Total pages in book: 148
Estimated words: 139178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
There was nothing about Marduk that would ever blend in.
His consort, meanwhile, a woman who wore as many blades as Elena, appeared to be a completely average angel at first glance, her skin a bronzed brown lighter than Marduk’s.
Oh, she was breathtaking. Of course she was. Age and power clung to her, sharp in her cheekbones and a living flame in the opalescent green-black of her eyes. Her hair was a fall of liquid black interspersed with threads of green that Elena had once thought a result of dye. It wasn’t. Tiamat’s hair grew like that.
Which was the first clue that even though she had two arms, two legs, and skin as was normal in this time, Tiamat wasn’t from this time. Her wings were the second clue: a rich greenish-black, they appeared feathered at a distance, but get closer, and it became apparent that her feathers were but a mere suggestion. Almost like fur—she had a slightly thicker layer of those tiny feathers than Marduk, but that was it.
The only marked difference was that she didn’t have the twin claws that surged out of the inner top edge of Marduk’s wings.
“I was born some time after Marduk,” Tiamat had told Elena when she’d asked about the difference in their wings. The other woman had been grinning at Marduk at the time. “He was somewhat of a grumpy old man when we became one, but I only remind him of that once or twice a year.”
Tiamat was of an age that was a crushing pressure on the bones, so for her to say that about Marduk…Elena had to stop thinking about the depth of their combined history or she’d go down a rabbit hole from which she might never emerge.
“Ellie.” Tiamat’s embrace was a thing of power and warmth.
Elena returned it as fiercely. Once, she could’ve never imagined that she’d have anything in common with a being of such an age that she was almost another species.
Because Tiamat-Neith, Huntress of the Ages, was not an angel as the current world thought of angels. Under the fine black ornamental armor she’d chosen today lay her true armor: a shimmer of green-black scales that started at the back of her neck and spread along her shoulders before arrowing down along her spine.
No one could ever separate Tiamat’s head from her neck, her natural armor was that tough. Yet it felt as soft as well-worn leather. Having realized Elena’s curiosity regarding it, Tiamat had offered Elena the chance to touch it. Elena would’ve felt weird about it except that it hadn’t felt weird because they’d been close friends by then.
It had felt, oddly enough, like Demarco pumping up his biceps after a session at the gym, and telling her to feel. Just a friend showing off something of which they were proud.
Elena would’ve shown off that spinal armor, too. It was phenomenal.
It also looked breathtaking when Tiamat wore backless gowns to angelic functions, the scales shimmering in the light until it became clear that they carried hues from peridot to obsidian.
“It’s so good to see you, Tiamat.”
“And you.” Tiamat drew back, and with the two of them the exact same height, the eye contact was piercing.
There, another clear clue that Tiamat wasn’t an angel from this timeline. In the pupil of Tiamat’s eye moved something too quick to see, to pin down. A ripple or a spark…something. Not like the light in Zanaya’s eyes, or even Venom’s nictitating membranes.
No, this was other in a way that sent a primeval shiver up Elena’s arms.
But about that eerie truth, Tiamat was an enigmatic mystery. “Some secrets are to be kept, my young friend,” she’d said to Elena’s questions. “That is why we chose to Sleep, to leave the world to the young. To take our truths—and our mistakes—with us.”
Today, Tiamat’s gaze was assessing. “You look tired.”
Abdomen tight, Elena shrugged. “Bad dreams.” True enough.
Marduk, having turned to her, scowled. “I have been having some myself. But we will talk more of that afterward.” He inclined his head at her in a silent greeting, a glint in his eye, this ancestor of Raphael’s who had a streak of the wild in him. “Come, you are the first to arrive.”
Tiamat’s laughter was a deep, husky thing. “Because we invited you to arrive earlier. Marduk’s patience runs thin with certain others and he did not wish to be alone with them.”
Elena wasn’t exactly surprised; Marduk had often declared that he’d have started at least three wars by now if he weren’t so tired after his long life. “I am on edge and it is not good for anyone,” he’d said. “It is only having Tia with me that dulls my blade somewhat.”
The way he’d said those words, the way he’d looked at Tiamat, made it clear that he considered that a blessing, not a curse. As if without her, he’d go through life in a rage.