Archangel’s Enigma (Guild Hunter #8)(82)
Author: Nalini Singh

“We can do it together.” Taking a bottle of water from the side of his pack, he gave it to her to drink, then drank himself. “No more flying for now,” he said after putting away the water. “It’ll just take one sighting by the wrong person to give away our location.” According to Andromeda’s research, this oasis was owned by a tribe not known for its hospitality.

Andromeda glanced around at the pomegranate and fig trees visible below the date palms. “This must be the tribe’s source of income.”

“Which means we can’t guarantee there aren’t people around checking their crops.”

They went forward with care. It wasn’t until an hour later that Andromeda said, “What if I’m wrong, Naasir?” Her voice was small. “What if Lijuan’s people reach Alexander first and she murders him?”

“Then she’s proved her evil once again.” He ran his hand down her wing. “Lijuan is not your fault.” And because he understood the thoughts that haunted her, he added, “As your parents’ choice to hurt people for their own pleasure isn’t your fault.”

Face stark, Andromeda faced him. “Find the Grimoire.” It was a command . . . but her voice, it trembled. “I need you to find it.”

“I will.” Then he would claim her and keep her—and order her to tell him all her secrets, especially the one that made her hurt so much each time she looked at him.

29

“Dmitri just heard from the pilot,” Raphael told Elena as the two of them stood atop the roof of the Legion building, Manhattan draped in early morning darkness around them. “Naasir and Andromeda are safely away.”

“I didn’t doubt it.” Elena tightened her ponytail, her hair gleaming white in the lights of the city. “Will we join them once they locate Alexander?”

“We?”

His consort raised an eyebrow, her gaze flinty. “Don’t try that Archangel tone on me.”

“I am an archangel.”

Lips tilting up at the corners, his hunter spread her wings so that the white gold of her primaries brushed his. “You’re also mine and I will hurt you if you dare go up against Lijuan on your own.” She slid out her crossbow. “Don’t mess with me.”

Pulling her close, the crossbow flat against his chest, he took her mouth. He’d fallen for her because she was a warrior, and over the time since they’d come together, he’d learned to accept that she would never stand on the sidelines. But this time—I need you to remain in the city, help hold it while I’m gone.

Elena broke off the kiss, scowled. “Dmitri is plenty tough enough to do that.”

“But you, hbeebti, are no longer just a hunter,” he said, speaking the word “beloved” in the language his consort’s grandmother had brought with her from a distant land. “You are a symbol—even if I am missed, so long as people can see you in the air, they’ll feel safe.” Because everyone knows I would not leave my consort in a city I didn’t feel was protected against all harm.

“Shit,” Elena muttered. “I hate it when you make sense.” Strapping her crossbow to her thigh once again, she walked to the edge of the roof and waited for him to come up beside her. “Symbols are necessary right now, aren’t they?”

Raphael answered by sliding his wing over hers, both of them aware the world was perched on a precipice that could give way without warning. Wind riffling through his hair, he looked toward the Tower, saw Dmitri step out onto a balcony with Aodhan. “I should only be away from the city for a short time, just long enough to protect Alexander during the most vulnerable part of his waking.”

Elena nodded, her eyes turned in the same direction as Raphael’s. “We going to talk about how you made it to Illium so fast? That was an impossible distance to cross even for you, Archangel.”

Raphael watched the light glitter off Aodhan, shards sparking in the air, and thought of that moment when he’d seen Illium drop from the sky. He’d thought it a game until Aodhan’s cry for help. “The Hummingbird can’t lose him. He’s her only link to a tenuous sanity.” Raphael loved Illium’s mother, had great respect for her, but he also understood that she was broken inside.

A slightly rough-skinned hand closing over his, his warrior-consort’s fingers strong. “You can’t lose him either.” Her eyes held knowledge of him that belied the briefness of their relationship in immortal terms. “He’s the heart of the Seven.”

Yes. Illium might be younger than several of the others and appear irreverent more often than not, but he was their glue, the piece that tied all the others to one another. “Before Mahiya, when Jason was yet lost in darkness, the only time I saw him close to a smile was after Illium challenged him to an old-fashioned duel.”