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“Why shouldn’t we be?” Nero asked.

“Well, from how you and Harker told it, I thought you guys weren’t friends with him. I thought that you had this whole big rivalry thing going on.”

Major Heavensworn’s brows drew together. “Harker isn’t still sore about that, is he?”

“He’s fine,” Nero assured him, then told me, “That rivalry ended a long time ago.”

“Well, ok, in that case, welcome to Midnight Castle, Major Heavensworn.” I extended my hand to him.

He shook it, smiling. “My friends call me Li.”

Nero batted his friend’s hand away from me. “Li, stop flirting with my wife.”

“I’m not flirting.”

“Yes, you are, and we both know it.”

Li chuckled.

“You’re pretty chilled out for a Legion brat, Li,” I commented.

“He’s mellowed with age,” said Nero.

“So have you,” Li told him.

“Yeah, so I’m going to take credit for that one,” I said. “Before he met me, Nero was a total hardass. Actually, that’s what we used to call him when I was an initiate: Colonel Hardass.”

Li laughed.

“I like him, Nero,” I said. “He knows how to laugh. Maybe you guys can teach General Fireswift to laugh too. He’s gotten even more uptight since he was made an archangel.”

Li’s smile faded.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Fireswift is a sore spot with Li,” Nero explained.

“So I take it you two aren’t friends anymore?” I asked Li.

“Definitely not.” He folded his hands together on the tabletop. “Not since Fireswift singlehandedly ruined my career.”

“How?”

“I was moving up the ranks quickly, as the progeny of angels usually do,” he said. “But then I made the mistake of stepping in to protect some humans from a ‘cleansing’ that the then-Colonel Fireswift was performing. Fireswift did not react well.”

“Yeah, I can imagine.”

“There are no demotions in the Legion. Once given, magic can’t be taken away,” Li continued his story, “so Fireswiftpunished me by reassigning me to a job post that had no room for career development.”

“He basically ruined any chance Li had of ever becoming an angel,” Nero said.

“Wow. I’m sorry,” I told Li. “Is there anything I can do? Do you want me to talk to General Fireswift? I’m really good at annoying him.”

“I have already taken care of it.” There was a foreboding note of finality in Nero’s tone.

“Taken care of it?” I grimaced. “Gods, Nero, please don’t tell me that you killed Fireswift. It’s not easy to make angels nowadays.”

“I did nothing to Fireswift, besides of course overruling his previous stupid, small-minded decision,” Nero said with satisfaction. “What I did was reassign Li to the Vanguard. He is my new second in command.”