Archangel's War (Guild Hunter #12) - Nalini Singh Page 0,152

complete legs. And she wasn’t dragging either leg, the limp only a thing of motion.

Elena ran out of the room, her mind reaching for Raphael’s. Raphael! We think there’s a chance Lijuan’s fed enough to go noncorporeal with a bunch of her troops!

The sea crashed into her mind, the taste of salt sharp against her tongue. Elena, if you are in the sky, drop! ALL FIGHTERS, DROP!

She heard the troop-wide command just as she burst out onto the nearest balcony. The sky above her head crackled an incandescent white-gold shot with scorching blue. Precious wildfire going into the void to try to unmask Lijuan. If they were wrong . . .

Illium, Andreas, Nimra, Nazarach move your squadrons to the East River! Lijuan is halfway to the Tower! Elijah has activated his resting squadrons and they’ll join you! Galen, Aodhan—take the port! Ground teams on break—return to your positions. Venom, get ready for a renewed reborn assault.

The sky filled with wings on the heels of Raphael’s orders.

Elena rose into the air just enough that she could see what was going on. The battle was close, far closer than on the first front. Lijuan—legs definitely fully regrown and fuck it was freaky how quickly she’d done it—was spraying the sky with shards of starlight obsidian that were ruthless in their beauty.

Raphael was blocking the spray with wildfire, while Elijah attempted to hit her with angelfire. Around them, their troops were badly outnumbered; most had not been anywhere near the site when the order came. Even the vast majority of the Legion wouldn’t make it in time. Which meant Raphael and Elijah were under attack from not only Lijuan but a massive chunk of her army.

It was shaping up as a massacre.

Meanwhile the troops that had gone quiet near the port had risen again with bloody fury. At the front were three generals whose power was Lijuan’s obsidian. Galen and a tired Aodhan were in the air, but the numbers coming at them were catastrophic. They needed Raphael or Elijah, but neither archangel could break off from the fight against Lijuan.

Elena flew up to the Tower roof. Lifting open a specific weapons locker, she picked up a grenade launcher. The shot wouldn’t go far, but she didn’t need it to go far. Not if she could make this fucking work.

Hauling the thing up to her shoulder, she rose back into the air.

Focusing on Raphael and the lethal threat of Lijuan, she let her rage and her worry rise to fill her throat, her need to be next to him a pulse in her mouth.

Nothing happened.

Raphael barely dodged being skewered by Lijuan’s poisonous energy. She was releasing huge sprays of bolts rather than one at a time—because the Archangel of China didn’t have to conserve her energy. She could waste as much as she wanted.

And Elena was still too far away to help.

Think Elena! Why had it worked with Aodhan but not Raphael?

Because he is an archangel, child. The voice was old and tired and heavy with Sleep. You cannot interfere in the wars of archangels.

That’s bullshit, Elena said, not having the time or the inclination to be startled by Cassandra’s reappearance. If I’d been a fucking battery, I’d have interfered wouldn’t I? But thanks for the tip.

Willing to believe that the Cascade could be so arbitrary, she focused on Illium instead. Fast as he was, he’d outpaced his squadron and was about to fly directly into the line of fire, had nearly a hundred percent chance of being badly wounded before the rest of the warriors caught up with him.

Not my Bluebell, she thought, letting all her fear and anger coalesce into a hard knot in her gut.

Her breath came in pants when she appeared beside him.

“Ellie!”

“Cover me!” She dove in front of him while he shattered the sky around her with his power, driving off would-be assailants. It wasn’t as good as if she’d come out next to Raphael, but it was good enough.

Ignoring the death bolts the fucking Queen of the Dead was throwing her way, she fired the grenade launcher. Lijuan ignored it. Of course she did. She didn’t pay attention to mortal things. Or a baby angel.

Elena dropped at the same moment, screaming at Bluebell to do the same.

Lijuan’s poisonous spray flew over them to smash into the buildings at their backs. And the grenade went straight into Lijuan’s chest . . . or it would have if she hadn’t smashed her hand across it at the last moment.