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)
“I didn’t know until I was older that people were already predicting that I’d one day be an archangel. Mother and Father made sure those suppositions and predictions never reached my childish ears—and they ensured their staff knew not to give in to such gossip, either.”
He found himself falling back into memories he hadn’t revisited since he hit adulthood. “Rolf, my mother’s cook in Amanat? He was the cook at her Refuge stronghold back then, and he used to put me in a ‘cage’ in one corner of the kitchen when things became too dangerous for me to be underfoot—like when they were moving huge vats of soup and the like.
“He tells me I’d peer out with my fingers around the bars while yelling that I could help.” He grinned. “I couldn’t even fly properly then, and had had my wings trodden on at least three times already that day when I let them droop instead of keeping them up.”
“Ouch.”
Realizing she had a gap in her knowledge because of how she’d come to be an angel, he said, “Children’s wings aren’t as sensitive or as breakable as an adult’s. The bones are softer in a way that means they can bend more easily. It didn’t hurt to be stepped on, but growing back feathers that got pulled off during those incidents made me itch, so I started to learn very quickly to keep my wings out of the way.”
“Is that why the babies fly like they’re drunk?” Elena said, taking another pickle out of the jar. “Because their wings aren’t fully developed?”
He shook his head. “No, by the time they can take wing, they have an understructure similar to an adult’s—they’re unwieldy because their wings grow faster than their bodies at a certain point in development. I think evolution decided we needed to get off the ground as fast as possible—a debatable choice, given some of the antics baby angels pull.”
Elena bumped his arm with her own. “Tell me more stories of baby Raphael.”
“Once,” he said, “Rolf ejected me from the kitchen because it was about to get dangerous in there. But I managed to slip away from the warrior he’d asked to take charge of me, then walked around to the outside back wall of the kitchen—and climbed onto the wooden boxes stacked outside. I think they delivered mead in those back then.
“Rolf screamed when he turned around to see my face pressed to the window glass right there.” Raphael was laughing now, Elena’s sudden attack of the giggles setting him off. “I don’t think he ever forgave me for that—he still oversalts my food at Amanat—but he also took me under his wing for many of the small things a child needs to learn to live life as a functional adult.”
His parents had loved him, but they’d also been archangels with endless calls on their time.
“It was Rolf who taught me how to cook so I wasn’t embarrassed when I became a warrior who lived on my own, and it was Rolf who put me to work washing dishes when I got older.
“Mundane experiences, but I was always around at least one archangel. My life wasn’t normal, but my parents and their people strove to put borders in place to ensure I never felt that.”
He stroked Elena’s thigh. “I want that for our child, hbeebti. To have a childhood covered in dirt and fun and mischief without the expectations or judgments of others weighing them down.”
“I don’t think we’ll have that problem with our senior teams.” Elena frowned. “But we should talk to the rest of our people—anyone who might come in contact with our spark—make it clear that they won’t be in trouble if they treat our kid like a kid.”
“We’re already agreed that Sivya will not discipline our hellion at all,” Raphael muttered. “She’s so soft that she is like that radioactive-colored abomination you ate four months ago for three days in a row.”
“Jelly,” his consort said with a grin. “You’re right. Sivya will be the chief household spoiler, and every kid needs one of those, but I think we can rope in Montgomery when it comes to not letting the kid run roughshod over her.”
Raphael. A powerful mental touch, familiar but not in the way of his Seven.
Eli. Is all well?
Hannah is in childbirth.
45
“I have only been able to bring half my army, my friend.”
“That you have come, it is an act of friendship I will never forget.”
—Conversation between Elijah and Raphael (War of the Death Cascade)
Elijah continued to speak. Please watch over my people should they have need of it, for as long as it takes.
Consider it done, Raphael said, well aware that angelic birthings could take days. Good luck, Eli.
“It’s Hannah’s time,” he said to Elena the instant the conversation was over. “Her mother is already here?”