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)
She wrapped her arms around herself. “Please don’t mention our conversation to Andromeda. Our child has found her wings, and I would that she fly in freedom without looking back. There’s nothing good for her here, no joy in what I or Cato represent.”
“I won’t mention it.” Even as he spoke, Aodhan wondered if Andi was as ignorant of her parents’ current state as Lailah believed. A scholar did not blind her eyes. But this scholar had also been a child in a household tainted by Charisemnon, so perhaps this was the one subject on which she wished to remain ignorant.
Aodhan would not gainsay whatever decision it was that she’d made.
“Will you tell me what you do now?” he asked. “I am curious only, so if you’d rather it remain private, I will not importune you to speak.”
Her expression softened. “Our home has always been a haven for animals, and now that is our focus. We have let it be known that we will care for wild orphans, for wounded creatures, for any such being that needs us. We did much the same in the war, attempting to protect the wildlife against the scourge of the reborn, for animals played no part in that atrocity and yet it was their drinking water that was fouled by the dead, their land that was infested.”
Passion pumped fire into her cheeks. “You do not know the depth of our gratitude and respect for Archangel Titus, he who has allowed us to retain oversight of these lands. He has said that we are to think of ourselves as guardians of the wild, tied to his court under that duty.”
Those lovely eyes so like Andi’s, but with such terrible pain in their depths, met Aodhan’s. “I would like to live that title until it erases what I once was, until it is all I am. So would Cato. And so we work here, in our small slice of the earth, watching over the animals.
“We have few staff—none for the house. We’ve shut up most of it. The staff we do have help with the wounded beasts. A mortal even! He is a physician of animals, a wondrously clever man, and Cato is learning under him, for Cato, too, is proving clever in ways he was never allowed to know.
“He grew up under Charisemnon, too, you know. We were…companions in our strange exile.” A love in those words that was a gentle creature with wobbly legs. Because Lailah and Cato had only ever, Aodhan realized, known each other as the ghosts they’d become to survive Charisemnon’s court.
“I didn’t know that,” he said.
Lailah’s smile was sad. “Most don’t. The man who sired me never allowed Cato, this beautiful child of a favored courtier, to be anything but a pretty ornament. You should see him now, Aodhan—he helped birth a rhino calf yesterday!”
“And you, Lailah?” he asked, his heart aching for the child hidden within Lailah, the one who was so proud of her companion in pain—and survival.
“My task is protection of the animals”—her face glowed again—“and of the lands. I’ve also been showing the mortals near us that they can look to us for help should they have need. They will bring us their wounded animals now, and no matter if it’s a humble goat, we turn no beast away.”
Aodhan found himself hoping that she’d make it out, that the whispering dark wouldn’t pull her back under. And though it was presumptuous, for they barely knew each other, he said, “Don’t allow the shadows of the past to steal your future bright, Lailah. Remember, what was taken was done so without your consent.” She’d told him so on that strange foggy morning in the Refuge; never could she have understood so well otherwise. “You bear no blame.”
Eyes shimmering, Lailah inclined her head. “I will fight, Aodhan. Perhaps one day, I will feel worthy enough to reach out to the child I failed over and over again. That is the bright goal that drives both Cato and me.”
When Aodhan turned to Illium after ending the call, the other man said, “Jason’s out of touch for a few hours so I sent the description of Bijou to both Dmitri and the sire. Neither recognized her.”
“Let’s ask Jessamy before we track down one of Jason’s people.” The spymaster’s agents were scattered through various territories, a number deep undercover, and Jessamy had a steel trap mind when it came to angelkind.
Closing the distance between them, Illium brushed his fingers over the edge of Aodhan’s left wing with a tenderness that undid Aodhan. How, he thought, had he ever lived without this?
“You were very kind to Lailah,” the other man said.
“Speaking to her, I gained a fleeting glimpse of what it must’ve been like to grow up as Charisemnon’s child—and I realized that my nightmare was but one of many.” He pressed his forehead to Illium’s. “It isn’t a thing of comparison.”