Archangel's War

73

Cassandra, whose eyes were a haunting seafoam green melded with indigo and blue when she wasn’t clawing them out, smiled sadly at him. “The knot of chaos has untangled. I see clear paths again.” A tear rolled down her face. “I will be a mad archangel should I stay.”

Moving forward, she touched her hands to Elena’s cheeks. “Such glory you are, prophecy of mine. I will wake again when you next change the world.”

A kiss pressed to Elena’s cheek before Cassandra came to Raphael. “Child of flames, how strong you have become. And yet . . .” She pressed a hand to his heart. “Your heart is a little mortal.” She smiled, as if that pleased her, but the smile held a terrible sadness. “It is time for me to Sleep. Do not disturb me, children, for at least a thousand years. Perhaps then, I will be ready.”

She turned to walk to Qin, wiped the tears that ran down his cheeks. “My Qin.”

Raphael and the others all looked away as she laid her head down on the silent archangel’s chest and he put his arms around her. Beside Raphael, his hunter’s eyes shone wet.

Cassandra’s skirts stirred the air and when they looked up, she was no longer in Qin’s arms. “I will take with me the broken ones,” she said. “They cannot find a safe place to Sleep. I will find it for them.”

“Will they wake?” Alexander asked, grooves marking the sides of his mouth. “Zanaya, Michaela, and Astaad?”

Cassandra’s lilac hair blew back in the breeze coming through the balcony doors. “This, I do not know,” she said. “Some futures are not yet written.”

Raphael met her haunted eyes, wondered if they would be bloody holes when he next saw her. “I will ask my people to prepare to escort Michaela, Zanaya, and Astaad.” He sent the instruction even as he spoke.

Not long afterward, they watched Cassandra walk to the edge of the balcony. Her white owls took off in a symphony of silence. A single look back, the brush of an old, old mind, then Cassandra followed. Behind her came Jason, with Astaad in his arms, Aodhan, with Michaela, and Andreas, with Zanaya. An honor guard flew behind them.

Alexander ran to the balcony edge without warning, wings of silver spread for flight. He took Zanaya from Andreas before they’d reached the city limits. The squadron commander dropped out to return to his other duties.

I need to take her to her resting place, Alexander said to Raphael, but do not consider me gone from the table.

I will ensure your voice is heard.

“Nine then,” Raphael said afterward. “Three of whom are incapacitated.” With Eli, it might be for months, while Caliane would rise again within days or weeks, depending on how much damage she’d taken. Neha would be up even sooner.

“I do not know who I am.” Favashi held up her hands and on her skin played the slow, sinuous glow of lava. “I do not know what I have become.”

“You’re an archangel,” Aegaeon said flatly. “You do not get to rest while the world burns.”

Raphael didn’t agree with how the message had been delivered, but Aegaeon was right. The Cadre needed Favashi to step up.

Her face pulled taut over bones that were too prominent, but she inclined her head. “I will not go back to China.”

“I will visit China,” Raphael said. “No other of the Cadre will be expected to go there until Elena and I confirm it is uninfected.”

Curt nods all around.

“I will hold my territory, and Eli will hold his,” Raphael continued. “I will maintain a watch over Eli’s territory in the interim, so that bloodlust does not rise among the vampires.”

No one argued with that, either. They had bigger problems.

“I have just asked Alexander and he will continue to hold his, and he is willing to assist whoever takes over Michaela’s until her return. There is also Astaad’s territory. Neha’s and Caliane’s generals will manage theirs for the short duration the two will be in anshara, though Neha’s people will need our assistance to wipe out the reborn scourge.”

“I will take Michaela’s lands,” Aegaeon said. “I do not wish to be awake, but to leave the world with only eight archangels at this time is unacceptable—and I am honorable enough not to steal Astaad’s lands when he has fallen in battle.”

Raphael looked to Qin, this Ancient who had not said a word to any of them since his arrival. “Will you accept a watch over Astaad’s lands?”

Qin’s face twisted. He looked out to where Cassandra had disappeared. “I do not wish to live in a world without her,” he said in a mellifluous voice that was like music. “But this is a duty of archangels. I will stay only until another rises to take my place.”

Raphael inclined his head. “Titus, Favashi, can you work together in Africa?”

“I would be honored to work with an archangel who cares for her people,” Titus said with a nod aimed at Favashi. “Africa is a large land and that boil on humanity left things a putrid mess. Your city is in ruins, Raphael, but you are luckier than I.”

