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)
Each turn of the planet was another twisting of the knife of fear that had haunted him since he’d lost one parent, then the other, to an insidious—“My father called it a worm in the mind,” he told Elena. “I’d forgotten that. But he said it not long before the end, while he was still able to pass himself off as sane.”
Raphael could see the scene now, how his father had looked at him after Raphael asked a perfectly normal question. With suspicion and even anger that had made Raphael take a step back, say, “Father?”
Seeming to snap back into reality, Nadiel had shaken his head, the gold-touched mahogany of his hair shaggy and a little unkempt. “Sorry, Rafi. There’s a worm in my mind, eating up my thoughts.”
“I understood that to mean he was tired,” he told his consort now. “He wasn’t old, not in comparison to the others in the Cadre—I never even considered the specter of madness.”
Of a worm in the mind.
Placing her cheek against his shoulder, Elena just held him, as if aware that no words she could say would ever soothe his worry about what he might become. Not when the ghosts haunted him. As she’d once been haunted.
A sound coming through the small crystal that sat on the bedside table.
“Nixie is awake.” Raphael knew he should leave his son be—he was going through a stage where he woke, played games on his own, then fell back asleep. The healers who specialized in childhood development had told them not to interrupt, especially if he wasn’t showing any signs of distress. But today, Raphael needed to see his son happy and whole and healthy.
His hunter was moving before he could vocalize the raw depth of his need. “Keep the bed warm,” she said, and slipped away, her body lithe and strong under the tee she pulled on.
She was back within seconds, a delighted Phoenix in her arms. He wore stretchy pajamas of a soft gray material printed with the moon and the stars, which Raphael had put him into a few hours earlier. Because Holly had kept her promise to dress him in style, and was ever couriering over new things she’d made just for him.
Their not-housecat had prowled in behind his favorite person, was already curled up at the end of the bed.
“Don’t get used to this,” Elena warned their son with a nuzzling scowl. “Tonight’s a special treat.”
Nix started telling Raphael all his news the instant Elena laid him down on the bed next to Raphael, his blue eyes bright with excitement and the midnight of his hair mussed from sleep.
Elena came down on their child’s other side, lying with her hand on Nix’s belly and smiling at his stories—all told in that baby language that wasn’t yet fully comprehensible, especially at high speed.
“Papa uv!” Nix held up his arms.
Tears hot in his eyes, Raphael took their boy and rolled over onto his back so that Nix could lie on his chest. “I love you, too, Nixie,” he said as he tugged Elena closer with one hand. “I always will.”
Their son snuggled down into his chest, his small wings folded tight to his spine—as was natural at this age—and his heart beating in a rapid rhythm as he reached out a hand to Elena. “Mama uv,” he said, his voice sleepy.
Elena kissed that little hand. “Your mama loves you, too, baby boy.”
See, Archangel. We’re doing good. We’re raising an amazing, empathic, wild little boy.
A kiss to Raphael’s jaw, her wing coming protectively over father and son.
“Now rest,” murmured the hunter who had forever altered his existence. “Dream only good dreams, my darling.”
58
My son. He is of Nadiel and I, but he is better than both of us.
—Caliane (After the First Waking)
A decade could pass by in a heartbeat when you had an intrepid child who had:
One: almost fallen off multiple Tower balconies because he thought he could fly even while his wings were half-size.
Two: tried to crawl into the house’s oven as a hiding spot—thankfully his wings had given him away there.
Three: somehow managed to get a blade out of one of his mother’s locked sheaths and had tried to throw said blade like he’d seen her do when she found him and lost at least five centuries off her immortal life.
And those were just his top three hits.
Needless to say, Elena had utmost sympathy for Lady Sharine these days. Because apparently, Illium and Aodhan had been even worse.
“Watch out if he makes a quiet friend,” Lady Sharine had said while holding Elena and Raphael’s incorrigible hellion on her hip. “That’s the true danger. The quiet one will distract you, while this one will get up to more mischief than he should be able to imagine.”
“Oh no.” Elena had groaned. “Aanisa is quiet. Not Aodhan-quiet, but quieter than Nixie. She takes after Hannah.”