Page 7 of Live Like Legends

Dani walked over to me, and I kept her eye contact, but I only broke it to look over her head at Reese. He ducked his head out the door and looked down the hall. He let out a small chuckle. “Yeah, I think they are a little out of it at the moment. Nice job for what it’s worth.” He gave Dani a thumbs up, but quicklystopped when he looked behind me at most likely a disgruntled Ariel.

“What did you do?” I asked the no nonsense hybrid I just so happened to be in love with.

Her curls bounced as she got on the tips of her toes to peck my lips. “I found you.”

He had this look of shock on his face that had me wanting to burst into a fit of laughter, but I refrained for the sake of his very unimpressed leader. Ariel’s face was turning redder by the minute and there was a moment where I thought he might combust.

It didn’t take me long to find Nicholas, but my time would have been cut in half if I hadn’t been stopped every few steps by a power-hungry angel who thought I was some sort of threat. It was as if each one knew who I was, but wanted to test their luck with how far they would get in a fight with me. I had to admit I thoroughly enjoyed the interactions as negative as they were. Each one gave me a different direction which finally led me here.

“Lucky you. You found a girl who is willing to tear down at least ten sentries for you,” Reese said, rapping his knuckles against the doorframe.

“Ten is an understatement and a little insulting,” I added, running my hand through my surprised angel’s hair. He grabbed my hand and squeezed it with his own.

“Dani, I told you…”

“I toldyouI wouldn’t sit idly by anymore, did I not?” I interrupted, yanking my hand away from him.

Ariel rushed around him so that he was nearly in between us. “I don’t give you many jobs Mr. Cassial but keeping her in line was one of them and you can’t even do that. You want me to trust her and allow her freedom here? The minute she is given access without supervision she goes and does this.” The executive motioned towards the door.

“If your sentries had been more forthcoming, it wouldn’t have come to that,” I stated, shrugging. “No one is seriously hurt, so thank your angelic stars for that.”

Ariel swiped a hand over his forehead, exasperated. “I think it best if you handle yourself in the Ethereal Bastille for now.” He gripped my forearm with a force I didn’t know he had.

Before I could shout about the unwelcome touch, Nick did it for me.

“Get your hands off of her.” He roughly grabbed Ariel's wrist and threw it back, simultaneously pulling me over to him so that I was out of his leader's reach.

“Mr. Cassial, I beg your pardon?”

“You can yell and scream atme, but donotfuckingtouch her.” He kept a hand near my side. It felt like he was saying that he couldn’t hold me back, but he could at least let me know that he was here.

The sound of footsteps and clanging weapons sounded outside the door.

“I should yell and scream at you since you want to act like a petulant child, but maybe it’s best if you yourself go into the Ethereal Bastille to cool off. How does that sound?”

“Ariel you can’t be fucking serious!” Reese yelled over the sentries that barreled through the door. They all looked to Ariel for their instructions and quicker than I expected he nodded over to Nicholas. The sentries all seemed to hesitate for a moment as if they didn’t know if he actually meant to seize Nick.

“Do it now!” Ariel commanded, pointing straight at Nick. My raven-haired angel’s mouth gaped open. Reese mirrored that expression from across the room. The sentries charged forward, but they wouldn’t get much farther if they were aiming for what was mine.

I let shadows stream from my fingertips and towards the floor. Tendrils escaped from the stones, whipping and winding back and forth. They wrapped themselves around their weapons, tossing them aside. The shadows aimed for legs and arms, slithering around necks and squeezing so hard, any sort of circulation would have been nearly impossible. I flung my hand left and right, watching bodies get thrown towards the walls.

Reese ducked down, letting a body fly past him and into the stone interior.

I had a shadow slam the door shut, sealing the edges so we wouldn’t be interrupted. I looked over my shoulder quickly, my eyes connecting with Nick’s. He quickly assessed my damage and his face all but saidimpressive, but was this necessary?

“This! Mr. Cassial! This is…”

I put a hand up to stop him. “If you want me to say sorry for hurting your little worker angels then I’m sorry. Next time please let them know that telling me what I want to know and politely stepping out of my way is the best course of action.” Ariel opened his mouth, but I lightly pressed a finger to his lips, telling him that I wasn’t finished. “I’m on your side here. I clearly always have been, I just don’t want to be confined to Nicholas’s room any longer, no matter how satisfying the sex has been.”

Reese let out a choked laugh in the otherwise quiet room.

“The one thing you should understand about demons is that the more you try to confine us, control us, the more unreliable we can become. You show me you can trust me, and I won’t be a problem, I assure you.”

Ariel took a step back and straightened his jacket. “Hand over your dagger if you want me to trust in you so much, Soul Seether.”

I felt my eyebrows pull together. There was always this phantom hold that my dagger had over me even knowing that it was no longer in existence. The very mention of it made my fingers twitch. I wanted to summon it and make him wish he’d never asked for it, but I couldn’t. A piece of myself was gone and I didn’t know how to fix it.

“I can’t.”

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