Page 121 of Living Legend

“What’s your point?”

“My point, Nicholas, is that if Jonah isn’t the bad guy, but he’s done some bad things, do you think he deserves to have his soul floating around with the good guys when the end comes?”

I leaned my weight on each of my feet. “I don’t know. We all have made mistakes, Dani, but that doesn’t mean we can’t try to fix them in the hopes that we can find some sort of peace.”

Her eyes roamed around my face, scanning every inch of my features before settling on my eyes. “That’s pretty much what I’d thought you’d say.”

“Why do I feel like I passed some sort of test?”

She pushed up on her toes and placed a kiss right on my lips before backing off. I didn’t have the time to try and kiss her back, but she didn’t seem to do it for the make out session. It was chaste and quick, likely just for her. I gave a small nod before turning and holding the crystal again.

I drew a circle with it, watching as the portal opened and a wave of light came through. All I had to think about was Oculus—calmly— and maybe I wouldn’t land on my ass. I started to walk through the portal, but then I stopped. I scrunched my mouth to the side, debating my next words.

I looked over my shoulder at where she still stood, watching me. She watched me so easily, as if she could do it all day and never get tired. I felt the same about her. “Don’t worry about your soul.”

She cocked her head to the side in confusion.

I explained further. “Despite what you are, you deserve answers and peace, just like the rest of us.”

She blinked. Once. Twice. Then, she gave me a half smile and I watched her cheeks turn red, as if she was blushing.

Well, that was a first.

I stepped through the portal with the look on her face ingrained in my memory.

When she asked me about Jonah, she was really asking about herself. To do all the things she’d done, but still not be so spiteful or so lost in her own darkness is something I never understood. Elise was every bit the demon I had imagined, but Dani…Dani was something else. It wasn’t about the sex, even though that had been wildly amazing. I felt a connection with her that went beyond anything I expected.

Dani wasn’t inherently bad. I didn’t know anything about her life before Purgatory, but with everything she’d done while there, I could see how someone could think their only ending would be dark and tormented. I never believed that where you started dictated where you ended. With Dani, though, how she started could be the answer to all of this.

How she started could decide how it all ended.

Chapter Eighteen

DANI

Ilooked out the window and watched as Mr. Cassial watered his flowerbeds. He would look over his shoulder occasionally and wave at people who passed by, but then he would go back to tending to his colorful collection of flowering plants. It was cute watching him make sure each section was thoroughly nourished. It made me laugh seeing such a tall, brawny man caring for something so delicate. I lifted the mug filled with steaming hot coffee to my lips.

I had finally simmered down a bit after Nicholas left for Oculus, but the memory of his words and the short kiss we shared before he left still had my mind reeling. Last night had been fun, explorative,acrobatic, then again, it had also been many things I couldn’t quite comprehend. I liked him, but he was kind of hard not to like, even through the stubborn, hard-shelled surface. That armor he’d built up around himself was shattering, and I didn’t know if it was because of all the things going on around us or if it was me. I also didn’t know if I even wanted it to be me, because if I did, then what did that mean for myself or…us? What evenwasan us?

I wasn’t stupid and I knew he was going to Oculus to question Natalia about what I told him the night before, but me pleading with him not to be an overthinking ass wouldn’t have done any good. When Nicholas put his mind to something, that was it. That something could be professional like a mission…or that something could be getting you to come more times than you think is possible. He is justthatdetermined.

Very capable. More capable than I wanted to admit.

My vision started to blur a little when I thought about how each time he shifted from passionate, heartfelt, let you feel every inch of my cock slowly Nick to the heated, fevered, let me press your face into a pillow while I rail you out and thoroughly obliterate your pussy Nick. Both were appreciated, and both had my cheeks warming thinking about them.

“He is quite cute, isn’t he?” Daya, Mr. Cassial’s girlfriend, said from behind me. I tensed a bit from her sudden appearance, but she didn’t seem to notice. I counted to three, willing my current thoughts to fuck off. I looked over at her as she looked out the window, her face showing something that could only be called adoration. “He always makes sure those flowers are tended to, like clockwork.” Her eyes watched as Nick’s dad pulled weeds from the ground.

“It’s good to have hobbies,” I answered, taking one last look out the window and turning so that I could walk back towards the couch.

Daya tucked pieces of her dark hair behind her ear. “Yes, but I think it’s more that he has something else to take care of.”

I settled onto the couch, tapping my mug with my fingernails. “Because Nick isn’t around?”

She nodded, taking a seat next to me. She kicked off her shoes and tucked her feet underneath her thighs. “He’ll never admit it fully, but he misses having him around. It’s just a parent thing. You want them to live their life and be an adult, but a part of you misses the routine of them being present.”

I didn’t say anything to that, since I didn’t know how that felt. I wasn’t a parent, nor did I ever remember having them. To be loved so unconditionally that someone just missed your very presence, that almost took my breath away.

Daya must have noticed how awkwardly silent I had gotten when she changed the subject. “You and Nick make quite the pair.”

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