by Nalini Singh
Page 41
Elena didn’t know the details of what had been done to him, but she knew how it felt to hurt that bad. Putting down her coffee, she poured a glass of wine. “Aodhan. ”
He closed the distance between them to take the wineglass, his wings tight to his back. “Thank you. ”
“No problem. ” Ensuring she didn’t touch him, she grabbed a seat at the table and began to slap together a sandwich. Montgomery would surely be horrified at the use to which she was putting the dishes on the table, but a good, hearty sandwich sounded perfect at that moment. She made one for Raphael, too, just to see the look on his face.
After almost a minute of silence, Aodhan moved to take the chair across from hers, his wings draping gracefully over the back designed for angels. He didn’t eat but drank the wine, and when she looked up, she found those strange, beautiful eyes on her.
“You’re an artist,” she said, wondering what he saw. “Did you notice my vase in the front hall?”
A spark of interest. “Yes. ”
Swallowing the bite she’d taken, Elena said, “You can’t have it,” with a straight face. “Montgomery would only steal it back. ”
Aodhan tilted his head a few degrees to the side, as if he was trying to understand her. But he didn’t say anything, and she decided not to tease him anymore. He wasn’t Illium, who’d fire back something wicked. Aodhan needed more careful handling—which wasn’t to say he wasn’t as lethal. She’d seen him fight, knew he could be as dangerous as the two blades he wore in parallel sheaths on his back—there was a reason he was part of Raphael’s Seven. But he was broken, too, on the deepest of levels.
A rustle of wings at her back, the scent of the sea lapping against her senses. “Hello, Archangel. ” That was a quick shower.
There was no temptation to linger. A firm touch along the upper curve of her wing, making her entire body tingle. In front of her, Aodhan rose to his feet.
“Sire. ”
“What do you have for me, Aodhan?” Nodding at the other angel to sit, Raphael took his own place. Lips kicking up at the corners when he saw what she’d put on his plate, he said, “I do not think this is what Montgomery had in mind for the bread rolls. ” But he took a bite.
“It’s made with love,” she quipped, saw Aodhan’s eyes flicker with . . . surprise?
His voice, however, betrayed nothing. “As you know, the entire world has been wracked by rain and wind and snow. The Far East suffered considerable damage from floods, typhoons, and quakes. Japan, too, was hit . . . except for one region that has remained untouched by even a quake that shook the rest of the island. ”
Hairs rising on her nape, Elena put down her empty coffee cup as Raphael abandoned his meal and stood. “No disturbances at all?” he said, moving to stand by the unlit fireplace.
“None. ” Aodhan rose, too, those wings of light and shattered glass unfolding a little, as if he’d grown comfortable enough to trust that they wouldn’t make any attempts to touch him.
“Where?”
“A specific area within a mountainous prefecture called Kagoshima. ”
Getting up herself, Elena moved to lean against one of the bookshelves, so she could more easily talk to both men, though her next words were directed at Raphael. “You’re planning to head there. ”
“I must. ” Face expressionless, he glanced toward the storm-dark window. “Now that we may have narrowed the search to such a specific locale, I may be able to sense her place of Sleep. ”
Elena made her next question private. What will you do when you find her?
What I must.
Her chest grew tight at the ice in those words—because she knew what lay beneath. She’d felt the power of his heart, knew how much he’d bleed if it turned out Caliane was still mad. “I’ll come with you. ”
Midnight blue pierced her. “You have responsibilities here. ”
“Your people are watching over my family, and as for any possible repeat of Boston—better to go to the source of the problem and sort it out. ” She couldn’t take the task from him, didn’t have the power to kill an archangel, but she could, would, stand by him.
“She is worse than Uram, Elena. ”
Her gut went taut, her heart seizing into a hard, fast rhythm. The bloodborn archangel, his body riddled with poison, had killed hundreds, would’ve slaughtered thousands more if they hadn’t halted his rampage. “We stopped him,” she said, speaking to herself as well as to him, “and we’re stronger than we were then. ”
Perhaps. He turned to Aodhan before she could question him on that ambivalent assessment. “Speak to Dmitri. Organize the transport. We’ll fly out with the first break in the storm. ”
Waiting only until Aodhan had left the library, Elena closed the distance between them. “Raphael,” she said, stomach twisted into painful knots, “your strength . . . are you still more susceptible to injury, less quick to recover?”
“Yes. ”
Guilt clamped steel claws around her. It was her. Somehow, she’d done this to him. “How bad is it?”
“My ability to heal others continues to grow, Guild Hunter. It is not a bad trade. ”
Not in the Cadre. Not if he was going to survive. “Tell me. ”
A small curve to his lips, an immortal’s dangerous amusement. “It matters little, Elena. Even were I at the peak of my strength, my mother would be a lethal adversary. She may well be a hundred times more powerful than Lijuan. ”
Frigid cold in her veins. “I—”
“Stay here, Elena. This is no hunt for an immortal barely-Made. ”
She knew that. But she also knew something else. “Logic doesn’t have anything to do with this, Archangel. To ask me to sit in safety while you walk into a nightmare. No. ” A shake of her head. “I can’t do it. It’s not the way I’m built. ”
“If I leave you behind?”
