Total pages in book: 148
Estimated words: 139178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Then Naasir had turned up to join their feral little gang, and Elena had just hoped she didn’t come back to any wolf pups.
This next visit, to Elijah and Hannah’s territory, with his best friend, Aanisa, would be another stretching of their ability to allow Nix to fly free—and for their son to become ever more resilient and adaptable.
“It’s a kindness for Eli and Hannah to trust us with their child first,” Raphael had murmured when the other couple left the city after dropping Aanisa off at the start of the summer for a month.
“Most of the time,” Elena had said, even as the shouts of the children’s play filled the air, “I forget how much older they are, but seeing them with little Anise…they’re more stable, less anxious—and far more willing to trust.” Eli had left behind only a small protective detail.
“Your Legion has already proved willing and able to shield her,” the other archangel had said. “And we have long since moved past being simply fellow members of the Cadre.”
Raphael had gripped the other man’s forearm. “We are family, Eli. I will protect Aanisa with my life, as will my consort.”
Like all archangels, Elijah wasn’t an easy man to read, but Elena had glimpsed the startled happiness in his eyes at Raphael’s blunt statement. “Family,” he’d agreed. “I hope you know we will protect Phoenix with the same ferocity.”
Today, Nix scrambled up a tree trunk behind Tigress, Aanisa in hot pursuit. It was Misha who’d taught them how to climb effectively with wings—and Misha who most often joined them in their climbing games. Aside from Elena and Raphael, Elena was fairly certain that Naasir and his three boys were the Legion’s favorite adults.
“They see the world like us,” the Primary had once told her, but had given no other explanation.
Elena-mine—rain-lashed seas crashing into her mind—where are the two untamed beasts?
Grinning, she walked out of Legion’s Home to look up toward the highest balcony on the Tower. But the sky was too bright a blue today, searing her vision, and she couldn’t spot her archangel even though she knew he was up there. In the trees, of course, she replied as she rose up into the air…and there he was, the man without whom her world would be incomplete.
“Keir has dropped by for a surprise visit,” he told her when she landed beside him. “He was visiting with Gavriel and Michaela, decided to come see us, too, before returning to the Refuge.”
“That just puts the cherry on top of an already great day.” Smiling at the thought of catching up with the healer, she said, “I wonder if he’ll drop any hints about how the Gavi-Michaela relationship is going?” As a mother, she felt for Michaela—but as a woman who’d been around Gavi since he was a child, her loyalty was to him.
His happiness came first.
73
He loved her. He saw her scheming mind and pitiless ambition, but he loved her anyway. When she laughed, he thought eternity might not be so full of ennui after all.
—Holly Chang on Uram, Archangel Bloodborn (Once, in Mountains Dark)
Despite her earlier comment, Elena hadn’t actually expected Keir to talk to them about the situation in Australia. The healer was a private man—and extended that privacy to others.
But when they sat down with him for a drink in their library, it turned out that he felt a need to speak about his son.
“What you say won’t go beyond the walls of this room,” Raphael assured him when he brought up the subject.
Keir’s smile was quiet, wise. “That I know, young Rafe.”
Raphael’s lips tugged up as Elena grinned. “You’re one of the few people who can get away with that.” He leaned back in his armchair, a glass of cognac in hand. “So how is Gavi doing?”
“They’re forming a bond, he and Michaela—it’s a fragile thing yet, but one built of hope and love.” He took a sip of the wine he preferred over spirits. “I raised him while always understanding that it was in trust for her. Still, after she rose, I wondered if I’d be jealous.”
His eyes were warm as they met theirs. “Now, I can say in truth that I am not. For I love him enough to want this for him—and Gavriel is no miser with his own love. He treats me as his father, while giving Michaela the chance to become his mother.”
“It must be difficult.” Raphael resettled his wings. “To have such a relationship when he has only met her as a man full grown.”
“It’s not the same relationship you have with Phoenix,” Keir agreed, “but it’s not the relationship of friends or wingmates, either. It is something altogether their own.”
Elena had met Michaela in person only once since her rising, and that had been two years ago, when they’d both been in the Refuge at the same time. “Is she still how she was when she first woke?”