Live Like Legends (LIVING LEGEND #3)

Chapter 26

N atalia’s house was all chatter and nonsense the moment we all plowed inside. Elise, the little psycho that she was, was the loudest of them all. Well, she rivaled Maurice, that was for sure. I wasn’t surprised by the visceral reaction everyone was having because what the fuck even just happened. The leather bound notebook I had taken back from Nick was burning a hole in my back pocket. I didn’t know what it was, since I’d never bothered to open it. The moment he’d hid it from Ariel’s sight told me that it was of importance.

What kind of importance and to whom, I wasn’t sure.

I heard Beetee crying, but when I looked over to her, her face wasn’t one of immense sadness. No, her body was shaking and her tears streamed down her golden brown skin in anger. I noticed her eyes shift over to a yellow color and then back to their normal lilac. They did it again and again, faster with each shift. She held her head in her hands and kept mumbling, “ I c-can’t. ”

“You can’t what, sweetheart?” Garrett asked, reaching for her arms.

“She is trying really fucking hard not to be an enormous snake right now, so I suggest that if you enjoy the interior of this room, you take her out back,” Elise crossed her arms over her chest.

“I’ll take her,” Zane offered, walking up to her, attempting to place a hand on her elbow.

Beetee shuffled away, her skin starting to flake away in tiny pieces and her eyes now permanently in their yellow color.

Zane huffed. “Yeah, not in this house, you aren’t.” He bent down and placed his arms behind her thighs, hoisting her over his shoulder. She was still shaking, small hisses releasing from her mouth.

As we watched him go, Maurice spoke, “Ariel has no right to put him there! I’m going to get him out.”

“As much as I love your spirit, Mr. Cassial, Ariel isn’t going to just hand him over because you tell him how much you care for your love struck son. If you go, it will only make things worse, since from how that looked, the guy can’t fucking stand you,” Elise pointed out.

“Can you have a fucking heart for like two minutes?” I asked, furrowing my brow.

She rolled her eyes. “It’s the truth. How else would you like me to put it?”

Natalia cleared her throat. “ Please, before you both start, none of this bickering will get us anywhere. Instead of using your minds to think up insults for each other, how about you start thinking of ways to get your friend back.”

Elise opened her mouth in what looked like a protest towards the word friend , but Natalia gave her a pointed look. “You could have decided to find a way to Purgatory since the last time you threatened to go, yet here you stand.” Elise narrowed her gray eyes at the High Priestess but remained quiet. “Whether you admit it or not, you are content being a part of this little family we’ve all created so stop resisting it and start working together.”

I wanted to say something snarky but a rumble came from outside and I noticed a set of black scales lined in pink through the window.

“Is she going to be able to change back in the emotional state she’s in?” Garrett asked, concerned.

Elise nodded. “Yeah, super heavy emotions tend to overtake her. She can control it for the most part, but sometimes, it’s just too much.” Her voice had lost its attitude as she worried her bottom lip.

I looked over their heads to see Maurice sitting on one of the steps of the grand staircase. I moved around everyone else and came over to him, plopping down next to him. “He’s going to be fine, you know. Ariel isn’t going to do anything to him.”

“Ariel doesn’t have to, Reese.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, trying to understand.

He sighed. There was a tiny second of silence before he sighed again and turned his face to look at me. “You know he loves that girl, right?”

“Dani? Yeah, I’m pretty sure we all knew before he did.”

Maurice ran a hand through his dark hair, the gray strands contrasting with the dark. “Then like I said Ariel doesn’t have to do much of anything. We both know Nick has thought of nothing but getting her back and now that is out of his reach. There is a brick wall in his path, no way out to be seen.” He sounded tired and sad. He sounded like a dad that cared so much that it physically hurt him to see his son in this predicament.

I couldn’t say I was familiar with that ideal. The only thing my parents cared about was making sure I didn’t fraternize with people they deemed unworthy and the man next to me was one of them. After Nick explained as much of his missing past as he could to me, I had somewhat of a better understanding that my parents were bigger assholes than I thought.

They had to have known about Nick’s mom, but maybe allegiance to something they considered was the purest in the realms was more important to them. They were far too old for it to still be blinding them, so for now I had to just assume they were the most stubborn fucking angels in the realms.

I placed my hand on his knee. “We’ll get him back, Mr. Cassial. I promise.”

He placed his hand over mine, squeezing it. “You’re a good friend, Reese. Probably the best my son will ever have.”

I smiled, scrunching my mouth to the side as I thought something over. “At this point, we’ve already proven that we don’t follow the rules. The time for talking is over. Ariel wants to steal him; we might as well just steal him back.”

