Page 139 of Living Legend

Suddenly, I felt my whole body shake, not making the nausea any better. My head was vibrating, and a resounding ring pulsed through my ears. I closed my eyes, wanting it to stop. I needed it to stop.

I sucked in a breath, counted to five, and then blew it out, opening my eyes.

I blinked a few times before a room I recognized came into view. The light from the sun beamed down and I had to squint so my eyes could adjust.

"Nicholas. Are you alright?" Natalia had her hands on my shoulders, looking right at me.

I opened my mouth to speak but I couldn't form words. I had no words for what I saw, for what I knew. "Her light. It's…it's…fuck."

Natalia waited as I gathered myself. I took a couple of breaths to regain my senses. She grabbed a glass of water from the table and handed it to me. I gulped it down in a matter of seconds, some of it missing my mouth and dripping down the sides of my lips.

"She's an angel," I said plainly.

Natalia retained her neutral expression. "I beg your pardon?"

"Dani. She's an angel, or at least, she was supposed to be." I was still trying to understand it myself.

"But that's….that can't happen." Natalia pushed up from the bed and walked to the table.

I sighed. "It can. It shouldn't, but it can. We learned about it briefly. There has never been a reason for it to happen. I don't know why it happened, why Lilith did it."

"So, Lilith made Dani a demon and took away the choice for her to be an angel? You angels have a great deal of power when you wish to yield it. That kind of power, that kind of light, it doesn't just go away." Natalia was saying this more to herself than to me.

"That voice she heard in the beginning, when she got to Purgatory: that was it. The light she feels, the warmth, her angelic soul isn’t totally gone. It's just being subdued by the dark."

Natalia lifted her eyebrows. "Lilith can't fully take it away, not unless she outright kills her. She clearly needs her around, but she replaced what Dani was supposed to be with what she wanted her to be. Now Dani believes it; she's grown accustomed to it."

"I have to go." I jumped up abruptly. My legs felt a bit like jelly, but I didn't let it get to me. I grabbed my sword, hoping to steady myself.

"Nicholas, you can't just tell her all this. You still have no ideawhyLilith did any of it."

I continued to make my way to the door. "Right now, that part isn't the priority. She needs to know."

She grabbed my arm and spun me around. "What is that going to do, huh? Confuse her more? You don't even know what it means."

"I'm telling her, Natalia, and that's that," I said firmly. I grasped the doorknob, swinging it open to see Elise leaning against the door frame.She slyly looked up at me, pushing her hip out to one side. I heard Natalia behind me. How much had Elise heard?

"What were you two doing?" She pushed up on her toes to try to look around me.

I ignored her question. "I'm headed back home."

Elise pushed past me into the room. She looked Natalia up and down before spinning around to face us. I didn't have time for this.

"Natalia is right. You shouldn't tell her, not immediately."

I furrowed my brows. "Tell her…?"

Elise laughed. "Don't be stupid. Secrets don't stay secrets for long, you know."

I chewed on the inside of my cheek. "How much did you hear?"

Elise rolled her eyes, her hands on her hips. "All of it, but I didn't need to hear it."

Natalia looked over to me and crossed her arms. I stepped closer to Elise, needing to show her I didn't care if she was attempting to act coy and intimidate me. "What do you mean?"

Elise let her shoulders drop and shook her head, the switchblades tattoo pulsing on her neck as she swallowed. She blew out a breath and looked up at me, her gray eyes, for once, totally clear and possibly honest. She almost looked relieved, but that quickly went away, replaced with disinterest. "I didn't need to hear it because I already know Dani was meant to be an angel." She narrowed her eyes and stepped closer to me. "I've always known."

Chapter Twenty-One

---