the butt, pushing me to move faster.
“How long have you been waiting to do that?” I demanded. If I hadn’t been worried about tripping over my own feet at this speed, I’d have shot him an irked look over my shoulder.
“Ever since I first saw you in that running suit this morning,” he told me.
“You can proposition her later, Nero. The First Angel wants Leda ready by the time the Crystal Falls Training comes around.”
Harker was still leading the New York office, and he was still officially in charge of my training. Ronan had turned him into a double agent. He had to report back to Ronan on everything Faris told him.
“She’ll be ready for the Crystal Falls Training,” Nero said.
Nero was now Nyx’s second in command. I called him the Second Angel, but he didn’t seem to appreciate the title. I couldn’t imagine why.
The Legion’s New York office was his main home, but he wasn’t here as often as I would have liked. He was meeting with Nyx all the time and going on lots of trips all over the world. He visited the Legion’s offices in Nyx’s stead to make sure things were running smoothly—and to assess the angels’ loyalty to her. He also put out supernatural fires from time to time. And for those missions, he could select soldiers from any Legion office.
“She can’t go to the training until she’s gained psychic magic,” Harker pointed out. “It’s levels six and seven only.”
“She’ll be ready,” Nero repeated.
“We’ll need to increase her training sessions to up her psychic resistance.”