Archangel's Light (Guild Hunter #14)(13)

“We depart this place on the dawn to come, even if we have to leave behind a few objects and possessions. Who will steal them? We’ll store them in the stronghold, lock it up against any curious animals, and I’ll send a team back in the spring to do a retrieval.”

“It should go smoothly,” Aodhan said into the quiet after her words. “It’s not only the mortals who haven’t truly unpacked. We all knew this was only a temporary sojourn. No one has put down solid roots.”

“Good.” Suyin stopped, shifted so she faced the two of them, her face smooth and as hard to read as Aodhan’s. Perhaps it was a mechanism of endurance, of protection—she had, after all, survived an eon in captivity.

As Aodhan had survived.

Illium’s gut tensed, his rage as scalding and acidic today as it had been on that awful day when he’d learned what had happened to Aodhan, what had been done to him.

“We’ll begin the journey to the coast without either of you.” Suyin’s words demanded all his attention. “I have another task for you.” Hands on her hips and gaze attentive, she was the epitome of a warrior at that instant. “Vetra has come across something strange in her most recent survey of the territory.”

Vetra, Illium knew, was Suyin’s spymaster. She’d been junior to Titus’s spymaster, and had moved courts with the blessing of her archangel. She’d never have progressed any further with Titus, since his spymaster was brilliant and long established in her position.

“Another surprise?” Aodhan’s voice held a thread of the intimacy Illium had expected—the kind that formed between people who’d been fighting side by side for an extended period.

An ugly heat twisted his gut.

He clamped down on it. Hard.

His mother had given him good advice more than once in his life. But the piece that applied here was that he must not be jealous of Aodhan’s growth—even if that growth took him away from Illium.

“What if he decides that the man he’s becoming wants nothing to do with me?” he’d asked, his heart raw with the pain of it.

“Then you’ll let him go.” Love in every word, her fist held against her heart. “Freedom and love are entwined. And you, my blue-winged boy, you love more deeply than anyone I’ve ever known.”

Suyin’s voice broke into the echo of memory. “It may be nothing,” she said in response to Aodhan, her eyes holding his in that secure, unforced intimacy that made Illium’s gut churn. “But given how many secrets my aunt kept, I can’t do anything but examine everything with a critical eye.”

Illium had to admit he’d have done exactly the same in her position.

“On her way home, Vetra stopped at the hamlet beyond the stronghold.”

Aodhan glanced at Illium. “A small group of citizens, about fifty or so, who survived the fog. They’re based a ten-minute flight from here.”

Illium had heard of these pockets of life—random and scattered across China. Never more than half a mile across, mostly much smaller than that. The working theory was that Lijuan’s deadly fog had been thin in places, or had been affected by local geographical formations. No one knew for sure.

“The problem is that Vetra found no signs of life,” Suyin said. “But she found no bodies or other signs of death, either. However, she had little time to investigate before she had to turn back—we got word of a group heading this way and she’s gone to guide them safely to the stronghold.”

Suyin pushed back her hair. “Given their slow speed, she won’t make it here until late into the night—she’s volunteered to go back to the hamlet, but I want her with us when we leave this place.”

“She’s been far from home for many weeks,” Aodhan said in quiet agreement. “Even spymasters cannot always fly alone.”

“Exactly so, my second.” Pursing her lips, Suyin blew out a breath. “Vetra herself said that it’s highly possible she missed things in the settlement. She is certain that all their belongings remain in the houses—boots, clothes, food supplies, tools—which works against the theory that they slipped off into the forests and away from me out of a lingering sense of loyalty to my aunt.”

Illium thought of the events that had taken place in Titus’s lands. It was instinct to reach out to Aodhan. Could it be another infected angel? Angels weren’t meant to get sick, but the Cascade had brought with it the gift of disease. The first known case was violent.

Concern in the look Aodhan shot his way. We’ve found no signs of anything like that, but it’s an expansive territory.

That an archangel as old and as formidable as Lijuan had left behind a plethora of deadly secrets was no surprise. Elena had muttered as much to him when she hugged him good-bye prior to his flight here. “Watch your back, Bluebell—and remind Aodhan to watch his. I don’t trust our psychotic neighborhood archangel not to have left behind a vicious surprise or three.”

“Vetra,” Suyin added, “would’ve taken the empty homes to be a result of human raiders who’ve escaped our net, or those few starving bloodborn vampires who remain in the wild, but she saw no obvious signs of violence or a hasty departure.

“The scholars keeping a record of the population have also triple checked with the mortals and vampires settled around the stronghold. The citizens of the hamlet are not within their number.”