“You going to hold onto that for a while?” I asked her when Drake was gone.
She looked down at her clenched fist. Her hand uncurled slowly, as though she could still feel the weight of his kiss in her palm.
“Air kisses aren’t as fun as the real thing,” I said, grinning.
“What?” She looked up at me, distracted.
“Never mind. I have to be going too. If I’m late, I’ll incur the wrath of New York’s favorite angel.”
“He’s back? When did this happen? Did he come to see you yet? Did you kiss?” The questions spilled off her tongue so fast that I could hardly follow.
“Yes, he’s back. I don’t know when he got in. He came to see me about a half hour ago when I was training with Jace. And, no, we didn’t get around to kissing.”
“But you expect there to be kissing?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s leading the mission to the Black Plains, but I think we’ll be too busy fighting monsters to make out.”
“Don’t be so sure, Leda. He was at the office all of five minutes last month, and he still found time to make out with you in the library.”
“I shouldn’t have told you about that,” I said, frowning.
“You didn’t.”
“Oh, right.”
Ivy had a talent for always knowing everything that was going on in the Legion. Hell, she even knew things about Legion soldiers she’d never met in offices she’d never visited.
“See you later.” I swung my pack over my back. “Try to stay out of trouble while I’m gone.”
“You too, Pandora.” She winked at me.
Chuckling, I left the apartment and headed for the staircase. The halls were busy like always, people coming and going between work and their tiny piece of privacy in an office of over a thousand soldiers.
Everyone I passed stared at me. I was neither popular nor unpopular at the Legion. Some people liked me, others disliked me, but everyone knew who I was. They knew me for my unparalleled ability to attract trouble wherever I went—and for Nero’s unspoken promise to make me his lover. Mayhem and sex, the perfect recipe for gossip.
“Leda,” Jace said, sliding into step beside me. “I hear you’re headed to the Black Plains with Colonel Windstriker.”
“News travels fast. It looks like you’re headed out yourself.” I glanced sidelong at him, noting his fitted jacket and pants, the Legion-approved uniform for sub-zero missions. Wherever he was headed, it was someplace cold. “I take it your meeting with your father went well.”
“As well as a meeting with him can go,” he said grimly. “He’s recruited me to join his latest mission.”
“Your father heads the Chicago office, right? Is it common to recruit a soldier from another Legion office to join a mission?”
“Not common, but it does happen if the soldier you want has special skills critical to the mission’s success.”
“And what are your special, mission-critical skills?”
“That I’m his son.”
“Ah.”
“We’re tracking down Osiris Wardbreaker. He’s part of Nyx’s inner circle, one of the first soldiers she trained to be an angel.”
“He’s gone missing?” I asked.
A dark look crossed Jace’s face. “He’s gone rogue. This is bad news, Leda. He’s the first angel to go dark in a long time. If he joins the demons, we’re all in a lot of trouble. We have to stop him.” He fell silent, not speaking again until we were on the stairs. “My father put me on this mission so I could prove myself to the First Angel.”
“I’m sure you will.”
“Why are you being so nice? Don’t you understand?” he demanded, frustration pulsing through his voice. “It’s hard to beat what you did, saving an airship full of witches. Capturing a rogue angel is about as big as it gets. He wants me to upstage you.”
I laughed. “And?”
“You are my biggest competition, and an angel is helping me. Don’t you think that’s really unfair?”
“You want to beat me in a fair game,” I said.
“Yes.”
“I have an angel helping me too,” I pointed out. “So I think it’s about as fair as it’s going to get.”
“You have a point,” he said, a thoughtful look sliding across his face.
“But this doesn’t have to be a competition, you know,” I told him.
“Tell that to my father.”
I set my hand on his shoulder. “Your father does not control you, Jace. He does not define who you are.”
“You don’t know him.”
“No, but I do know you. And when you’re not trying to be the person your father wants you to be, you’re a great guy.” I smiled at him. “A great friend. Remember that.”
I turned toward the garage.
“Leda, wait.”
I looked over my shoulder.
“Watch your back out there on the Black Plains, in the Lost City,” he said. “Some say the phantoms of the past still linger there, waiting to be released. Others say that the place holds a gateway that leads straight to hell.”
“I’m actually more worried about monsters than phantoms, but thanks for the warning. And good luck.”
“Thanks. I’ll need it. My father’s plan to distinguish me just might kill me instead.” Then he turned and walked back down the hall.
3
Playing Legion
An hour later, I and eleven other soldiers were on a train to Purgatory. No, that’s not Legion humor. Purgatory was the name of my hometown, a tiny pocket of civilization at the edge of the Frontier, the gateway to the plains of monsters. It was where criminals went to disappear into the Black Plains—and where soldiers and bounty hunters went to track them down.
The train that traveled between New York and Purgatory had a carriage reserved for soldiers from the Legion of Angels. The seat cushions were an opulent red velvet, the floors were solid wood, and the snack corner was well-stocked. Someone had decided that chandeliers were the epitome of fanciness and had placed one at the center of our carriage, neglecting to take the low ceiling into account.
The bundle of bells above the door jingled, and Drake came down the aisle, carefully avoiding the swaying crystal branches of the chandelier.
“The cargo is all secure. What did I miss?” he asked, sitting down beside me on the cushioned bench.
“Grass, trees, a few ponds, some wildflowers.” There wasn’t much else out here.
He glanced out the window. Outside, the countryside whisked by at five hundred miles an hour. He was breathing normally, and he hadn’t broken a sweat moving the enormous crates stuffed with supplies for the Legion office in Purgatory.
“Do you miss home?” he asked me.
“Every day.” I sighed. Though I was closer to home than I’d been in months, I felt further away than ever before. I would be right there in my hometown, and I might not even get to see my family. “Do you ever regret joining the Legion?”