Archangel's War (Guild Hunter #12) - Nalini Singh Page 0,160

it all down the swords and into Lijuan.

His blades danced with white-gold and blue edged with an opalescence of midnight and dawn that shifted into an unexpected wild green, then back again.

Lijuan’s scream threatened to pierce his eardrums, a million deaths hidden within it. In her face, he saw the ghosts of the countless people she’d killed, her flesh morphing too fast to hold in the mind. Her facial bones turned skeletal right then, the flesh receding, before she was the lovely Archangel of China once more.

A woman he had once respected and looked to for advice.

But that wise archangel was gone, lost in the Cascade madness that had created this monster. One day, Raphael might mourn her, the Lijuan she had once been, but it would not be today. Today, he fought for the life of not just his and Elijah’s people, but for the survival of the world.

Lijuan’s hands turned into blood as she tried to wrench herself off the swords. He kept on pushing them into her even as she tried to pull away, until at last she shot a river of starlight obsidian down the swords, using them as a conduit as he had.

He broke contact with the hilts, and she wrenched.

He got out a warning to the angels directly in the path of the falling swords and the blades hit the street below without harming any of his people. In front of him, Lijuan was coming apart at the seams, the wildfire literally pulling her to pieces, the edge of defiant green causing searing burns along the ruptures. But even as he felt a flicker of hope, her obsidian starlight wrapped around her, as if sealing the cracks.

When Elena threw him another blade, he moved to cut Lijuan’s throat. The more they could hurt her, the more time they’d gain for the wildfire to regenerate. That deadly living green wasn’t his or Elena’s but formed of an amalgamation. If their combined wildfire could do so much damage now when he’d only had dregs to contribute to the strike, what might they be able to do if they combined their wildfire at full strength?

He sliced out . . . but Lijuan was no longer there. Once again, she’d gone noncorporeal to escape a killing blow, must’ve had a store of power in reserve for just such a possibility. Throwing back his head, Raphael roared out his rage.

She would be back.

And they had nothing left, no more aces up their sleeve.

63

Exhaustion hung over the Tower’s as well as Elijah’s forces. Elena could see both groups of troops as she walked through a snowy Central Park at Hannah’s side. Some members of their combined forces were sitting and resting with tired but open eyes, while others had their heads tilted back and their eyes closed. Another lull had fallen, except for brief skirmishes here and there.

The cause of the lull seemed to be a similar exhaustion on Lijuan’s side. Unexpected given their numbers, but Xi had sent all their forces into battle as one, instead of resting groups and sending them one after the other. Losing Lijuan this time had fizzled out the proxies, too. Even Xi was no longer shooting the obsidian bolts.

Elijah and Raphael had considered pushing forward, forcing Lijuan’s tired army to engage, but the numbers worked against them. Their forces were even more exhausted than Lijuan’s, and both Raphael and Elijah were on the edge of endurance.

Elijah had actually had to pull power from the city’s electrical grid, shorting out connections all over the city. It had been a desperate reach for power as he attempted to keep Lijuan’s most dangerous surviving generals at bay. Having barely recovered from his injury, he’d taken on at least ten of them while Raphael fought Lijuan.

As a result of Elijah’s stand, they still had at least five squadrons of fighters who would’ve otherwise fallen under the assault. But even if Raphael and Eli stripped the city’s entire grid, they didn’t have enough remaining power between them to demolish Lijuan’s forces. They’d do severe damage . . . but they’d flatline afterward.

Manhattan would then be helpless prey for a rejuvenated Lijuan.

Better for everyone to recover in readiness for her return—this time, they had a better idea of her vulnerabilities. Especially when it came to the bright new-leaf green that resulted from the amalgamation of Raphael and Elena’s wildfire. That stuff had hurt Lijuan.

Now, in this tenuous instant where they could catch a breath, Hannah was doing the