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)
“Were you always annoyed by the world?” Elena found herself asking today. “I was told you were more of a peacemaker.”
“Peace can be made with a sword,” was the deep-voiced response as the other couple walked them inside. “But no, I was not so…drawn thin in my time.”
Tiamat slid her hand into his. “It is why we decided to rest,” she murmured. “Our time was done, and we felt…wrong for the time that had begun to dawn. It created a constant stress within us that made us less than safe for others.”
No doubt now, Archangel. They’re really getting ready to go back to Sleep.
Yes. Never have I seen them be so open about their exhaustion.
The knife of loss thrust itself deep into Elena’s heart.
She’d never bonded with Marduk, but Tiamat? Despite coming from the same timeline as Marduk, she’d become dear to Elena, a fellow warrior with a roguish sense of humor.
“No one ever warned me that immortality would be full of goodbyes,” she said after Marduk and Tiamat had shown them to their suite and left them to freshen up.
The ball was to take place the following night, with the rest of the guests to arrive later tonight, or early the next morning. Elena and Raphael’s luggage was already here, flown in prior to their arrival.
“Mortal or immortal, there is no predicting when we must say goodbye.” Raphael stroked his hand down her back as he dropped a gentle kiss to the curve of her neck, his body warm and strong behind her.
Knowing he was right, she leaned into him, letting him massage out the tension in her shoulders. “What will happen with only nine in the Cadre again?”
He wrapped his arms and wings around her, cocooning her in love. “Uncertain. We’ve been stable for many hundreds of years but for the odd skirmish, so it could go either way. Archangels snapping because there’s been too much peace, or sticking to it because they have enjoyed the past centuries.”
Elena tilted her head back. “Too much peace?”
He grinned, shrugged. “The Cadre is the Cadre, hbeebti. And some within it itch for war.” The grin faded, a heavy darkness sliding across his face.
Twisting so that she faced him, she said, “Raphael? What is it?”
“My mother.” His voice was rough. “I told you I was worried about her, even more so because she has been waving off all my attempts to visit her, but I didn’t tell you of a call I had from Amanat just before we left.”
Elena frowned but didn’t interrupt.
“You know what Avi and Jelena are like—as loyal as Dmitri is to me—but Jelena is worried enough that she made it clear that I needed to take the chance offered by this ball to assess her current state.”
Elena sucked in a breath. “That’s bad.” Jelena would’ve never suggested such a thing to even Caliane’s son himself unless the situation was at a critical point. The last time Caliane had gone insane, it had led to the annihilation of the mortal populations of two warring cities, the scale of the deaths so vast that it was hard to comprehend.
The adults, Caliane had sung into the sea.
The babies, the children…the vast majority had died of grief and sorrow, and Raphael had been forced to watch, unable to protect the flickering candles of their lives. He had dug their graves, tiny burial vaults for souls far too young to leave the world.
In the aftermath, Caliane had broken her son, sent him plummeting to the earth with such force that parts of his body had sheared off, blood filling his mouth as he lay helpless in a field far from civilization.
“Yes, hbeebti, it is very bad.” He bent his head.
Weaving her fingers through his hair, she just listened as he spoke.
“The last time I saw her begin to decompensate in such a way,” he said, “was before her madness. I didn’t know what it meant then, just knew that my mother wasn’t quite right—I blamed it on her continued grief over having to execute my father, tried to be there for her, but at the end, it was as if she could no longer even see me. As if I was more a vague memory than the son she’d raised with such care.”
Elena’s stomach churned. “Did Jelena tell you anything else?”
“It took me some time to get it out of her, but she confirmed that Mother has not slept since our last conversation.”
“Shit.”
“Yes.” He took a deep breath. “Perhaps it is nothing but a bad spell and she will soon be herself again…but if not…”
He pressed his forehead to Elena’s. “The first time around, I stood no chance of making her listen. I am no longer that powerless youth. I will not permit her to unleash her might against the innocent—for if she does, she will lose herself in a way from which there will be no return.”