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)
Lifting her hand, he turned it so he could kiss her palm. “Not a single regret,” he said, eyes locked on hers as he raised his head. “I far prefer what we’ve been doing.” Looking for children who were broken and lost as they’d once been broken and lost, and getting them out, setting them up.
The children would never know about Kat or Vivek. They interacted exclusively with foster parents Kat and Vivek had personally vetted to shepherd the children through life. They’d chosen people who were loving and warm, men and women who wanted nothing more than to nurture the young.
“I’m not meant to occupy the traditional father role.” He’d never felt the desire to sire his own children, not even when he’d known that his window to be able to do that as a vampire was closing. “But how we’re able to help these babies before they’re destroyed as we were nearly destroyed? It means everything.”
Her throat moved and she looked away, his Kat with her wounds that made it difficult for her to speak words he could say so much easier. But she looked back at him tonight, said, “You speak what I feel, lover.”
Starlight on her lips, a shimmer in her eyes, his forever in the kiss they shared after he walked around to kneel in front of her, his dark queen who had allowed him into her most secret heart.
32
I’ve seen what happens to those who take that path. Even had I not, I have Hannah. What I feel for her is far too real, far too much of this world.
—Elijah to Raphael (Once, in the Refuge, on talk of Archangels becoming Gods)
One month—and the belated appearance of a subtle but defined baby bump later—Elena poked her head into the library, where her archangel was standing at the shelves apparently searching for a book. “Hannah just messaged asking if the two of us were free for a call with her and Eli. Shall I tell her yes?”
Raphael nodded and closed the distance between them to stroke a hand down her wing. She leaned sideways into the heat and strength of him after sending the reply, her hand on her belly. “It’s good timing. I’m ready to tell her.”
Though Hannah’s world was created of art while Elena was a hunter through and through, the two of them had long ago progressed from merely friendly consorts to true friends. It was only their geographic separation the vast majority of the time that stopped their bond from being even tighter.
Hand on her lower back, Raphael said, “Yes, I think it’s time.”
Just then, the library’s communications crystal chimed with an incoming private call. The projected image bore the sigil of the Archangel of South America—along with a symbol that said the meeting could be viewed in a three-dimensional format should it be desired. Since a corner of the library had been set up for such calls—complete with comfortable sofas—Elena and Raphael moved there before answering.
Elijah and Hannah appeared in front of them. Hannah’s black curls were loosely clipped at the back of her head, her ebony skin radiant with health, while a gown of flowing dark green swept over her body in a loose glide that reminded Elena of cool, falling water.
Elijah was dressed as casually in a cream-hued tunic top and black pants, his arm behind Hannah and his hand on the flare of her hip. His blond hair was wind tumbled, his smile tender as he looked at his consort—and the white of his wing spread behind her closed ones.
“I have been a bad friend,” Hannah said almost at once, her eyes shining bright. “I’ve been terrible about communication of late. But I had a good reason, so I hope you will forgive me.”
“Hannah hasn’t been feeling the best,” the Archangel of South America told them. “Until about a month ago, she was spending so much of her time throwing up that I was about to strap her to an infirmary bed.”
The affectionate, protective tone in Eli’s voice, the way he was looking at Hannah, the way she was smiling so hard that it lit her up from within, her throwing up…
Archangel! Do you think—
She hadn’t finished her startled, excited question when Hannah put her hand on her belly—revealing a bump that the drape of the gown had otherwise concealed. “Our family will soon be three.”
Elena froze before bursting out with a whoop! and “Hannah! I want to hug you!” She made hugging arms at her friend.
Who laughed and made them back.
“Our congratulations to you both.” Raphael’s cheeks creased. “This is extraordinarily good news.” He went as if to clasp Eli’s forearm in the grip of warriors even as Eli did the same, only for their arms to go right through each other.
A laughing Elijah said something to an equally amused Raphael, but Elena didn’t hear, because Hannah’s gaze altered without warning, her perceptive artist’s eyes zeroing in on Elena’s face. “Ellie, the lines of you are different.”