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“I will pay you back for this.Allof you,” Zane ground out through tight lips when Aerilyn snatched his hand.

“I’m scheduled for a call with Grace in a few minutes, so let’s make it quick,” my mischievous cousin cooed as she led him away. “Your bedroom is just this way, right?”

“I’m not taking you to my bedroom, Aerilyn.”

“Of course not. Keep up, Foxy.Iam takingyouto your bedroom.”

We all chuckled.

“Mommy!”

I turned toward the ecstatic squeal. Sierra was running toward me. Nero stepped into Calli’s house, shutting the door behind him. Angel the cat was by his side, looking even bigger than the last time I’d seen her, if that was even possible.

“Mommy back!” Sierra said happily as I swooped her up.

Angel bumped me with her head, then slunk past my leg, sliding the whole side of her body against me. Meanwhile, Sierra planted a rapid succession of six kisses on my cheek.

“It appears your mission was a success.” Nero’s gaze darted to Bella, then back to me.

“Yeah. It was,” I told him.

Sierra hopped out of my arms, stole my last two pizza rolls, then ran off down the hall, giggling. Angel followed her.

Tessa and Gin had dragged Bella off to her room ‘to find an outfit that matches with that ring’, so it was down to just Nero, Harker, and I in the lounge. But at least Calli had dropped off a fresh plate of steaming pizza rolls. I grabbed it and headed over the sofa.

Nero and Harker joined me. For a while, they reminisced about my disastrous early days at the Legion as an initiate, but there were only so many ways to tease me about getting Jace tangled up in gym climbing ropes, so their conversation soon dove deeper into the past. Way back totheirdays as initiates, which I found very, very interesting.

“…and of course Nero said yes because he had a major crush on her back then.”

“I thought when you guys were initiates, Nero had a crush on Sergeant Jordan,” I said.

“He did,” Harker said, “but that was before he met Kia. He had it bad for her.”

“I did not,” Nero protested.

“Of course you did,” Harker told him. “Though Aurelius had it worse.”

“Who is Aurelius?” I asked.

“He was an initiate with us,” said Nero.

“He and Nero had a big rivalry going on back then. The great Aurelius Heavensworn.” Harker rolled his eyes. “He was such a pain in the ass.”

“Heavensworn,” I said. “That’s an angel name.”

“His father is an angel,” said Nero.

“Colonel Brutus Heavensworn. His territory is the Andes.”

“Not bad, Leda,” Harker said, looking pretty impressed.

“Yeah, Colonel…um, excuse me,GeneralFireswift made me memorize all the Earth’s angels during my angel lessons.”

“Yeah, good old Fireswift was there too, back when we were all initiates,” Harker said. “Except he was called Xerxes Holyfire back then. He and Aurelius were best friends.”

“Just how many Legion brats were there in your initiation class?” I asked them.

“Just the three of us,” Nero told me. “Aurelius, Xerxes, and I.”