Maurice huffed out a small laugh. “A rescue mission?”

I opened my mouth to speak, but an irritating voice plagued my ear drums.

“Rescue mission?” Elise repeated, leaning against the railing of the stairs.

I clucked my tongue, whipping my head up to her. “Yup. And please spare me your insanely unhelpful words of wisdom that are likely something like ‘you are far too stupid to rescue your friend’ or ‘he’s Ariel’s problem now, we might as well do it on our own.’” I pushed off the stairs so that I could look down at her from where I stood. “Frankly your moody bullshit is not on the menu for tonight so if that’s how you plan to be, your ass can sit here and wait for me to get back because I’m sure as shit getting my best friend back.”

I didn’t realize my chest was heaving, until I sucked in a breath. She blinked up at me as if she was unimpressed at every single word I’d said. Her silence frightened me just a little and I could feel myself wanting to flinch as if she would surprise me with a punch to the face.

“Are you finished?” She asked, sounding bored.

“Yes…”

She gave me a tight lipped smile. “As surprising as it is to both of us, I was going to ask you what you had in mind, Blondie?”

Natalia let out a noise, almost like a choked cough. Maurice had raised both his eyebrows and Garrett tried to hide his smile, but it wasn’t fucking working.

“Oh…” I tried to muster up all the confidence I’d had a second ago, “well, I…I didn’t really have one. I thought we could brainstorm a plan.”

She groaned, placing her hand at my face and pushing me back. “Yeah, okay . I generously give you an opportunity to impress me and you fail. Not surprised but, oh well, I tried.”

“And what do you want to do, just go in and slaughter everyone? No angel left alive?” I countered, chasing after her as she walked away from me.

She swung around, pushing me back. “Actually, that’s a fucking awesome idea. Good job, Blondie. I am so happy we have the same idea. Everyone let’s go!”

Maurice and Natalia both held up their hands, halting her idea.

“No, Elise. I understand that some blood may have to be shed, but you cannot just go in with violence being the intended solution,” Natalia said, sounding exasperated.

Elise tilted her head to the side, her black hair swinging above her shoulders. “Tell me, witch, why the fuck not?”

“Because your hot-headed little temper might get us into more trouble than it’s worth,” I taunted, gaining a growl from her.

Garrett spoke next. “Then what do we do? The sooner we get Nicholas back, the sooner we can head to Purgatory and find Dani. The sooner I can have my family and Beetee, her moms.”

Footsteps sounded as they rounded the staircase. “Are you all aware that there’s a rather large snake outside?” Xander hooked his thumb over his shoulder.

We all nodded.

“That’s Beetee. She had to uh, let off some steam,” I answered, receiving a look that said ah, okay makes complete sense .

Xander’s teal eyes surveyed each of us. “Am I missing something?”

“Nothing to concern yourself with, hot stuff, just go back to healing the weak and wounded.” Elise waved him off. He wrinkled his nose at her, but didn’t make a move to leave. Xander looked towards me for answers.

I rubbed the bridge of my nose. “Ariel took Nick to the Ethereal Bastille. We want to get him out, but the how is proving difficult.”

He nodded in understanding. “So, you need to get past a bunch of guards?”

“Clearly.” Elise made a face like it was the dumbest question she’d ever heard.

Xander ignored her, his ears perking up when his High Priestess’s voice rang out. “Yes, what are you thinking?”

He smirked. “I might have something that could help you with that.”

“You’re sure this will work?” Natalia asked, skepticism lacing her tone.

Xander eyed her with a mischievous glint in his eyes. “Of course, I wouldn’t steer you wrong.”

“You’ve made this kind of thing before?” Elise said, turning her nose up at the glass ball he was filling with a green liquid. Smoke bellowed around the ladle he used.

The Enchanter poured the last bit of the solution into the glass sphere, swirling his hand around the top, closing the opening. “Yes and no. I’ve made it but not this large of an amount. I had to eyeball the ingredients, especially if you want the dosing to do the trick on your stubborn sentries.”

Xander had taken us to the Apothecary, explaining that a sleeping spell would give us the easy in we needed to retrieve my best friend. He’d told us that he’d formulated many sleeping aids for Enchanters, some of them suffered from insomnia or just fucking terrible nightmares and a good nights sleep was much needed. He made sure to explain that we shouldn’t linger too long just in case, but he was good at what he did, so we should trust him.

I didn’t trust easily, but for some reason I trusted this Enchanter that had nursed my fucked-up leg back to some sort of health and made sure Nick had his bearings after his overwhelming panic attack.

He turned and handed the glass ball to me. I held it delicately in my palm, watching as the liquid sloshed back and forth.

