Dragon's Storm (Legion Of Angels #4)(38)

“Flip the card, Morrows,” Darren said. “Let’s see if she’s right.”

Alec’s lips pressed together into a hard line, and he flipped his card. The Earth Dragon stared back at me.

Jace laughed out loud. I’d never seen him do that. He must have had way too much to drink.

“Your strategy is to be unpredictable,” I told Alec. “But that strategy falls apart as soon as someone finds the pattern in your unpredictability.” I tapped the card he’d just set facedown on the table. “Your card is something really low, like an initiate. You want to force the rest of us to waste our strong cards.”

When Alec didn’t turn his card, Jace turned it for him. The picture showed a scrawny initiate, one of the weakest cards in the whole deck. This time, Jace wasn’t the only one who laughed.

“This is getting really annoying,” Alec grumbled.

“On the contrary, it’s just starting to get interesting,” I declared, claiming the pile of chips.

“What’s he going to play next?” Jace asked me.

“I’ll tell you after everyone has played.”

Jace frowned at his hand of cards. “That’s not helpful.”

I shrugged. “I have to beat you at something.”

We all played our cards facedown. I declared that Alec had played an angel card.

“That’s uncanny,” Nerissa gasped when I turned out to be right.

“Pure logic,” I said.

“This isn’t logic,” Alec griped. “It’s sorcery.”

“Your facial expressions give it all away,” I told him. “Your gaze lifts slightly to the left when you’re about to play an angel card.”

“Remind me to bring sunglasses along the next time I play cards with you, Pandora.”

“Sure thing. If you think that will help.” I flipped over my own angel card, winning the round.

“I never get tired of looking at that face,” said Lieutenant Jenson, Alec’s mentor.

“More than just the face,” sighed Liana, a candidate from LA. She slid her finger across the painted chest of Nero Windstriker. The artist had exaggerated every muscle on Nero’s body—and given him a sword too long for even an angel to wield.

“Colonel Windstriker is definitely the hottest angel,” said Lieutenant Greer, Liana’s mentor.

“Definitely,” Nerissa said, giving me a wicked look. “Don’t you think, Leda?”

“He’s all right,” I said casually. “If you can get past the insufferable know-it-all angel demeanor.”

“But you got past it, right? What is it like to kiss Colonel Windstriker?” Liana asked me.

Like kissing lightning—and not in a bad way.

“What does his blood taste like?” Lieutenant Greer asked.

Like the sweetest Nectar I’ve ever known. And how the hell did she know I’d tasted Nero? It’s not something I’d advertised. The Legion didn’t forbid blood exchanges between their soldiers, but it did frown upon the practice.

“Well, ladies and gentlemen, it would appear most of you are nearly out of chips,” I declared, trying to change the subject.

“I knew I played my angel card too soon,” Lieutenant Greer said.

“I waited too long to play mine,” said Darren.

“Which one did you have?”

Darren looked at Jace. “Colonel Fireswift.”

“Colonel Windstriker is much better. He has the better stats,” Lieutenant Jenson said.

Nerissa nodded in agreement. “And word is he’s going to be promoted soon. They’ll have to update his card.”

“If he survives,” said Lieutenant Gardner. “The jump to level ten is supposed to be unlike any other promotion. It’s not just drinking Nectar. There are a whole bunch of trials leading up to it.”

Liana sighed. “Kind of like these trials.”

“No, harder,” Lieutenant Gardner told her. “Much harder. But no one knows anything about them. They are shrouded in secrecy.”

That wasn’t entirely true. Someone knew about the level ten trials, and he was willing to help Nero pass them too. Damiel. Nero needed his father’s help, whether he was willing to accept that or not. Nero would never ask for Damiel’s help. He was far too proud. So I’d just have to ask Damiel to tell me everything he knew about the trials, and then I’d use the knowledge to help Nero survive.

“Hey, daydreamer, time to deal the cards. You can fantasize about Windstriker naked later.”

Alec’s voice brought me out of my mind. Cards, right. I began dealing them out.

“Just for the record, I was not fantasizing about him naked,” I told Alec.

He braided his fingers together and hit me with an innocent smile. “Your gaze lifts slightly to the left when you’re thinking about Colonel Windstriker naked.”

“Actually, it’s to the right.”

I snapped my head around, nearly falling off my chair. Nero stood in front of the open door. He wore a black leather suit that fitted his broad chest perfectly. His thick arms, built by centuries of continuous physical exercise, were folded across that chest. His blond hair was slightly windswept, a few strands out of place, as though he’d flown all the way here. His eyes shone out like a laser, sharp and deadly. Being here, in Nero’s shadow, I felt so small, so mortal. I’d been so wrong. The artist of Nero’s card had captured the angel’s essence perfectly.