Live Like Legends (LIVING LEGEND #3)

Chapter 13

A fter some very vivid descriptions of her sparring fight with Elise and then a shower that consisted of me burying myself so deep inside of her that she nearly cried when she came, she told me all about how she wanted to proceed.

Her brown eyes had looked so determined when she’d said, “I want to go tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” My eyebrows raised in question.

She nodded, scooting over in my bed to burrow her face into my chest. “Yes. Whatever that is,” she’d pointed to my window where the sky was calm and uneventful, “I want to end it.”

I squeezed her, trailing my finger along her arm. “You will. We will. Can you just take a minute to consider that maybe you need one more day of figuring your power out?”

“No.” Her voice was unwavering.

I’d groaned and shifted to my side, waiting as she readjusted herself. I’d placed my hand under my head and looked at her. “All I’m asking for is one more training session with Natalia. We will let everyone know what you want to do, and we will all follow you into whatever is waiting for us.” I grabbed her hand and brought it to my lips, kissing her knuckles. “If you haven’t noticed, I worry about you.”

She’d brought her index finger to my lips, tracing them. “I worry about you too. You worry sufficiently more than me, so if waiting a day will put some pep in your step then fine. Only a fucking day though”

I leaned in to kiss her nose. “Good girl.”

She wrinkled her nose and started to make her way back over to the comfort of my body. “I know you don’t want to talk to him, but do you think you’ll regret not talking to him when we go there? The outcome of this entire thing is so up in the air, I just…”

I knew her words trailing away meant she felt my body tense up, she felt my halted breathing. I would have been lying if I’d said that I hadn’t even thought about the fact that I would actually leave without saying anything to him. The last time I left, I’d made him promise to tell me everything when he came back. He honored that promise. It wasn’t his fault that the things that he told me… broke my heart.

I didn’t know how to piece that back together. I didn’t know how to involve him in the reconstruction.

“I really don’t know.”

She’d let out a sigh. “I think you will.” She didn’t look at me when she spoke again right before she went to sleep. “You lost someone that you didn’t even know you could miss, and he should have told you about her, but I think you tend to forget that he lost someone too. You are so quick to absolve Jonah of all his faults but why can’t you give that same grace to your father. They were best friends who have a shared history when it comes to your past, when it comes to your mother and anything else. You don’t have to forgive him entirely but go scream at him, stomp around your house, something…. he’s given you all his love and attention for twenty-four years, you owe him at least some of yours back.”

Every second I spent with Morgan gave me a better understanding of why we weren’t together anymore. Her incessant need to casually touch me or make flirtatious verbal hints were enough to make me want to shake her and scream that I wasn’t interested anymore. I knew I didn’t need to do any of that because she was well aware; Morgan just liked to play games and be, yet another person, to get under my skin. She looked at Dani like she was the superior of the two of them. In the context of The Skies, she probably was, but when it came to my attention and heart…

She was no match for how I felt about Dani.

Now that….that was a feeling I knew I would never find again with anyone else.

“Nick, are you listening?” Morgan waved her hand at my face. I shook my head, suddenly remembering where I was and why I was here.

I had gotten here with the knowledge that today was it. Everyone had been on board, Elise especially, with us leaving tonight. Dani had promised me one more day and she’d given me that, so I was ready to stay true to what I’d said.

“Yeah, sorry, what did you say?”

Morgan pointed to the far-left wall of the giant ballroom we were in. I knew this space was used for big parties or for when the new incoming class of angels finished their introductory training and got their specific positions. I’d seen this room transformed in so many ways, but Ariel’s ceremony was not something I thought I’d ever see, let alone be helping with.

Lights were strung along the stone walls, unlit. I walked over, leaning down to place my hand at the bulb at the very bottom. My light dispersed from my hand into the bulb, moving from each one until it reached the top. I had been doing manual labor ever since I’d been coming here with her, and I was getting annoyed with how unnecessary this was.

“Once Ariel gets here, he’ll want to show you how things will go so that you are knowledgeable on the day of.”

I scratched the top of my head. “Why would that matter?”

She slapped my bicep, playfully. “Come on, Nick. You can’t make sure the ceremony is secure if you don’t know the rundown.”

“Make sure the ceremony is secure? Morgan, I’m not doing that.”

She let out a sharp laugh. “It’s really cute how you think you have a choice.”

“Actually, I do, and the answer is no. The entire purpose of me being here currently is stupid.”

