AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I sat up, meeting his eyes. “Hey, don’t worry. We’ll find the immortal artifact and stop the crazy person behind this. This is what we do.”
“I’m not worried, Pandora.”
“Ok, so then what’s gotten you so quiet and reflective? What are you thinking about?”
A smile teased his lips. “You.”
I felt a rush of heat pulse out from my heart, turning my whole body warm, content. I took his hand and squeezed it. “I’ve been thinking about you too.”
Magic flashed in Nero’s eyes. His finger traced a line across my wrist, up my arm. I leaned in to kiss him.
Sierra’s waking call cut through the room. I turned my head to check on her. She was staring at us, wide-eyed. She had her father’s eyes—twinkling like bright, beautiful green gemstones.
“Daddy!” she squealed in delight.
Nero gave her the biggest, sappiest grin I’d ever seen on his face.
“I think she’s happy to see you,” I said, smiling, nudging him with my shoulder.
Sierra’s gaze snapped to the cat beside her. “Fluffy teddy bear!” she shrieked happily, hugging Angel harder.
The poor cat didn’t look like she appreciated being squeezed like a tube of toothpaste, but she didn’t even try to escape. She did, however, stare at me with pleading eyes.
I slid off Nero’s lap, kneeling beside the bed so my gaze was level with Sierra’s. “Hey, birthday girl, do you want to go pick out your party dress now?”
“Party!” Sierra cheered, releasing her hold on the cat. “Sparkles!” She rose to her feet and started bouncing on the bed like it was a trampoline.
Angel saw her opening and zipped away. She gave me an appreciative full-body-bump before heading outside for her morning hunt.
“Today’s the big day,” I told Sierra, who hadn’t stopped bouncing on the mattress—except to fall over and get back up again, a few dozen times. “Are you ready to par-tay?”
“Par-tay!” she echoed, bouncing and clapping her hands. “Par-tay!” Her pretty little angel wings were out, buzzing like hummingbird wings, moving so fast, blending from one color to the next. She’d gotten her color-changing wings from me.
I snapped my fingers, and the doors of Sierra’s little closet sprang open, revealing a row of party dresses. She took one final, big bounce off the bed, but her feet never hit the ground. Her wings carried her toward the closet.
“Tessa has gone all out for this party,” I told Nero as our daughter grabbed the first dress off the rack. She took one look at it, frowned, then tossed it to the floor. “She tells me getting the supplies wasn’t easy.”
“As expected,” Nero said. “It wasn’t so long ago that the Plains of Monsters covered well over half of the Earth. Returning those lost spaces to the fabric of civilization has stretched our resources thin.”
“The fabric of civilization?” I repeated, licking my lips. “I love it when you talk all fancy.”
“I know.” His laugh was absolutely purr-fect.
“Speaking of fancy, what do you know about buffalo mozzarella?” I asked him.
He considered my question for a moment, then declared, “It tastes good.”
Well, score one for Tessa. She always knew what proper angels liked to eat.
“I hope this supply shortage sorts itself out soon,” I said. “I’ve received quite a few nasty messages from the other angels, accusing me of sucking up too many of the Legion’s resources.”
Except they’d worded it a lot more eloquently—and a lot less civilly.
“It’s funny because when I got the Plains of Monsters as a territory, none of the other angels cared that I’d gotten such a big piece of the pie. I guess because they all thought that part of the pie was rotten.” I fidgeted with the tag on my inside-out shirt. “But now that those lands are monster-free, the angels are all clamoring for more territory.”
“Angels will be angels.” Nero watched Sierra’s ongoing mission to raid her closet. All around her lay the spoils of her exploit: fancy, frilly, fluffy party dresses fit for a princess. “I wouldn’t worry too much about it, Pandora. Not unless the angels outright challenge you, which they’re unlikely to do since the King of the Gods is your father.”
“Yeah, Daddy Dearest and I are real besties,” I replied.
