Archangel’s Enigma (Guild Hunter #8)(22)
Author: Nalini Singh

She put on the blindfold, wondering once again why evil wasn’t ugly. Her grandfather with his skin of deep gold and hair of richest brown, had been beautiful before the ravages of disease, would be again when his body healed. A mortal poet had once written of him, saying:

My heart’s blood for but a single instant

My soul for the agonizing glory of his touch

Such beauty is not meant for mortal eyes

It maddens. It ravages. It murders.

Xi, too, was a very handsome angel and she knew he had no dearth of lovers. Long ago, before she’d realized the cold heart that beat in his chest, she’d admired his form in flight—he was a sleek and beautiful machine, his one-of-a-kind wings starkly beautiful.

Yet even as she thought of his nature, she knew that to his squadron, he wasn’t evil. To them, he was simply a loyal general serving his lady. The fact his lady had proven she had little regard for the lives of the people she professed to rule, and yet Xi still followed her, that was what made him evil.

“How can you justify it?” she said to him when he hauled her up to her feet.

No answer as he lashed her wrists together.

Her blindness made her bold. “Giving your allegiance to an archangel who turned her people into the walking dead?” The reborn were nightmares given flesh and set free to feed, to infect, to murder. “If that alone is not crime enough, she feeds from the lifeforce of her subjects and leaves them dry husks.”

As a scholar and apprentice teacher who worked under Jessamy, Andromeda had access to reports filed by both sides of the fierce battle above New York. Each had used different words, but neither disagreed on the basics: Raphael’s side said Lijuan had fed on the lifeforce of her people until she was glutted with power.

Andromeda could still remember the line in the report that had made her skin chill: Her mouth was rimmed with blood after she lifted it from the neck of her sacrifice.

Lijuan’s side had stated that her soldiers had volunteered in droves so their archangel could gain glory. In this, the soldiers had found honor beyond mortal or immortal ken, leaving a proud legacy for those of their bloodline.

In this case, Andromeda had a feeling both reports were equally true.

One side had seen horror, the other side honor.

She couldn’t fault Xi for the reports he’d personally filed: he’d been brutally honest in terms of the wins and losses of battle. He also hadn’t attempted to make it seem as if Lijuan had won—though he had softened her fall, as would any loyal general, saying that his lady had retreated from the field of battle so that she would be strong for the war to come.

His interpretation was strikingly different from the report filed by Illium. Raphael’s lead aerial commander had stated that Raphael “blew Lijuan to smithereens,” though Illium, too, had made a note that Lijuan may or may not be dead: Zhou Lijuan is an archangel and they do not easily die.

“I have served my lady for most of my nine hundred years on this earth,” Xi said after another member of his squadron tied her ankles together. “You know nothing of her. Your task is to record, not to judge.”

Andromeda inclined her head because in this, he was right. “But,” she added, “some small judgment is required when we record the histories. We must often search for the truth amid grandiose claims, outright lies, and everything in between.”

That, Jessamy had taught her, was why they so often put competing reports into the official history. Both Xi’s and Illium’s reports lay within the pages to do with the battle in New York, along with an overview written by Jessamy after she’d read, watched, and listened to all records of the battle. “If we record blindly, we are little better than machines.”

“As I make no untrue claims in my reports,” Xi responded, “you have nothing to say to me on that point.” His fingers gripped her chin without warning, the hold firm but not painful. “I will give you one piece of advice, scholar.”

Able to feel his power crashing against her, though it was more muted than she’d previously felt near Xi—testament to the statement in Illium’s report that Lijuan fed her generals power—Andromeda went motionless.

“Do as you are told,” Xi said in his cool, refined tone, “and you will not be harmed.” He released her chin. “Unlike your grandsire, my lady has a soft spot for scholars.”

“I appreciate the advice.” It wasn’t a lie. Xi’s statement told her how she could play this until the opportunity rose to escape—because she didn’t have the same faith in Lijuan as Xi. Badly injured angels were like any other injured creatures in their pain and frustration. They could strike out without warning.