Page 96 of Living Legend

“Convincing…right,” I muttered, remembering the way I had kicked him in the stomach and the way my knuckles felt connecting with his jaw. The bruises had all but faded by now. I crossed my legs, thinking about the way his body heat radiated over me when he had me pinned against the wall, the moment his resolve had cracked to small pieces that neither of us were willing to find and put together again. I remembered howgoodhis convincing had been.

Nicholas, clearly having heard me, let out a cough and started picking at his food more.

He wanted to play the pretend game, theit was a mistakegame, so fine. I could give his father something else to worry about than his son sticking his dick in me and getting cut up by a shadowy demon.

“He had to be sneaky about it though, since he had to give me my dagger to perform my soul seething duties,” I admitted nonchalantly, grabbing my water glass and taking a nice, long drink.

“Dagger?” Mr. Cassial looked stunned. “What dagger?”

“It’s nothing—” Nicholas started, but I cut him off.

“The one I brought with me to Heaven’s Gate when Ariel plucked me from Purgatory.” I looked between father and son, watching how his father blinked a few times and Nicholas again went back to rubbing his temple with his index finger.“Oh gosh, did you not tell your father about how you are harboring a demonic weapon without your higher ups knowing? That you let me have it to torture Cullen and then walked in right after I slit his throat with it? I didn’t even get to pull his soul out, but it is likely all part of Lilith’s plan, because why the hell not? Weirder shit has happened. I honestly wonder what you did with it after that.” I pressed the tips of my fingers to my lips, as if I had mistakenly let something slip.

Nicholas narrowed those brown eyes at me, his breathing slow and methodical. He was annoyed, that was for sure. I, on the other hand, was sensationally satisfied with my words.

His father tapped his fork against his plate, the echoing noise playing against the loud rumbling rain outside. “You didn’t tell anyone she brought it here?”

“Your first question isn’t to ask her why she brought it in the first place?” Nicholas asked, a little shocked.

“Son, if I’m going to a place that sees me as the enemy, I would surely bring a weapon along. So, no, that part does not surprise me.”

I swiveled my head over to Nicholas, who gave a slight shake of his head at my shit-eating grin. “No, I haven’t told anyone about it, except Reese. I don’t know why. I just didn’t think about telling anyone. It was just a feeling.”

“I bet he was thrilled,” I laughed.

“Oh yeah, he was just over the fucking moon about me having it.”

“Youareallowed to make your own judgment calls, but if I’m just clarifying here. You just told Reese. That’s it?” his father asked again.

“Yeah. I mean, Markus did ask me if she brought anything with her, like contraband, but that’s just strictly protocol type stuff.” He waved his hand dismissively at the thought, but by the look on his face, it felt as if he had so much more to say about that interaction.

Mr. Cassial just seemed to nod, as if he too agreed that it was simply an executive’s duty to ask those types of questions. It made sense, but with everything going on, nothing just seemed simple anymore. I honestly didn’t like any of them, Jonah, Markus, or Ariel…especially Ariel, but maybe my position in all this made me more cynical.There was silence around us broken when a large crack of thunder practically vibrated the room, followed by strikes of lightning.

“Where is it now?” his father asked.

“I left it in my room, like I always do.”

I scoffed. “Well, there is a huge reason to go back to The Skies.”

“You are not flying in this weather, and I don’t want to think about what could happen if you tried to portal into that mess right now. You will stay here, like I said. We can figure everything out in the morning, with a good night’s sleep and fresh eyes,” Mr. Cassial said in a way that had us both quiet and submissive. I bet he used that tone on Nicholas all the time.

“I do like it when you get all authoritative, Mr. Cassial,” I said, winking at him as I took my last bite of food, throwing my napkin onto the plate.

He smirked at me. “When I was a younger man, that kind of talk worked wonders.”

Nicholas practically choked on his water, setting it down with an obnoxious slam. “Oh, my god. Stop.”

“Is that how you pulled Nicholas’ mother? Your big bad authority?” I asked, laughing at my words, but soon realizing no one else was laughing with me. Nicholas’ father had started to clear the plates and bring them to the kitchen but stopped mid step, facing away from us. Nicholas was looking at his father with a steady gaze that wasn’t reciprocated. “Did I say something wrong?

Mr. Cassial continued to walk to the counter. He turned around, facing the mantle and looking over at the pictures I had yet to really see, before letting out a huff. “No. She wasn’t impressed by me much.”

I didn’t know anything about Nicholas’ family, how far his family tree branches extended, but I did knowsomethings. Those things were vague and not really pieced together at all, but it was something. I was there when Natalia had mentioned his mother and his reaction wasn’t at all what I had expected. I was there this afternoon when he had let his mother slip from his lips again in an accusatory tone with Jonah, as if he had something to do with her lack of presence in his life. His words to Jonah were something I had a feeling he didn’t want to let his father in on, and I would let him have that one. His father gave nothing away when it came to where his mother was. He just let a small smile leave his lips when he spoke those few words about her to me.

Nicholas tapped his foot on the ground, causing his right knee to bob nervously. He was biting the inside of his cheek, as if he didn’t want to talk about this topic at all. I let my hand drift to his knee and squeezed. He stiffened under my touch and moved his eyes away from his father, down to where my hand sat. He peeked up at me through his long eyelashes and one corner of his mouth lifted, giving me a good look at the scar underneath his eye that I kept meaning to ask about.

“She was a special lady, but that’s enough. It’s getting late and you’ll probably want to change,” Mr. Cassial said, pulling us both out of our short-lived moment.

“I don’t think you have anything in my size, Mr. Cassial,” I joked.

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