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“Sierra is pretty persuasive herself,” I commented.

“She is certainly stubborn,” he said. “She gets it from her mother.”

“Right. Because you’re not stubborn at all, General.”

A slow smile curled Nero’s lips.

Sierra squeezed between us. “Are you guys going to kiss now? Because if you are, a heads up would be nice, so I can get out of here before that happens.”

The comment drew a round of laughter from the rest of us.

When it finally died down, Nero declared, “Fun’s over. Time for us to find out who dared to attack the Legion of Angels.”

CHAPTER 3

AN IMPOSSIBLE THEFT

An angel was waiting for us when we arrived at the research facility.

“Sunstorm?” General Fireswift said, his eyes narrowing to suspicious slits. “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask the same,” Harker replied, unruffled. He and Nero had been dealing with Xerxes Fireswift for so long that his biting personality didn’t even faze them.

“I do not need to explain myself to you,” General Fireswift said, his voice cutting like glass. “This facility lies within my territory. Which means you should have contacted me before you came here.” His gaze snapped to Nero. “Both of you.”

“The First Angel does not require your permission or your approval,” replied Harker.

“Of course not. But she is not here.”

“Heis.”

General Fireswift’s agitated brow furrowed further. “What nonsense are you?—”

“Nyx promoted Nero,” Harker told him. “He is the new First Angel and your supreme commander.”

“If this is a practical joke—” Fireswift’s eyes predictably turned to me. “—I am not amused.”

“It’s not a joke,” I told him. “Nero is the First Angel now. See?” I pointed at the new pin on Nero’s uniform.

“In that case,” General Fireswift said, bowing to Nero, “Congratulations.”

He said ‘congratulations’ like he was speaking a curse. He’d spent the last couple centuries despising Nero. This new development couldn’t have been easy for him.

“We are here to take a look around the facility,” Nero said.

“I know why you are here.” General Fireswift’s lips thinned. “And of your…theory.”

“It’s not a theory!” Sierra exclaimed.

General Fireswift’s brows lifted in surprise at her sudden appearance. She’d squeezed herself between me and Nero.

“I saw the thief,” she said, meeting the angel’s hard stare without a shred of fear. “I saw him steal a magic artifact from this facility.”

General Fireswift looked at Nero. “Is this how you will command the Legion of Angels? At the whims of a young girl?”

“Diligence is not a sin, General,” Nero replied coolly. “Nor is our presence here a challenge to your authority.”

“What it is, however, is a monumental waste of my time,” countered General Fireswift. “There was no attack, and nothing was stolen. If anything were amiss, I would know about it. But there’s been nothing on the security cameras and nothing on the magic sensors. The guards patrolling the facility have all been questioned. They’ve reported no unusual activity. And to top off this massive waste of time, we just performed a full inventory. Nothing is missing. No magic artifacts. No weapons. Not even a single roll of toilet paper is unaccounted for.”