full of towering office buildings that housed many of the world’s major organizations. The League, the worldwide bounty hunting company. The office of the paranormal soldiers. And at the very center of the Promenade, the east coast headquarters of the Legion of Angels, inside this sparkling white obelisk.
The soldier was staring at me. He looked almost mesmerized. It must have been my halo. An angel’s halo had that effect on people.
“Now, Sergeant.”
He snapped out of his trance. “Yes, sir.”
Then he led Nero down the hall. Nero didn’t continue his argument about coming with me. He knew I wouldn’t budge—and he had no intention of being humiliated in front of his mortal enemy.
Eryx Holyfire flicked his wrist, commanding Xerxes to join them. But the Colonel himself didn’t go. Instead, he followed me. Fantastic.
“Much as I enjoy your company, Colonel, I’m afraid I must be leaving you now,” I said as he followed me into the stairwell.
“You will have amble opportunity to enjoy my company further, Lightbringer. I am coming with you to interrogate the traitor Eva Doren.”
“General Dragonsire told me to interrogate her. He did not mention you.” I kept walking, not slowing a bit.
Colonel Holyfire matched my pace. “Dragonsire must be hurt worse than I’d heard if he’s not going himself.”
I did not like the calculation in his steely eyes. I’d told Damiel he was being paranoid to worry about the other angels having spies, but it turned out he was spot on. I wished he were here to gloat—then push Colonel Holyfire down the stairs. It was the kind of thing he would do.
I would not. My father had taught me to be a well-mannered angel. Sometimes, I really wished I could dare to misbehave. Now was one of those times.
We’d made it to the roof. An airship was waiting for me.
“I’m afraid you came a long way for nothing, Colonel,” I told him. “I’m following the Master Interrogator’s orders. And those orders don’t include bringing you along with me.”
“Well, I am following the First Angel’s orders, and she wants me to come along. In fact, she’s given me authority over this investigation.”
He pulled out a envelope, slowly unfolded a paper, and showed me the document.
“You will find everything is in order.” He spoke with a predatory smile, like he was a vulture circling over Damiel’s body.
I read over the document. It had all the right seals and magic markers. It was genuine. Which meant I not only had to bring the unpleasant angel along with me, he was in charge.
“Welcome aboard, Colonel,” I said coolly, waving toward the airship.
“Oh, no.” His smile widened. “Ladies first.”
I sure didn’t want him at my back, but I couldn’t show him I felt threatened by him. So I boarded the airship, ignoring the twitching, tingling feeling in my neck. And resisting the urge to turn around and walk in backwards so I could keep him in my sight. I was serving as an Interrogator, at least for now. I had to put on a show. Just as Damiel always did.
Five minutes on the job, and the paranoia was already seeping into me. The sooner Damiel and I got away from the Interrogators, the better off we’d be.
7
Damnation
There was but a single prison operated by the Legion of Angels, and it was called Damnation.
It might seem surprising that the gods’ hand of justice on Earth operated just one prison—until you remembered that the Legion only dealt with the most serious crimes, namely treason. The gods didn’t smile fondly upon making yourself a menace to the whole world either.
Serious crimes had serious ends. The sentence was usually death. The Legion—and the gods that ruled us—weren’t really into mercy.
But, every so often, there was a prisoner considered so valuable that the Legion’s need to execute them, to set an example, was less important than the information in that prisoner’s head. So rather than being killed, they were given to the Interrogators and sent to this prison, the aptly named Damnation.
The prisoners probably would have preferred death, actually, to this fate.
Most of them did not withstand the interrogations for long. The strongest prisoners lasted a month or two at most before they broke. But Eva Doren, once known as Major Doren and now known as a traitor to the Legion, had been locked up here for twenty years. In all that time, the Interrogators had gotten very little out of her. She was nothing if not stubborn.
Long ago, I’d considered Eva a friend, one of very