Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 121854 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121854 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
“You know who Aodhan and I think should join you, Venom, Jason, Galen, and Naasir,” he said when they parted. “We’ve said for half a millennia that he’s our shadow eighth.”
Dmitri nodded. “It’s too soon. Maybe in a few decades, we’ll be ready to make it official. Trace would say exactly the same if you asked him. He also likes that he’s not a ‘giant Seven-shaped target.’ ”
Illium laughed, but it hurt. Trace was handling the Refuge stronghold so the others could come to New York, and as a result, Illium wouldn’t see the suave vampire who’d often been his accomplice in dares neither of them should’ve accepted, until Trace could visit his new territory. Illium had no Refuge stronghold of his own due to the passage of years since there’d been ten in the Cadre, and setting one up wouldn’t be his priority for some time yet.
“Naasir’s firstborn cub has informed me that he’s aiming to join the Seven when he’s of age.” Dmitri rubbed his forehead. “The Ancestors help us all.”
Illium’s chest heaved. “You have near to at least half a century yet.” Naasir’s cubs were maturing at a faster rate than other immortal children, but they weren’t much more than toddlers at this point. “Fuck, I want to be around to see that.”
“Our friendship will endure.” A vow from the man who’d been the first of the Seven, the one who had always been their leader. “You’ll never be left out in the cold.” A squeeze of his shoulder. “Go, Illium. Do us proud.”
Then came the hardest goodbyes.
Elena grabbed his face, her tears silent. “Don’t start a war with your father,” she ordered again before pressing her cheek to his, her arms around him.
“I won’t…yet.” Lifting her up when she shifted to scowl at him, he spun her around one last time. Because he was an archangel now, could never again be her Bluebell as he’d been for century after century.
Arms tight around his neck, she laughed and cried and, when they broke apart, gave him a blade. Her smile was wet. “Look after it. I want it back the next time I visit.”
He slipped it into an upper arm sheath. “I’ll treat it as a treasure.”
He looked to Raphael, his power recognizing another of its like…and his heart recognizing the man who had raised him into the man he was today. Their embrace was silent and deep, and when Illium drew back, Raphael reached to his back to withdraw a formal sword with an intricate hilt, centered on which was a single large stone the blue of Illium’s wings.
The blade gleamed sharp and silver-blue.
It was unquestionably the work of a master craftsperson.
“I had this made for you a decade ago. To gift to you when you reached your next half century.” Midnight strands of hair brushed the other archangel’s cheek as the wind blew past. “Now, I give it to you as a gift on your ascension.”
Removing the sword he already wore, Illium handed it to Elena, who promised him she’d ship it over with the rest of his belongings. Then he accepted the sword Raphael held, his chest so tight that it was a pain terrible.
All he could do was slide the sword into the simple scabbard on his back while fighting the rock of tears in his heart.
Then, unable to bear it anymore, he stepped off the roof with one last backward look.
Raphael stood watching him with eyes that blazed with pride and love, the archangel’s hand tight around his consort’s. Elena’s unbound hair was a pale banner, the sword in her hand glinting in the sunlight.
Aodhan rose up beside him from where he’d gone to make his own goodbyes to those in the Tower. He’d already spoken to the remaining five of the Seven and to Raphael and Elena. They’d made that decision together, that they’d make their farewells alone, say the private words they needed to say.
Today, they didn’t speak until they were far out over the water, Manhattan but a memory on a distant horizon. Adi?
It hurts, Blue. Fractured words. I thought I’d be all right because I’m not an archangel. But I’m not.
He held up his wrist: a bracelet of smooth wooden beads encircled it, each of intricate detail. Naasir made me this.
Illium wasn’t surprised. Aodhan and Naasir had been close from the time Aodhan was a child. As Naasir had put it, “a grown-up one-being and a cub one-being.” Two unique individuals who understood what it was to be different.
There had been other gifts for both of them, but as with Illium, what affected Aodhan worst was that they’d said a final goodbye to their friends. When they returned, it wouldn’t be as members of Raphael’s Seven, but as guests.
Ellie says we’ll still have movie nights, use the meeting technology so that we’re side by side on our favorite sofa.