“You know the answer. ” She would simply follow.
Brushing back her hair with one hand, he curved his lips in the faintest of smiles. “Are you sure you do not wish to be more like Hannah?”
“If you ask nicely, I might be up for learning some calligraphy. ” But the laughter faded all too soon. “Will the others in the Cadre help you against her?”
“Elijah and Favashi, yes, but as to the others—uncertain. Astaad’s behavior has remained erratic, Michaela is no longer answering anyone, and I’ve just had word that Titus and Charisemnon are both showing violent outbursts of temper. Favashi says Neha is stable, but the Queen of Poisons has the ability to strike without warning. ” His next words were in her mind. My mother is the monster that scares other monsters.
29
The storm continued to be a wild squall the next morning but was forecast to pass within two hours. “I need to go speak to Evelyn,” Elena said as they landed on the Tower roof, the rain driving their clothing into their skin. Raphael could’ve protected them using his abilities, but she’d argued for him to conserve as much of his strength as possible for the battle that might well await.
“Your sister lives at the family home,” he said, raising his wings to shelter her from the needlelike stabs of rain. “It is inevitable you’ll meet your father. ”
“I know,” she said, pitching her voice so it would carry above the pounding sound of the water hitting the metal and concrete of Manhattan.
“You will not go alone. ”
“I need to. ” Her father would try to crush and demoralize her, and she didn’t want her archangel to see her hurt and broken.
Raphael caught the pain in his consort’s eyes before she could hide it, felt his anger turn into an unsheathed blade. “No. ”
Shaking her head, Elena pressed her hand against his chest. “You’ll hurt him when he hurts me,” she said with blunt honesty, blinking the rain from her lashes. “You won’t be able to stop yourself. And no matter everything else, he’s still my father. ”
Raphael closed his hand around the side of her he
ad, tangling his fingers in the wet silk of her hair. “He doesn’t deserve your protection. ” Jeffrey deserved nothing from his oldest living daughter but her contempt.
“Maybe not. ” Elena acknowledged, leaning into his touch. “But he’s also Beth, Evelyn, and Amethyst’s father—and they seem to love him. ”
“You ask the impossible. ”
“No, I ask for what I need. ” She held her ground where even other angels would’ve backed down. “What I need, Archangel. ”
He had allowed her freedom beyond anything he might’ve imagined, but this he would not do. “I will come with you. ” He gripped her chin when she would’ve argued. “I will not land. That is the only concession I’m willing to make. ”
She folded her arms, her eyes silver in the storm-light. “It’s not much of a concession, but we don’t have time to argue. ”
He spoke into her mind as they flew out into the tempest of wind and rain once more. Hear this, Elena—if he crosses the line, I will break him. I do not have that much patience.
Less than fifteen minutes later, and very aware of Raphael sweeping across the sky above, Elena turned and walked up the steps to her father’s house. Again, it wasn’t a maid who opened the door. “Gwendolyn,” she said, shaking off the rain from her wings. “I just came to have a chat with Eve before I head out of the city. ” She didn’t want her youngest sister to believe she’d been forgotten. It was a hurt she’d never inflict on anyone of her own.
“Come inside,” Gwendolyn said, concern on that discreetly made-up face. “You must be so cold. ”
Elena stood dripping in the hallway. “I’m sorry, I’m wet. ”
“Give me a moment. ” Gwendolyn disappeared and returned with a towel, handing it to her.
Elena wiped off her face and did the best she could to squeeze the water out of her ponytail. “I’ll stay in the hallway—don’t want to ruin your carpet. ”
“It can be cleaned. ”
Somewhere in the midst of patting down the parts of her wings she could reach, Elena became aware that Gwendolyn was staring at her. “I must look a sight,” she said with a laugh, expecting a polite response.
What she got was nothing she could’ve predicted.
“I always wondered,” the other woman said in a husky voice, “what was so wonderful about her that he couldn’t let go, that he had to keep a mistress who reminded him of her. ”
Elena felt the ground open up beneath her feet. She did not want to be having this conversation with her father’s second wife. “Gw—”
“I see it now,” Gwendolyn continued, deep white grooves around her mouth. “There’s something in you, something she must’ve given you—and it’s something I’ll never have. That’s why he married me. ”
Acutely uncomfortable, Elena nonetheless couldn’t just stand by in the face of such raw pain. “You know how he reacted when I wanted to attend Guild Academy. ” It was her enrolling at the Academy without his permission, permission he’d never have given, that had led to the fight in which he’d called her an “abomination” before throwning her out of his life. “Yet he allows Eve to go. That’s because of you—he listens to you. ”