Page 6 of Legendary

Ariel shrugged as if what he was about to say didn't mean much to him. “From the story you relayed to me, Lilith wanted the Soul Seether to take Jonah’s power into her own to complete her halfling powers. Since Jonah is no longer with us, I highly doubt Lilith will make this mistake again, so the best thing to do is to remove them from the equation. Let her handle them.”

“You want to just give them over to her?”

“Yes, it’s quite simple, Nicholas.”

Reese clucked his tongue. “You could have done that this whole time, but you didn’t. I wanted that from the very beginning, but you all said no.”

Ariel casually walked back to the bar cart to make himself another drink, and I looked over to Reese, who raised an eyebrow at me in disbelief. Ariel picked up a different glass and dropped two big ice cubes into it. He wrapped his hand around a bottle of amber liquid and poured it over the ice. “Jonah was adamant that she would help us, that they were needed. Of course, Markus had gotten inside his head, gotten me to bring her and that weapon of hers here all under the guise of someone else’s plan.” He tilted the glass towards us as he turned around. “Now, I’m just giving Lilith her disobedient little problem back to do with as she pleases. Keeping them here does nothing for me or our people so back to Hell they go.”

I was raging. I didn’t know where Dani and I stood, but I didn’t want her to go before I even got to talk to her. Whatever her decision may be, I wanted to at least have the time to change her mind if it didn’t include me. “You can’t just make decisions for them, Ariel. That’s not fair. They helped just as much as we did. They deserve to be treated like everyone else.”

Ariel laughed at me as if I was a child. “Naïve. So naïve. No, she didn’t rip out Jonah’s soul, but I can’t take the chance that she’d turn on us. Still, I’m not a monster Nicholas.” Ariel looked towards the doors to the office as he took a sip from his drink. I could smell the whiskey from where I stood. “I plan on telling them exactly what is going on. I’ll thank them for their service and send them on their way.”

I heard the clicking of the door, and the creaking sound was back. A buzz shot through my body as my heart started to create an erratic beat. I didn’t have to look up to see why there was a sudden shift in the air.

The overwhelming smell of cinnamon hit me and I almost let out an audible moan; I hadn’t smelt that in what felt like forever. I peeked over at Reese, who had his hand over his mouth, staring in the direction of the door. I had told him in so many words my feelings about Dani, but he was never truly concerned with the mushy parts of my complicated relationship with her. I thought about Jonah every day, but I also thought about Dani, more often that I would have liked.

I turned my head slowly towards the door, and my breath caught in my throat. There stood the same curly hair, same brown skin, same petite body that I wanted to pull into mine and tell her I was sorry. I wanted to kiss her.Fuck,I wanted to kiss her, but those brown eyes of hers told me she did not feel the same. She had the most calm and collected way about her that I both hated and admired.

I blinked after what felt like a full minute when she spoke. “Long time no see,Nicholas.”

DANI

Ididn’t want to be here anymore than Elise did. When Natalia came to us an hour ago, saying that Ariel wanted to speak, I’d rolled my eyes and shrug. I knew our time in this realm was fleeting—it was only a matter of time before they had enough of us. Elise had been much louder about having to go to The Skies, but I blocked her out. I had been blocking her out for three months now—not that she was making an effort in the slightest. Natalia tried to play mediator a few times, but the only thing wehadagreed on was going to Purgatory. I had wanted to go as quickly as possible, but Natalia told us to wait. Seriously, if this was what having a parental figure was like, Ifuckinghated it.

I hadn’t even wanted to invite the boys on our little excursion, but the High Priestess had talked me into it. It wasn’t that I didn’t think they’d be helpful. It was…well, it wasn’tthem. It was one person, one raven-haired angel who said things that, if I was being honest, hurt me. It took a lot to really get to me like that. When it came to Elise, I wasn’t hurt. No, I was severely seething so much, I had to put a lid on it every single day when I saw her stupid fucking face.

Every night that I went to sleep in the room Natalia had offered me, I replayed what felt like my entire existence. I tried to pinpoint the moment I knew something was off, the moment I didn’t feel like what everyone told me I was, what Elise and Lilith tried to make me believe. I spent plenty of time trying to get that light to come out, just to maybe have some awkward conversation with it, but then I would get angry and think about all the reasons why I evenhaveto have an awkward conversation. Then, I would have to simmer myself down before I covered the entire room in darkness and imploded.

I would manifest my dagger and twirl it in between my fingers as I stared up at the ceiling, letting my thoughts drift. I was frustrated with fucking everyone, and I had forgotten how poorly I handled rage. I could have ripped a soul out at any moment, which had made my dagger send a soothing electric shock through my veins. Bloodshed or sex: those were my two coping mechanisms, and I couldn’t do either at the moment.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

Elise and I stood on opposite sides of the elevator as we rode up to the tenth floor, and I watched as she examined her nails, looking as if she hadn’t kept a huge secret from me. Her lips were painted a dark red, reminding me of the blood that beaded across her skin when I scratched down her pale face. She looked up at me just as I started to look away, but not before giving me a smirk that had me fuming. I started to take a step toward her, but I stopped when I felt heavy eyes on me. I cut my gaze to Natalia, who had both of her perfectly arched eyebrows raised at me. I slid my tongue over my teeth but remained in place. Natalia had been great to both of us while she’d been reeling with the fact that her ex-girlfriend was a psychotic traitor. I couldn’t wait to see her stupid fucking face when we headed…home?

That place wasn’t my home. It never was. Then again, neither was this place.

There was a small, microscopic moment when I thought that it could be…

I fingered the end of one of my curls as I tilted my head, looking at the handsome face I hadn’t seen in a while. “Long time no see,Nicholas.”

His mouth gaped open as I watched his eyes move from my face to my black boots, back up to my face. He swallowed as he regained his composure. “Hey.”

The look of longing in his eyes thrilled me. Heshouldmiss me. I was likely the best piece of ass he had ever taken to bed. He had proved that hewas with us in this fight, but I didn’t entirely trust that he wanted me fully. At least, not in the way I wanted to be wanted.

I wasn’t ready to forgive him, but that didn’t mean I didn’t still find him annoyingly attractive. Three months, and I could still remember what that mouth could do. Those hands. That insanely impressive cock.

Fuck, no. No. I absentmindedly shook my head, looking away from him.

“Did you miss me, Blondie?” Elise asked, wiggling her fingers towards Reese. He grumbled as he tilted his head back in his chair.

“Does anyone ever actually miss you?” Reese said in a flat, monotone voice. She scrunched up her face and blew him a kiss.

Ariel cleared his throat and took a sip from his glass. I smelled whiskey and I almost gagged at the scent. Beer, whiskey, no thank you. Give me a cocktail any day. Hell, I would have taken a shot of tequila right about now. He nodded towards Natalia who walked between me and Elise, letting her long sapphire dress brush my legs.

“Thank you so much for coming. You have been wonderful in helping us through this tough time.” Ariel took Natalia’s hand which she gave almost as if she knew it was the polite thing to do, when she wanted more than to cringe.

She slid her fingers out of his grasp and wiped her hands along the front of her dress. “Of course. It's my pleasure. I want this in the past for your people just as I do for my own. Alas, we both know this isn’t over, Ariel.”

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