“I know. But that doesn’t mean what he says isn’t true.”

I shook my head at Harker. “You are smarter than this. Nero is going to kick your ass if you keep annoying him.”

Harker laughed. Nero glared at him, his face cold. Then, suddenly, he laughed too. I couldn’t hold back my smile. It was nice to see them like this again. Friends again.

Nero tossed the crushed water bottle into the trash. “I have some things to attend to in my office.” He set his hands on my cheeks, then leaned down and kissed me.

It was a quick kiss, but I had to admit it left me breathless nonetheless. And that wasn’t just from the fifty miles we’d just run.

After Nero left the gym, I looked up at the clock. “Basanti is arriving soon from Storm Castle. Let’s go greet her.”

Harker nodded in agreement, then we headed down to the garage. We found her there, arguing with a mechanic who was accusing her of ruining the truck she’d checked out.

“I got attacked by a herd of savage bison,” Basanti snapped. Her hair was coming out of her bun, and her face was smudged with dirt and oil. The truck parked behind her was splattered with blood. “Of course it’s damaged. But once you rub off the blood, it won’t look half as bad.”

The mechanic shot her a look of absolute horror.

She threw up her hands in frustration. “Well, then just paint over it again. It’s what you guys do anytime the slightest mark gets on any of our trucks.” She turned her back on him and grinned at me and Harker. “I’m gone for a few months, and everyone gets promoted.”

As the mechanic fussed over the truck’s unwanted bloody paint job, I swooped in and gave her a hug. “I’m glad you’re back.”

Harker kissed her on the cheek, then we left the garage.

“Hiya,” Alec greeted Basanti in the halls. “We’ve missed you. You get lost on the Black Plains?”

Basanti shot him a confused look, but he was already walking toward the gym, trailed by a group of initiates. Alec sometimes taught them how to shoot.

“Ok, why does everyone here think I’ve been on the Black Plains?” Basanti asked us later, after several other people in the halls had made similar comments to her. “I’ve spent the last few months at Storm Castle, helping with the repairs.”

“Talk to Nero,” I told her.

“How mysterious,” Basanti said drily, glancing at my back. “I don’t see any wings on you, Leda, but you’re talking more like an angel every day.”

“I’ll go with you,” Harker told her, and the two of them walked toward Nero’s office.

I headed for the stairwell. Jace met me on his way down.

“Hey,” I said. “How were your missions?”

“My father sent me to the Wicked Wilds, the Forsaken Forest, and the Forgotten Desert.”

“I heard you did some pretty impressive things.” I pointed at the symbol of a psychic hand pinned onto his jacket below the words ‘Captain Fireswift’.

“Yes.” His gaze dipped to the shifter symbol on my sweatshirt. “I see you were promoted too.”

“Yes, but not twice like you were.”

His smile was satisfied. And the way he was looking at me was…strange. Like he wanted to impress me. Was Harker right?

No, I decided. Harker was just messing with me, making me imagine things. Jace Fireswift did not have a thing for me.

I told Jace what had happened while he was gone, minus the part where Stash turned out to be a demigod and where we’d met with Nyx, Damiel, and Ronan.

My tale must have been thrilling enough anyway because he sighed. “One of these days, I’m going to have a better story than you, Leda.”

I smirked at him. “Bring it on.”

After we parted ways, I went to my temporary shoebox of a room to change. After my apartment had exploded, I hadn’t bothered to look for a new one. I had, however, encouraged Ivy and Drake to get one without me.

I stared at my bare room, which was hardly large enough for the bed and closet. A few of my clothes had miraculously survived Ivy blowing up our old apartment. They hung in the closet, along with a whole lot of Legion leather.

“Leda.”

I jumped in surprise at the sound of Nero’s voice. I turned around to face him. His body filled up the doorway, making it look so small. And he didn’t even have his wings out right now. He sure knew how to make an entrance. And, you know, just stand there.

“You have really got to stop doing that,” I told him.

He closed the door behind him. My room got even smaller.

“Did you talk to Basanti?” I asked as I changed my clothes.

“Yes.”

“And how did she take it?”

“That the First Angel spent days impersonating her? Surprisingly well. She wasn’t even surprised. Being reunited with Leila has had an effect on her.”

“It reminded her of the games you angels like to play?”

“She always knew about the games that angels play. She is just more accepting of them now.”

I slipped into my jacket. “So, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit, General?”

“I have something for you.” He held out a small wrapped present.

“My birthday is next month.”

“I am well aware of your birthdate, Leda.”

Of course he was. He’d read it on my Legion application. He’d probably read everything on that sheet so many times, trying to figure me out. To decipher why I was really there. I sure hadn’t written ‘to find my brother, a telepath, and keep him out of the Legion’s hands’. That wouldn’t have gone over well.

I fingered the present’s shiny wrapping paper. “It’s very pretty. It even has a bow. Did you wrap it yourself?” I grinned at him.

“Just open the box, Pandora.”

I chuckled. “Now that is a sentence I never thought I’d hear.”

I tore off the beautiful wrapping paper and found a small jewelry box inside. The box was gold set with gemstones. It must have cost a fortune. What could possibly be inside? I lifted the lid to find a silver key, cushioned inside a bed of velvet.

“The keys to the kingdom?” I asked. I just couldn’t help myself.

“The keys to your new apartment. Our new apartment.” He watched me closely for my reaction.

I just blinked like an idiot.

“You didn’t think I’d forgotten,” he said.

He meant way back before the Gods’ Trials, when I’d thought about how I wanted to live with him. I hadn’t even said it aloud. I’d just thought it. He’d heard me—and remembered.

Why couldn’t I stop blinking at him? Did I think he would disappear, that this would turn out to be nothing more than a dream?

“You’ve changed your mind.” His voice was guarded, cautious.

“Are you kidding?” I kissed him. “Of course I haven’t changed my mind. I would love to live with you.”

“Good.” The satisfaction rolled off his tongue.

“Good?”

“Exactly.”

I snorted. “Sometimes you’re so weird, Nero.”

“I find that a peculiar statement coming from you.”

“Oh, it’s a compliment,” I told him. “One hundred percent.”

“If you would just pack up your things—”

I hastily tossed the meager contents of my closet into a box. It took about two seconds. “Ready.”

His brows lifted, obviously impressed by my magic trick. “Then we can go see the apartment,” he finished. “After which we’ll have dinner and get in another training session.”

“Hey, I have a different idea. Let’s be crazy for a change and spice up the routine.”

“What do you suggest?” I could almost see his mind working, shuffling through possible training programs.

I draped my arms over his shoulders. “Let’s just lie on the sofa in our new apartment, watching TV while stuffing ourselves full of caramel popcorn until we enter a sugar-induced coma and fall asleep in each other’s arms.”

He stared at me for a moment, so long that I started to get worried I’d offended him. Then he brushed my hair behind my ear with a smile and declared, “That sounds perfect.”

Author’s Note