Morgan took both my biceps in her hands and peeked up at me through her lashes. It would be an innocent gesture to anyone else. “You are slowly working your way into Ariel’s good graces; you’ll need that for when he takes over. I assure you this stain on your reputation won’t last forever. Ariel trusts me, so when I tell him how good you’ve been, well then, you’ll be back to your perfect place in this realm.”

I shrugged away from her, running a frustrated hand through my hair and walking away from her. I stopped short and quickly walked back over. “My perfect place in this realm? Do you honestly believe I actually want to have the kind of relationship I had with Jonah…with Ariel ? I did all of this because as long as Dani was doing everything she was supposed to, he would leave her alone and keep up his end of the deal.”

Morgan inhaled deeply, her calculating brown eyes narrowed. “She is doing all she needs to do and when she goes to take care of whatever the hell is happening, saving us all from everything her existence nearly caused then Ariel might, I don’t know, give her a medal or something. Happy?”

My ears perked up at something she’d said. “You are aware, she isn’t going back to Purgatory alone?”

“She can take her weird friends with her. Ariel made it clear that you and Reese are to stay here. He’s trying to give you a second chance, Nick. I would advise that you take it.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose, staring up at the ceiling. Decorated ivy hung from above, various flowers intertwined throughout it. “What are you not understanding? I don’t want a second chance with that asshole. I also don’t plan to stay here and pathetically follow him; I’m going with her.”

“No, you aren’t.”

“Morgan, stop. I am and Ariel can whine about it all he wants, but it’s already been planned. You said it’s her mess, but it’s my mess too.”

Morgan scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest. Her freckled nose wrinkled. “You go and he could banish you, kick you out. It happened to your father. You aren’t invincible, Nick.”

I cocked my head back. “How do you know anything about my father?”

“Ariel likes to talk about a lot of things. When you get brought up, so does your dad. He sure as shit doesn’t like that man, but he always makes a point to say that if you would just move your pride over just a smidge, look at the bigger picture, then well you could miss out on your father’s mistakes…”

I pointed my finger at her, leaning down a small bit so I could meet her face to face. “My father did look at the bigger picture a long time ago and decided not to slaughter people that didn’t deserve it. My father and my future aren’t his fucking concern, nor is it yours. You want to help me, Morgan? Help this realm? Then stop thinking Ariel can do you any favors and start really looking at who you’re working for.” I backed up, needing to get the fuck out of here.

“You want to help the realms, Nicholas, well then, I suggest you stay on the side of individuals who have the power to legitimately change things.”

“Ariel’s version of change isn’t something I’m interested in.”

“It’s in your best interest.” She took her glasses off and started to clean them with the bottom of her shirt. She was so casual about all of this, like this was a conversation she assumed she’d be having. “You used to want to be the best, be at the highest tier. Don’t you miss being envied and sought after by higher ups.”

I rolled my eyes. “You have no idea what’s in my best interest, believe me, you never have.”

She placed her glasses back on, sticking her tongue between her teeth. “You seriously think she’s in your best interest. She came as Lilith’s pawn, she manipulated you into following her to Purgatory, she’s brought all this into our home and somehow you think….”

“She didn’t manipulate me Morgan, I went all on my own.” I closed my eyes, thinking over my next words carefully; I wanted them to matter, make an impact. “You’re right, I did used to want all those things and I would have fought sword for sword just to keep it, but things change. People change . There are way too many people involved for me to just consider myself anymore and maybe that’s where you and I differ.”

“She’s a demon, Nick. Oh, sorry a hybrid, not that it matters. You can’t honestly tell me that you’ve just…”

“I’m in love with her!” My eyes widened at the need for her to fucking hear me.

Morgan’s mouth closed quickly as she looked around at the different angels that glanced our way. I had seen them looking before but now they weren’t even trying to act as if they weren’t paying attention.

My chest could have exploded from the relief I felt. I had told Dani I loved her plenty of times, but saying that statement out loud, even if it had to be to my ex-girlfriend, made me feel a certain way. “Ariel doesn’t matter. This fucking ceremony doesn’t matter. There are plenty of other sentries that can stand guard and make sure he is still alive by the end of it. I am going with her tonight, Morgan. She isn’t a stain or a problem, she’s…she’s it for me. I don’t know when it happened but she’s it for me. Whether it’s Purgatory or Hell itself, I am going with her, because I’m in love with her.”

“Nick.” Morgan’s face turned a shade of red, almost as if she was embarrassed that I wasn’t professing my love for another person. I almost chuckled to myself thinking about that. I turned on my heels as I headed out of the ballroom.

If Dani thought she was ready for whatever lay ahead of us, then she deserved to get out of her head while she was still in Heaven’s Gate.