whip’s magic coil. We’re doing it to protect Nero.
I knew it was true. But it hurt. Leaving my Nero behind hurt, even though I knew that my dying today was the only way the Legion would ever remove the tarnish on Nero’s name, a tarnish wrongfully placed there because they thought Damiel was a traitor. That made me so mad. But as my father always said, getting angry would not help me. I had to grip my anger and mold it into something I could work with, something I could control. My anger could not be just a reaction to other people’s actions.
His whip gone, Damiel returned to his sword. I know this is the only way to salvage this mess, but that doesn’t make it any easier to do what we need to do. The flames on his blade clashed with the frost on mine. We must play our parts, even if it meant I had to watch Holyfire try to seduce you. Gods, he sure didn’t waste time trying to sink his teeth into you.
I shifted his sword into a flock of butterflies. Holyfire didn’t bite me. If he’d tried, I would have knocked the teeth right out of him.
I should hope so. Only I get to bite you. He watched the butterflies flutter away, abandoning him.
Are you jealous? I tossed a potion vial at him.
He jumped aside. Of course, he replied, unabashed. You are the light of my dark, despondent existence.
My heart clenched up. You’re such a sweet talker, Damiel.
Must be my siren magic, he joked as he grabbed me by the shoulders and stared into my eyes.
To our audience, it would have looked like he was trying to use Siren’s Song to break my will. They didn’t realize there was nothing to break. I was his, always and forever.
Your successor is decidedly less genteel, I told him. He prefers to break bones, not minds.
Holyfire’s always been a brute, through and through. All the magical matchmaking in the world won’t breed that out of his descendants. If I weren’t so busy pretending to fight you to the death, I’d smack him around the courtyard a few more times. As it is, I’ll have to settle for the glorious sight of him nailed to your castle roof. But someday, he’ll get what’s coming to him.
At your hands, I guessed.
Yes, he said with vicious pleasure.
I paused, then said, It’s not all Colonel Holyfire’s fault, you know.
That he’s a spineless, scheming pain-in-my-immortal-ass? Yes, that is very much his fault, Princess.
Ok, yes, that is his fault, I agreed. But I meant it’s not his fault that he made a move on me.
That transgression is thoroughly covered under ‘spineless’, ‘scheming’, and ‘pain-in-my-immortal-ass’.
Angels have an abundance of self-control, Damiel. We wouldn’t have survived so many sips of the gods’ Nectar without it. Do you really think an angel would have completely lost control over his libido under normal circumstances?
Yes, he replied without hesitation. I regularly lose control over my libido around you.
Don’t hit on me, Damiel.
Why not?
Because we’re supposed to be staging our own deaths.
Spoilsport, he said.
Debauchee, I shot back.
He laughed in my mind. Cadence, you could tempt a saint to sin.
I’m not sure that’s a compliment.
Oh, it is, he assured me. In all the most delicious ways.
You are derailing this conversation.
Because I don’t want to talk about that backstabbing, enterprising, horny idiot Colonel Holyfire. Don’t tell me you’re actually buying his excuse that he only tried to get into your pants to get my attention.
I think that was his initial plan. And then things got out of hand. Because of me.
His inability to resist your heavenly beauty is entirely his fault. Don’t you dare blame yourself.
I’m not. He is an ass, no question about it. But as you know, though we talk big, even angels are not bullet-proof. Or magic-proof. Colonel Holyfire’s behavior was affected by… I paused. Well, by my condition.
What condition?
I have the Fever, Damiel.
The Fever, a female angel’s fertile time, spiked her magic and shot her hormones through the roof. Female angels with the Fever were kept isolated from other Legion soldiers because wherever they went, they caused all kinds of mayhem amongst their comrades in the gods’ earthly army. Mayhem including, but not limited to, riots, orgies, and death.
Damiel dropped his hands. We’d been standing there for a few minutes, his hands locked on my shoulders. I pushed him back roughly to add some verisimilitude to the act that he’d been trying to break my will. Apparently, I’d