“I see the good in you.” His eyes ensnared mine. “Everyone else is up for debate.”
I smiled. “It’s a start.”
He said nothing.
“Damiel?”
“Yes?”
“Are you…” I looked away, for the first time wishing he could read my mind without my projecting my thoughts to him. So he would know what I was too timid to say. “Are you going to kiss me?” I shyly met his eyes again, a flush scorching my cheeks.
He watched me. The silence stretched on. Finally, I couldn’t take it any longer.
“Well? Are you?” I asked him.
He arched a single brow. “I am still deciding.”
“Oh.” I tried not to sound disappointed, but I was sure my shoulders slouched at least a little.
“You didn’t react particularly well the last time I kissed you. As I recall, you punched me.”
“You were injured, and you exploited that fact to lure me in close enough to kiss me.”
He shrugged. “You liked it.”
“That is…” Completely true. “…beside the point.”
“Is it? Then why are you asking me to kiss you now?”
He had me there.
“I am not asking you to kiss me. I’m asking if you’re going to kiss me.” I was arguing semantics, and we both knew it. “So I can ready my response.”
A smile hovered on his lips. “And what would that response be?” He closed the final few inches between us.
“Well, I—”
His mouth closed over mine. He kissed me softly once, short and sweet, then stepped back, just as quickly. My hands clutched his shoulders, trying to pull him in closer again, but he remained as unmoving as a mountain.
“A much better response than punching me.” Amusement flitted across his face.
“I can still punch you,” I grumbled.
He chuckled, dark and delicious, like cherries dipped in chocolate. “I must be going now. I have to change. Unless you want me to attend your Dragon ceremony in dirty, bloody, frayed clothes.”
My eyes panned down his body. His clothes were in a sorry state. And his hair was standing in all directions. I hadn’t noticed that before. I couldn’t imagine what had left me so distracted…
“Well, we can’t have the Master Interrogator looking everything short of completely orderly and respectable.” My laugh came out more breathless than I’d intended. Though short, Damiel’s kiss had definitely left me rattled.
“I will see you again shortly.” He bowed his head to me, then walked across my room and opened the door.
Allegra stood on the other side, her hand raised to knock. Her dark eyes went wide when she saw Damiel in my room. He slipped past her before she could recover from her shock. He was already long gone by the time she walked into my room and shut the door behind her.
“You forgot to salute Colonel Dragonsire,” I teased her.
“His clothes were wrinkled and his hair disheveled.” Allegra’s brows kissed her hairline.
“Being an angel can be perilous.”
“Your clothes and hair aren’t in any better shape, Cadence. What was Damiel Dragonsire doing in your room in the middle of the night? What were you two up to?”
“We had an adventure.”
Allegra’s eyes lit up as a smirk curled her lips. “I can see that.” She looked me over, up and down, top to bottom.
“What are you doing?” I demanded.
“Looking for love marks. Or did he have the decency to heal them?”
“There are no love marks.” Though my lips still tingled from his kiss; did that count? “It wasn’t that kind of adventure.”
She plopped down on my bed. “Do tell.”
I blushed at her implication that my adventure with Damiel had been sexual. It wasn’t like that, not at all. Our time together had been so much deeper than something solely physical.
Still, a part of me couldn’t help but linger on the touch of his hand on my face and the brush of his lips against mine.
I pushed those thoughts out of my head. When Damiel and I had connected to each other through the daggers, we’d shared moments far more intimate than anything Allegra was talking about. We’d seen into each other’s souls. And I wouldn’t soon forget the experience.
Allegra was watching my every move. “Gods, Cadence, I know Colonel Dragonsire is handsome—and he has that whole mysterious angel thing going on—but he is the Master Interrogator. You can’t have a crush on him.”
“Schoolgirls have crushes, not angels,” I said stiffly.
“Well, this angel does.” She pointed at me. “You have a big, fat crush on Damiel Dragonsire.”
“It’s not a crush. I’ve just come to see him in a new light.”
To see beneath the mask of the Master Interrogator. To his soul. That’s what the daggers had shown me.
“He isn’t the monster everyone thinks he is,” I added.
Allegra made loud smooching noises.
I rolled my eyes at her. “As I told you, it wasn’t that kind of adventure. We traveled to another world. It was an actual mission. I’ll tell you all about it while I get ready for my Dragon ceremony.”
24
The Sea Dragon
Storm Castle’s throne room looked very different than it had in Faith’s illusion. For starters, armed soldiers didn’t have their guns pointed at my head. And no one was screaming for my immediate execution. Instead, the Legion soldiers present here today watched me with respect, and maybe even a little awe, as I entered the room.
The four Dragon thrones waited on the other side of the very long chamber.
A male soldier dressed in a long green robe stood in front of the Earth Dragon’s throne. A metal pendant hung from his neck, its chain so long that it reached nearly to his bellybutton. The slender dagger he wore at his waist looked very different than the ones Damiel and I carried.
Before the Sky Dragon’s throne stood a female soldier wearing a purple and yellow robe. A gentle breeze rolled over the silky fabric. There was no physical source of this breeze. It was magical, and it seemed to solely affect her robe.
A glowing green tree was etched into the Earth Dragon’s throne, and a glowing gold lightning bolt into the Sea Dragon’s throne. However, the symbols on the other two thrones—the Fire Dragon throne’s flame and the Sea Dragon throne’s water drop—remained unlit. Nyx stood before the Sea Dragon’s throne right now.
Allegra touched my arm, then joined the ceremony’s audience. That left me alone, the center of attention in front of all these Legion soldiers, most of them unknown to me. As I walked toward Nyx, I spotted Damiel in the sea of strangers. I was about to smile at him, but then I saw my father in the crowd too. He was watching me.
Everyone was watching me, not just Damiel. Though when he looked at me, the rest of the world melted away. And it was just the two of us, just like it had been when we’d linked through the immortal daggers.
I had to remember that others were watching. So I kept my head high and my eyes forward, looking toward my future: the Sea Dragon throne. I’d learned to control my wings considerably better since my first day as an angel. The first time I’d met Damiel, I’d been so nervous around the Master Interrogator that they’d just burst out. Not today. Today, they were positioned elegantly behind me, high and wide, making me look larger than life. Just as an angel should be.