“Don’t drop it, Blondie. It will be nap time for all of us.” Elise moved past me, rolling her eyes.

I bit my own tongue as I stomped after her. Xander and Natalia followed behind us as we walked out the front door. A back to normal Beetee and grumpy looking Zane met us outside.

“Sorry,” Beetee mumbled under her breath, looking embarrassed.

I knitted my eyebrows. “For?”

She casually moved her hand in the direction of Natalia’s home. “For what happened? I just…sometimes….”

I chuckled. “Ah well, I would expect nothing less from our favorite reptile queen. If you didn’t care so much I would think you weren’t the real you.” I winked at her, which caused her to grant me one of her genuine smiles.

“Are you two fine going by yourselves?” The skepticism in Zane’s voice was more than apparent. His dark eyes looked between me and the less than appealing demon next to me.

“Awe, your concern is adorable.” Elise batted her eyelashes at the large Enchanter. “Makes me want to fucking vomit.”

Natalia cleared her throat. “I’ve been thinking about that as well. As much as I’m concerned for Nicholas, I…” She raised one of her defined eyebrows, her array of jewelry shining in the moonlight.

I raised my hand up to stop her. “It’s under control. The little one will be on her best behavior.” I gave Elise a smug smile, which she responded by giving me a middle finger.

“Um…a question?” Beetee’s voice rang out as if she thought she might be intruding on something.

We all looked at her expectantly.

She hooked her index fingers together, strands of her pink hair hiding her right eye. “How do you plan to make it into the Ethereal Bastille? You can’t use magic to just portal into that place and no way Ariel or any sentry will let you through without a valid reason.”

I snickered, giving the cute little shifter demon my attention. “Oh, don’t you worry, reptile queen. I have an idea.”

We walked across the lawn of The Skies, the sentries at the gate coming into view. Natalia had sent us through a portal that had us landing a few yards away, so that we wouldn’t cause a commotion. Elise had incessantly asked me about the plan, but I’d just shrugged and told her that she would find out soon enough.

My body was vibrating with what was about to happen as I fingered the strap of my bow that was behind my back.

“Blondie, you really need to fucking tell me what’s going on, or…” Her words were halted when I kicked behind her knees, causing her to fall forward, but I caught her by the arm right before she fell to the ground. “What the fuck!?”

I reached for her other arm, twisting her wrists between my hands and dragging her the rest of the way to the sentries. I pulled her back towards me, so that I could whisper, “settle down and let me do the talking.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but the sentries cut her off. “What’s all this about?”

Elise tried to break from my hold, but I yanked her back over to me so hard that I’m sure she got whiplash. “I’m sure Ariel would love another potential threat in the Ethereal Bastille.”

“Blondie! You little…” She whined but I shushed her.

The sentries eyed each other and then looked back at me. The taller one spoke. “Isn’t your friend already locked up in there?”

The other one, a female with corkscrew dark curls spoke next. “Yeah, we saw him get hauled away.”

I shrugged. “Yeah, well I’m not trying to end up like that, so I’m thinking this could be a nice way of getting into his good graces.”

The female tilted her head. “Okay, sure. We’ll tell Ariel.”

I hummed. “Well, actually , I want it to be a surprise. I want to tell him myself. Listen, with everything going on, he’s probably really busy with his ceremony and all that so I don’t want to be more of a problem then I’ve clearly already been. Let me just get her settled in her new home. I know the way, so you guys don’t have to bother with leaving your post.”

I squeezed Elise’s wrists as she continued to stay quiet. Her breathing was even as if she was stewing in her anger over this situation. She was smart enough to understand what was happening, so I was silently thanking the realms that she had decided to shut the fuck up.

The taller sentry nodded and stepped to the side.

My heart thundered in my triumph. Before we started walking again, I leaned towards the female sentry. “Do you happen to have the magic dampening handcuffs on you?”

“ Handcuffs... you fucking…” Elise started, pulling away from me.

I twisted her wrists harder, so she winced slightly, baring her teeth. “It would be much appreciated.”

The female sentry smirked and reached into the satchel she had at her side, pulling out the golden handcuffs. When they clicked into place, I took Elise by the arm and strutted past the two guards.

Elise huffed. “I fucking hate you so much.”

“We’re in aren’t we,” I stated, heading down the hallway and making the trek to the Ethereal Bastille.

She scoffed, shaking her head. “I still hate you. You aren’t as dumb as you look, but I still hate you.”

I wanted to let out a booming laugh, but held it in, releasing a small chuckle instead. “Aw, tiny psycho, the feeling is mutual.”