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)
Dmitri caught Raphael’s eye at that moment, motioned that he and Honor were heading down to where he’d parked his Ferrari.
Raphael gave a small nod before touching his mind to Illium’s. How is Aodhan?
Standing as strong as these trees. Golden fire in Illium’s gaze. He is unshakable.
29
Giulia had asked Illium and Aodhan to stay with her following the execution, “so we can spend the night hours talking about Marco and Tani.” While she liked Navarro, she’d shared that he intimidated her, while they reminded her of her son.
Yet this same woman had taken her quest for justice to Navarro’s very door.
But when they reached her apartment, she said, “Stavros called,” her eyes tear-reddened and her voice raw as a result of her earlier heartbreaking sobs. “Invited me to join him and Norma in a private memorial to our children.”
“Would you like to go?”
“Yes.” A maternal smile at Aodhan’s question. “It’s all right. I know Stavros wishes his daughter had never gotten mixed up in the immortal world, but he didn’t sound angry today, just sad. A heartbroken father. I think it will be good for all three of us to be together.”
It took no time at all to recall the Tower car and driver who’d taken her to and from the Catskills. After opening the car door for her, Aodhan made sure she knew she could call them at any point should she have need. “Whether tonight or any night to come,” he said, his voice that beautiful quietness that wrapped around a person like a hug.
Giulia squeezed his fingers with her own. Her eyes were wet again, the tears that fell silent. “I will,” she said. “And for so long as I live, I plan to call you both my friends.” A shaky smile. “Don’t make a liar out of me.”
“Never,” Aodhan promised as Illium nodded in agreement. “I cherish your friendship, Giulia. We’ll talk soon.”
They escorted the car from above, flying high in the night sky. Though they couldn’t hear the conversation when Stavros and Norma stepped out of their small townhouse to welcome Giulia, that it was a welcome was clear.
The three hugged in a huddle of grief before moving inside.
“Will you come somewhere with me, Blue?” Aodhan asked as they hovered above the city. “I know it’s been a hard day, but it feels like the right time for this.”
“You never have to ask,” Illium said. “Where are we going?”
“To what I wanted to show you before we broke the case and time got away from us. A storage locker on the outskirts of the city that I’ve been using to keep some of my work.”
Illium whistled as they stretched their wings in flight. I’m guessing no one knows that or the place would’ve been robbed ten times over by now. Fans, unscrupulous dealers, art enthusiasts, the list went on.
It’s in Beth’s name.
Illium fell a few feet, he was so startled. Ellie’s sister?
Yes. I asked Ellie for help when I wished to hire the facility, and she was with Beth at the time. Her sister was happy for us to use her name as a shield. They set it up online then and there, but Beth knows nothing of what’s in it and doesn’t wish to know. She asked me to please change the door code she had to input as part of the rental process so that she’s never even tempted to peek.
Illium wanted to smile at the idea of Elena’s younger sister hiring a locker for one of the Seven, but his stomach was tense. He couldn’t imagine what it was that Aodhan stored in that locker—they had plenty of other locations to keep their things. You never told me about this locker.
It would’ve hurt you then, was the firm answer. If you can protect me, Blue, then I can protect you.
Illium scowled, thinking of their conversations in China, of how Aodhan had accepted Illium’s need to look after him. Not just accepted, Illium admitted to himself, but embraced. No longer did his best friend see Illium’s care as an attempt at control—he understood that this was how Illium loved his people.
And Aodhan?
Aodhan was his everything.
I don’t like this place already, he muttered as they overflew the pulsing night beat of the city.
Cars flowed on the streets where they weren’t backed up in a sea of red brake lights, angels flew cross town to clubs or to meet up with friends, all under a moody charcoal sky where clouds had blotted out the stars. It didn’t matter. New York created its own stars in the thousands of points of light dotted around the city, along the streets, and strung up on rooftops.
I love the city at night, Aodhan said at that moment, before taking a deep breath of the cold air this high. The streets become rivers of light, the skyscrapers jagged mountains under an endless sky.