I crossed the line on the running track, which marked the end of my forty-seventh mile this morning. But Harker, who was running in front of me, didn’t slow down. He kept going. Nero was close on my tail, making sure I didn’t slow down either. Man, it was a good thing we weren’t human because my heart might have already given out. As it was, it just felt like it was going to burst through my chest. The two angels didn’t believe in doing anything half-assed.

It had been several months since we’d faced Stash on the Black Plains. Nero hadn’t completely forgiven Harker, but things were slowly getting back to the way they’d once been, back when they’d used to be friends.

“I can feel your eyes burning a hole through the back of my head, Nero,” Harker said.

“Gods, I hope that’s an exaggeration,” I said. I was running between the two of them. Any laser stare would cut through me first.

“If you don’t feel comfortable with me behind you, we could switch places,” Nero told Harker.

“So you can accuse me of staring at Leda’s ass? I think I’ll dodge that bullet.”

I chuckled.

“Leda,” Nero warned.

Uh-oh. I knew that tone.

Harker supplied Nero’s words, the words I knew were coming. “If you can laugh, you’re not running fast enough.”

I was the reason for the rift between them, so it was only fitting that I was the reason for the mending of their friendship. They were united in their commitment to level up my magic by thoroughly kicking my ass.

Nero gave me a little psychic nudge in the butt, pushing me to move faster.

“How long have you been waiting to do that?” I demanded. If I hadn’t been worried about tripping over my own feet at this speed, I’d have shot him an irked look over my shoulder.

“Ever since I first saw you in that running suit this morning,” he told me.

“You can proposition her later, Nero. The First Angel wants Leda ready by the time the Crystal Falls Training comes around.”

Harker was still leading the New York office, and he was still officially in charge of my training. Ronan had turned him into a double agent. He had to report back to Ronan on everything Faris told him.

“She’ll be ready for the Crystal Falls Training,” Nero said.

Nero was now Nyx’s second in command. I called him the Second Angel, but he didn’t seem to appreciate the title. I couldn’t imagine why.

The Legion’s New York office was his main home, but he wasn’t here as often as I would have liked. He was meeting with Nyx all the time and going on lots of trips all over the world. He visited the Legion’s offices in Nyx’s stead to make sure things were running smoothly—and to assess the angels’ loyalty to her. He also put out supernatural fires from time to time. And for those missions, he could select soldiers from any Legion office.

“She can’t go to the training until she’s gained psychic magic,” Harker pointed out. “It’s levels six and seven only.”

“She’ll be ready,” Nero repeated.

“We’ll need to increase her training sessions to up her psychic resistance.”

Harker—and Nero when he was around—had been training my psychic resistance by blasting me with telekinetic spells. I’d ended each and every session with broken bones—and I hadn’t felt any more resistant than I had on day one. There was always the chance that I’d survive my next dose of Nectar anyway, but I didn’t like playing the lottery. And neither did the two angels training me.

“Maybe we need to try a different approach,” I said.

“Like what?” Harker asked.

“I’m not sure.”

“Less talking. More running,” Nero told me. “If you get stronger, your magic will get stronger too. You just need a little push.”

And with that said, he pushed me again with his psychic magic. I stumbled forward but recovered my stride. This wasn’t the first time he’d done that, and it wouldn’t be the last. I had two choices: I could either get more resistant to psychic attacks and not let his magic throw me off balance, or I could get faster so he couldn’t psychic-punch me. As far as Nero was concerned, either case was a win. In either case, I got stronger. He was practical like that. I wondered if he realized how much like his father he truly was.

Damiel was now Nyx’s advisor and private Interrogator. He questioned people she didn’t want anyone to find out about. He seemed happy to get out of the ‘gilded cage’ Nero had put him in.

Stash sometimes worked with Damiel and Nero on their missions. He was keeping his true identity a secret. It was safer for him. As long as the truth stayed buried, Faris couldn’t use him to play war with his brother Zarion. Nyx and Ronan were training Stash in secret, growing his demigod powers. As Nero gave me another psychic nudge, I wondered if they were torturing Stash as much as Nero and Harker were torturing me.

Finally, we completed our final lap. Nero glanced at the time on his watch. “Nearly a minute faster than the last time we all ran together.”

We hadn’t all run together in over a week, not since Nero had left for his last mission. I’d been training alone with Harker. He wasn’t easy on me either, but at least he didn’t blast me with psychic energy when I was running. Or when I was lifting weights. I rubbed my head, remembering the loaded barbell I’d dropped on myself thanks to Nero.

“A minute faster.” I grinned at them. “Pretty good, don’t you think?”

Harker shot me a blank look, clearly unimpressed. “You need to shave another five minutes off that time.”

