Archangel's War (Guild Hunter #12) - Nalini Singh Page 0,118
still say she has a right to her territory! Look at what she’s done!” Her voice shook, her muscles bunched.
“These are our laws, Elena.” Raphael’s jaw as hard as stone, his eyes metallic in their remoteness. “Else war would be a constant and the world awash in blood.”
Giving a scream, Elena turned and kicked a wall. “Titus and Charisemnon have been fighting forever! And we hunted Uram!”
“A conflict between two archangels is a far different thing from the Cadre interceding in another territory.” Lightning cracked his skin, but his eyes were frost. “Uram broke a far more fundamental law prior to the hunt order being decided, you know this. That law stands above all others but it does not apply here. Lijuan’s madness is not the kind for which it was written.”
She knew he was right. That just made it worse. No matter how ugly and awful an atrocity Lijuan had committed, if the rest of the Cadre breached her borders in a martial strike, they permanently destabilized the world’s power structure. Once an archangel was assigned a territory, it was theirs to rule as they saw fit.
No exceptions but for the one that had tripped up Uram.
As long as Lijuan kept her evil confined to her territory, the Cadre couldn’t touch her without throwing open a door that could never again be closed. Because what had been done once, even if done under exigent circumstances, could be done again and again—no archangel could ever again be sure of their status so all would make war to hold on to their right to rule.
“You know mortals are the losers when archangels battle.” Steel edged Raphael’s voice. “It would be their annihilation.”
She stalked back to him. “Do you think I’m mad at you? Argh!” Gripping his hair in her fists, she rose up to kiss him hard and deep before stalking back to kick the wall again. “I’m mad at Lijuan. If she’d been content with the biggest fucking territory in the world, we wouldn’t be looking at mummified bodies and hunting for lost babies.”
“I would argue that, if the Primary is correct about the trigger for the Cascade, it may have all ended up this way regardless.” Raphael’s hair mussed from her fingers, his lips wet from her kiss. “It could’ve been Uram had he managed to keep his blood treachery hidden.”
Elena thought of the naked, violated bodies the dead archangel had discarded like trash, the amputated limbs inserted into the wrong places, the glistening eyeballs held in cupped hands, and shoved a fisted hand against her gut. “Or Charisemnon.”
“Disease run rampant.” Raphael nodded. “Yes, the Cascade would’ve found a receptive mind one way or another.” Eyes of Prussian blue, violent in their purity, locked with her own. “Before you, it could have been me.”
She thought of the cold archangel who’d made her close her hand over a blade, watched her blood drip to the floor, an archangel who’d seen mortals as nothing but pawns to be used and forgotten, and swallowed hard.
“It is a terrifying thing to consider, is it not? We all have a monster inside us Elena, each and every archangel in the world. It is the flip side to such blinding power.” He backed her up against the wall, his hands braced on either side of her head. He was big, had always been big, but it was only at times like this that she really became aware of it—became aware that he was deadly strong, far stronger than her.
But their relationship wasn’t built on such basic lines. “You never broke me even when you could.” She wasn’t about to allow him to believe such dark lies about himself because toxic seeds took root and dug in. “A pet hunter would’ve been far more convenient for you, but you didn’t steal my mind.”
“I played with you as a cat does with a mouse.”
“This mouse has claws, in case you’ve forgotten.” She had a blade at his jugular before he realized it—wearing sweats or not, she never went anywhere without a knife or ten. “I’m the one who shot you, hurt you.”
A slow blink . . . followed by a smile so devastating that it knocked the air right out of her. “I concede this round, Guild Hunter.”
Slipping away the blade, Elena knew the battle was far from over. They’d be dealing with it for eons yet. Both of Raphael’s parents had gone mad. It wasn’t an easy history to bear. “Smart man.”