He smiled, looking down at me with those crystalline blue eyes. Visually, Lincoln and I were opposites. Where my hair was blonde, his was dark; where my wings were black, his were white. But we couldn’t be more perfect for each other. When I didn’t want to kill him, I was madly in love with him. That was the most anyone could ask for, right?
He stroked my hair and tucked it behind my ear. “My mom would have loved you. She always told me, ‘Don’t settle. Wait for a strong woman and she’ll raise strong daughters.’ You’re the strongest person I know, Brielle.”
My heart melted at the compliment, and my stomach did flip-flops at his reference to his mother’s approval of me. He barely talked about his late parents, and never about his little sister, so it meant even more that he’d shared that part of himself.
“She was kind of a raging feminist.” He laughed, seemingly lost in the memory.
“Sounds like a smart woman. How did your dad keep her locked down?” I joked.
A genuine and open smile stretched Lincoln’s lips, one I’d never seen before. “He didn’t. Said that was his secret. Never try to cage the free bird.” He winked.
I’d officially lost count of how many winks he’d given me.
I wished I could have met his parents. Lincoln had only met my mom a few times when she’d come to visit, and while he was polite, I knew his cautious glances at her forehead meant he’d never fully trust her. Not until I could free her.
Before I could say something sickeningly lovey-dovey, the walkie-talkie on his belt loop squawked.
“Grey, you coming?” Noah urged through the device.
Lincoln smoothed his hair one last time, then leaned forward, and kissed me chastely. “See you soon. You’re on my team tonight,” he declared before he started to jog away.
“Do I have to call you, sir?” I screamed after him.
“Yes!” he yelled, and then he was gone.
Dammit. He was going to milk this ‘sir’ thing for a while.
I ran my fingers along the wing engravings on the cuffs and smiled.
We could pretend all day that he was in charge, but I knew the truth.
Chapter Seven
Shea’s face was pressed against the glass, looking out the window as we left Angel City, and made our way into the war zone.
“Tonight is just a drive-by. We want you to see what we’re up against, get a sense for the terrain. To hear the noises, see the risks, and then come right back,” Lincoln told us as he paced the aisle, holding onto the handrail above him intermittently. “You’re rookies. You won’t be doing missions for a while, so don’t ask,” he barked to our small group of nine second-year rookies and Noah, plus the driver.
Luke raised his hand. “So people, like, live out here? Why don’t we just ferry them into Angel City by the busload?”
Lincoln’s face took on a hardened expression. “Unfortunately it’s not that easy. A lot of the people out here are slave bound. Those who aren’t are trapped into some kind of deal with a demon that keeps them here. The demons out here run the war zones like a mafia. If you live in their territory, you have to pay protection money.”
“Oh,” Luke said and looked out at the desolate landscape. We were passing the area we’d done the gauntlet in. The broken-down neighborhoods and shelled-out buildings, some still smoldering, were depressing to say the least.
“Another issue is resources,” Lincoln continued. “Angel City is only so big, and we only have so much to go around. The demons outnumber us greatly, and they’ve taken so much of our land. We try to push back and take back certain parts, but when we finally do, they look like this.” He gestured to the windows.
Geez, I was very fortunate to be living in Angel City. They didn’t cover the war on the news or anything like that. The news was still run by the humans, and they mostly talked about things going on in Angel City, with an occasional story about Demon City, or beyond the wall. I’d never seen a news crew out here, or heard a Fallen Army soldier interviewed. We knew the war with the demons was ongoing, but we were safe in our little city and we had enough to worry about with the Awakening and all that stuff. I felt kind of selfish now, and was glad I had joined the cause.
“Now we’re going to be entering Inferno. It’s a town run by demons that’s unstable, but we’re close to taking it back. They don’t have walls up or guarded checkpoints, so we’re able to infiltrate it easier. Some of the more outlying towns, deeper into their hold, are much more secure,” Lincoln explained, as our bus crawled deeper into the smoky black night.