Right now, he had Nyx’s full attention. The First Angel was desperate to fill her Legion with more powerful soldiers, more powerful angels.
Colonel Holyfire left the interrogation chamber, an angel driven by a single purpose.
I rushed out of the room after him and planted myself in his way. “Where are you going? What are you going to do?”
“My duty,” he told me.
Translation: he was going to talk to the First Angel and tell her Damiel was a traitor.
“Get out of my way, Lightbringer,” he snapped. “Or be branded a traitor yourself.”
I could not fight this battle. I could not fight Colonel Holyfire, not like this. Not head-on. So I stepped out of his way.
A patronizing smile stretched his mouth. “A wise choice.”
A soldier in a black uniform walked toward us. The color really stood out amongst all the white ones.
“Colonel Lightbringer. Colonel Holyfire.” He nodded crisply at each of us in turn.
Colonel Holyfire looked at the clipboard in the soldier’s hands. “I don’t have time to give any autographs right now,” he said with an air of practiced arrogance.
The soldier paused for a moment, caught off guard, before he continued on with his scripted lines. “Anyone who visits Damnation must fill out the necessary paperwork. It’s procedure.”
The Interrogator in black must have been an administrator of some sort, a soldier tasked with keeping things running smoothly.
“Procedures must be upheld, Lightbringer. Do indulge the man and fill out our paperwork.” Colonel Holyfire looked pretty damn pleased with himself. “My mission cannot wait.”
Then he rushed past me and stormed down the hall like he was charging into battle.
I knew Colonel Holyfire was trying to delay me by tying me up in bureaucracy, but there wasn’t much I could do about it unless I wanted to disobey him. He’d given me an order. We might have the same rank, but technically he was in charge of this mission. Which meant I had to do as he said. If I disobeyed, I would land myself in hot water right along with Damiel. And if I was in prison, I couldn’t save my husband.
So I grabbed the clipboard. I needed time to think anyway, to plan this out. I would find a way to get Damiel out of this situation, but not by rushing in. I had to think this through.
I quickly filled out the lines on the prison visitation form.
Name: Colonel Cadence Lightbringer.
Position: Angel of Storm Castle.
Whatever I did, I had to act fast. Damiel was no traitor. So why had Eva said it? Had someone at the Legion really bribed her to do it? I stopped myself right there. Eva’s motivations and schemes were not important right now. Right now, saving Damiel was all that mattered.
I started on Colonel Holyfire’s section of the paperwork.
Name: Colonel Eryx Holyfire.
Position: Pain in my backside.
No, I couldn’t write that.
So I wrote ‘Angel of the Central Territory’ instead.
Innocent or not, I feared the Legion would convict Damiel anyway. He had been acting ‘dark’ ever since he’d lost his friend Jiro in his archangel trials. Nowadays, he was playing the Legion game less. People, especially the other angels, had been talking about Damiel. They were suspicious of his actions. But more than that, they were frightened of him. Being the Master Interrogator did not make him a popular person at the Legion. This whole ordeal could be the final straw to tip the Legion against him—especially right now, during this time of unrest, after losing so many soldiers to the demons. The more tightly the Legion pulled, the more soldiers defected to the Dark Force.
I’d finished the paperwork, but I still had no idea how I was going to save Damiel. I heard a series of low beeps and the sound of a retracting ramp. The airship had just taken off. Colonel Holyfire was sure in a hurry to arrest Damiel. Along the way, he would call Nyx and get her approval to strip Damiel of his power and lock him up.
He figured I would never make it to New York before him.
Well, he didn’t know about the Diamond Tear. The dagger could bring me to Damiel in an instant.
And then? I asked myself.
If I rushed in, guns blazing, that would make Damiel look guilty. It would make me look guilty too.
There had to be another way. There had to be something I could do.
“You missed a page,” the Interrogator in black told me.
I took the clipboard again.
Gods, what could I do? How was I going to get Damiel