Angel Fever (Immortal Legacy #3) - Ella Summers Page 0,23

tactics like instructing a traitor to tell lies.” My gaze flickered to Eva. “Because if the demons turn the Legion against its own Master Interrogator, we’ll be so busy chasing shadows and lies that we can’t fight the actual enemy.”

“You are trying to confuse the subject, Lightbringer. But your clever rhetoric cannot mask the clear and simple truth: Dragonsire is a traitor, a demon lapdog. And nothing you say will change that.”

Gods, it was like talking to a Magitech wall. All it did was bite back.

I had to switch tactics. Colonel Holyfire was a lost cause. He was hellbent on this erroneous path.

I turned to Eva and demanded, “Why are you inventing these wild lies?”

“It’s not an invention. It’s the truth.”

She looked convincing enough. But I didn’t believe her act. Not for a second.

I had to interrogate Eva further, to get to the bottom of whatever scheme she was planning. Hadn’t Damiel’s last interrogation of Eva caused him to send a team of Interrogators to the Elemental Expanse, where they’d spotted what appeared to be dark angels? And that had led Damiel, Leila, and me to the Elemental Expanse. That was no coincidence. Eva was tying us up in knots, crippling us.

“I promise you, I will figure out what you’re up to,” I told Eva.

Colonel Holyfire hit a button on the wall and spoke into the intercom. “We’re done here. Come collect the prisoner and return her to her cell.”

“I am not done with her.” I reached for the button to tell the guards to leave Eva here a while longer.

He knocked my hand away from the intercom. “Oh, but you are done. I’m in charge of this investigation, remember? And now that Dragonsire has proven to be a traitor, I am in charge of the Interrogators as well.” Victory burned in his eyes as they fell upon the Interrogator badge Damiel had given me. “Dragonsire’s orders are null and void. You aren’t the interim Master Interrogator anymore. You have no authority here at all.”

“You haven’t proven Dragonsire’s guilt.”

He ignored me, speaking to himself. “Nyx must have known this investigation would unearth something unsavory about Dragonsire.” He was rewriting history to fit events into his world view. “You’d best stay out of it, Lightbringer.” His brows lifted. “Like the First Angel, I know you’re too soft to stomach putting your husband to the gods’ justice.”

Disgust dripped off every word that he spoke. Clearly, he did not approve of my feelings for Damiel. Angel marriages were assigned, like territories and everything else at the Legion. Angels weren’t actually supposed to care about their spouse, let alone love them. The other angels made it clear how much they disapproved of the closeness Damiel and I shared. They saw our feelings as a sign of weakness.

But they weren’t. Our bond didn’t make us weak. It made us unbreakable. Two angels forged in love, united in purpose. We were a formidable force.

A force the other angels feared—I realized—even more than they feared Damiel. Because the Master Interrogator’s authority could be taken away or transferred in a heartbeat. I’d just witnessed that firsthand. But not my and Damiel’s love. It could not be broken.

Eva’s accusations. Nyx putting Colonel Holyfire in charge of the investigation. This went deeper. It had to.

Colonel Holyfire was acting like he’d come expecting to find Damiel guilty, even before Eva had uttered the words that condemned him. I’d chided Damiel for being paranoid about the other angels, but could he have been right all along?

If the angels feared our union enough, they might try to break it. Maybe they’d planned Damiel’s upheaval. Maybe they were the ones who’d coerced Eva into speaking these lies. Maybe they’d offered her something to point the finger at Damiel. Maybe this wasn’t about the demons at all. Maybe the Legion itself had set it all up. Maybe they’d betrayed Damiel out of fear—fear of his power, fear of our union.

That was an awful lot of maybes.

I considered Colonel Holyfire. He was ruthless and despised anyone with more power than he himself possessed. He was a recent angel, newer than I was, but he’d been at the Legion longer than I had. And he was quickly trying to amass power for himself and his legacy.

He was already experimenting with magic, manipulating magical pairings, going beyond the Legion’s magic mating regulations to try to create children with even higher magical potential. I’d read some of his research. He thought he could manipulate magic abilities in fine detail.