Page 155 of Living Legend

I furrowed my brow as I watched her sway in front of me. Her wound was starting to fester. "If you are so over all of this, if you are so over me and my bullshit, then why did you come with me to begin with? When Ariel summoned me, why did you come?"

She winced a little from her pain and licked her lips. She looked over my shoulder at Reese, then darted her eyes to Nick, the words tumbling out of her mouth faster than I could stop them. "You should have known better than tofucka demon and think you wouldn't catch feelings, Nicholas. Heroes don't always win, and they don't always get the girl." The healers came up behind her as she started to fall. They hooked her arms around their shoulders and began to carry her away.

"Do you need us to call for Zane?" One of the enchanters, a woman with shoulder length white hair and a snub nose, asked.

Natalia shook her head. "No, I spoke to him earlier about maintaining his patrols." The female Enchanter nodded and continued walking behind the others. The High Priestess looked at me with her lips pressed together, and I felt Nick stiffen behind me. It was like I could damn near feel the way his shoulders were made of ice and his spine was unmovable.

"What the fuck is she talking about?" Reese asked, his hazel eyes bouncing from Nick to myself.

Nick took a shaky breath and cleared his throat. "It's nothing."

"Nothing? I don't believe half the shit that comes out of her mouth, but why the fuck would she say something about you two sleeping together if it's just nothing?" Reese's tone was accusing and sharp. His cut jaw ticked as he waited for a response.

"Reese, really, that's nothing important right now. It's hardly the priority."

"Priority? Oh! So you're telling me you guys did fuck, but it's not on the top ofyourlist of important stuff?"

Nick rubbed the back of his neck, looking incredibly uncomfortable. This was the first time in a long time that I felt like I was intruding on something.

"We can talk about this any other time, but right now just isn't it."

"Oh okay! Well, if that's the case, then maybe we can fucking talk about this one having an angelic light, or is that not important right now either?” Reese stuck a long finger out at me.

Nick looked in my direction, but quickly looked back at his friend. "She does have an angelic light. It's been pushed pretty far down from her time in Purgatory, but it's there. I don't have time to explain all of it, but Lilith manipulated her soul into being demonic when it was supposed to be angelic."

Reese looked like his eyes were about to pop out of his head. "What in the demonic fuckery?"

"And Elise knew," I added, my voice laced with annoyance.

"Let me guess, you knew when you were racing out of here when you went to talk to Natalia earlier?" Reese asked, directing his question to Nick.

Nick simply nodded.

"You didn't think telling your best friend about this little piece of information, just, you know, to keep him in the loop…" Nick opened his mouth, but Reese cut him off. "Oh no, you just left me here with the demon who was keeping stuff from all of us. Actually, I'll do you one better: you let me get pushed into a portal with a crazy demon while you went and took a visit to pound-town with a hybrid who has literally everything to do with the problems we’re facing."

"Reese, just listen–"

"No, no! I went along with all of this because you're my best friend, my brother, but all this isbullshit. I don't care if it was a few minutes after you found out about Dani, you should have fucking told me. If I'm gonna back you up, you need to let me know things."

"Oh, come on, we both know how you would have acted if I would have told you. Irrational and hot tempered, big fucking surprise." Nick sounded tired, but there was an edge to his voice.

Reese came right up to his face, almost touching noses. "I would have had a right to feel those things, but of course, you think you know everything. You think you know what will work for everyone to make things easier foryou. Fuck everyone else, right? Nicholas Cassial has it all figured out." Reese backed off; his bow slung over his back rose and fell as he rolled his shoulders.

Makes things easier for you.I'd practically said the same thing to him earlier. It was interesting, and also a little sad, to see that others had the same views as me. I knew that Nick came from a good place, but sometimes, that just wasn't enough when the damage it dealt was anything but good.

"Now that you know, nothing has changed, so stop acting like I lied to you!"

"Lying, omitting, it's all the same! You and I both know you were just gonna let me find all this out on my own without it coming from your mouth, which is fucked up. This whole ending right now, the ending with Lilith, it affects all of us, even the mentally insane one with the healers right now."

I saw Nick's mouth move, but no words came out, because Reese was right. Nick closed his eyes tightly and ran a hand through his hair in what looked like defeat. A part of me wanted to comfort him, but a part of me understood where Reese was coming from. I hadn't known Nick as long as Reese, but I had to agree that Nick would have likely withheld information from his friend until it was totally necessary. It was a strategy I was clearly not fond of, but I also liked the idea that he wanted to tell me first before anyone else. There was another part of me that, despite my quarrel with Elise, knew that if I had had information like that, I would have likely told her first before everyone else.

Reese let out a sharphmphand rolled his eyes. "Maybe, if you wouldn't have taken it upon yourself to go running off to your fuck buddy and tell her everything, you and I could have figured out something. We could have brought Natalia in earlier, we could have both questioned Elise, we could have managed the situation with what we both knew, but no. You had to bring her here angry and in fight mode. Thank the stars they didn't destroy this place." Reese turned around and started stomping off in the other direction. Enchanters helping pick up shards of wood and tree branches made a path for him to walk through. Natalia watched as he left and tucked her hand in her skirt pockets. She was keeping out of this, knowing there was nothing she could say to help these two friends. They would have to fix it themselves.

"Reese!" Nick shouted after him, but his friend didn't respond. Then, in the next moment, he shouted over his shoulder, directing his next words right at the dark-haired angel next to me.

"You want us to be a team, Nick? Then stop trying to be theonlyhero. Doing that won't save anybody."

I didn't have an actual game plan for my next move, but I felt the way Nick's shoulders deflated as he watched his best friend walk away from him. It was a blow up that I didn't want to happen, but it would have happened in some shape or form. Right now was incredibly shitty timing. We were tearing apart piece by piece, and the ironic thing about it was that we were never really a united front in the first place. It was another one of Nick's ideals that we could be something we weren't if we all had a common enemy. Logical thinking, but the execution was fucked. Elise clearly admitted to keeping me alive by keeping me oblivious. That was a lot to unpack, and Nick and Reese had an unannounced cat fight that I was having a hard time choosing sides for.

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