Court of Sunder (Age of Angels #2) - Milana Jacks Page 0,10

bird’s feathers around his face as if fluffing up a pillow, then settled back to stare at me, violet eyes dim, eyelids half-mast.

He appeared tired, while my body lit up with desire as he stroked my palm with his thumb. I tried to keep the conversation neutral. “Do I need rest, or do you?”

In response, he closed his eyes.

I waited for him to open them again, and when he didn’t, I poked his shoulder. He didn’t move. I shook him. Nothing.

Raphael, Lord of the Court of Sunder, was tapped out. If anyone, even me, came at him now, I believe he couldn’t have defended himself. I didn’t know angels got tapped out, though I knew they slept sometimes. I glanced at my stick, which I’d managed to hold on to, and thought that if anyone came after us, I wouldn’t let them hurt this male, then I shook my head at the ridiculous thought. As if he needed my protection. As if he needed my anything. I was just a burden on his way out of the Court, and now that he was home, I didn’t want to burden him anymore.

The bird took off, and I fought sleep snuggled against her soft feathers and the warmth that radiated from her body.

Chapter 4

The lino screeched. I snapped open my eyes. The world spun as the lino tumbled, flapping her wings, trying to save her life by minimizing the impact on the way down. Nevaeh clutched the bird’s feathers, eyes wide, her expression one of terror. I stared back, pissed I couldn’t do anything about the fall because I had no fucking wings, and I’d have to expend my energy yet again.

“What’s going on?” Nevaeh shouted over the wind.

Someone had attacked my transport. In my territory. In my Court. “Hang on to her and don’t let go.”

“We’re going down,” the mortal said.

I didn’t deny it. We tumbled from terrible heights, and the lino landed hard, hurtling forward, throwing us off. We flew through the air, and I grabbed the girl at the last second and hit a rock, cracked the back of my skull. Blinking, chest heavy, I surveyed the girl sprawled on top of me, my vision darkening as the seconds passed. She lifted her head.

“Oh my God, you’re bleeding.” She knelt beside me and started ripping the bottom of my pants with her teeth. I had no idea what she intended to do so I watched her while healing my cracked skull. Because I was distracted by the noise of flapping wings in the sky coming right at us, the repair took longer than usual. I reached out with my power and assessed the lino. A spear through the heart. We were lucky it didn’t pierce the body, or one of us would be dead. Not me. So it would be the mortal, which was not acceptable.

Finally, Nevaeh ripped a piece of cloth from my pants and started wiping my nosebleed, her gaze on the blood I presumed was pooling behind my head.

“You’re going to be okay,” she said. “Right?”

I smiled.

She kept wiping the blood pouring from my nose. A nosebleed was the least of my problems. Michael trained soldiers, but I trained the medical staff that made his soldiers tick and able to function. My mortals patched his mortals. My mortals fed his armies. Nevaeh had no idea what to do with me because Michael didn’t train medical staff. Besides the basic first aid, his soldiers relied on my Court for their medical needs, in the field, and off it.

I batted her hand away and sat up with a groan. My back hurt. The peeled skin exposed raw flesh. I did a quick patch-up of my body and some superficial skull work so I wouldn’t spill my brains out.

“Find the lino and yank the spear out,” I said.

“Yes, Commander.”

I rolled my eyes but didn’t comment. The great thing about mortals from the Court of Command? They had an autoresponse setting. When they heard orders, they moved quickly to execute them.

Standing, I looked around. We landed a half day’s walk from Sunder City, inside the Forgotten Passage, that led to the Exile, a stretch of rough, mountainous terrain named that because it housed people exiled from my Court.

The lino squealed as the mortal yanked the spear out of her chest, and I began repairing the lino’s heart while scanning the skies. Lino anatomy, particularly their heart and lungs, proved extremely difficult to repair, and I had to stop listening for