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“No.” She frowned. “That definitely doesn’t sound like very much fun at all.”

“We should focus more on our mission and less on speculative fun,” Nero declared.

Aerilyn looked at him, then gave me the same thorough once-over. “I can see what you see in him, Leda. You’re like two peas in a pod. Both of you are so damn boring.”

“Hey, we arenotboring!” I protested.

“Sure you are,” she laughed. “You used to be fun, Leda. You used to be crazy. What happened to you?”

“I grew up.”

“You got married. And had a kid.” Her frown deepened. “I think that’s what happened to you. That’s why you’re so boring. You think you need to set agoodexample.”

“As opposed to thebadexample that you enjoy setting?” I countered.

“Exactly,” Aerilyn said, fluttering her fingertips. “You know, on second thought, I’m never getting married and having kids. I don’t want to become boring like you, Leda.”

Nero’s eyes danced with amusement.

“You think this is funny, do you?” I said.

“Of course not,” he said drily. “I’m too boring to have a sense of humor.”

We both laughed.

“You should try being more unpredictable, Leda,” Aerilyn told me. “It might spice up your marriage.”

“First of all, my marriage isveryspicy, thank you very much.”

Aerilyn lifted a skeptical brow.

“And second of all,” I continued, “we are going to stop talking about this. Like right now.”

Aerilyn’s shoulders lifted in an easy shrug. “Suit yourself. I’m just trying to help.”

“If you want to help, then go report to Lieutenant Colonel Angelblood,” I said. “He’s leading a team to one of the worlds from the Night Prince’s map. They leave in ten minutes.”

Aerilyn’s sigh was epic. “Lieutenant Colonel Pretty-Face is cute, but he’s not much fun.”

I smirked at her. “Be sure to tell him that when you see him.”

“You should have putmein charge of a team, Leda.”

“You have no command experience.”

“That’s not true.”

“Commanding men to take off their pants doesn’t qualify as ‘command experience’, Aerilyn.”

She wiggled like I’d rustled her feathers. “I’ll have you know?—”

“And neither does commanding your dragon to eat people,” I added.

Though, admittedly, when I’d heard the story of Aerilyn’s dragon scooping up Sonja and spitting her through a magic mirror, it had totally made my day.

“Look, Aerilyn,” I said. “I know you’re not used to playing nice with others, but if we’re going to save the demons andgods from magical oblivion, then we need to find new sources of Venom and Nectar. And we all need to work together to do it. Grace brought you here to help. The best way you can do that is by joining Jace’s team and doing what he says.”

“Fine, I’m going,” she sighed, lifting her hands into the air in surrender. “And I’ll be a perfect dark angel.”