Oh, great. Now there were two of them. All those people who fantasized about spending time alone with two angels didn’t know what it really meant: pain. And more pain. If they’d known the truth, they wouldn’t have made all those crude jokes to me.

I tossed Nero and Harker each a water bottle. Even angels needed to stay hydrated. I made a conscious effort not to aim the bottles at their heads. They were trying to help me. I had to remember that, even when it felt like they were trying to kill me.

I put on a big smile. “I’ll get there. Don’t worry. With you two by my side, how could I possibly fail?”

Harker took a long drink from his bottle, then said to Nero, “Haven’t you warned her about tempting fate?”

“Leda doesn’t believe in fate.”

“That’s right. I don’t. I believe we all have the power to make our own way and to choose our own destiny.” I set my hand on his arm and gave it a squeeze. “The power to do the right thing.”

“Everyone can be saved?” He looked highly skeptical.

“Yes.”

“What about Colonel Fireswift?” Harker asked.

I winced. “Ok, almost anyone.”

Nero snorted.

“I guess I should amend that to: anyone who wants to be saved can be saved,” I said. “Colonel Fireswift included.”

“Funny you should say that.”

I grimaced. “I don’t think I like where that sentence is headed, Harker.”

He draped a towel over his shoulders. “Because he’s coming to New York next week.”

“Do either of you have a mission that will take me out of New York next week?” I asked the two angels.

One of Harker’s brows arched upward at me. “What happened to redeeming Colonel Fireswift?”

“I’m going to concentrate on saving the younger Fireswift first.”

“Jace Fireswift. He’s good.” Harker looked at Nero. “Almost as good as you were. And he’s determined. He also has a thing for your girl.”

“That’s not true,” I told him. “Jace is my friend.”

Harker laughed. Nero’s eyes narrowed.

“His father had him go on a string of difficult missions during the past few months. Captain Fireswift has already gained psychic magic.” Harker shot me a meaningful look. “You’re falling behind your ‘friend’, Leda. He has the benefit of his natural magic and the fact that he’s been training since he was a baby. If you don’t get your act together, he’ll beat you to the prize.”

“What prize?”

“He’ll be the first of you two to become an angel.”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s not a competition.”

“Tell that to Jace Fireswift,” replied Harker. “He’s determined to become an angel before you.”

“That’s his father’s influence, pressuring him.”

“That might be part of it.” A devilish gleam shone in his eyes. “But I’m sure he’s also heard that you have a thing for angels.”

Nero’s water bottle burst inside his fist.

“Don’t listen to Harker,” I told him. “He’s just trying to mess with you.”

“I know. But that doesn’t mean what he says isn’t true.”

I shook my head at Harker. “You are smarter than this. Nero is going to kick your ass if you keep annoying him.”

Harker laughed. Nero glared at him, his face cold. Then, suddenly, he laughed too. I couldn’t hold back my smile. It was nice to see them like this again. Friends again.

Nero tossed the crushed water bottle into the trash. “I have some things to attend to in my office.” He set his hands on my cheeks, then leaned down and kissed me.

It was a quick kiss, but I had to admit it left me breathless nonetheless. And that wasn’t just from the fifty miles we’d just run.

After Nero left the gym, I looked up at the clock. “Basanti is arriving soon from Storm Castle. Let’s go greet her.”

Harker nodded in agreement, then we headed down to the garage. We found her there, arguing with a mechanic who was accusing her of ruining the truck she’d checked out.

“I got attacked by a herd of savage bison,” Basanti snapped. Her hair was coming out of her bun, and her face was smudged with dirt and oil. The truck parked behind her was splattered with blood. “Of course it’s damaged. But once you rub off the blood, it won’t look half as bad.”

The mechanic shot her a look of absolute horror.

She threw up her hands in frustration. “Well, then just paint over it again. It’s what you guys do anytime the slightest mark gets on any of our trucks.” She turned her back on him and grinned at me and Harker. “I’m gone for a few months, and everyone gets promoted.”

As the mechanic fussed over the truck’s unwanted bloody paint job, I swooped in and gave her a hug. “I’m glad you’re back.”

Harker kissed her on the cheek, then we left the garage.

“Hiya,” Alec greeted Basanti in the halls. “We’ve missed you. You get lost on the Black Plains?”

Basanti shot him a confused look, but he was already walking toward the gym, trailed by a group of initiates. Alec sometimes taught them how to shoot.

“Ok, why does everyone here think I’ve been on the Black Plains?” Basanti asked us later, after several other people in the halls had made similar comments to her. “I’ve spent the last few months at Storm Castle, helping with the repairs.”

“Talk to Nero,” I told her.

“How mysterious,” Basanti said drily, glancing at my back. “I don’t see any wings on you, Leda, but you’re talking more like an angel every day.”

