Archangel's War (Guild Hunter #12) - Nalini Singh Page 0,81

geothermal activity in Raphael’s territory.

“It almost feels like the prelude to a tsunami,” Elena said one night as they stood atop the Legion building after Elena had spent the day getting her hands dirty. “How everything goes still and the water retreats and retreats from the shore . . . only for a huge wave to return and pummel everything to death.”

“Your positive thoughts overwhelm me.” Raphael watched the purple-hued horizon as day fell into night, almost expecting to see the wave crashing.

“That’s me, chipper as a spring bean.” Lightning dancing through her wings, she threw a blade at him without warning. “You gonna tell me what was in that package from Amanat?”

Raphael lobbed back the blade through the frigid night air. “Another portrait of my father.” The words came out even, without emotion. “My mother wants me to have it.”

Tilting her head to the side after slipping the blade back into its sheath, Elena crossed the space between them. “Hey.” A hand pressed to his heart. “Talk to me.”

His pulse speeded up to beat in time with hers. She was now a full immortal, but she remained fragile in comparison to him. Breakable. Lijuan could end her with a single blow . . . yet his Elena would fly into battle at his side. Courage was writ on her soul. As defiant as the stormfire wings she’d clawed from the Cascade.

“My mother remembers all the good about my father,” he said, his mind filling with thoughts of another pair of lovers. “I wonder if she has forgotten the rest, or if she chooses only to focus on the light.”

Time rolled backward.

“That he loved her is beyond question. He was a huge power and women gravitated toward him, but he never looked at anyone else. Even when they were apart for months at a time, he never fell to temptation, never even saw it—I witnessed that with my own eyes.” Raphael caught lightning from her wings. “In that, I am my father’s son. It will only ever be you for me.”

Near-white strands of hair flirting against her neck, Elena reached up to brush her fingers over his cheek.

“But he was also . . . irresponsible.” Laughing and bright-eyed and not as adult as he should be. “A strange thing to say of an archangel, but there was a boyishness to him that I can see clearly when I look back at my memories. He would take me on wild adventures and it was all wonderful—until I fell and broke a wing or a leg.

“I loved the adventures, loved the danger. But it bothered my mother and yet, he wasn’t careful. He loved her desperately, but he wasn’t careful with her heart.” Raphael tried to find the words to explain. “He was always taking risks, always riding the edge. When the madness first licked at his mind, the healers told him to Sleep, that often, a long Sleep cured that which was broken.”

Memories, hard and loud in his head. “I heard them arguing. I wasn’t a child any longer, and I understood. She begged him to Sleep, promised she’d be waiting when he woke. But my father refused to ‘give up on life.’” So stubborn and arrogant and believing he knew best.

“In the end, he forced her to execute him.” It had broken Caliane in ways Raphael didn’t think would ever heal. “The woman you know, that’s not all of her. Parts are missing.” Would always be missing.

“I saw it in the portraits.” Elena’s eyes were more gray than silver today, her mortal heart right out in the open. “She had a candle inside her that’s dimmer now, quieter.”

“She was so old when they met. Old enough to be considering an endless Sleep. He brought her to life—that’s what she always told me.”

Sliding her arms around him, Elena held him tight as the wind wove around them, bringing with it a chill that promised snow not too far in the distant future. “I wish I could’ve met them when they were together and happy. I wish you could’ve met Jeffrey and Marguerite when they were the same.”

But the past was gone, leaving only broken shards at their feet. All they had were memories and a perilous future in which everything was shifting. Including the turbulent power inside Raphael that had become fused into his cells.

* * *

• • •

HUNTER ANGEL RETURNS TRIUMPHANT!

Elena glared at Demarco when he waved his tablet in front of her face a week later, that headline blaring