Archangel's War (Guild Hunter #12) - Nalini Singh Page 0,192
wings needed to recover after that battle.
She elbowed him, but this wasn’t done.
In the distance, Aegaeon took off with a hard beat of his wings. They couldn’t see his face from this far, but Illium turned and shot a salute their way.
Grinning, Elena waved back at him.
They walked to Suyin. Bruised eyes held theirs, the hand she lifted crackling with a black-hued power that sparkled diamond bright. “Is she in me?” A rough whisper. “Am I her legacy?”
“No.” Elena held Suyin’s gaze, certain deep in her gut that she had to stop that line of thought here and now or it would eat Suyin up alive. “This is yours and yours alone.”
“I am an architect.” She stared uncomprehendingly at her hands. “I am no battle-honed warrior. I should not be Cadre.”
“The world needs rebuilding. Who better than an architect to begin that rebuild?”
Raphael’s words settled against Elena’s skin, felt right. Yes, the world needed builders now, creators.
“I have no guard, no one loyal to me. An archangel cannot rule without a second.”
“I will send a guard with you,” Raphael said. “To be by your side until you find your own people.”
Suyin, still disoriented, decided to stay in New York for three extra days to settle into her skin, before she headed to China.
She’d just left to go to her room and spend some time alone, think over the cataclysmic change in her life, when golden light began to emanate from the direction of the Catskills. “Cassandra is saying good-bye,” Raphael murmured.
The two of them watched the strange sunset until the last flicker disappeared from the sky. Elena’s wings went with them, disappearing with an audible pop that made her ears hurt. Raphael gasped at the same instant and went down on one knee. His wings shimmered for a second, then settled, solid and strong.
The Legion mark on his temple blazed before going quiet.
Elena dropped down beside him, her hand on his wing and her lungs struggling to gasp in air. “Archangel.”
“The golden lightning of the Cascade is gone,” he said, his breathing unsteady, “as is part of what the Legion gave us.”
Her heart squeezed. “Maybe the part that makes them?”
“That is my hope, hbeebti.” He flexed his hand. “The bloodstorm power remains.”
“Can you make your wings turn to white fire?”
A pause before his wings morphed into pure flame. “Yes, and . . .” Blue wreathed his hand. “I can still heal.”
“So now we know what happens to superhero powers after a Cascade.” Her voice shook. “My wings came from the golden lightning. And now my back feels weird.”
Raphael rose, his jaw set. If the world had taken her wings again, he would savage it. What he found was that the slits in her jacket where her wings had emerged were glowing . . . the same hue he did when he was angry, or filled with power.
“You have a piece of my heart, Elena,” he murmured. “That heart is full of archangelic cells. Those cells can heal nearly any injury, any damage, any mutation if no other strange power is getting in the way. And the golden Cascade power is gone.”
Elena sucked in a breath. “What’re you saying, Raphael?”
“I need to see your back.” Wrapping her up in his arms, he flew her up to the privacy of their suite and the two of them tore off her arm sheaths, then her clothing. Her naked back was flawless but for two glowing lines where wings grew out of an angel’s back.
Raphael touched his finger to one.
Elena shivered so hard it was a shudder.
“Pain?” he asked.
“No.” She moved restlessly on her feet. “Just . . . sensitive. Very.”
“Do you have the urge to scratch as you have never scratched before?”
“Dear lord, yes! Argh!”
Hope exploded into certainty. “You are in the first stage of wing regrowth.”
Elena was silent for a long time. “You’re sure,” she said at last.
“Yes, but let us go to Nisia.”
The healer took a minute from her heavy workload to confirm Raphael’s diagnosis. “I can see the faint ridge of two developing stubs,” she said after examining Elena’s back closely. “I’ll give you an oil for the itching.”
Before they left, she took blood so Lucius could rerun DNA tests.
“Am I going to have fluffy duck feathers soon?” Elena asked Raphael after they were in their suite again and he’d rubbed in the heavenly oil. The relief was so great it was orgasmic; right then, she was glad she’d slept through her first time growing wings.