“I will assist you and anyone else who needs it.” They had come to his aid at the critical time, and he would never forget that. “Favashi?”

Favashi, her eyes a flow of lava, smiled. “Yes, I would be pleased to have Titus for a neighbor.” Then she collapsed, her bones liquid.

Cassandra’s voice filled their minds even as Elena caught the former Archangel of China. I am sorry, children. She was too weak to rise but this was her battle and her time. She must return to her Sleep.

Raphael could see Favashi’s bones through skin gone translucent, fire under her skin. The others saw the same. Aegaeon’s face grew tight but even he knew there was no fighting this. Scooping her up in his arms, Raphael called Andreas and told him to head in the same direction as Cassandra and the others. “Cassandra is waiting for you.”

“She’s too light,” was all the warrior angel said before he took off with Favashi.

“Eight in the Cadre?” Aegaeon growled. “At this time? Five until the three who are in healing sleep return? The vampires will run amok across the lands.”

Raphael knew that was a valid concern. “We don’t have to worry about China,” he told them. “Most of the vampiric population is dead.” Very few of Lijuan’s ground troops had survived the war. “We’ll have to roster archangelic flights over India and Japan. Titus, you’ll have to handle Africa on your own for now, but we will assist as required.”

“I will need it,” Titus said bluntly. “It is a large land and it is riddled with reborn.”

“It is decided,” Raphael said two minutes later, after receiving Alexander’s agreement to their decisions. “The Cadre has spoken.”

The sky broke with a sparkling black rain only a quarter of an hour later. It washed away the smell of death, made destroyed buildings beautiful for long moments and collected in glittering puddles on city streets.

And it destroyed one wall of the Tower infirmary as an injured Suyin smashed through it to rise into the sky. Raphael caught her bewildered eyes as she rose upward but there was nothing he could do.

Suyin, too gentle, too untried, was ascending.

Energy danced over her skin, in the gleaming ice of her hair, flowed into her body.

“The Cadre will eat her alive.”

“Not just yet, Guild Hunter. The world is in too much chaos. She will have time.”

Ascension was unpredictable. It could take hours or days. Suyin landed in front of the rest of the Cadre that night. Her rain yet fell across the world.

“You have Northern Africa,” Aegaeon said with no moment for Suyin to breathe in her new reality.

But Suyin showed her spine. “No. I will take China.” Unflinching determination in her eyes. “My bloodline broke it. My bloodline will heal it. I will not discuss this.”

“It seems a fitting choice,” Titus said. “I have no disagreement with it.”

No one did, though Raphael warned Suyin about the possibility of lingering poison. Her lips twisted. “If poison remains, it will not harm me. I am her blood.”

Titus and Qin left soon afterward, flying off into Suyin’s rain. Alexander had already stated that he’d depart straight from Cassandra’s lava sinkhole. Aegaeon turned to Raphael and Elena when only he and Suyin were left. “I wish for my son to come with me. I believe he is in your service.”

Elena’s back stiffened, but she kept her mouth shut because she’d seen the dangerous gleam in Raphael’s eyes.

“Your son is his own man,” he said with utmost politeness. “Should he wish to go with you, I will not hold him to his sworn vows.”

Aegaeon inclined his head with a smile. “I thank you. I see him on that rooftop—I will speak now with him.”

“Why did you say that?” Elena hissed at Raphael the instant the other archangel took off—Suyin was far from them, on the very edge of the balcony. “Illium doesn’t want that!”

“I have warned your Bluebell, Elena. And I have told him that if he chooses to leave, we will hunt him down.” His lips curved. “He was most mollified by the latter. He also understands that if I say no to Aegaeon, I make an enemy of him. If his son says the same . . .”

“It’s just a family matter.” Sighing, Elena leaned up against him. “When am I going to get this angelic politics thing right?”

He stroked the line of her spine, the stormfire of her wings faded and weak. “You are young, child of mortals.” Even her wings needed to recover after that battle.

She elbowed him, but this wasn’t done.

In the distance, Aegaeon took off with a hard beat of his wings. They couldn’t see his face from this far, but Illium turned and shot a salute their way.

Grinning, Elena waved back at him.

They walked to Suyin. Bruised eyes held theirs, the hand she lifted crackling with a black-hued power that sparkled diamond bright. “Is she in me?” A rough whisper. “Am I her legacy?”

