Page 29 of Living Legend

Nicholas spoke again. “True, but there’s another flaw. Where you’re going and where you’ve been is always noted. If you have a portal key, it’s reported. Jonah would have seen some sort of discrepancy and dealt with it by now.” He shrugged his wide shoulders.

“Or not,” Elise said nonchalantly, and we all turned to her.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Nicholas asked.

Elise let out a small breath of a laugh laced with impending sarcasm. “I don’t know, pretty boy. Maybe start looking at everyone as a suspect and not just the obvious.”

“You think Jonah has something to do with this?” he asked.

I stepped between them, using my body to eliminate Elise from his gaze. “I think what she’s saying is no one is innocent here.” I turned slightly, giving her a look that saidcool it for at least the next five minutes.“You do give me an interesting idea though, Nicholas.”

He smirked, waiting to hear what I had to say, his body language cautious but patient.

“You said that all of the ins and outs were documented, right?”

He nodded.

“So there’s physical documentation on who went in and out of Purgatory? Probably organized by dates or times?”

Reese let out a loud and exhausted sigh, his annoyance on full display. “We’ve been over this. The portal keys are connected to a book, and whoever uses one gets logged and reported.”

I rolled my eyes, ignoring him. “A book. I assume Jonah has this book?”

“The answer is obviously yes,” Elise piped in from behind me. “If you are thinking what I think you’re thinking, I would much rather just torture the information out of every messenger than try to narrow it down. Where’s the fun in that?” Her voice was almost pleading, dying for some type of normalcy here.

Nicholas stepped closer, leaning slightly around me to Elise. “What is she thinking?”

Elise stepped out from behind me, a mischievous look on her face. “What she’s thinking is that we need to see that book.”

“Good fucking luck with that,” Reese huffed, walking over to the door and leaning into it. “You can’t just go asking for it.”

I mulled this over. “I’m sure Jonah would let us see it, since it pertains to our mission.”

“It’s not that, exactly. It’s just that…” Nicholas spoke carefully, his mouth opening and closing, trying to find the right words. “If we ask for the book, Jonah will want to know the reason. All the details. If we tell him why, it’ll look as if we blame our own people for this.” He blew out a breath when he finished.

“No one is accusing anyone, Nicholas,” I countered, looking up at him. My breath almost caught the minute I remembered how tall he actually was.

“I know, but that’s how it will look.”

Elise let out the harshest laugh I’ve ever heard from her. “Of course, the perfect angel duo is worried about their reputations.”

I never let my eyes leave his. “You would give up getting closer to the answer for the sake of your undying loyalty. It’s commendable but it's idiotic.Hypocritical. You claim to be loyal, so you take on this task of figuring out the broken portals, like the good little soldiers you are. The moment the road gets a little hard, you back off because of that same loyalty. How does your loyalty even work? You can’t just pick and choose what kind you want on display.”

Nicholas pulled his strained eyes from mine. I knew he was thinking it all over. He knew it made sense.

“I know a way everyone can get what they want, without rocking the boat,” Elise offered.

“Any time before I’m dead would be fantastic,” Reese spat at her as he pulled his hair out of its tie, letting it fall to his shoulders.

Elise let out a groan and answered. “You and the pretty one can steal it.”

“Steal it?” Nicholas pressed his fingers to his temples.

Elise leaned back against the table, pressing her thighs into the glass. “Simple and easy.”

“No, not so simple. Stealing is probably even more stupid,” Reese said.

Elise waved her hand in the air, as if she was swatting his words away. “Fine, don’t call it stealing. You don’t even have to leave the room with it. We just need to know the messengers who used the portal that day.” She swiped her palms together twice. “Easy.”

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