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)
And Elena knew. “You’re leaving right now.” Her stomach dropped. “We thought you’d do it in the months after the ball.”
“So we confound the world once more.” Marduk came as close to a grin as Elena had ever seen on him. “Raphael, Andreas knows to ship the dining table to you. I would have it go to no other.”
“Are you certain you must go?” Raphael asked the other archangel.
“Yes. It is time for us to Sleep.”
The morning sun caressed the sharp edges of Tiamat’s cheekbones as she added, “We have known this for the last decade, but we have managed to hold on—and it has been a joy to do so, to have more time with you both.”
“I would not have stayed so long had Tia not awoken,” Marduk added, “but even together, we cannot go on forever.”
Another look shared with his consort before they both turned back to Elena and Raphael.
“There is a point at which memory and life become so heavy that each breath is a battle,” said the man who was adamant he wasn’t an Ancestor. “It was a battle we were happy to fight to spend this time here, but rest calls to us now.”
“We may be immortal,” Tiamat murmured, “but we cannot live forever in the world.”
“You have done far more for this time than we had any right to expect, and I thank you from all of us.” While Raphael’s words were formal, he did nothing to hide the emotion in his tone. “We are honored to have known you, Marduk, Tiamat.”
Elena just gave a jagged nod, her chest tight.
“The Cadre will be eight for a short period only,” Marduk said, his own voice difficult to read. “The energies stir again. Another will soon wake.”
Electricity crackled through Elena’s veins, as Raphael’s wings glowed. “Who?”
“I cannot tell.” Marduk scowled. “I am not that impertinent child, Cassandra.”
Elena’s skin prickled as she thought of the archangels she knew who’d fallen in battle due to catastrophic injuries or chosen to go into Sleep…but that was the tip of the iceberg. No one knew how many archangels, Ancients…and Ancestors Slept the long Sleep of immortals.
“We leave the care of our people in your capable hands, Raphael,” Marduk said. “We know you will ensure a smooth transition of power for the time it is needed. My second understands what is to come.”
“You have my word,” Raphael said, then held out his arm in the way of warriors.
Marduk took it, and the two men embraced.
Tiamat, meanwhile, came to Elena. “I have left you my entire collection of blades, but for two favorites which I take with me into my Sleep.”
“I’ll treasure them.”
Their embrace was as heartfelt as Raphael and Marduk’s, Elena’s throat thick when she drew back. She’d always before thought hundreds of years such a long time, but it wasn’t, not when it came to people you loved saying goodbye.
Hugging her again, Tiamat whispered in her ear, “Marduk does not know, for it is my gift to know of such subtle alterations. But I will tell him of the continuation of our bloodline as we fall into Sleep—it will give him good dreams for all eternity.”
Her smile was deep as she drew back. “It is a line of power, Ellie. A line of love. A line of courage.” Her hand on Elena’s shoulder. “And a line of wildness. Your child will be a glory, and perhaps we will wake again to meet them one day.”
Elena gripped her friend’s hand. “The baby has mortal cells.”
Tiamat’s smile grew even more. “Of course they do. You are the child’s mother. But Raphael is their father—and his bloodline is power in the child’s veins. This cannot be altered.”
Heart thudding as the other woman stepped away, Elena watched her take Marduk’s hand before the two of them turned and walked farther into the wild. They glanced back in a final goodbye when they were almost out of sight in the shadows between the trees, two beings from another time whose power was a hum in the air and who, despite their age, yet looked at each other with smiles, with playful mischief.
Then they continued on, and were gone.
“It is a great trust they’ve offered us,” Raphael said, his voice solemn. “To tell us the exact day they go into Sleep. We could track them, find their place of rest.”
“That we won’t is the reason they told us.” She hugged his side. “Tiamat knew I was pregnant. She said the baby is of your bloodline, mortal cells or no mortal cells. That that bloodline is power.”
“So come what may, our child will be a force to be reckoned with.”
“I’m really going to miss them.” Tears spilled down her cheeks. “Shit.”
Raphael kissed her tears off her.
Unspoken was that their emotions would have to wait until after they’d done what they’d promised Marduk and ensured his territory was in good hands. They’d have to wait, give it time, until no one knew when Marduk and Tiamat had gone into Sleep, had any way to track them.