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)
Steady, she said. Reason I interrupted is that Galen and several of the other commanders from around the various strongholds want to move the vulnerable to what seems the most stable part of the Refuge. It’s in Suyin’s territory.
Wait, Raphael said, and though he was certain of Suyin’s answer, he interrupted the discussion of the Cadre with the request.
The Archangel of China agreed at once. “Of course. Our vulnerable come first. We must also consider whether we want people in the clifftop homes at all.”
“I would say the same for the aeries on the inside of the gorge walls.” Zanaya rubbed at her face. “The intensity of the damage there makes me believe the gorge may exist because it lies directly above an area where the foundations of the world crash against each other.”
“A fault line?” Titus said, startling Raphael with his knowledge of the modern term. “Yes, perhaps you are right.”
As Elijah weighed in on that point, Raphael passed on Suyin’s acquiescence to Elena.
Thanks, Archangel. A kiss sent to him through their minds. Also, FYI—people are muttering that the Ancestors are waking—they’re saying that’s the reason for the shakes. I love that even angels have their bogeymen.
Let us hope they remain imagined beings, Raphael said in response. Because the so-called Ancestors said to Sleep below the Refuge were reportedly from the dawn of angelkind. Beings so old that even the oldest of the angels—their very Ancients—had not even an inkling of who or what they might be.
As Elena’s presence slipped from his mind with the fluid ease of a consort against whom he had no walls and never would, Raphael considered the discussion at hand—which had moved on to who was best placed to confirm Qin’s dereliction of his duties.
Aegaeon was right that it must be at least two. Not a rule, but a good tradition, one that was intended to safeguard against any jealousies or accusations of lying when it came to confirmation of the details in this type of a situation.
That the entire Cadre couldn’t go wasn’t about the damage to the Refuge—there was nothing they could do here now that others couldn’t handle as well. It was about a continuous archangelic presence in the world. A fact even more important now that they knew Qin had been absent from his lands for at least a week—the vampires there would’ve noticed.
Soon, so would vampires outside Qin’s territory.
The Cadre couldn’t afford to appear distracted.
“I can go,” Raphael said. “My territory is stable for the moment.” More than that, Dmitri, Aodhan, Illium, Jason, and Venom were all either in the area or nearby. As were Janvier, Ashwini, and Vivek, the senior members of Elena’s fledgling Guard.
Young as they were, the latter three weren’t well-known to the Cadre, but together, they were a cunning and intelligent team, with a way of ferreting out information that sometimes surprised even Jason.
“I’ll join you,” Aegaeon muttered, his earlier anger now focused on the absent Archangel of the Pacific Isles. “So I can curse Qin’s name and insult his forebears where he most likely Sleeps.”
Decision made, Raphael took a bare quarter of an hour to shower and dress in leathers more suitable for a long flight. His consort met him on the very edge of the gorge—where a squadron of scholars with furrowed brows and weary eyes were taking readings using modern equipment; for now, the inner aeries would stay vacant as Zanaya had suggested, the risk too high.
“Fly safe, Archangel.” Elena, her eyelashes flecked with dust and her leathers gone a muddy shade from the same, slid her hand around to his nape. “And don’t kill Aegaeon.”
“I can’t,” Raphael said, spreading out his wings in a show of white gold that glittered in the mountain sunshine. “Unfortunately, we need all eight of us.” He made a face. “At least we do not fly together. He didn’t make that suggestion and neither did I. We simply agreed to leave at this time. If we see each other during the journey, no doubt we’ll pretend we didn’t and continue on.”
He kissed her and it was fire in her blood and an eternity of need and passion and love.
“Knhebek, hbeebti,” he said when their lips parted, her warrior archangel with eyes as blue as crushed sapphires and determination stamped onto his bones.
Stepping back, a sudden devil-may-care grin on his face . . . he dropped backward off the cliff into the gorge. Sleep soon, Guild Hunter. You are tired. His voice was the sea crashing into her mind, a familiar wildness, before he turned and began to rise high into the sky in readiness for his long flight.
Elena didn’t like the thinner air on the edge of the sky, but Raphael’s lungs weren’t like hers. She might be immortal, but she was no archangel. I will, she promised, but it was a promise she was destined to break because ten minutes after Raphael vanished over the horizon, a breathless angelic youth landed next to her with a message.