Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 112287 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112287 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Cassandra, she said in an effort to reach the Ancient.
But there was no response today.
Her heart drummed a violent beat, struggling with what she was doing—leading death to a person who had no idea it was coming. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” She kept hoping the melody would stop, the choice taken out of her hands, but it only grew stronger with each wingbeat.
Until by the time she had to stop for a rest, her muscles quivering with exhaustion, it was all she could hear, an opera rising toward crescendo inside a sealed theater. When Raphael told her he’d carry her, she just nodded. Because she’d seen areas flooding beneath them, homes being swept away, mountains crumbling in slides of mud and stone, and the landscape blurring as the earth shook again and again.
The world was falling.
So she kept on indicating the necessary direction, and though she’d much rather have flown on the wing, she stayed in Raphael’s arms once she realized how much faster the entire group was with him carrying her.
Darkness fell. The rain halted, but no stars emerged.
Elena tried not to see that as an omen.
They came to a point where even the archangels had to stop to take a breath and refuel their bodies using the dried meats and nuts that Caliane’s people had thrust into their hands prior to flight.
Their landing spot was an isolated grassland exposed to the wind and the fine spits of rain that had started up in the last hour.
Elena strode across cold and dark emptiness, both to stretch her legs and in an effort to outrun the certainty growing in the back of her brain. She’d come up with only two possibles—and one outlier—for people trusted by the entire Cadre. It had to be someone who had enough contact with archangels to build that bond. A senior person, then, and since this was a matter of the angelic race, most likely an angel.
Raphael walked to join her. “Your face tells me you’re thinking along the same lines as I am.” A glance back at where the others either spoke to each other or had walked off to stand by themselves. “There’s a high chance we all have the same short list.”
When Elena forced herself to name the people on her list, he nodded. “I can’t think of anyone else. Not if it is to be an individual trusted by us, one and all.”
“I wish it was me,” Elena blurted out. “It’d be easier than basically going to a person—a good, kind person—to ask them to sacrifice themselves.” Her breath accelerated, her shoulders rigid. “I know what I said before, but now the time’s here . . . I don’t know if I can do this.”
The earth gave a violent shudder at her feet, cracking in a vicious line that put them on opposite sides. As if the world was sending her a warning, telling her this wasn’t a choice. Not for her—and not for the person at the end of this flight.
Her face flushed, a scream tearing out of her. “I hate this!”
Raphael’s face was cold in the way it got when he was holding back violent emotion. “This is what it means to lead, hbeebti. Some decisions carve out a piece of your heart.”
Eyes burning, she flew across the new gorge and into his arms. He wrapped both his wings and his arms around her, a moment of warmth and love before they had to do a thing terrible.
56
Vivek hadn’t slept for twenty-four hours straight, kept up by the pain in his leg and by the catastrophic natural events smashing through the planet.
It was as if the entire world had gone mad—and he knew something big was going on. Not only because of the information to which he’d been given access, but because every single archangel in the world was, at present, in Caliane’s territory.
No one had told him that. He’d put it together after picking up multiple disparate pieces of information—and liaising with Jason. Part of both their jobs was to watch the other archangels, and when Vivek saw a photograph that a young vampire had excitedly posted of Aegaeon over Northern India, then Jason caught news of Suyin leaving China, followed by word from their spies that Alexander, Titus, and Zanaya had all left their territories, they’d realized the Cadre was on the move.
Dmitri had soon clued them both in: “Raphael’s gone to an emergency meeting of the Cadre. Elena’s with him.” That’s all he’d said within Vivek’s hearing, but Vivek didn’t need chapter and verse.
He was good at what he did because he could think for himself.
“Vivek.” Dmitri’s voice in his ear.
“I’m here.” He kept on working, directing information where it would do the most good.
“Status of the Mantle?”
Vivek flicked over to that image and hissed out a breath. “Hours from failure. At the current rate, I’d estimate less than three.”