Archangel's Consort (Guild Hunter #3)(104)

Those eerie eyes swam with gleaming black. “I have always liked you, Raphael.” Caressing words against his cheek, though she made no move to raise her hand.

Ignoring the silent invitation, he looked to Astaad. “You have not spoken.”

“What is there to say?” Astaad spread his hands in a graceful gesture, rings of finest gold flashing on his fingers. “Caliane appears to want nothing beyond what she already has at this stage.”

“Are we certain?” Neha’s words carried an undertone of a sibilant hiss. “There were strange reports from your court, Astaad.”

Raphael, his gaze on Astaad, saw the male’s eyes flame with rage for a flashing second before he gave a lazy smile. “There are always reports. Be careful what you believe.”

Lijuan’s shoulder brushed Raphael’s—and it felt akin to being touched by a solid il usion. “Do you think he is taking Uram’s path?” Her voice was pitched low, meant to reach his ears alone.

Raphael hadn’t considered that. But if Astaad was continuing to behave in an erratic fashion, then Caliane’s awakening was not to blame. “If he is, he’s a fool.” Letting the toxin build up in your system until madness encroached was a gamble no one ever won. I stood in your way, he said to Lijuan. I tried to kill you. It was an implied question.

You are young, Raphael. You have not yet learned to choose your battles.

He wondered if Lijuan truly believed he would one day stand by her side, if her insanity was that deep, that true. But he said nothing, for her calm was necessary at this moment. Caliane might be powerful, but Lijuan remained a force who could destroy the world. “Neha,” he murmured under his breath.

“What do you know?”

“She has been visiting her mate more often of late,” Lijuan murmured as Charisemnon and Titus exchanged stinging comments. “Perhaps she wishes to conceive another child.”

“Raphael,” Titus said, turning away from the archangel who always seemed to rub him the wrong way. “You and your people are the only ones who are being allowed through her shields and into her city.”

“I will keep watch,” he said, knowing that responsibility could be no one else’s. After what he’d learned in Amanat, he knew he held within him the potential to do what he hadn’t been able to as a youth—this time, if Caliane rose a monster, her son would be the one to bring her down.




When he returned home, it was to the embrace of a woman who reminded him that no matter what happened, he’d tasted life, such life as no other archangel would ever know.

“Raphael,” she said to him as they stood on the highest balcony of their home. “Will you come with me somewhere?”

“Anywhere.”

A jerky nod. Not saying another word, she flared out those wings of midnight and dawn, and they flew out toward Brooklyn, landing beside a quiet row of storage units. She’d come here with the Guild Director earlier, and now she came with him. When they’d first met, he may well have taken that choice as an insult. Now he understood that Elena needed her friendships if she was going to survive and thrive in this new life into which she’d been thrown. “I’ll do that.” He pushed up the door for her when she unsnapped the lock.

Taking a deep breath, she took a single step inside, and he could almost touch the conflicting emotions tearing at her. When she turned and held out her hand, he allowed her to tug him into the small space, nothing an angel would normal y even countenance entering. And when she asked him to close the door, he did so without argument.

She switched on the single yel ow bulb an instant later. “See this?” Her fingers lingered on a faded orange blanket. “It was my blankie.” A tremulous smile. “I wouldn’t go anywhere without it.” Sinking to the floor, she let her wings trail on the cold concrete.

He went down on his haunches beside her, listening and watching as she careful y folded the blanket, put it on her lap and opened a cardboard box overflowing with her childhood. She showed him drawings she’d made in school, toys she’d played with as a babe.

“We will keep this for our child,” he murmured, holding a solid wooden bee meant to be pulled along on wheels.

Elena gave a shaky laugh. “We’re having children are we?”

He’d never asked her before, but now, he raised his head. “Would you wish for a babe, Elena?”

“I’d be afraid for him or her all the time.” Nightmares whispered in her eyes. “I can’t imagine the terror.”

He thought of her childhood, thought of the blood that had christened her. However, when he would’ve spoken, she surprised him. “But you’re the one man I could see myself having rug rats with—you’re bad-ass enough to reassure me.”

Cupping her cheek as she rose to her feet, he rubbed a thumb over her cheekbone. “It will likely take a long time.” Angels were nowhere near as fertile as humans. “We will have a chance to get used to the idea.”

“I’ll practice on Zoe. Poor kid.” With that laughing comment, she walked to another box, opened it.

And froze.

Coming to stand by her side, he saw her lift up an intricately patterned quilt to her nose, breathe in deep. “If I think hard enough, I can still remember her scent as she used to kiss me goodnight.” A whisper so quiet, he almost missed it. “Gardenias stroked with a hint of a richer, more sensual fragrance.”