“I’ll go with you,” Harker told her, and the two of them walked toward Nero’s office.

I headed for the stairwell. Jace met me on his way down.

“Hey,” I said. “How were your missions?”

“My father sent me to the Wicked Wilds, the Forsaken Forest, and the Forgotten Desert.”

“I heard you did some pretty impressive things.” I pointed at the symbol of a psychic hand pinned onto his jacket below the words ‘Captain Fireswift’.

“Yes.” His gaze dipped to the shifter symbol on my sweatshirt. “I see you were promoted too.”

“Yes, but not twice like you were.”

His smile was satisfied. And the way he was looking at me was…strange. Like he wanted to impress me. Was Harker right?

No, I decided. Harker was just messing with me, making me imagine things. Jace Fireswift did not have a thing for me.

I told Jace what had happened while he was gone, minus the part where Stash turned out to be a demigod and where we’d met with Nyx, Damiel, and Ronan.

My tale must have been thrilling enough anyway because he sighed. “One of these days, I’m going to have a better story than you, Leda.”

I smirked at him. “Bring it on.”

After we parted ways, I went to my temporary shoebox of a room to change. After my apartment had exploded, I hadn’t bothered to look for a new one. I had, however, encouraged Ivy and Drake to get one without me.

I stared at my bare room, which was hardly large enough for the bed and closet. A few of my clothes had miraculously survived Ivy blowing up our old apartment. They hung in the closet, along with a whole lot of Legion leather.

“Leda.”

I jumped in surprise at the sound of Nero’s voice. I turned around to face him. His body filled up the doorway, making it look so small. And he didn’t even have his wings out right now. He sure knew how to make an entrance. And, you know, just stand there.

“You have really got to stop doing that,” I told him.

He closed the door behind him. My room got even smaller.

“Did you talk to Basanti?” I asked as I changed my clothes.

“Yes.”

“And how did she take it?”

“That the First Angel spent days impersonating her? Surprisingly well. She wasn’t even surprised. Being reunited with Leila has had an effect on her.”

“It reminded her of the games you angels like to play?”

“She always knew about the games that angels play. She is just more accepting of them now.”

I slipped into my jacket. “So, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit, General?”

“I have something for you.” He held out a small wrapped present.

“My birthday is next month.”

“I am well aware of your birthdate, Leda.”

Of course he was. He’d read it on my Legion application. He’d probably read everything on that sheet so many times, trying to figure me out. To decipher why I was really there. I sure hadn’t written ‘to find my brother, a telepath, and keep him out of the Legion’s hands’. That wouldn’t have gone over well.

I fingered the present’s shiny wrapping paper. “It’s very pretty. It even has a bow. Did you wrap it yourself?” I grinned at him.

“Just open the box, Pandora.”

I chuckled. “Now that is a sentence I never thought I’d hear.”

I tore off the beautiful wrapping paper and found a small jewelry box inside. The box was gold set with gemstones. It must have cost a fortune. What could possibly be inside? I lifted the lid to find a silver key, cushioned inside a bed of velvet.

“The keys to the kingdom?” I asked. I just couldn’t help myself.

“The keys to your new apartment. Our new apartment.” He watched me closely for my reaction.

I just blinked like an idiot.

“You didn’t think I’d forgotten,” he said.

He meant way back before the Gods’ Trials, when I’d thought about how I wanted to live with him. I hadn’t even said it aloud. I’d just thought it. He’d heard me—and remembered.

Why couldn’t I stop blinking at him? Did I think he would disappear, that this would turn out to be nothing more than a dream?

“You’ve changed your mind.” His voice was guarded, cautious.

“Are you kidding?” I kissed him. “Of course I haven’t changed my mind. I would love to live with you.”

“Good.” The satisfaction rolled off his tongue.

“Good?”

“Exactly.”

I snorted. “Sometimes you’re so weird, Nero.”

“I find that a peculiar statement coming from you.”

“Oh, it’s a compliment,” I told him. “One hundred percent.”

“If you would just pack up your things—”

I hastily tossed the meager contents of my closet into a box. It took about two seconds. “Ready.”

His brows lifted, obviously impressed by my magic trick. “Then we can go see the apartment,” he finished. “After which we’ll have dinner and get in another training session.”

“Hey, I have a different idea. Let’s be crazy for a change and spice up the routine.”

“What do you suggest?” I could almost see his mind working, shuffling through possible training programs.

I draped my arms over his shoulders. “Let’s just lie on the sofa in our new apartment, watching TV while stuffing ourselves full of caramel popcorn until we enter a sugar-induced coma and fall asleep in each other’s arms.”

He stared at me for a moment, so long that I started to get worried I’d offended him. Then he brushed my hair behind my ear with a smile and declared, “That sounds perfect.”