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Your shoelaces are coming undone.

No, I couldn’t say that. That’s why straight-laced angels like Colonel Fireswift didn’t like me. Because I just said the first thing that popped into my head.

I had to pick something stately. Like work. Angels liked to talk about work.

“Nyx says you are to be promoted to general,” I said.

“Yes,” he replied, standing tall.

“But it hasn’t happened yet.”

A subtle dig that he was not currently a higher rank than I was.

Or maybe not so subtle. Colonel Fireswift gave me a sharp look.

“The world has been unsettled,” he said. “There hasn’t been time for my Archangel Trials.”

The Archangel Trials. That reminded me of something that I’d been meaning to say—and made me totally forget what I was supposed to be doing.

“I can’t believe the gods still want to go through with the Trials. After all that has happened, they—”

“Silence,” Colonel Fireswift cut me off. “You will speak no further about the Trials.”

“But I was there with Nero during his. You have to know—”

“I don’t have to know anything,” he said brusquely. “Speaking of the Trials is forbidden. You are going to get me into trouble.” He looked up, almost nervously, as though the gods were listening to us this very moment.

“I’m just trying to help,” I told him, and I actually meant it.

But he threw my concern right back in my face. “I don’t need your help.”

“Actually, Colonel, you really do,” I said. “And you really want to listen to what I have to say.”

“No, I do not.”

Gods it was like shouting at one of the Legion’s vending machines after it had eaten my money, except I at least sometimes got what I wanted out of those vending machines, if I only kicked them hard enough. This conversation, on the other hand, was going nowhere.

“It’s important,” I told Colonel Fireswift.

“Silence,” he hissed with cold menace.

Damn him, he was so stubborn. And that stubbornness would be the death of the person he loved most in this world: his wife. That’s what the Archangel Trials were all about. Sacrifice. If you wanted to be an archangel, the gods demanded you make this sacrifice. For Nero, that had meant sacrificing me, but we’d managed to wangle our way out of that no-win situation. The gods hadn’t been happy about it, however, and the next prospective archangel wouldn’t be so lucky.

But Colonel Fireswift didn’t know about that, and he outright refused to let me warn him that the Trials would cost his wife her life. And that wouldn’t just hurt Colonel Fireswift; it would hurt his son Jace too. Jace, my friend. I didn’t want him to lose his mother.

And, also, much as I didn’t like Colonel Fireswift, I was worried the Trials would hurt him too. No one deserved to feel such pain. I’d seen his face when he’d lost his daughter. Though he tried hard to hide it, he actually did have feelings.

The Legion really didn’t want to do this to Colonel Fireswift either, not if they’d just stop and think about it. An angel in pain did not make a very effective soldier. And right now, we needed all the angels we had in order to fight the Guardians. Plus, I still thought it might come down to fighting the gods and demons too. We angels had to be united and strong.

United and strong. The thought renewed my motivation to truly understand angels. I had to win over the other angels. After all, we were all in this together. I just had to convince all of the other angels of that. It was the only way we’d survive what was coming, the only way we could make the Earth safe. And the only way I could keep my daughter safe.

“You started the conversation—ok, I won’t say ‘well’, but it was adequate,” Colonel Fireswift said. “But then you forgot what you were supposed to be doing.”

“I know.” I exhaled. “And I’ll do better next time.”

“Let’s find out then.” His face was carefully, consciously blank. “Again, from the beginning.”

* * *