Page 30 of Live Like Legends

She swatted it away, looking uninterested. Morgan licked her lips and moved her glasses further up her nose, blowing out a breath as she was already annoyed with us. “I don’t make the rules. If you have a problem with me being here then you can bring that up with Ariel, which we all know you won’t since you’re already treading on extremely thin ice with the man, or did you not stupidly go into Purgatory when he told you not to?”

“We had our reasons, so just back off, Morgan.” Nick ran a hand through his hair.

She pushed out her bottom lip in a pout. “A lot of time may have passed but you’re always one to play the hero.” Her eyes slid over to me, and she smirked. “Although, your motivations could use some work.”

I felt his fingers press harder into my back, but I hardly felt them anymore. “Excuse me?”

Morgan let out a small chuckle. “I don’t recall stuttering.”

I started to stand in front of Nick, when I felt his hand try to catch mine and pull me back, but I pushed it away. Morgan had an inch or so on me, but that didn’t matter to me. She could have been ten feet tall, and I would still rearrange her fucking face. “It’s kind of pathetic that you took this job just so you could throw yourself at a man that doesn’t even want you.”

She was so close to me I could have wrapped my hand around her hair and banged her head up against the wall. “Nick is just a fun little add on to what I’m doing here, not that I needed to explain myself to you at all. You should really be much nicer to me since I could go back and tell Ariel that you’re just fucking around and then oh, well what happens to you then, hmm?” She tapped her chin in thought before laughing.

“Someone who actually enjoys doing Ariel’s bidding is the worst kind of person and believe me, I’m the worst kind of person.” Elise hissed.

Morgan let out a fake yawn and looked over at Natalia. “Wow, you guys get riled up all because I used to date this handsome thing over here. No wonder you let Lilith slip through your fingers, and you were so easily fooled by Markus. Way too busy focusing on the unimportant things.” She tsked at each of us, her eyes settling yet again on Nick. “The company you keep can really drag you down. Sully your name. I’m pretty sure Jonah told you to work with them, not slum it with them permanently.”

Without warning I grabbed her face and focused her attention back on me. “I’d watch my fucking mouth if I was you.”

While most would be quivering and thinking of possible ways to get out of this situation, they’d placed themselves in, Morgan wasn’t one of them. She grabbed my wrist and pushed me away from her. She knew she had the weight of Ariel over me and she looked as if I was an afterthought for her.

“You are really not as scary as they say, Soul Seether. You’re actually kind of adorable, so I can see why he likes you so much.” She reached out and wiped a small amount of dust from the shoulder of my jacket. “I would really hate for everything to go sideways for you and everyone else simply because you can’t learn to follow a few rules. You were Lilith’s little pet right, so you should be used to having a leash.”

“I don’t need afuckingleash, you fucking…” I felt the light dim inside of me and the darkness boiling. The soothing wisps of the dark graced my hand and fingertips, but then they were gone when a hand pulled me back a tiny bit. Nick’s large hand wrapped around mine and he squeezed.

“She’s really not worth it,” he said, pleading in his voice for me to calm down.

One side of Morgan’s mouth lifted up in a slight smile. “Ah, see even I know Nicholas is very good at telling people whatto do. You should really listen to him.” The innuendo of her comment wasn’t lost on me.

“So, what…. you just plan on standing on the sidelines and ogling the pretty angel boy over here? Daydreaming about what you used to have until he came to his fucking senses,” Elise asked, tilting her head to the side.

Morgan pressed her lips into a hard line and forced a smile. “Just keep doing what you’re doing, although, you said you had it under control and from the looks of it…” She looked over our heads at the large hole in the wall, “you’ve seemed to misunderstand what under control actually means.” She pointed from the hole to me. “That was you, wasn’t it?”

I gave her a fake smile. “Sure was.”

“Hmm, at least I can tell Ariel you’ve made some sort of progress, so give yourself a pat on the back. You might actually be useful after all.”

“What the…” I started but she put her finger up to silence me.

“Ariel also wants help with his ceremony. It will be a big day for Heaven’s Gate, so he wants every helping hand he can get.”

“He wanted us to help Dani and her training. He wanted to make sure she was all set for when or if things as you so kindly put it, go sideways.” Nick furrowed his dark eyebrows. “What about what happened in the sky the other night, you can’t tell me you and everyone else didn’t see it.”

Morgan sighed. “Of course, that still matters, but Reese can bring her here. As long as she still comes here and strengthens…whatever she is…then that ripple in the sky is taken care of. Any issues that come from the other side are her responsibility or did you already forget what you signed up for, Soul Seether?” She peered over at me with a raised eyebrow. “You both aren’t needed. You and I can help Ariel with things and then we can come here and continue on as if nothing changes.”

Reese let out a joyless laugh. “Ah, so alone time with a guy that dumped you is what you want?”

Morgan clucked her tongue. “I really don’t have to explain myself to you. It isn’t up for debate anyway; Ariel already approved of it. I’m just nice enough to bring you up to speed.”

My jaw hurt from the amount of tension it held as I clamped my mouth shut. Every fiber of my being wanted to run my hand through her stomach, but then that death would have been too quick. I could have always taken her head in my hands quickly and put my thumbs into her eyes, so she would stop looking at what was mine. She wouldn’t die immediately, that way she would be in pain, and I could take my time with bleeding her dry. I wanted so much to wield my dagger again and do the damage I wanted.

Nick knew what he signed up for when he decided that I was what he wanted. I cracked my neck at that fact. Purgatory was filled with the kinds of girls that would break your neck simply because you touched what was theirs or even insinuated you had any ownership to it, regardless of it being in the past. Morgan was different. I didn’t need blood to prove my point.

I gave her a tiny smile. “It’s fine. If Ariel wants to be a dick and think that anyone is going to bow down to him after that ceremony, then let him. Nick can tell me all about all the shitty design choices he’s making when you bring him back to me.”

Reese pulled his eyebrows in and both him and Nick spoke at the same time, “are you sure?”

I waved them off in nonchalance. “Mhmm, I’m sure Morgan is well aware that I’m the one in your bed every night.” I looked casually over my shoulder at my very nervously confused angel, but then focused all my attention back on Morgan. “I trust that Morgan is smart enough to understand the rule of don’t touch what isn’t yours, right? Especially when the thing you are aching to touch has something much better to play with and occupytheir time. That must have been something they ingrained in your brain at angelic primary school.”

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