“She moves pretty well,” Captain Somerset said, sitting down beside me. Her dark eyes followed Ivy and her partner’s smooth sequence of steps. “Considering how she’s dressed.”
I turned to look at Captain Somerset, who was wearing the most feminine outfit I’d ever seen on her: a sleeveless pink-and-white ballgown with a full chiffon skirt. Her dark hair was pulled back into a high twist, and chandelier earrings hung from her ears.
“Are you wearing makeup?” I asked her in shock, reminding myself not to stare.
“I wear makeup all the time.”
I arched my brows at her.
She chuckled. “Ok, I wear makeup when there’s an official Legion function to attend.”
“It looks good.”
“Don’t be a smart ass.” Still grinning, she looked me up and down. “Nice outfit.” She tossed a piece of popcorn into her mouth.
“It was Ivy’s idea.”
She cast a longer look down the length of my body. “Good choice. It shows off your ass and your boobs. Nero will like it.”
I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. I popped it shut again, my face scorching. I wished I could just melt into the floor. I was hit with the feeling again that everyone was watching me, and this time when I turned, I saw I was right.
“They all like your outfit too,” Captain Somerset said, her gaze trailing mine around the room.
“Or they’re just gossiping about me,” I muttered.
“Of course they are. You’ve only been at the Legion for two months, and already you’re up for a promotion. People aren’t usually that fast. Ok, Nero was, but he’s special.”
“And freakishly, frighteningly powerful.”
“That too,” she agreed.
“Well, Jace is up for the second level too, and no one is staring at him.”
“He is the son of an angel,” she said, shrugging.
I sighed. “True.”
“You must also remember that the Legion is like no other military on Earth. Magical potential can make you move fast and far, and the children of angels have a lot of potential. The gods need powerful soldiers for their army. They want each of us to reach our full potential, to have as much magic as we can handle because that makes the Legion itself stronger. It’s a balance between making sure we don’t die and pushing us as high as we can go.”
“Do people die at the higher levels?” I asked her.
“Sometimes,” she said. “But rarely. The Legion makes sure you’re ready before pushing you to the next level. Nero wouldn’t have you do this if he weren’t sure you were ready.”
Except Nero didn’t want me to do this. He didn’t think I was ready. This was all Nyx’s doing, and she didn’t know me at all. Maybe Nero was right. Maybe I wasn’t ready. I couldn’t tell Captain Somerset that, though.
So I said, “Well, I suppose there are worse things people could be staring at me about.”
“Oh, you mean like how they’re wondering when you and Nero will sleep together?” Her whole face lit up. “Yeah, they’re watching you because of that too.”
I ground my teeth together.
She chuckled lightly. “It’s a hard, hard life at the Legion. Give the poor people something to gossip about.”
“Says the person not under their microscope.”
“Oh, I’ve been under their microscope myself,” she said. “Angels’ love lives are always a cause for gossip at the Legion, and I was once involved with one.”
“How long did it last?”
A dreamy look slid across her face. “Not long enough. As I once told you, angels make great lovers. Though they can be a moody bunch.”
I glanced across the room at Nero, who was standing beside Nyx, talking to her. He was the only person in the entire ballroom wearing a uniform. Not that it didn’t look good on him… But he just looked so serious.
“A moody bunch, you say? I never could have guessed,” I said drily.
“Well, it’s an on-and-off sort of thing,” Captain Somerset told me. “But when it’s on, it’s on. You’ll know what I mean soon enough.”
Nero had finished his conversation with Nyx, and he was walking alongside the dance floor, his emerald eyes pulsing with power as they met mine.
I looked away. “I don’t know why everyone is so certain that Nero and I are going to get together,” I told Captain Somerset.
She snorted. “Are you kidding? There’s so much heat between you two that I’m getting a sunburn just being in the same room with you.”
Nero was nearly to the bar.
“I don’t think I’m comfortable talking about this with you,” I said to her.
“You’re right,” she said, smiling with a sweetness that had me worried. “You shouldn’t be talking to me. Just skip straight to dessert.” Then she gave me a hard push that sent me tumbling off my stool and right into Nero.
He caught me easily, steadying my fall. “Yes?” he asked me as Captain Somerset melted into the crowd.
“I…” I cleared my throat. “Captain Somerset pushed me into you.”
“I see.”
I tried to read something in his face, but as usual, he’d put up a wall of cool marble that would take a bulldozer to smash through.
“Thank you,” I said awkwardly. “For last night. For being there.”