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)
“Hbeebti,” he said, kissing her temple, her cheek, any part of her he could reach. He wanted to ask her to stop, but that would be for himself, so he didn’t have to see her in this much pain. What she needed was to let it go, pour that old and twisted grief out of her where it couldn’t fester. “I have you. I have you, Elena-mine.”
I am sorry. Cassandra’s crushing age of a voice. I did not mean to wake. But this twilight is the only time when I can be with my Qin.
Angry though he was at Qin, a stab of sympathy pierced his heart. How long had Qin been separated from Cassandra? How many eons had he waited for a miracle that would allow them to be together? Raphael had just spent the minutest fraction of that time away from Elena and it had ravaged him.
Qin had spent eternal lifetimes.
Please go, he said again, the words a harsh request. I want to be with Elena and Elena alone.
The weight on his mind vanished. But the seer had left behind a sense of the portentous, and he knew she’d be back. He’d deal with that later—though, more likely, Elena would have to deal with it. Cassandra liked her better than him, had probably only spoken to him because Elena was in distress.
I told Cassandra to go to fucking Sleep, he said into Elena’s mind out of desperation for the savage roughness of her tears.
He didn’t think she’d heard him . . . until several minutes later when her tears slowed to a painful, horrible quietness. “Cassandra?” Her voice was rubbed raw, cracked and wounded.
His own eyes burned.
Cupping her face, he kissed her lips, tasted the salt of her tears.
She, his strong, tough hunter, just stood motionless as he kissed her cheeks next, drinking away her tears, and wishing he could take her pain away as easily. When she made the slightest motion that indicated she didn’t want to stand any longer, he took them to the forest floor.
Putting his back to a tree with a solid trunk, he pulled her body between his legs, her head against his chest, and her wings lying to one side. For a long time, he brushed his fingers through her hair, dropped kisses onto the soft strands, and tried not to feel utterly helpless all over again.
Around them, the forest began to come to life once more, the forest creatures they’d disturbed deciding it was safe to go about their business. A doe with round dark eyes walked around the corner, froze when she saw them, but carried on her way when neither one of them moved.
A while later, two birds landed just beside one of Raphael’s spread wings and began to peck at the ground. He watched them, his mind wanting to spin backward.
“Does it remind you of when your mother made you fall?” Husky words, Elena’s hand pressed to his heart with a caressing tenderness.
His hunter, so wounded and still caring for his own wounds.
“Yes,” he said, because he knew she’d hate for him to brush off her question because her pain was newer, fresher. “They brought me berries, the birds. I think they thought I was a fallen chick.” Broken and battered on the grass, he’d become part of the very landscape over the months. Flowers had grown around him, birds had landed on him.
“It’s like a children’s story,” Elena said, as the birds continued to peck away, undisturbed by their conversation. “Except for the whole falling-and-breaking-every-bone-in-your-body part.”
He chuckled, more out of relief that she was coming back to him than anything else. “The broken body does make it a bit gruesome.” He ran his fingers through her hair again. “Have you been holding your tears inside all this time, hbeebti?”
She nodded. “I didn’t consciously know I was doing it.”
“I sent your Bluebell to take you to Sara so you wouldn’t be alone.” He hated that she might’ve felt that way.
“I know. She’s been a rock. Illium, too.” She rubbed her face against him. “I wasn’t alone, Archangel. But falling to pieces with anyone but you is another story.”
“You’ll be the death of me, Guild Hunter.” Tucking her hair behind her ear, he held her as they watched the forest live and breathe around them.
It was several minutes later that she said, “Did I imagine it or did you say you told Cassandra to fuck off?”
“Not quite. I told her to go back to fucking Sleep.”
Elena jerked up so she could stare at him. Squawking, the birds flew up—but only to land on the branch above and begin scolding them.
Elena spoke over their chittering. “You what?”
“She was poking her nose in. Again.” He scowled, hating the shadows under his consort’s eyes, the far-too-visible bones of her cheeks. “Have you been sleeping? Eating properly?”