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)
“She had no enemies,” Stavros reiterated.
Tanika’s friends were of the same mindset. Her coworkers, too.
“We get creepers sometimes,” one of the other clerks at the fashion boutique said. “You know, men who come inside here not to buy for their ladies, but to chat up the clerks and customers, or fondle the lingerie.” Her lip curled. “But Tani had what we called her Stavros side—no-nonsense, exactly like her dad. Don’t think he ever figured that out, though; to him, she was just his baby girl.”
A wet laugh. “But I never saw a creeper approach Tani—and just so I’m not giving you the wrong impression, we don’t get that many overall. Maybe one or two every six months.” A pause. “I miss her so much. She just…she had this happy inside her that infected everyone around her. You know?”
Despite the coworker’s belief that Tani hadn’t been bothered by a “creeper,” Illium asked for any saved security footage. He wasn’t expecting a positive response, not given the passage of time—but they got lucky. The owner was a cyber-packrat, and the war had helped with retention, too.
“We were online-only until last month,” the lanky man told them. “Our building was vaporized in the war, and shops weren’t a priority rebuild, not like hospitals and schools.” A smile accompanied by a damp sheen to the eyes. “If you see the archangel, please say thank you. We figured we’d be forgotten in a war between archangels.”
Illium knew the man was referring to the system set in place to ensure that those who had to wait for a rebuild didn’t lose their homes or businesses in the interim.
“Most of us have more money than we’ll spend in our entire immortal lifetimes,” Dmitri had said when they’d been working on the post-war plan. “No point in allowing parts of the city to turn derelict—or to have the same happen to the people who make it what it is.”
Not every archangel’s second would’ve said the same. And not every archangel would’ve agreed with his statement. But meeting Elena had forever altered the trajectory of Raphael’s life; there’d been a time when Illium was scared of who his archangel was becoming under the twin forces of power and age.
He’d also known he could do nothing to stop it—he was too young, didn’t have that relationship with Raphael. Dmitri did, but Dmitri’s dark past, of which Illium had only now gained a true glimpse, had put him on a similarly cold and violent path. Then had come Elena and her stubborn mortal heart and an unstoppable cataract of change.
This was the end result—a vibrant post-war city with a people who were blood loyal to their archangel. “I’ll pass on your words to the archangel,” Illium said to the owner. “Thank you for your cooperation.”
“We loved Tani.” The damp was a thickness in the other man’s throat now. “She was just one of those people who made the world a brighter place.”
Illium’s fingers curled into his palm, his neck stiff with tension.
“I’ll go over the security footage,” Aodhan told him after they left the shop. “I know you want to see Catalina and she’ll be waiting for you.”
Despite Illium’s desperate need to watch over Aodhan—and wouldn’t that piss Adi off if Illium said it aloud?—he didn’t demur. Catalina was an important part of his life, one half of a treasured friendship that had created an enduring groove in his heart.
At times, Illium could still feel the weight of Lorenzo’s coffin as he helped carry his friend to his final resting place. So heavy he’d been, when in life, he’d been light on his feet, a man who’d twirled Catalina into a dance while flour dusted the air and Catalina laughed and told him she was halfway through mixing a batch.
Illium, tell him to be sensible!
When Catalina went, too…Illium’s heart would hurt for a long time.
“I’m glad you’ve gotten to know her,” he said to Aodhan, his throat dry. “I don’t want to be the only one who remembers her in the eons to come.” Mortal lives went by so fast, ancestors remembered in the heart for but a few generations. “I wish you could’ve known Lorenzo, too. So many hours we sat together over a glass, talking about nothing and everything.”
He rubbed a fisted hand over the aching in his chest…then spoke a truth he could no longer shy away from, not if they were to build a relationship honest and deep. “You were gone for so long, lost to me in a way I didn’t even understand until you started to come back. Without Lorenzo and Cat…
“Lorenzo knew my sorrows and my joys, as I knew his. Catalina understood my pain and my triumphs, as I understood hers. Lorenzo was mortal but his shoulders were as strong as yours or mine, able to bear the weight of what I entrusted to him. And Cat? You’ve met her. You know.”