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)
“Me?” Elena frowned. “From what Raphael’s just told me, I thought only archangels could recognize it.”
“You have some of my cells in your body, hbeebti.”
“Enough?”
Marduk shrugged. “We won’t know until we make the attempt.”
But though they searched nonstop for the next three days, there was no sign of anything even similar. Raphael’s territory just wasn’t old enough. His mother, however, had retrieved hers from Neha’s throne, Titus had taken his from his crest, and Elijah had discovered his in Hannah’s art studio.
“I was using it as a palette knife,” a mortified Hannah had confessed to Elena. “To my eyes, that’s all it was. I felt no compulsion to hand it to Elijah.”
“Of course not,” Marduk said when Elena passed on that piece of information. “She is his consort. The piece knew it could pass into his hand when needed. There was no urgency.”
Elena remained uncomfortable with Marduk, the age of him making her teeth ache, but he also reminded her of her beloved Legion. “You speak of these Compass parts as if they’re sentient.”
No smile, those dragonish eyes looking at her with unblinking focus as he said, “Perhaps the metal is not metal at all. Perhaps it is the blood of the Ancestors frozen in time.” Even as that unnerving idea made her shiver, he smiled. “Or perhaps I am amusing myself.”
“I’m not sure he wasn’t telling the truth the first time around,” she grumped to Raphael later that night, after another unsuccessful search through every archive available to them—including in the homes of old angels who lived in the territory.
The latter would’ve been an unlikely place to find the Compass part anyway, since it was meant to be located close to an archangel, but they’d run out of options. Even as they fought to think of any other place they could search, they got word from Zanaya.
I have it, she wrote in a message sent to the Cadre. Discovered it in my weapons chest. My second tells me she found it somewhere in the fort and thought it was perfect for me and placed it there—and then she forgot to talk to me about it. She never forgets anything. What are these cursed objects?
Elena was in sympathy with Zanaya. An item that could always find you? “What is that if not straight out of a horror film?” she said to Illium as the two of them stood on a Tower balcony late that afternoon, after another fruitless day of searching.
“It is simply power.”
Jolting at the sound of Marduk’s voice, she scrambled back—and looked up. There he sat like a gargoyle above the balcony. “Eavesdropping is rude!” she yelled, while her heart fought to slow down.
Marduk dropped down to the balcony. “Yes,” he said. “That I find you the most interesting being of all in this world is no excuse. My apologies.” He bent low at the waist.
Elena didn’t care about the apology—what she was more worried about was that he found her interesting. She didn’t want to be found interesting by Marduk. “Even archangels shouldn’t have that kind of power,” she said, wanting the conversation off her. “The kind that flows through endless time.”
“The old ones agreed with you,” was Marduk’s startling response. “There’s a point at which power becomes only destruction.”
“Good thing the Ancestors are safely Sleeping, then. Else they’d probably see us as food.”
No laughter from Marduk, just that gleaming gaze landing on Illium. “Your energies are unstable. Fine veins of serrated gold.”
Elena’s mind filled with the image of Illium’s body riven with veins of gold, his back arched as light poured out of his mouth, his scream silent and of agony. Before she could ask Marduk more about what he saw—and most importantly, whether he could stabilize Illium more than Raphael had already done—the archangel took off in the eerie silence effected by his wings.
He’d aimed himself at the Legion building.
“He never sleeps in the suite we assigned him,” she told Illium as both of them glared after Marduk. “I’m pretty sure he sleeps in the Legion building.”
“Well, there’s definitely no getting past the resemblance.” Illium’s wing overlapped hers. “Though, you know, sometimes he reminds me of Naasir.”
“Yes, but there’s something else there. A cold consciousness buried beneath the beauty of his skin.” Because Marduk’s skin was beautiful, the iridescent scales soft to the touch and carrying colors from darkest green to rich blues to onyx.
She narrowed her eyes as Marduk flew past the Legion building. “Will you tell Raphael I’m going to see my father for an hour? I’ll rejoin him in the search afterward.” Her archangel had gone inside to take a call from one of the Cadre just before Marduk made his appearance.
Illium brushed his knuckles over her cheek. “Fathers complicate lives, don’t they, Ellie?”
Elena hugged him with one arm, his body hard with muscle under his white T-shirt, the warm scent of him familiar. “Yes, they do.”