Dragon's Storm (Legion Of Angels #4)(69)

Snowflakes fell softly from a stormy ceiling of pink, orange, and blue magic swirls. Fire lanterns hung in the air over the grand hall, their orange lights flickering off the trees and flowers that had spontaneously popped out of the stone floor. Appetizer platters sat atop a ring of giant mushrooms growing around a majestic waterlily fountain. Beside the fountain, on a raised wood stage, glowed four elemental magic sculptures, one at each corner. A red flame, a gold lightning bolt, a green tree, and a blue water drop—the symbols mimicked the same ones on the Dragons’ thrones.

As far as party decorations went, Colonel Starborn had outdone anything and everything I’d ever seen. Everyone at the castle was in attendance, decked out in silk and satin, platinum and gemstones. In addition to celebrating our thwarting the end of the world as we knew it, tonight was the promotion ceremony for the six level-four candidates.

Like so many times before, I was spending the final moments before the ceremony at the bar, drinking magic cocktails with Captain Somerset. The soldiers of the Legion sure drank a lot. What did that say about our lives? I suppose it said that we needed something to help us forget all the horrors we’d seen—and to remember that we were alive. Every battle we survived was a victory, something worth celebrating.

“How are you feeling?” I asked her.

“Alive. Thanks to you.” She smiled at me. “I might have been only half-conscious, but Leila told me about how you drank the Venom out of me.”

I returned the smile. “Just doing my job to keep you alive, Captain Somerset.”

“No, what you did went far beyond a soldier’s duty. You acted like a true friend. And you’re going to call me Basanti.”

“Are you sure? It might go straight to my head. I might become all disobedient and unruly,” I teased her, smirking.

She snorted. “I suppose that’s a risk I’m willing to take.” She lifted her glass. “Friends?”

“Friends.” I clinked my glass against hers. “So, as a friend, I should tell you that Colonel Starborn is still in love with you.”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “You don’t waste time, do you?”

“In helping my friends? No, I really don’t. You should have seen the anguish on her face when she was trying to purge the remaining Venom from your body with her magic. And you should have heard the regret in her voice when she spoke of what happened between you two.”

“The crazy thing is I’m not actually surprised that you managed to convince an angel you’d only just met to pour her heart out to you.”

“What can I say? I have a way with angels. Except Colonel Fireswift.” A cold chill shivered down my spine. “And it might have helped that I’d just helped save her from the Dark Force. People tend to get real sentimental when you save their life. That experience makes them reassess what’s really important to them. And who is important to them.” I looked at Basanti over my glass.

“I saw what you did there.”

“You should talk to her,” I said. “Angels can be overbearing—don’t I know it—but they’re not as inhuman as they pretend to be.”

“And we’re not as human as we like to think,” she sighed.

“Yes.” I sighed too.

“I hear you’ve developed a very angel habit.”

“Which one? Taking myself too seriously?”

She laughed. “Deciding what’s best for people. Leila said you pushed her away before she could drink the Venom out of me.”

“She’s an angel with very strong light magic. She wouldn’t have survived the Venom.”

“And Nero told me how you went behind his back, asking Nyx to send Harker here.”

“It was our best shot at saving Colonel Starborn. And you know how stubborn Nero is. He wouldn’t have made the call.”

“So you made it for him,” she said. “Sound familiar?”

“I was acting like Nero.”

“You were acting like an angel. Come to think of it, you’ve always acted like an angel. You’d been at the Legion for hardly a month when you drove alone across the Black Plains to save Nero.”

And before that, I’d joined the Legion without telling my family. I’d decided how we were going to save Zane. I’d decided what was best. Gods, she was right. I’d always been like this, even before I’d sipped the gods’ Nectar.

“It’s not a bad quality. Not in you,” she told me, setting her hand on my shoulder. “It’s precisely that trait which compels you to selflessly throw yourself in danger to save others. It’s what makes you a hero.”

“Thanks. That sounds a lot better than an overbearing, stubborn, bossy pants angel.”

“Talking about me?” Colonel Starborn said, sweeping up to the bar with angelic grace.

Basanti smirked at her. “Of course.”

“Good,” she replied to Basanti’s immense amusement.

Colonel Starborn looked at me. “The ceremony will begin in a few moments.”

I swallowed hard.

“You’re ready,” she said. “I saw how you fought against the Dark Force—twice.”

“I just can’t help but remember what happened at my last ceremony.”

“How you were poisoned with Venom,” she said, nodding. “I wouldn’t worry over that. You already survived the Venom last night. It’s just good old Nectar this time around.”