“I wouldn’t bet on that.”
Tessa paled, if only a little. Gin was silent. They’d been subdued. Finally. But Calli was not. She was laughing so hard that people from the other tables were staring at us like we were a mobile circus.
“Sorry,” I said to Nero, sighing. “That’s my family, always the center of attention. People gawk at us wherever we go.”
“I’m used to people gawking at me.”
Of course he was. He was an angel. People stopped and stared whenever he entered the area. When he walked amongst mortals, he was always the center of attention.
“So you could say you two are a match made in heaven,” Tessa said. “In fact, I’ve never seen such a perfect couple.”
I didn’t like where this was going. She was plotting something.
“Remember what we were discussing earlier, Leda? About the acrobats?”
She wouldn’t dare.
Tessa looked at us and said seriously, “So, when’s the wedding?”
I nearly choked on my wine.
Nero remained silent, watching with perfect calmness as I suffocated on my own embarrassment. Even as I coughed, I sent him a mental apology for my family’s improper behavior.
No need. They are not my soldiers. Nor are they yours.
“Tessa, that’s enough. This is neither the time nor the place for this,” Calli chastised her.
“So when is the time and place for this?” Tessa countered.
“I don’t know, but I suppose you’ll corner Leda as soon as we get home.”
Tessa gave me a devilish look that promised she’d do just that.
“I don’t think you’re helping,” Bella told Calli.
“Who said I was trying? Leda doesn’t need my help. She never did. She can take care of herself.”
Calli believed in tough love, in making you stand up for yourself. She gave me a proud look, a look that made me forget all my embarrassment. My heart swelled with happiness at her approval. She respected me. For that, I could put up with a little teasing.
A heavy crash, the sound of metal hitting the marble floor, echoed up the stairwell from below. The clamor was immediately followed by complete silence, even as the note of the clinging metal slowly faded out. Something was wrong downstairs.
I couldn’t see what was going on from up here. I’d have to get closer. On instinct, I reached for the knife hidden inside my boot.
Nero looked relaxed on the outside, but beneath the shield of his body, he was alert, ready to move. He could knock everyone in the restaurant to the ground in under a second, using only his psychic magic. His telekinesis was that powerful. I should know. I’d only been on the receiving end of it for months now as he tried to build up my resistance to that branch of magic. That was how you trained a new magic power: by building up your resistance to it. The other component of preparing for the gods’ next gift was building up your willpower. Altogether, that equaled training—lots and lots of training.
Footsteps padded softly up the stairs. My concern faded away when I saw Harker. The restaurants’ guests gawked openly at him, their elegance and refinement fading away at the sight of an angel in their presence. Their propriety was a poor defense against an angel’s aura.
Harker sure was putting on a show. His magnificent wings were out, glossy black with bright blue accents. He was dressed like Nero, in the black leather armor uniform of the Legion of Angels. A small metallic insignia, in the shape of angel wings, was pinned to his chest. It broadcast his rank as a Legion soldier of the ninth level, and an angel of the first level.
Harker stopped in front of our table.
“Are you planning on standing there all day showing off your wings, or are you joining us for dinner?” I asked him.
He smiled pleasantly. “I’d love to.”
“Put away those wings,” Nero told him, his voice so low that no one but the people at our table could hear him. “You’re always pulling them out and making a scene.”
“You’re one to talk,” Harker retorted.
I swallowed a snort. At least this time there was no wine in my mouth.
Harker put away his wings. They vanished in a flash of magic, like a swarm of black butterflies dissolving out of sight, fading into the air. Impressive. He’d been practicing hard. Harker was a new angel; he’d become one only a few months ago. It took a lot of practice to make magic look easy, to have that much finesse. That was especially true when it came to our more recently acquired skills. Brute force was easy once you had the necessary magic. It was the finesse that took time—time and a whole lot of patience. That’s what set the angels apart from everyone else: they made everything look simply effortless.
Harker took the seat next to Bella. He’d been watching her closely, judging her reaction to his magic. He’d clearly been showing off mainly for her benefit. Bella said nothing. In fact, she was avoiding looking at him at all.
Yep, she really liked him.
Harker lifted his hand, summoning our waiter, who practically ran to him. Harker ordered a steak and some fries.
“Dinner with angels,” Tessa sighed, braiding her fingers together. She looked positively ecstatic about being sandwiched between the two of them. Glancing at Gin, she said, “Maybe we should join the Legion of Angels too.”
“I don’t know if you’d like it, Tessa. At the Legion, you have to wake up really early,” I said.
Tessa would sleep until noon if she could.
“Do they have coffee at the Legion?” Gin asked.
“Yes, but you’re not supposed to drink it,” I told her. “Dependencies of any kind, including caffeine, are considered mortal weaknesses. You’re supposed to survive solely on the strength of your own willpower.”
“If you’re not supposed to drink coffee, then why do they have it at all?” Gin said practically.
I shrugged. “To torture you mostly. It’s there but you know you can’t have it.”
Tessa frowned at me. “Leda, are you bullshitting us?”
“Tessa, language,” Calli reminded her.
“You swear like a sailor,” Tessa retorted.
“But not while dining at a fancy restaurant.”
“No, just when picking us up from school,” Gin said.
“That was only once, many years ago, when Amanda Farthing put her hands on my stun gun. I told her it was dangerous, but she just had to touch it.”
Harker’s food arrived. Being jumped to the top of the queue was just one benefit of being an angel.
“Why did you bring a stun gun to a school?” Harker asked Calli casually as he began to cut his steak.
“I was on my way back from dropping off my mark at the sheriff’s station, and I didn’t have time to go home first.”
“She came to school covered in blood,” Tessa said melodramatically, her eyes wide.
“It wasn’t that much blood,” Bella said.
“It was enough. All the parents and teachers were staring at her.” I chuckled at the memory. “She completely freaked them out.”
Calli rolled her eyes at the show we were putting on. “I obviously didn’t freak them out enough if Amanda Farthing tried to fiddle with my gun.”
“Did you shoot her?” Harker asked.
“Of course not. There were young children present.”
“But later that night, Calli shot an arrow through her front door,” I added. “Then she shouted out, ‘the next one will go through your leg if you ever touch any of my weapons again!’ It was awesome.”
Harker laughed.
“Threats were the only thing that got through to her. The woman was an idiot, playing with my gun at a school, not knowing what she was doing. My stun gun only knocks out adults, but it could put a kid in the hospital.” Calli gave me a harsh look. “And you weren’t supposed to see that.”
I’d been twelve at the time. Calli had never sugarcoated the world for us, but she didn’t like us to stand by and watch when she got her hands dirty, even if it was all for the greater good.
“I followed you when you went out that night,” I told her.