Page 53 of Leda's Log

I shouldn’t have doubted him. No doubt there’d been some tension when Bella noticed the missing suitcase, but she’d clearly gotten over it. She looked anything but tense right now.

“Actually, things have been very quiet around here lately,” I told my sister. “Too quiet. I’m so bored.” I slid my gaze to Harker, who was sitting beside her. “So I decided to mix things up a little at the New York office.”

His whole body went stiff. “What did you do to my territory?” he demanded, low and level, his lips hardly moving.

I’d offered to run Harker’s territory while he and Bella were away on vacation. Right now, he looked like he was really regretting taking me up on that offer.

“Don’t worry. It’s all still in one piece. Mostly.” I winked at him.

Bella took his hand, twining her fingers with his. “Leda is just teasing you.”

“I’m not so sure.” Harker watched me with the wary air of a lion who’d spotted a tiger in his forest. “What did you do to my territory?” he asked me again.

“I optimized things.”

“Optimized?” He cleared his throat. “You?”

“I can be orderly when I want to be.”

“Yeah, that’s the thing, Leda.” He sighed. “Youdon’twant to be.”

I waved off his words. “Don’t be so negative. I fixed your office’s decor, food, dress code?—”

“Pandora.”

I smiled at Nero as he sat down beside me. “Yes?”

“If you give Harker a heart attack, I will have to send him on another vacation so he can recover.”

I sighed. “Oh, I suppose you’re right.”

“Leda did not manage your office while you were away,” Nero told Harker, his arm curling around me. “I did.”

Harker’s shoulders relaxed in obvious relief. I wasn’t offended. Much. I suppose my nickname, the Angel of Chaos, was well-earned.

“So how have you been keeping yourself busy, if not redecorating Harker’s office?” Bella said with a twinkle in her eyes.

“The usual: drowning in deity politics.” I grabbed myself a cookie from the big bowl on the coffee table. I deserved it.

“Serving as the bridge between gods and demons is an important role,” said Bella.

“Sure it’s important,” I replied, “but after nine years, you’d think I would have accomplished more. You’d think I could have gotten the gods and demons to at least kind of get along. But the only two deities in that chamber who don’t hate each other are Faris and Grace. Of course, Faris always makes a point to vote against Grace so he can continue pretending he doesn’t have feelings for her.”

A knock sounded on the door. My oversized feline Angel opened an eye, halfway, then went back to sleep in front of the fireplace.

“It’s Nyx,” Nero said, rising.

My husband could identify over a hundred people by their knock alone. It was one of his many, many talents.

“Any idea what the First Angel wants?” Harker asked me as Nero crossed the room.

I shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

Nyx strode into the living room, magnificent in her black battle armor. She always wore armor, like she expected a war to break out at any given moment. Her dark hair was pulled up into a high, dynamic ponytail that swirled around her face, flowing and free, like she was underwater. That was Nyx’s distinctive magic at work. The First Angel was always still, always moving—always both at once.

“I have a new assignment for you, Windstriker,” she said as we all rose to greet her.

Nero set his hand over his chest and bowed his head. “I am ready.”

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