"What about you?" I asked.
He reached up to wipe his hand across his lips. "I think that you are mighty in your anger. I think that you are very proud. I think we did not accept you into our legion because you are an easy man, but we still accepted you."
"What about you?" I insisted, refusing to let him out of that so easily.
Bel swallowed, his dark eyes holding mine. "I do not like it when you joke about us together. I do not want to feel like a joke to you. I do not want to be an excuse. I liked the man who believed he was stronger than me - and was wrong. I miss the angel who could make all of Hell tremble."
And the air fell from my lungs. "It was a long two millennia, Bel."
He stepped a little closer, looking down at me. "You are an angel. The most brilliant of them all. Do not dim yourself because you are scared others may be blinded. You are too mighty for that."
"And my mightiness made her hate me. She likes demons, Bel."
His lips bounced upwards on the corners a few times. "So you tried to make yourself gentle to impress a woman?"
"A Muse," I admitted.
He just shook his head. "How would you feel if someone did that for you?"
I'd honestly never thought about it like that. "I think I'd be pissed that they thought so little of me."
"Yes," he agreed. "You say you cannot have her, and yet you bend yourself into a knot to get some little piece. Trust your legion, my friend. We will take good care of her." And he grinned. "We will even buy tampons for her. I will let you give them to her."
"Asshole," I grumbled, pushing the cart again, heading for the registers.
He just chuckled behind me. "She lives with demons, Luke. She chased down Death. She is not scared of you."
"Yeah," I admitted. "I know. Ever think that might be why I'm a little intimidated by her?"
He just mumbled some noise that I couldn't quite decipher. So, fine. If he was going to be like that, then he could redecorate the bathroom for her. Bastard would probably even enjoy it.
4
Sienna
As much as I hated to admit it, it was kinda nice to have an entire legion of men pampering me. Without even batting an eye, these guys had all done their part to make things a little more modern in the house, and all while I was still getting dressed by the brook. By the time I made it back inside, they were involved in something else, acting like we hadn't just gone through a moderate vagina crisis. Sam had even brought in my painting and cleaned my brushes.
The only downside was that there was no such thing as television on Tyrnigg. Books, we had plenty of - but all written in Daemonic. There was, however, one thing that could keep me from getting bored while I waited for my cramps to ease up a bit. We still needed to design a system to protect the Vale and show our true bodies. Plus, there was that problem of the rune to make sure this never happened again.
So I invited Ron to head outside with me to work on that. We didn't need to be outside, but since air conditioning wasn't a thing on this world either, it was nice to have the breeze. And the space. Definitely the lack of distractions. I almost made it to the door when Nick caught my arm, silently begging me to wait.
"I don't want you to overdo it," he said, keeping his voice down.
My mouth dropped open. "You think that being on my period is going to somehow make me unable to use my brain?" I tried to tug my arm away.
He didn't let go. "No, I think you just made a veil on Vesdar, fought a battle with Michael, and you said yourself that the dragon's aether burned. That is why I think you need to take it easy. We do not want you to damage your ability to manipulate life, dove."
And now I felt like an idiot. "Oh."
"So, let Ron deal with the sculpting for a bit. We've already tested it, and the bubble here only responds to me. I can give all of you access, but Luke and Ron couldn't even touch it to make alterations."
"You really fucked that up, huh?" I teased.
He stepped a little closer, realizing he wasn't in trouble. "Dove, it's just proof that even a demon can make miracles. Animals and plants can pass through the barrier without a problem. Fairies, though? Both times that we've seen one in the area - which was a very long time ago - they avoided that line almost unconsciously. I have no idea if they could even pass through it, but it is possible to see through it, which is one of the things we should fix. Regardless, it means that of all the places in all five realms, this one house will always be our sanctuary."
I could see something in his eyes, as if he was holding back. "Is that a problem?" I asked, wondering if he was still coming to terms with his former home being filled with so many people.
He glanced away, but more like he was thinking than avoiding. "I was thinking about making this a repository for the First Legion. Ron's books. Any items we don't want to decay with time." Then he looked back. "But it means we're going to need to enlarge the house, and, um, that can only be done by hand if we want it to last."
"So we'll need a design?" I suggested.
He nodded. "Maybe you can help with that?"
I reached up to kiss him. "I can. I'll come up with a few ideas. How big are we talking?"
"One floor," he said. "I'm not skilled enough to make the second stable. Not for more than the loft, and it only barely counts. You can see our space, but the bigger it is, the longer it will take."
"Time is something we have a lot of," I reminded him. "Well, except for this rune I need."
"Don't push yourself," he said again. "Let Ron help." Then he canted his head to the side. "And keep in mind that he doesn't understand women's bodies outside of a textbook."
I just groaned. "Yeah, I know. The weird thing is that it doesn't bother me as much because I know that he doesn't have any real-world experience." I shrugged. "And we need to start talking about how we're going to get the slaves off Angelis."
Nick's eyes narrowed at the change in subject. "What?"
"Well, we went through all of that on Vesdar to make sure Michael can't get a dragon skin to make himself invulnerable to aether. I managed to get him trapped in that prison, but we all know he'll figure out a way to escape. Someone will find a way to crack the wards - if they haven't already. Y'all always do. That means we need to start working on where to put the slaves, how to get them out with the Angelis veil being locked to demons, and then Luke needs to help me figure out what it's going to take to tear down the veil they have now and put up one of my own."
"No," he said, shaking his head. "Sia, when I said that you need to be careful - "
"Yeah," I said, glancing over to make sure no one was listening, "but this is one of the things where time does matter. If nothing else, because it's going to take us a while to figure it all out! Nick, this isn't like Vesdar. You've never been there. You have no idea what the angels are doing!"
"I do know," he assured me. "The problem is that I don't care about those people. I care about you, dove. More will be born, and more will die. That is what midworlders do."