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25

A Moment of Magic

Breakfast the next morning in the airship’s garden library was a crowded affair, now that Nyx’s team of angels had joined us. I wondered when the last time was that so many angels had gathered in one place. I really hoped they didn’t start killing each other. Angels could be rather snippy.

Basanti smirked at Nero over the top of her teacup.

“Why are you smirking at me?” Nero demanded.

“Have you stopped to consider that your daughter and sibling will be the same age?” Basanti replied.

“Yes.”

“And?”

“And I try not to think about it,” he told her.

Basanti was grinning from ear to ear. “They are going to get each other into so much trouble.”

“Perhaps they will support each other in achieving higher levels of holiness,” he said calmly.

“Your daughter has the Angel of Chaos for a mother,” Basanti laughed. “More likely, she’ll be wreaking havoc on the world before she can even walk. And roping everyone around her into her shenanigans. Just like her mother.”

“Hey, leave me out of this,” I protested.

“Little late for that, hon,” Basanti told me. “Angel of Chaos, Mother of Mayhem.”

Mother of Mayhem. Yet another nickname to add to my ever-growing list. The sergeant with the booming voice was going to run out of breath before he could even finish introducing me.

“Chaos. Mayhem,” Nero said to Basanti, his eyes hard. “You look entirely too pleased about that.”

“Well, yeah, actually. You have to admit that things were pretty boring around here before Leda joined the Legion.”

“Basanti, don’t hope for the apocalypse,” Leila sighed. “You might just get your wish.”

The door opened, and the First Angel entered, ushering in discussions of a more serious nature.

“Lightbringer, I’m assigning you command over Colonel Silvertongue’s territory of East Australia.” Her gaze shifted to Damiel. “Dragonsire, you’re getting General Spellsmiter’s West Australia.”

Damiel dipped his chin. “As always, you demonstrate your divine wisdom, First Angel.”

“Stop kissing my ass, Dragonsire.”

Damiel chuckled.

“Windstriker, I’m making you Head of the Vanguard,” Nyx told Nero.

“As you wish, First Angel,” he replied. “But are you sure you want to trust Damiel with commanding people?”

The air around Damiel crackled with magic. “I was commanding soldiers long before you were born, junior.”

“Sure, but there was that whole traitor-to-the-Legion vacation you took for a couple hundred years,” I reminded him.

“Damiel was innocent,” Cadence protested.

“I know that,” I told her. “But the rest of the world doesn’t. Nor do they know about the deaths of General Spellsmiter and Colonel Silvertongue.”

“That will be announced to the Legion shortly, and then to the rest of the Earth. I won’t be able to keep it secret for much longer, and I do need an angel to command each of those territories. And you two are the only available angels I have.” Nyx looked expectantly at Cadence and Damiel.