Dragon's Storm (Legion Of Angels #4)(51)

The Dragons’ castle sat at the cornerstone of the four elements. It lay at the crossroads. This base, on the other hand, was firmly in one zone. One choice. One way.

After I watched the sunset, I went downstairs to the base’s underground training rooms. They even had a few rooms to train elemental magic. They weren’t as extensive as the castle’s offerings, but they were more than sufficient for me. I really should be practicing.

I found a closet of sports suits designed to withstand cold, heat, wind, and fire. They also dried instantly. It was the perfect clothing for elemental training. After changing into one of the suits, I entered the wind tunnels. The great thing about navigating an obstacle course on a timer with the wind trying to blow me away was I really couldn’t think about anything else. I had to concentrate on what I was doing.

The wind tunnel spilled out into an open room. Lightning crashed down from rotating balls on the ceiling. I sprinted across the room, dodging them. But the room wasn’t done with me yet. Beasts made of air magic spawned all around me. I lashed out with my lightning whip. Whenever it hit its mark, the beast exploded into tiny magic particles. The particles stung when they hit me, but I kept going. Pushing through the pain was what this was all about. The room provided an endless supply of monsters, and I provided the single-minded will to destroy them.

There was something soothing about losing myself in this single purpose, in having no other choices. I wouldn’t call it therapeutic because I was avoiding reality. The world rarely gave you only one option. It was full of choices—and the consequences of those choices.

I swung my whip around to blast apart the monster sneaking up on me. I found Nero there instead. He’d caught the coil of my whip around his wrist.

“Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to sneak up on people?” I demanded.

“Didn’t anyone ever tell you to look before you leap?” He didn’t seem bothered by the lightning storm raging across the length of my whip.

“I think a wise angel once said something to that effect.”

He flicked his hand, and my whip wilted from his wrist. I shook it out, reigniting the spark. He moved in to attack.

“Are you serious?” I said, lashing out with my whip to block his path. “You want to fight me? I have a weapon, and you don’t.”

“It’s cute that you still think that matters.”

He cut around me faster than I could track him. A fist hammered down on my hand, breaking my hold on the whip. Nero grabbed the weapon out of the air and snapped it at me. It collided with my body, its lightning bite zapping through me so hard that I hit the ground. A week ago, a hit like that would have knocked me unconscious. Thanks to the Dragons’ training, it only knocked me on my ass.

“On your feet, Pandora,” Nero chided me.

I jumped up and followed him into the next room. A light drizzle sprinkled down from the high ceiling. The water drops hissed against the lightning whip in Nero’s hand. The Dragons had lectured us on the dangers of crossing elements, like holding a lightning whip in a rainstorm. That was a sure way to get electrocuted. Well, unless you were an angel with absolute control over all the magic in the room.

Nero tossed the whip aside. “Try to attack me.”

I moved forward cautiously. This had to be a trap.

“Today, Pandora.”

I sprinted toward him. A stream of water shot at me. I dodged it and angled toward him again. A second water stream shot out of the wall—and I was too slow this time. It hit me with the force of a train, throwing me across the room.

“Your resistance is too low.”

I spat out water, looking up at Nero. He was standing right over me. I couldn’t even fathom how fast he’d moved to get here.

“Where’s the trouble with elemental magic?” he asked as I rose to my feet.

“Something is blocking me. I can’t even make a spark of magic when I snap my fingers. The brats can do that.”

“There’s a lot holding you back, not just your magic,” he told me, his words caressing my face.

He didn’t seem bothered by our closeness, but I was. His heart beat in a slow, steady rhythm. How could he be so calm? Every part of me was screaming out exactly how I felt about him.

“What is that supposed to mean?” I demanded. “What is holding me back?”

“You still see yourself as human. You need to let go of these boundaries and sensibilities, this insistence on labeling things as impossible. The Legion has opened up a whole new world to you.”

A whole new world that was nothing like the one I’d left. Yes, left. When I’d joined the Legion, I’d chosen this world and everything in it. I wanted to be an angel, to gain the power to save Zane. But how could I ever be an angel? Their ways were so strange, so alien. I didn’t belong here. But I didn’t belong in the human world either. I’d come too far already. I was caught, trapped, drifting.

The door to the training room opened, and Major Horn stepped inside. Another Legion soldier was with him, someone I’d sincerely hoped to never see again: Major Selena Singh, the brutally intelligent Interrogator I’d seen at work last week. I hoped she wasn’t here to interrogate anyone, but I feared that was a futile hope. A Legion Interrogator didn’t visit the Elemental Expanse for fun.

The last time I’d seen her, she’d worn the white uniform of an Interrogator. Today, she was dressed in a tank top and shorts outfit that looked a lot like the one I’d been wearing just an hour ago. She carried a lot more weapons than I ever did, though. She wore a long sword on her back, straps of throwing knives on her arms and thighs, and a gun at each hip. Her long, dark hair was pulled back into an elaborate braid that extended down to her bottom. Tall, strong, and toned, she’d managed to keep her feminine curves—and her agility. She moved with liquid grace—strong, powerful, yet soft. Like a ballet dancer.