Archangel’s Enigma (Guild Hunter #8)(100)
Author: Nalini Singh

One of the tales they’d told her had been of going to a newly adult Alexander’s oasis home for a “warrior party” where mead was drink and the dancing was wild.

“He never forgot us,” one of the Ancients had said. “Even when he became a powerful general, then an archangel, we still had an open welcome to his home—whether it be an archangelic palace or a hunting cabin—and he’d sit with us and drink a glass or five and laugh over old stories.”

The others had nodded, their smiles holding a deep and true affection for an archangel who to them was a friend they’d grown up alongside. “I hope one day when we wake, he, too, is awake. I should like to share a drink with him and see what he makes of this world where metal machines fly in the air and an archangel keeps no court.”

Thinking of all her conversations with the Ancients, she braced herself with a hand on Naasir’s chest and said, “If Alexander is in some sense aware of people in this cave system, then we may be safe. He wasn’t capricious or heedlessly cruel.”

“But if it’s an autonomous defense as with the locusts, then we could end up catatonic,” Naasir completed in the low, slightly growly tone that she loved.

“Should we leave and attempt to get far enough away that the phone works?”

“I missed the check-in call—Raphael is already on his way.” Naasir closed one warm, rough-skinned hand over the one she had on his chest. “But it’ll take Alexander time to rise, and Lijuan has a shorter distance to travel than Raphael. We need to try to start the process so Alexander isn’t helpless if Lijuan realizes this is his location and arrives first.”

Andromeda thought of how Lijuan’s physical form had faded in and out, of her thin face and missing limbs. The Archangel of China was clearly weak, but according to the news Andromeda had received from Jessamy while in Amanat, there was a chance Lijuan had killed Jariel—an angel rumored to have been strong enough that he might one day soon have become an archangel.

And Alexander was currently helpless should she strike.

“What are we waiting for?” she said to Naasir, her blood hot. “We have to go annoy an Ancient and hope he doesn’t turn us into gibbering idiots.”

Naasir’s chuckle was soft, the teeth that grazed the tip of her ear sharp. “I knew you were my mate.”

36

Lijuan had only gone a quarter of the way to Rohan’s palace when her strength ran out. Heading to the ground before she fell out of the sky, her wings yet weak and useless appendages, she became corporeal.

Rage burned in her as she lay helpless on the earth, a torso with wings that barely moved when she attempted to flip herself over onto her front. Not that it would’ve mattered. She couldn’t even crawl fast; her single fully regenerated arm was as weak as her wings, the muscles trembling at the least exertion.

Unable to contain the fury, she struck out with one red-tipped hand. Black shards erupted, demolishing the trees in front of her to dust. She jerked . . . and then she smiled. This humiliating weakness was bearable if her deadly abilities were returning to their full strength. A Sleeping Alexander would have no defense against them. She was a goddess, while he had spent the past four hundred years in stasis.

He might’ve beaten her in combat when she was an angel on the verge of becoming an archangel and Alexander already an Ancient, but she was stronger than him now. He wouldn’t walk away from her this time, a tall golden-haired creature with silver wings who’d turned down what other men had coveted.

For a moment, she hesitated, echoes of that hopeful, sweet, smart girl in her soul. That girl had seen only wonder in the world. That girl had known Alexander was a piece of light that would burn through eternity, a man of war who had gained immeasurable wisdom over the ages he’d seen pass.

“My beautiful Zhou Lijuan.” His fingers brushing her cheekbones, his silver eyes holding her in thrall. “So delicate and strong and full of such power.”

Her palm tingled in a sudden sensory memory of closing over the thickness of his wrist. “Why won’t you be with me?” He admired her, she could see that. “I can walk by your side, be your partner as you would be mine.”

A gentle shake of his head. “You must grow on your own. Perhaps in seven thousand years, we can come together again. When you are in your power and we are equals. Now . . . I would crush you without meaning to, and you are destined for greatness.”

Seven thousand years.

It had passed, she suddenly realized. Perhaps killing him wasn’t the answer . . .

The rage rushed back in on a black roar. Not because Alexander had rejected her; she had forgotten that long ago, had fallen passionately in love with another man. For an eon, Alexander had been nothing but a sweet memory of her youth, one that caused her amused fondness. She’d been a pup in awe of a beautiful Ancient.