Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 121854 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121854 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Standing face-to-face with the most dangerous people in the world, Illium took the advice of the archangel who had never once let him down. “I think,” he said, “we must talk territory before we go any further.”
“Do you still wish to Sleep, Marduk?” Caliane asked in response. “There’s no need of it if you do not. We are now ten for the first time in centuries.”
“A full Cadre,” Suyin murmured, and Illium realized she’d never had that luxury, her reign having started with nine archangels—and of those nine, three had been injured enough to be out of commission for an extended period. Add in the poison Lijuan had left behind in China, and the start of her reign had been brutal.
“I would experience this, Marduk, but only if you wish it,” she said. “I know you didn’t want to be awake in the first place.”
Marduk’s smile was opaque, but he turned so that his more human side faced Suyin. “My consort has only been awake but a heartbeat. We spoke prior to this meeting, and she’s amenable to remaining a touch longer to further explore this new world.”
When the entire Cadre seemed to sigh, Illium gained a glimmer of understanding of what it was to rule with a partial Cadre. He’d come into the meeting assuming he’d take over Marduk’s territory—the Pacific Isles—in a simple transition, but now, they had to discuss territorial boundaries.
“The easiest path,” Caliane said, “would be to go back to the boundaries of the last full Cadre.”
Illium didn’t even think about it; he used subvocal commands and a hand gesture to throw up a map of the world from the last time the Cadre had been complete for a significant period.
The time of Uram, Archangel of Blood.
“You must teach me how to do that, my young stepson!” Titus boomed.
“Of course I will, honored aged stepfather,” Illium said with a grin that matched Titus’s. The two of them had been playing this game ever since Titus and Sharine became one, and they both found it equally hilarious.
Today, however, in this context…Did Titus just make it crystal clear that he is my ally and I am his?
Yes. He also took the chance to aggravate Aegaeon while having plausible deniability.
Illium looked down for a moment as he fought not to snort with laughter. I should’ve remembered archangels can be petty. But this petty, he could get behind. Because while he and Titus had nothing akin to a father-son relationship, they had a far deeper and genuine bond than the absolute nothing that Illium shared with his father.
Keeping his outward mien sedate, he nodded at the territorial markings on the map. “It looks like what was once Uram’s territory is now being governed piecemeal, with parts of other territories being truncated or artificially elongated to provide the cover.”
The land area involved—which included all of Russia—was too vast for such a reign, which meant all the archangels in the vicinity, including his father, had to have been pushing themselves to ensure the residents there knew they were under the oversight of one of the Cadre.
Sans that awareness, vampires who didn’t have iron control over their bloodlust would begin to slip, hunting mortals until the affected parts of the world turned scarlet in an inexorable tide. Because bloodlust was infectious once it began—as if seeing their fellows lose control flipped the switch in others who were susceptible either by dint of youth or a lack of discipline.
Charo had told Illium the story of a time when three continents drowned in blood. Since she was Charo of the Tales, and had a tendency to mix fact and fiction in her stories, he’d taken it with a grain of salt—until she’d sent him a copy of the relevant historical record from the Archives.
…and I stood in a sea of blood, the bodies that floated by torn effigies and the screams that filled the air a haunting of insanity.
Yeah, bloodlust wasn’t a threat to take lightly.
Lady Caliane frowned as she examined the territorial map. But when she spoke, it wasn’t aloud. A private message for him appeared in the air in front of him. Startled that she knew how to use that aspect of the technology, he quickly read what she’d spoken at a subvocal level after using her personal codes to alert the system that this appear only to Illium.
I apologize if I overstep, Illium. But as well as being the treasured son of my closest friend, you were a loyal and steadfast first general to my son, and so I would watch out for you in this.
If you take this territory, you will be next to Aegaeon. Is this what you wish? I have come to love India as my own, but I’m willing to shift if you wish—no archangel should have to start his reign next to such a…contentious neighbor.