Leda’s Log. A behind-the-scenes, slice-of-life look into the Legion of Angels, hosted by Leda Pandora, the Angel of Chaos.

Warning: may include abnormally-large cats and adorable baby angels.

Leda and Nero reunite. As they try to figure out what is happening to them, they make a curious discovery. They also flirt a little. 😉

Leda’s Log

Part 14: Pandora & Windstriker

I cupped my hands around Nero’s face. “You remember?” My eyes burned with anxious, cautious, happy tears.

His eyes locked with mine. “Yes.”

“You’re you?” I asked, blinking back the tears.

Nero pressed my palm to his heart, then set his hand over mine. “Yes.”

I threw my arms around him, hugging him. “Oh, sorry,” I said when I realized I was squeezing him as tightly as Sierra squeezed the cat. I backed up.

“I am very durable, Pandora,” he reminded me, his voice low, teasing—and yet serious too. Angels were, after all, proud of their strengths.

“I’m just so happy that you remember me!” I exhaled. “That’s the best news I’ve heard all day. Granted, my day thus far has consisted of waking up on the floor of a shady bar in Purgatory, finding out the monsters are back—awesome news, by the way—and then being attacked by a thug I snagged way back in my bounty hunter days. Did you realize when we are, by the way? It’s the day we met. Met for the first time, I mean.”

Nero nodded. “I am aware.”

“You can’t imagine all that I had to go through just to see you! First off, I had no money, so I had to sneak aboard a train bound for New York. It would have been sooo much easier to fly here, but I don’t have any wings because, guess what, I’m not an angel anymore.”

“Just because you don’t have any powers,” replied Nero, “that doesn’t mean you’re not an angel.”

I wiggled my finger at him. “Stop flirting with me. It’s adorable and makes it hard for me to concentrate.”

“Good.” Nero brushed his hand down my face.

And, yeah, I got a bit fluttery. And very flushed.

I planted my hands on my hips. “This is serious, Nero.”

He snorted.

I wrinkled my nose at him. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“Oh, nothing,” Nero replied, his voice light, almost playful. “It’s just amusing to hear you lecture me about being serious.”

“Yeah, I know.” I rubbed my head, which was still pounding from my encounter with Masher.

Nero tapped my temples with his magic fingers, and the pain vanished.

“Thanks,” I told him.

“Always, Pandora.”

He was just so cute.

“I just want us to get back to our time, our lives, and our daughter,” I sighed.

“We will.” He kissed me on the forehead, then backed up a few steps.

Which was good. Being so close to his body was going to give me heatstroke. On the other hand, he was just far enough away from me now that my eyes could truly appreciate that beautiful body.

“Pandora?” His brows peaked.

“Yes?” I asked, wetting my lips.

“You were rambling,” he reminded me.

“Right. I guess I should get back to that,” I said. “So this is what we know so far: we’ve traveled back in time, to before I had magic. Which is really inconvenient, by the way. I never thought I’d be annoyed to be human, but here I am. You once told me that the Legion changes people, that magic changes people. I guess I’ve changed more than I ever realized.”

“Not in the ways that matter,” he assured me. “Mostly, magic just made you harder to kill.”

“And more fun in bed?” I smirked at him.

His brows shot up even higher. “I don’t have a comparison point. But if you’d like—”

“Oh, I’d definitely like,” I informed him without delay.

His lips curled slowly.

“Hey, what’s gotten you so frisky, Windstriker?” I asked, twining our fingers together.

“You mean, besides, the joy of seeing that you’re all right? Well, if memory serves, last night was the night Basanti dragged me out ‘for fun’.” He humphed. “There was a lot of Nectar involved, so that’s still in my system.”

“Oh, right. Basanti mentioned something about losing a Nectar-drinking contest with you,” I laughed.

“Yes, that was shortly before she abandoned me to proposition the bartender.”

I laughed again. “It’s so weird to be back here. For Basanti to not be with Leila. And to watch Alec Morrows flirt with me without being totally terrified that you’ll smite him.”

Nero stiffened. “I would be more than happy to drive fear into his heart.”

“You can’t do that,” I said, catching his hand as he turned toward the door.

“Of course I can,” he replied silkily. “I am quite adept at terrifying people.”

“No one here knows we’re married, Nero. In fact, we aren’t even married in this time. If you start threatening any man who comes near me—a woman you supposedly just met—what will people think?”

“That I have good taste,” he countered.

Score another point for the smooth angel.

“Ok, so it’s just the two of us here, out of time,” I said, trying to get us back on track. “How did we get here?”

“The pen,” he said immediately. He’d obviously already thought this through. “We were holding it, talking about this day. And then we appeared here.”

“So the pen is magical somehow?” I wondered.

He frowned. “It wasn’t magical before. I held on to that pen for years, Pandora, and it never did anything remotely magical.”

“So maybe it gained magic recently?” I suggested.

Comprehension dawned on his face. “I had it at Storm Castle.”

“When all that wonky interdimensional magic was going on,” I said, latching on to the idea. “So maybe the pen absorbed it somehow.”

“Or perhaps this isn’t mere chance. Perhaps someone wanted the pen to absorb that magic,” Nero said, “so they could send us here.”

“But why?” I asked. “Why send us into the past? What possible reason could anyone have for doing that?”

Nero shook his head. “I don’t know. But figuring that out is the next step toward getting us home.”

To be continued…

“Why, hello, Nero. Nice to see you!” My cat Nero, a total angel, except when he’s not.

Who’s responsible for bringing Leda and Nero here? And why? The story continues in the next entry of Leda’s Log!