Page 106 of Live Like Legends

I pressed my tongue into my cheek, fighting back a smile. “Go for it.”

We had fallen asleep for about an hour or so, but my need for the bathroom jostled the bed enough to wake him up. Nick hadn’t blinked an eye when I’d gone into depth about all the vile things I’d conjured up for the numerous people we both equally disliked. Months ago, if I had spoken like this, I would have been awarded with a lecture. Right now, it felt like some kind of high being able to speak so effortlessly and strongly about the things I wanted and could do if given the chance.

Just because I couldn’t do those things when I wanted to didn’t mean I was any less capable. Dimitri was a piece of entitled worthless shit for making me even consider I was anything less than who I actually was. I also knew from watching Nick and pushing him through his issues, that people don’t always rebound so easily, so I would have setbacks.

I did tell him once:Let yourself fall apart while you still have people surrounding you who care.

Nick drew circles along my back, sending a happy tingle down my spine. He had been telling me all about Beetee finally speaking to Daya. He told me about his severe panic attack which caused him to have to calm me down after he’d finished speaking about it. He’d let me in on his conversation with his father and the amount of kisses he’d received from that admission had him batting me away. I had told him how Lilith had offered me my dagger, or at least a new version of it that was tempting.Fuckhad that been a tempting offer. Nick had laughed, claiming that it was unsurprising that Lilith had seemingly been demoted to one of Dimitri’s minions.

“Is it awful to say that I miss my dagger? I mean even if you were to say it is, I would still admit that I miss it.”

Nick let out a small laugh. “For one, no it’s not awful. It was a part of you and it probably always will be, even if it doesn’t technically exist anymore.”

“She presented it to me and I don’t know, I knew it wasn’t the same but that dagger was nothing without me and I guess I just missed something to tether myself to. Things feel different when all the power has someplace to go besides just inside yourself.”

Nick hummed, considering my words. “With all the power you have, I can see how that makes sense.”

We talked and laughed about so much until a small silence settled over us.

“Is Natalia looking into your memories?”

My raven-haired angel sighed. “Oh yeah, sorry, I thought I’d said it earlier. She is. I told her to take her time. If she can’t find anything, I can say we all tried.”

“She’ll find something. She always does.”

He hugged me closer. “It’s in a few days.”

His words caught me off guard. “What is?”

“The ceremony. Ariel’s fucked up attempt to rule over all of us.”

I let out a low whistle. “I can’t believe that’s still happening. What was the point of searching for where Jonah’s powers might be, just to figure it out and still have literally nothing to show for it.”

Nick pinched my side. “That trip to the library wasn’tallbad.”

I pinched him back. “I mustreallybe rubbing off on you if you are making sex jokes, while your entire realm is in turmoil with an egoistic leader at the helm.”

He readjusted himself in bed, making sure to keep me close to him. “Ariel has me running all over the place. He surprisingly let me off the hook for my Animus Seeking duties just so I could be around if he needed me. You should see the fucking spectacle that he’s created on the lawn since he decided that an inside ceremony just wasn’t grand enough.” I didn’t have to look up at him to know he had rolled his eyes.

“Does Ariel expect me to just stay in here forever, until I fucking wither away from epic boredom? Like does he think that I’m going to stand by him if shit hits the fan again? I can give you that answer right now. Absolutelyfuckingnot.”

“Dani, I don’t know. The man has only spoken to me in monosyllables and gotten others to communicate to me on his behalf. The only time we’ve spoken for longer than a minute was when he sarcastically congratulated me on neutralizing a threat and doing something right, while in the same breath making sure to point out that I had to make so many mistakes to do it.” He kissed my hair, burying his face in my curls. “I’ll figure something out, I promise.” He remained like that, taking in a deep breath as if he was inhaling my scent.

“I miss everyone and oddly or maybe not so oddly enough…I miss Elise.”

Nick ran a hand through his hair. His bare chest rumbling with laughter. “Bored of me already.”

I pushed away from his chest, propping myself up on my elbow so I could look down at him. My curls shifted over, cascading down my shoulder. “Don’t be jealous. I’ve spent time withyourbest friend and not enough with my own. You men are great and all, especially your dad, but...”

“It’s not the same. I get it. And I’ll tell you right now, they miss you too.” He shifted so that he was using his elbows to prop himself up. “Ariel banned Elise, Beetee and nearly everyone else to Oculus and I don’t know what exactly you did to Morgan, but I’m pretty sure she’s run her mouth to Ariel?—”

“Hmm, I don’t know about that. I think if she cried to Ariel about what I did, we would have definitely heard about it by now.” I snickered, remembering the way her eyes had bulged while I tightened my grip on her neck.

“Fair point. Still though, moving you out of The Skies would be a risk and trying to bring them here would be another one.”

I bit my lower lip, closing my eyes and then peeking over at him by just opening one. “What about your portal key? Did Ariel confiscate it when we came back?”

He eyed me suspiciously. “Surprisingly no. He probably thinks we’ll be good little angels now that we’ve been to Hell and back.”

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