Archangel's Light (Guild Hunter #14)(10)

Illium sighed, his expression morose. “Why did I think Her Evilness would have a normal garden?”

Aodhan’s lips wanted to twitch, the words were so Illium—though the moniker had come from Elena. “All of the plants in this garden are both lovely and peculiar.”

When Illium said nothing further, Aodhan took him down a path bordered by trees that had been swamped by sweetly fragrant vines with shiny leaves of dark green and tiny white blooms. At the feet of the trees grew mushrooms in an array of colors unnatural and striking.

“We don’t know the effects of all the plants, just the ones where an unfortunate member of the court has unintentionally made themselves a guinea pig.” The subject held no emotional weight for Aodhan, was an easy one to use to fill the painful silence between them. “There’s a pond deeper inside, the water a clear and cool green that’s now filmed by ice in the mornings.”

“Is it infested with flesh-eating fish?” Illium said sourly.

Aodhan did laugh then; it burst out of him without warning. He hadn’t laughed since he’d come to this land, the sadness of it overwhelming. But Illium . . . Illium had always known how to make him laugh, make him remember what it was to be happy.



* * *




*

Illium fought not to stare at Aodhan. He was beautiful when he laughed—and it was a sight that had been missing too long in Illium’s life for him to take it for granted. If Aodhan was a captured piece of light in normal circumstances, a dazzling star fallen to earth, he was beyond breathtaking when he laughed or smiled, the light of him a glow in his irises.

Jerking away his head when their eyes threatened to meet, Illium stared at a huge winter-blooming rose in a bluish-purple that would burn against the white of the snow to come. Inch-long thorns marched along its stem, ready to tear into the flesh of the unwary. He respected that plant. At least it declared itself exactly what it was—beautiful and deadly. No guessing games there.

“Not quite,” Aodhan said, the laugh yet in his voice.

Having all but forgotten his sarcastic question, Illium forced himself to find that thread in his brain, somehow managed a light response. “Insects that will sting you to death?”

“The water is clear and uninfested, but there’s a suction effect due to the natural mechanics of the pond. One angel who dived in ended up stuck at the bottom for six minutes before we worked out what was wrong and hauled him out.”

“Just as well our kind doesn’t always need to breathe.” It was painful to suffocate, but no adult angel would expire of a lack of air. Of course, the younger the angel, the higher the chance of actual death as lack of oxygen killed the brain.

Put another way, suffocation for immortal children was akin to an unspeakable and slow decapitation. “Trust Lijuan to have an inviting pool that can keep you prisoner.”

“A number of intrepid scholars have joined Suyin’s court,” Aodhan shared, and at that moment, he was Illium’s Aodhan: curious about the world and giving of his knowledge, his presence warm and stable.

An enduring oak to Illium’s changeable wind.

“One particular scholar has made it her mission to dig into the archives in the stronghold library, and she thinks the pond was used to torture immortals—and that this garden was originally set up as a maze, possibly one designed to drive those within it crazy as a result of the toxic botanicals.”

“The underground complex? Any more news on that?” Illium had heard that Suyin called it the nexus of darkness.

Aodhan shook his head. “After our lead vampire squadron did a full sweep and found only skeletal remains in a few of the cells, Suyin made the decision to seal it back up.” He rubbed his face. “It’s an evil thing to find, and must one day be further explored, but right now, Suyin has to focus on the living not the dead.”

Illium didn’t disagree. The ancient underground prison would keep. Suyin’s people wouldn’t. “You didn’t have to go underground?” The words spilled out without his conscious volition.

Aodhan’s jaw was vicious stone between one breath and the next. “No.” A single clipped word.

Aware he’d hit a nerve without meaning to, and furious with himself for it, Illium went to apologize, but then Aodhan spoke again. “Suyin decided it’d be more efficient to send in Xan’s team. He and the others are highly trained, including in night maneuvers—and it’s effectively night in the complex. They discovered no functioning light sources.”

Since Aodhan seemed to have let his mistake go, Illium didn’t bring it up again. He’d never knowingly dig up the past Aodhan wanted dead and buried. “I’ve picked up fragments of who’s joined Suyin’s court. Is she building a good overall team?” Jason had done his job, so Illium knew Suyin’s court was growing—but it wasn’t the same as being on the ground.

“You remember Xan?”

Illium’s lips kicked up. “No one ever forgets Xan.” The two-thousand-year-old vampire was a lethal fighting machine who could carouse even Titus under the table—and who led a team of the best mercenaries in the world. “It’s been a long time since he’s tied his flag to an archangel’s.”

“He epitomizes one group of those drawn to Suyin and to the task of rebuilding China,” Aodhan said, his tone thoughtful. “The adventurers and explorers, you could say. Others are old immortals hungry for a challenge. Arzaleya, for one, requested leave from Lady Caliane to switch courts.”