Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 112287 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112287 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Dmitri had left him with nothing but an enigmatic smile.
The memory should’ve made her smile today, but her mind kept going around in circles. Especially after Vivek forwarded her a news update. The calm in the wider world had broken—Caliane’s territory had just been hit by a massive quake, as had Alexander’s, with an uninhabited section of Suyin’s completely devastated.
Time was running out.
But where else was there left to search for Raphael’s part of the Compass? Together, the two of them had gone through every level of the Tower, subterranean and surface. They’d also searched their home from top to bottom, because though it was new, they’d outfitted it with items from storage—including from Montgomery’s hoard of precious things.
The butler had been delighted to have an entire home in which to showcase his treasures. Elena kept finding new artworks and gems every other week—but he wasn’t filling the house. No, he loved rotating items so each got its time in the sun, before he returned it to his Aladdin’s cave of a warehouse until its turn came again.
He hadn’t minded at all when they’d asked to search the warehouse for a special item, though he hadn’t understood when they’d told him he couldn’t assist them by leading them to it—because Montgomery knew every piece in his hoard. Their search had been fruitless. While Montgomery possessed many unique and lovely items, he had nothing even close to the strange bladelike object Raphael had described seeing in Alexander’s hand.
Raphael had even flown to Jason and Mahiya’s home to check if it might’ve ended up in the safekeeping of his spymaster—for surely the power that allowed the objects to home in on an archangel would also understand that every member of his Seven could be trusted with the item.
“There’s nowhere left,” she muttered under her breath.
“Left for what?” her father murmured, lifting his eyelashes.
“An old relic,” she said, helping him sit up and only then realizing that she’d been sitting there wracking her brain for over twenty minutes. “We’re having trouble finding it.”
Jeffrey drank from the bottle of juice Maynard must’ve brought for him; it still had condensation on the sides. “Have you tried the garden building?”
“The garden—oh, you mean the Legion’s home?”
“Yes. They liked to collect things. I saw one of them in Central Park once. The being had found what looked like a broken metal bracelet, appeared fascinated with it.”
Elena sat back, her heart a staccato beat.
What if it wasn’t about an old place, but old beings?
She jolted to her feet. “Sorry, Dad. I have to go now. I’ll come back later.”
Jeffrey’s smile was faint. “You’re welcome for the idea.”
Grinning past her nervous excitement, she shot back a “Thank you!” as she made her way out of the hospital. Archangel?
His mental voice was breathless when he responded. A moment, hbeebti. Dmitri is in a bad mood.
She withdrew; she’d seen those two spar and they treated it like a blood sport. Of course Dmitri could never beat Raphael if Raphael used his archangelic powers, but he never did in these sessions. That was the whole point. It put them on equal footing. And equally deadly to each other.
She was close to the Legion building when he got back to her.
We have come to a détente, Guild Hunter.
Don’t even tell me the damage. She’d watched one of their no-holds-barred sessions and decided she didn’t need to watch any more. Seeing Raphael in battle was quite different from watching him go head-to-head with his best friend, both out for blood—with feral smiles on their faces.
It had been obvious that they were having a ridiculous amount of fun, but she’d almost given in to the urge to shoot Dmitri with a crossbow bolt or five anyway. It hadn’t mattered that Raphael was doing equal damage—Raphael was hers.
As Dmitri was Honor’s.
Elena’s friend and fellow hunter would not appreciate Elena skewering her man.
So Elena stayed away—as did Honor—while the two of them went at it.
There’s no real damage.
Elena snorted. Meet me at the Legion building. I’m almost there.
Your wish. My command.
At least the blood sport had put him in a better mood, she thought with a twitch of her lips . . . just as the Hudson surged with an underwater quake. She knew it was a quake because the fucking bridge was moving, too. Shit.
The bridge settled a moment later, cars that had skidded to a halt as it buckled now speeding up to race off. Aware the city’s emergency corps of engineers and other responders would already be en route to check the integrity of the structure, Elena left the bridge and carried on to land on the grass in front of the Legion building.
She didn’t have to wait for Raphael—he didn’t fly down but walked out of the Tower building, no doubt having left the receptionist, Suhani, wondering if she was having a fever dream. Because Raphael did not use the elevator to the ground floor. Ever.