Page 29 of Even Angels fall
But for all the wrong reasons.
I’m not a good man, and if I didn’t need some sort of alliance with the demons who try to pass for angels, she would have never been here.
It was okay when she was just a faceless woman I didn’t care about, but now I’ve seen her, and I don’t know if I want to break her innocence and pull her in the middle of the war that is brewing.
Using her like a pawn feels all wrong now.
“Just wanted to let you know they left. They’re not happy, and they didn’t leave peacefully after you stormed out of the room,” he says matter-of-factly.
It’s always like this. My temper gets the better of me, and he’s the one smoothing things out after me. I don’t know what I would do without him, and I’m lucky bats live as long as dragons or life would become very different for me.
Contrary to most shifters, who have a lifespan twice as long as humans, both bats and dragons can live four to five times what humans do.
Brice and I have been friends, and he’s been my second, for a very long time, probably longer than that awful bird-shifter who thinks he’s an archangel has actually been alive.
I’m only the second dragon holding Notre Dame, after all, and Aléa crashed with Earth about three hundred years ago.
There’s been a dragon holding Notre Dame since it happened.
I nod in answer to what Brice told me.
I expected this. They were hoping we would side with them, and nothing has gone unnoticed in Paris since last year.
They would know about Angélique being brought to me and what it would mean.
Their spy web isn’t new, but I know it’s been more active since Michaël didn’t relinquish his power last year.
There’s been unrest, and the birds probably should have picked another country to rule from if they intended to become tyrants.
The French people have a history of rebellion and resisting. It’s not always warranted, but they don’t stand with oppressors, and the birds have been reducing the liberties of humans for a while now. It was just a matter of time before they started to gather and strike.
It also helps that the humans are who created most of the technologies that are the origin of the weapons as we know them.
The shifters know how to use those weapons, but we certainly don’t know how to make them evolve or create new ones.
We had magic and relied on it for way too long.
Now that Aléa is dying, the magic is dying with it, and the humans might finally get the upper hand.
“How is it going with her?” Brice asks as his eyes trail toward my new room neighbor.
“Not the way I hoped,” I say as I pinch my nose with two fingers and sigh.
“So bad.” The bastard has the nerve to chuckle as he says that.
“I can’t keep her,” I say as low as I can talk.
“Why not?” He truly seems surprised by my answer.
“I’m going to break her.”
“I don’t know where you’re going with that, but she’s been here for less than a day. Give the girl some credit and don’t dismiss her so quickly.”
He’s unapologetic with his answer, and it’s my turn to be surprised.
“Do I need to remind you, you were against that wedding not just two days ago?” Sarcasm is dripping from my words, and it seems to amuse Brice.
“Now she’s here, so it’s too late,” he says with a shrug.
