I reached for him, but he’d already stepped back.
“You look pretty firmly in control,” I commented, my heart thrumming in my ears.
His lips parted. “Oh, Leda, how very wrong you are. Right now, I am putting everything I have into blocking out the call of your blood, your body.” His gaze slid over me, burning me like a live wire. He took a deep breath and folded his hands together behind his back, as though he couldn’t trust them. “Your magic sings to me. And it’s only growing. Had you been an angel when you marked me, no amount of willpower would be enough to stop me from taking you now.”
I felt myself moving toward him.
“So, you see, you are stronger than you think,” he said. “An angel’s mark is powerful, especially a new mark. I’m surprised you are holding back.”
That might have had something to do with the number of times we’d had sex in the past two days. It was strange to remember how young our bond was. It felt like it was so much older, that it had penetrated deeper into my magic.
“You’re wrong,” I told him, also folding my hands together behind my back. “I’m not strong.”
Somehow, despite our nights of passion, I still wanted him. I needed to get my mind off of this, or we’d never leave this room. I grasped for distractions. He’d come here for a reason—a reason besides having sex with me. I could tell he was here about something else.
“What do you think of what happened in Harker’s office?” I asked. His reason for coming must have had something to do with that.
“Harker is under pressure. He’s wanted to be an angel for as long as I’ve known him, and if this situation blows up now, so close to the beginning, it could compromise his position.”
“Nyx has put him under pressure by assigning you to observe and report back on him.”
“Yes. It is a common practice when a new angel is made, but there is a reason Nyx chose me to carry out the assessment. And it’s not so I could spend time with you. She doesn’t quite trust Harker.”
“If Nyx doesn’t trust him, then why did she make him an angel?”
“She might not have had a say in the matter. If the gods tell her to make someone an angel, she cannot refuse. The role he played in saving Colonel Starborn was an act worthy of becoming an angel. Harker’s patron god could have used that triumph to push the other gods to vote for his promotion.”
“So I guess that answers our question as to whether Harker still has the support of a god.”
“Indeed,” he agreed. “And Nyx must realize Harker still has the support of one of the gods. The purpose of my assessment is to see if Harker will be a useful angel in her army, or if he’s going to be a problem.”
“And what do you think?”
“That it remains to be seen. How he handles these first few weeks will establish what kind of angel he will be. There is a place for all kinds of angels at the Legion.”
True. After all, Nyx had managed to fit Colonel Fireswift into her army.
“We angels are not known for our kindness, Leda,” Nero said. “Kindness is not something that concerns Nyx. She only cares that her angels will be loyal to her. She doesn’t want a repeat of the Legion’s early days.”
“What happened?”
“A lot of angels went dark and joined the Dark Force of Hell. The exodus was led by an angel very close to her. That betrayal hit her hard. And it’s why she is so careful now. She knows not all of her angels are the nicest people, but we are loyal to her and to the Legion. She strikes down any who are not. And she has become even more vigilant now that the demons are trying to make a play into our world.”
“Does Nyx know what happened between you and Harker?”
“I don’t believe so. If she knew Harker had tried to give you pure Nectar, she would be assessing him herself. She obviously knows something happened, but she hasn’t asked me about it. She does know that I no longer completely trust Harker, which is probably why she gave me this assignment. She knows I will watch him for any sign of misstep.”
“Harker knows it too,” I said. “That’s why he was so upset in the meeting just now.”
Nero nodded. “This is the first major crisis the city has faced under his command. It did not go well, but crises rarely do. And this one is the perfect problem to test how well he can handle his new position. If Nyx decides Harker will be loyal to her and the Legion, she’ll keep him.”
He didn’t say what would happen if Nyx decided Harker wasn’t loyal enough. That was obvious. Nyx had chosen well. Nero would be a fair judge. He didn’t want Harker to die because they’d been friends for so long. And he wasn’t jumping at the chance to accept him because Harker had betrayed us—well, actually he’d betrayed me, but Nero took that betrayal rather personally.
“How is Harker doing so far?” I couldn’t resist asking.
“Nyx would approve of the way he handled the incident. Claudia had to kill the elemental; it was the only way out of that situation. If she hadn’t acted, larger parts of the city would have been destroyed and thousands would have died. On the other hand, Claudia’s actions robbed the Legion of an opportunity to interrogate the water elemental, to learn how she had acquired her unusual powers.”
“Saving the city is more important than questioning her,” I declared.
“Perhaps, but what if questioning her could prevent this from happening again?” he posed.
He had a point. Maybe the gods were right after all. Maybe you couldn’t have everything.
“Harker punished Claudia for depriving the Legion of answers, and he punished Basanti because she was in charge of the mission,” Nero said. “But Harker also demonstrated that he valued and respected them, that he considered them to be outstanding examples of a Legion soldier.”
“By putting them in charge of training the initiates,” I realized. “That’s why he chose that punishment.”
“Training our initiates is an important task,” Nero said. “The Legion needs soldiers, especially now that the demons are pushing harder to return to Earth. Giving Basanti and Claudia that responsibility is putting a piece of the Legion’s future in their hands. You don’t put just anyone in control of the survival of our newest soldiers when they are at their weakest. Harker demonstrated that he trusted them with this important task.”
“He’s always liked them.”
“Yes,” Nero agreed. “And more than that, he respects them. He handled that well. And he was right to put you in charge of a mission too.”
“I was wondering about that. Why me? There are other soldiers, more experienced ones. More capable ones.”
“You have proven yourself many times in your short tenure at the Legion. You are experienced and capable. More than that, you don’t back down. Harker knows that as well as I do. He saw your magic at Storm Castle. He knows you have the power inside of you. You just need to grow it. This mission is the perfect opportunity for that.”
“And growing my magic fits right into his god’s plans for me, to level up my magic so they can use me to find Zane,” I pointed out.
“That too. Harker is in that way a perfect angel. Everything he does accomplishes many things at once.” Nero set his hand on my shoulder. “But that doesn’t mean he’s wrong to put you in charge of this mission. I would have handled the situation in exactly the same way. You are tenacious and resourceful. You will figure this out.”
14 The Sea King
Later, as my team and I were questioning the city’s king of the water-based elementals, I tried to remind myself of Nero’s assertion that I was tenacious and resourceful. Right now, stuck in this circular conversation with the Sea King, I wasn’t so sure I was the right person for the job.
All of New York’s ice and water elementals were under the Sea King’s rule, so he should have known everything about them. But he was stonewalling my questions about Serenity, the water elemental who’d almost drowned the city under a tsunami this morning. Such a calm and peaceful name—with a reputation as a calm and peaceful woman—and yet her actions just a few hours ago suggested anything but that.