Archangel's Resurrection (Guild Hunter #15)(94)

“Never,” Titus promised. “Not until you confirm you no longer sense anything. Because even if it isn’t Antonicus, it does appear to be a dangerously intelligent reborn.” He glanced to the left. “I can see the skies through my window. They look to be clearing of the accursed color. I might fly out and shake the edginess off my wings.”

“We’ll talk again, Titus,” Zanaya said.

Alexander nodded a good-bye to his friend, said, “Let us hope Elijah and young Rafe have good news for us.”

After they ended the conversation, Zanaya turned to him. “Young Rafe?”

Wincing, he pressed the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger. “I try not to do that, and it usually only comes out in conversation with friends. I can’t stop thinking of him as Callie’s mischievous boy—he once flew to my Refuge stronghold and infiltrated it. He was a babe at the time.”

Laughter from Zanaya. “Oh, you must tell me this story. Why did he do so?”

“Because he’d decided to set himself a challenge.” Hands on his hips, Alexander shook his head, then, as the two of them walked side by side to Zanaya’s chambers, he told her the full story of Raphael’s quest. “He was a smart, fearless boy. I always liked him.” Which was partially why he was so mortified by what he’d almost done prior to his Sleep.

“Nadiel and Caliane,” he continued, “raised him with love, but also taught him to be clever and self-reliant. With the two of them unable to live together always, the boy was well used to switching strongholds and courts, and I think it gave him a flexibility of thought that many of our kind lack. He was also intrepid—he began to fly between the two courts on his own at around seventy years of age.”

Zanaya gasped. “So young? Were Nadiel and Caliane neighbors like you and I?”

“No. They were separated by two other territories.” Alexander’s lips tugged up. “One of those was mine, and the other was under the reign of another ally. Let’s just say the boy had a discreet escort for the first few years, until it became clear to all four of us that he could be trusted to follow the rules—and that he was capable of thinking on his feet if he hit an unexpected storm or the like.”

“That makes me realize something,” Zanaya said with a frown. “I haven’t known any archangels as children before their ascension. I can see how you would’ve had trouble with the transition.” She pushed open the door of her suite on that.

As always, it was a place of plush fabrics and art, the air sweetly scented. But there was nothing heavy about it. The fabrics she preferred were soft and lovely to the skin, the art bringing the outside in: pieces of Africa captured in canvas, carved in wood polished to a shine, or woven into fabrics made with utmost care.

A candle burned in a glass holder, a thriving green plant sat in another, while a small white cat jumped off a window ledge to come over for pets from her mistress. The slinky creature deigned to rub her body against Alexander’s leg before she padded out of the room. “The Queen of the Nile and her familiars,” he murmured with a smile, well used to the way she’d always had a cat or a hound—and once or thrice, a falcon.

A smile as she shut the door behind the cat. “I have no idea from whence she came—but she has decided I am acceptable. Her name is Duchess. Now, General, strip.”

Well ready to get out of his sweaty clothing, Alexander began to do as ordered. He was reaching up to unbuckle his sword sheath when Zanaya froze, then took his left hand, raised it up. “What’s this?” A soft question, the pad of her thumb brushing over the ring of melded onyx and amber that he wore on his finger.

“A ring I should’ve been wearing for eons.” Taking a deep breath that trembled, he said, “Will you forgive me, Zani? I never meant to hurt you, but I did, and for that, I will never be sorry enough.”

It had taken him far too long to understand that his way of thinking wasn’t the only way. “But know this—it was the only item aside from my weapons and my clothing that I took with me into Sleep. So it would be safe, protected as the seasons and the centuries passed. Even this bullheaded warrior wasn’t a total idiot.”

Zanaya didn’t speak for so long that he felt his heart drop. Then she lifted her head, her eyes bright in that way they got when she was holding back strong emotions. Though she didn’t speak, she lifted his hand to her lips and pressed a tender kiss to his ring.

Her next words were pragmatic . . . but she touched her fingers to his jaw in a caress sweet. “I’ll order food from the kitchen so you can refuel after your flight, and the clothing you sent ahead sits beside my own in the wardrobe.”

Alexander wanted only to tangle himself with her, but he knew she was right. He had to be at full readiness in case of the worst news from the two archangels who’d flown to check the cairn.

The war drums might yet sound again.

Still . . . “Elijah and Raphael have hours to fly, and neither Titus’s nor your people have reported any worrying disturbances,” he murmured, and reached for her. “Can we not steal but a moment of that time?”





51


“Alexander.” A purr of sound against his lips as she allowed him to tug her close, allowed him to unhook the two clasps on her short wrap of icy green, allowed him to run one hand over the smooth dark of her skin while holding her with his other arm.