Archangel's Sun (Guild Hunter #13)(38)

Titus let Sharine go first so that she wouldn’t be buffeted by the draft created by his more powerful wings. “What?” he said once they were back on their flight path. “Have I grown a second head?”

“No,” she said after a penetrating glance. “Let’s just say I find myself surprised at your capacity for certain kinds of understanding.”

As far as backhanded compliments went, it was one of the best ever inflicted on Titus; even Nala would be hard-pressed to better it, and his sister was renowned for her acerbic wit. Nala didn’t talk much, but when she did, she made an impact. “How do you think I look after my territory? By being a reckless brute?”

“Such a course of action certainly seemed to have worked for Charisemnon.”

Titus went to reply then shut his mouth. She was right. Charisemnon had ruled with brute power much of the time—but that hadn’t been all of him.

“Much as I’d like for him to be remembered as a vicious idiot, he had a kind of cunning that I will never possess.” A simple truth. “Charisemnon could manipulate his people in ways I find difficult to comprehend. Though he took their children, their daughters far too innocent and young to be in a man’s bed, they revered him.

“Even in the headman’s village, there will be some who think of him as the right kind of archangel, of me as too rough and unrefined in comparison to his sophistication. The horrors of war and the reborn have torn the veil from most eyes, but why did it take so long? Why, for such a long part of his reign, was he worshipped as a god?”

“Because they had no choice.” Sharine’s voice ran over him like water, silken and bitingly cold at once. “He was a being of devastating power—as you are a being of devastating power; they had no avenue of appeal. Either they lived under his rule and found a way to rationalize it—or they died, likely tortured and broken.”

“That isn’t true!” Titus raged. “They could’ve crossed the border to me.”

“Leaving behind all they ever knew? Leaving behind their families? All the while with no way of knowing if you were any different?” Nothing cold or edgy in her tone this time, rather a poignant depth of knowledge. “To mortals, archangels are all one and the same. The Cadre is too far above mortal existence to truly understand them.”

“You are all but an Ancient,” Titus said, not sure why no one ever referred to her as such—perhaps it was the sense of bright freshness that clung to her. “You’re no closer to mortals than I am.”

“Before Lumia, I was even further away.” Surprising words, soft and heavy. “Lost in the fragmented pathways of my mind.”

Titus had so many questions, but he made no move to pursue that thread. No one became as she had unless it was a thing of terrible pain. He wouldn’t rub that pain raw anew, no matter how she irritated him.

“Since moving to Lumia, however, and basing myself in the adjacent town,” she continued, “I’ve come to see mortals not as a faceless mass but as individuals. I know that some are funny and sweet. Others are courageous.

“Still others have darkness in their hearts. And I know that outside Lumia, most mortals have never been in close contact with an angel. The idea of speaking to an archangel . . . It is beyond their comprehension.”

Sharine knew that she was being hard on Titus; the truth was, she couldn’t help it. It was simply that he reminded her so much of Aegaeon. Her former lover’d had the same confidence, the same swagger to him.

Though she was beginning to think that Titus had a far bigger heart. Big enough to rule this continent and bring it back from the brink of ruin. It was tempting to admire him for his clear moral lines and refusal to bask in his power, but Sharine wasn’t about to fall prey to the urge.

Especially when she’d already found herself susceptible to his devastating smiles. No, the last thing Sharine needed was to begin to admire the Archangel of Africa. Big, brash, beautiful Titus would use any such admiration to walk all over her. Not because he was cruel, but because he was Titus.





19


    Avelina, your Titus challenged me to climb a mountain—and the damned pup beat me! To assuage my mortally bruised honor, I challenged him to climb down in the dark. It is as well that he doesn’t know that terrain as well as I do, for otherwise, he would’ve beaten me again, without remorse.

I thank you for trusting me with the gift of your son. With each century that passes with him under my command, he becomes less a stripling, and more a man I consider a friend. It’s a strange thing for one so old as I to have a youthful friend, but I think I would’ve considered him a friend no matter at which point in life I met him.

Soon, the time will come when he leaves my court. It is inevitable. He must learn more of the world, learn more of himself. But always, I will hold a place for him in my army.

Enjoy your sojourn with Euphenia. Tell the child she owes me a concert.

—Letter from Archangel Alexander to First General Avelina





20


After flying for another ten minutes, Sharine said, “What do you have against Aegaeon?” She’d been startled by the depth of Titus’s anger when she’d made the comparison between one archangel and the other.

Titus shot her a look darker than any she’d ever witnessed on his face. “I have sisters, do you know that?”