Page 167 of Living Legend

I shrugged, answering honestly. "Not at all."

"That makes one of us, then."

I lifted my brow at her. "You expected it to be this quiet?"

Dani smirked at me before starting to walk ahead. "Yeah, Lilith hates messes and always has someone clean them up. She likes to make things hurt and bleed, but she likes to confine her mess."

I opened my mouth, but Reese's voice cut me off. "I'm going to fly up and check the other side."

"You really think that's a good idea?" I asked, feeling like something was coming but having no clue when and what.

Reese chuckled. "I'm a big boy, my friend. I got this." He raised his hand and wiggled his fingers.

I rolled my eyes and clasped my hand with his, squeezing. He shot out his wings and pushed off the ground, darting towards the sky above. Natalia stepped up to me, narrowing her eyes.

"I don't feel anything off and I usually would right about now, unless someone ismakingit feel like this."

Gusts of wind whipped through the trees and rustled the leaves. Clumps of them moved and danced in circles before gracefully hitting the ground. There was a pit in my stomach I couldn't get rid of.

"Whatever it is must be messing with your magic, because it feels like ominous death to me," Elise stated, looking up at the darkened windows of the towers. "You live down in Purgatory long enough, that feeling is second nature to you. It couldn't hide if it tried."

"It has to be the same person who messed with the portals," Natalia said.

Elise hummed. "Sounds about right." She looked over at Dani, who was looking at something in the distance. "This is all about you, so what do you want us to do?"

Dani eyed her up and down, but then focused back where she was looking.

Elise scoffed. "Of course, you're still being a fucking brat."

"Shut up," Dani hissed.

I had my own issues with Dani, and I didn't want to get in the middle of their complicated friendship…again. A thorough perimeter check took a few minutes, but Reese was normally quick about those kinds of things and helping him over there sounded much better than being here right now.

"It's a simple question: do we wait out here for them to properly greet us or do you want to go in there and tear some heads off? You should be happy I'm even fucking asking you,” Elise spat out.

"Oh, I probably should be happy you're fucking including me in things, since you didn't want to do it before." Dani's words came out seething and angry.

Natalia stood between them. "Now is not really the time for the two of you to be fighting again. Do everyone a favor and focus this…energy on something that can actually help us."

I pointed to where Reese had gone off to. "I'm going to make sure everything is okay with him over there, alright?" I wasn't really asking a question, but I assumed just ascending off into the sky would have been rude.

I was about to release my wings when I heard a crack, a tree branch. It would have been normal to hear those kinds of noises if the circumstances were different, but right now, it made the air thicker and the wind stopped in its tracks. I had my back turned to the noise, and I saw Dani look around my arm. Another crack came from my left side, causing Natalia to whip around, but when I turned my head, nothing was there.Dani was still peeking around my arm when her nose scrunched up, as if she was confused and on edge at the same time.

"Friend of yours?" Elise asked, causing me to tilt my head to the side in confusion.

A familiar voice rang out now, calling my name. "Nick?"

I turned around on my heels, reaching for the hilt of my sword strictly out of habit. "Ollie?"

The tall sentry raised a hand as he came over, his short dark hair perfectly combed, as if he had somewhere nice to be later today. Ollie had started his journey to be a sentry at the same time as Reese and me. I wouldn't have called us friends, but we'd had enough conversations for us to be friendly. We were close enough for me to be happy he was okay. The last time I remember seeing him was at my last Animus Seeking. The glossy brown leather of his sword hilt peeked over his shoulder and his long legs took quick strides towards us.

Ollie stretched his hands out in front of him. "Where have you been, man?"

"Uh, I've been around. What about you? Have you been here the whole time?"

I could feel the hesitation from the three females around me. I didn't have to look to see that their shoulders were tense, their breaths steady as if they didn't want to show how uneasy they might be.

Ollie nodded. "That whole ambush with the demons was a hot fucking mess, but we rallied and got it handled. Lost a few good guys, but it happens. Jonah and them have it all confined inside." He nodded up to the building behind us. "He didn't want anything reaching out to the other villages, you know?" His eyes darted to Natalia, then to Elise, and lastly, they landed on Dani, where they lingered for a bit before returning to me.

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