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)
“Oh, and Indri’s on his way.” Aodhan smiled. “He gave Marduk notice the instant he heard of your ascension. Told me that he expected me to exercise my powers in the pursuit of nepotism.”
“Excellent. Saves me having to steal him.” Aodhan’s nephew had grown into a whip-smart warrior-scholar who would be a vital asset.
“I forgot to tell you,” Illium added, “just before we left, I called Navarro and asked him to consider joining me as my interim first general. My plan is to lure him with a temporary post, then slowly make it permanent.” After a long time in Raphael’s forces, the highly respected angel had spent the last century as a trainer in the Refuge.
Aodhan chuckled. “Excellent choice. Let’s hope your lure works. I can’t think of a more stable head to have in that position.”
“Do you think we’ll have any trouble filling all the positions?” Illium played a piece of polished jet through his fingers—Aodhan had balanced it perfectly to his hand.
“No. Being at the ground floor of a new archangel’s territory is exciting. And Blue, you keep making friends everywhere you go. Xander’s already told Alexander that he’s sent through a request to join your team.”
Illium raised an eyebrow, recalling Raphael’s advice regarding the Ancient. “Alexander won’t like losing his grandson.”
“No, Xander has his approval—Alexander knows as well as anyone that you don’t stifle warriors as strong as his grandson. This is an opportunity Xander might not have again for centuries, perhaps even millennia.
“It matters even more because Alexander’s court was settled even after his waking, as so many of his people returned. Xander’s never experienced a new court, much less the work it takes to build it.”
“I’d be glad to have him at my side—he’s one hell of a commander.”
“You have any hesitation on his loyalty?”
Illium shook his head. “Raphael told me Alexander isn’t two-faced and he’s been a huge influence on Xander. Plus, Xander was fostered with Titus—we both know he’s as honest and openhearted as they come. And Rohan was an honorable man.” Xander’s father had died at Lijuan’s hands, but he’d held the line to the last.
“Yes.” Aodhan nodded. “Built of honor, all three of them.”
“If Xander vows loyalty to me, he’ll hold it even against his own—but I don’t intend to allow it to ever come to that.” Illium might enjoy irritating his asshole father, but he wasn’t planning on picking fights that could degenerate into war, no matter if the archangelic power within him pushed for aggression, for total dominion. Because that way lay megalomaniacal madness of the kind that had consumed Lijuan.
“There’s another applicant you might not be expecting.” Aodhan drank from the bottle of water between them. “Vivek.”
Illium snapped his head toward his lover. “I’m not poaching from Raphael and Elena.” Because not only was Vivek Jason’s right hand, he was also part of Ellie’s Guard. “I can’t believe you’d even consider it.”
“He’s over seven hundred years told, and spymaster-level experienced, but he’ll never be Raphael’s spymaster. That’s Jason’s position, and Vivek wouldn’t even think of jockeying for it.” A glance at Illium. “The spymaster position on your team, however, is wide open. And unlike all the other courts who’ve approached him over the years, Vivek wants to be part of yours.”
“Adi,” Illium began.
“I already spoke to the sire,” Aodhan said, before wincing. “To Raphael. I have to make that a habit or I’m going to get both of us in trouble.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be right there beside you.” The only difference was that the power inside Illium stirred each time he thought of Raphael, and it was a quiet warning not to slip. “What did he say?”
“That he knew it was a distinct possibility the instant you ascended. Vivek went to him twenty-four hours later.” Arms on his raised knees, he looked out over the water. “The s—Raphael is willing to let him go. Losing both you and Vivek at the same time will be a hit to the Tower’s tech arm, but you’ve both trained enough people that it won’t create a dangerous hole.”
“And Ellie?”
“You know she’d send her entire Guard with you if it would make your life safer,” Aodhan chided softly. “Vivek says she all but pushed him out the door the second he started telling her what he wanted to do. ‘Of course it has to be you, V. I thought you’d never figure it out!’ That’s what he said she told him.”
Illium would fucking miss Ellie.
“To have Vivek with us would make the transition a hell of a lot easier,” he admitted roughly, torn between his loyalty to Raphael, and his instinctive loyalty to the people of his new territory. Because that was what it meant to be Cadre—to spread your wings over those you claimed, keep them safe.
“I’ll talk to Raphael myself,” he said after watching the waves roll in to shore for several long heartbeats, the crashing sound of the ocean a quiet thunder. “I have to act like an archangel with another archangel, no matter how weird it feels.”