“No.” Elena held Suyin’s gaze, certain deep in her gut that she had to stop that line of thought here and now or it would eat Suyin up alive. “This is yours and yours alone.”

“I am an architect.” She stared uncomprehendingly at her hands. “I am no battle-honed warrior. I should not be Cadre.”

“The world needs rebuilding. Who better than an architect to begin that rebuild?”

Raphael’s words settled against Elena’s skin, felt right. Yes, the world needed builders now, creators.

“I have no guard, no one loyal to me. An archangel cannot rule without a second.”

“I will send a guard with you,” Raphael said. “To be by your side until you find your own people.”

Suyin, still disoriented, decided to stay in New York for three extra days to settle into her skin, before she headed to China.

She’d just left to go to her room and spend some time alone, think over the cataclysmic change in her life, when golden light began to emanate from the direction of the Catskills. “Cassandra is saying good-bye,” Raphael murmured.

The two of them watched the strange sunset until the last flicker disappeared from the sky. Elena’s wings went with them, disappearing with an audible pop that made her ears hurt. Raphael gasped at the same instant and went down on one knee. His wings shimmered for a second, then settled, solid and strong.

The Legion mark on his temple blazed before going quiet.

Elena dropped down beside him, her hand on his wing and her lungs struggling to gasp in air. “Archangel.”

“The golden lightning of the Cascade is gone,” he said, his breathing unsteady, “as is part of what the Legion gave us.”

Her heart squeezed. “Maybe the part that makes them?”

“That is my hope, hbeebti.” He flexed his hand. “The bloodstorm power remains.”

“Can you make your wings turn to white fire?”

A pause before his wings morphed into pure flame. “Yes, and . . .” Blue wreathed his hand. “I can still heal.”

“So now we know what happens to superhero powers after a Cascade.” Her voice shook. “My wings came from the golden lightning. And now my back feels weird.”

Raphael rose, his jaw set. If the world had taken her wings again, he would savage it. What he found was that the slits in her jacket where her wings had emerged were glowing . . . the same hue he did when he was angry, or filled with power.

“You have a piece of my heart, Elena,” he murmured. “That heart is full of archangelic cells. Those cells can heal nearly any injury, any damage, any mutation if no other strange power is getting in the way. And the golden Cascade power is gone.”

Elena sucked in a breath. “What’re you saying, Raphael?”

“I need to see your back.” Wrapping her up in his arms, he flew her up to the privacy of their suite and the two of them tore off her arm sheaths, then her clothing. Her naked back was flawless but for two glowing lines where wings grew out of an angel’s back.

Raphael touched his finger to one.

Elena shivered so hard it was a shudder.

“Pain?” he asked.

“No.” She moved restlessly on her feet. “Just . . . sensitive. Very.”

“Do you have the urge to scratch as you have never scratched before?”

“Dear lord, yes! Argh!”

Hope exploded into certainty. “You are in the first stage of wing regrowth.”

Elena was silent for a long time. “You’re sure,” she said at last.

“Yes, but let us go to Nisia.”

The healer took a minute from her heavy workload to confirm Raphael’s diagnosis. “I can see the faint ridge of two developing stubs,” she said after examining Elena’s back closely. “I’ll give you an oil for the itching.”

Before they left, she took blood so Lucius could rerun DNA tests.

“Am I going to have fluffy duck feathers soon?” Elena asked Raphael after they were in their suite again and he’d rubbed in the heavenly oil. The relief was so great it was orgasmic; right then, she was glad she’d slept through her first time growing wings.

“I’m afraid so. Will you miss the energy wings?”

Elena’s eyes were wet when she turned to him. “They were amazing and they took me to the sky . . . but Raphael, I’ll have proper wings again, feathers you can stroke, feathers I can give Zoe and Maggie.” She cried then, in joy rather than sorrow.

Later, they looked out over their ruined city. At least seventy percent of the buildings had been badly damaged or fully destroyed. Even the Tower hadn’t escaped unscathed, but the Legion building hadn’t suffered a scratch.

It hurt Elena’s heart to look at it, but she would keep her promise. She would keep it safe for when the Legion returned. Beings that ancient couldn’t simply cease to exist.

Raphael’s hand closed over hers, warm and strong.

“What happens now, Archangel?”

“We walk into the future.”

“Together.”

“Always.”