Dragon's Storm (Legion Of Angels #4)(19)

Nero kept fighting. The two angels flashed across the room, fists flying, feathers falling. Despite the world of pain he must have been in, Nero wasn’t holding back. He grabbed Damiel by the foot and slammed his head against the wall. He’d lost all control.

I’d seen him like this before, two weeks ago in the Lost City when he’d seen his father again for the first time in centuries. That same savage ferocity had consumed him then too. No thought, no control. Only instinct.

His father was his trigger. They had a long history of distrust and hatred. As they’d just reminded me, angels were prickly and territorial. Having two of them so close to each other wasn’t helping Nero’s mood. Especially not after Colonel Fireswift, another angel, had pissed him off by marking me. Not that I was excusing Nero’s behavior. There was no excuse for this.

I glared up at the warring angels. I needed a shower and a nap, not this nonsense. Nero hit the ground right in front of me. Damiel dove down after him. I planted myself between them.

“Enough,” I snapped, packing that single word with as much magic as I could. “There are more than enough enemies in this world to fight without resorting to hurting each other. You need to start getting along now, or this won’t work. You’ll never find Cadence.”

The blind fury in Nero’s eyes went out at the mention of his mother. He was returning to his senses, so I pressed on.

“She wouldn’t want you two to fight,” I told them.

Nero’s fists were still clenched. “Stay away from her,” he growled at his father.

Finding Cadence without Damiel might be possible, but it would be easier with an extra angel on our side. Nero had to see that.

“You will never pass the gods’ trials like this,” his father said. “You need more control when it really matters. When everything is at stake. When they tear you apart from the inside, taking everything you are, everything you have, everything you care about. Nero, you are in control when it doesn’t matter, and you lose it when it does. I’ve been telling you that since you were a child.”

I feared Damiel was right. Nero wasn’t in control. If his father could make him lose it with just a few words, I could only imagine how easily the gods could break him.

Nero folded his arms across his chest and glared at Damiel. Damiel glared back. Tessa would have fainted if she’d been here to see the two angels with those ‘smoldering’ looks, as she liked to call angels’ battle eyes. My little sister often mistook murderous for smoldering.

“I don’t need yet another angel marking me,” I told Damiel.

He shrugged. “Suit yourself.” He didn’t look bothered. If anything, he was amused. The barely perceptible twitch of his lip gave him away. Even angels had weaknesses. Even they had their telltale signs.

“Come with me,” I told Nero and turned to take the very long staircase upstairs, not even looking back to check if he was following me.

The stairs spilled into a room that resembled a king’s bedchamber. The ornate canopy bed alone, with its gem-studded posts and gold-thread curtains, must have cost as much as a car. It was enormous, large enough for two angels to sleep there side-by-side with their wings extended.

“That was Cadence and Damiel’s bed,” I realized.

“Yes,” Nero said right behind me, making me jump. I needed to outfit myself with a proximity alarm. Though I somehow doubted it would work against angels.

I looked out the window at the city. The cold rainclouds had parted. A rainbow shone over the airship station at the end of the street, setting the station’s bronze beams aglow. They reflected the rainbow, sending it into a hundred different directions. There was a innocent beauty to that magical light. But I couldn’t enjoy it. Not right now.

“You should have told me that Colonel Fireswift marked me,” I said, trying to keep the judgment out of my voice. And the anger. I was so pissed off right now. “But instead you just did whatever you wanted without consulting me.”

He looked at me, infuriatingly silent.

“Nero, I want this to work. I want us to work,” I told him. “But you need to stop making decisions for me.”

“Something in me snapped when I smelled him on you. I couldn’t help myself.”

“You, with all the willpower in the world.”

“This goes beyond willpower,” he said. “It’s instinct. It’s the way we are.”

“Said every man in the history of the world ever.”

“You misunderstand. This isn’t about men or women. It’s about angels. Both male and female angels mark what is theirs. In fact, the female angel’s mark is far more potent. This is what angels are, Leda. It’s how we act, how we tick. If you can’t accept that, this won’t ever work. We can’t work.”

“So you’re saying you will only remove your mark if we stop this…”

Whatever this was. We weren’t dating. Not really. We hadn’t even finished our first date. But the way I felt about him meant something to me. He meant something to me. But even if he felt the same way about me, what did it change? He was going to keep acting however his angel programming told him to. I should have known better than to get involved with an angel. They weren’t human. They didn’t think like we did.

“Fireswift is a dangerous angel, Leda,” he said. “Whether or not you accept him, everyone will accept you are his if his mark is on you. If you think you’re hurting now under his command, just wait to see how much worse it will get when you are one of his. Like his children.”