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)
“Thank you, Samara.” She smiled at the girl she’d known since she was a toddler. “How are you liking this duty?”
A quick, shy smile. “It’s my favorite. Much more fun than kitchen chores.”
“I can’t say I blame you.” Elena excused Samara with a grin.
Izar, of course, peered shamelessly at the missive as she unfolded it. “Who is Greta?”
“My friend—and Dmitri’s right hand. You know her. Red hair, green eyes.”
“Oh yes, she likes me and my brothers.”
Not surprising—Greta liked cats, after all. Back home, she even condescended to use a set of fun stationery that Elena had bought her—elegant, each page featuring a line drawing of a cat in one corner.
This paper was the standard one they used at the stronghold’s communications center. The message read: Elena—call me. Or I shall have to traipse up to that infernally ice-draped region, ruining my shoes in the process.
“Greta is not polite.” Izar sounded like he approved.
“In Greta-speak, this is high emotion.” Slipping the message into a pocket of her dress, she continued to walk on with Izar through the snow-draped beauty of the Refuge. When she saw several of the Legion dive into the gorge in the distance, she raised an eyebrow. “Did you teach them that?”
Izar tried to look innocent, failed miserably. “Gorge diving is good exercise,” he said, prim as Elena’s elementary school principal.
Laughing, she pulled down his face and kissed him on both cheeks. “Go, join in. I know you want to.”
But he stubbornly walked her all the way to the Medica before taking off to join his new friends.
“Elena.” Keir, who’d been soaking in the morning sunshine, held out his hands, the golden brown of his wings lovely against the sun-brushed facade of the Medica. “Hannah told me she’d asked you to visit.”
His hands were warm in a way that wasn’t “normal” but that told her he was using his powers as a healer. Slender as a youth and shorter than her by a number of inches, with lush lips, delicate features, and uptilted eyes that made him pretty rather than imposing, Keir nonetheless hummed with a sense of presence that went far beyond his inborn abilities.
There was a reason the entire Cadre trusted Keir.
“How is our baby?” she asked.
“Less energetic, but that’s only because they have less space now.” He released her hands, then lowered his eyebrows in a dark vee as the sun gleamed off the black silk of his hair. “Knowing you and Raphael, the child is apt to come out flying.”
“Hah!”
“Come, I’ll walk you to Hannah.”
The hallways were quiet, the Medica relatively empty just then. Elena had the time to admire the intricate carvings in the translucent marble on one side, aglow from being backlit by the sun, while below them ran an active underground stream—the Medica had been rebuilt with clear tiles in certain areas, simply to allow that peaceful view.
As they walked, she and Keir talked of life, their friendship a thousand years old at this point. “Do you remember my cherished friend, Iosephina?” he said. “She has settled with a warrior in Michaela’s territory. I’ve never seen her so content.”
Iosephina had been Keir’s lover for over a decade until they parted ways half a century earlier. Yet Elena spotted no jealousy in Keir’s expression, heard nothing but happiness for Iosephina in his voice. “Can I ask you a personal question, Keir?”
A slow smile. “You do not understand the ways of my heart.”
She raised her shoulders to her ears. “Mea culpa. You’re so good and kind and beautiful—and you have such a loving presence. But unless I’m totally off base, you don’t seem to want forever.” No, he seemed content with sharing pleasure, sharing lives—and just as content after his lovers flew away to other lives.
Keir took his time answering. “I’m a healer first. I’ll always be a healer first. The only love that has ever stood in front of my calling is my love for Gavriel, the son of my heart.”
His smile lit up his whole being. “Any other love, precious though it might be, will ever stand behind my need to heal, and I do not want that for a person generous enough to share themselves with me. Such would be an unkindness.”
He clasped his hands behind his back. “To settle your heart, Ellie, know that I feel no sense of loss at my choice. I experience joy when I share love with the beautiful spirits who wish to be with me, and I experience joy when I see them find their forever. My forever lies within—the Medica is a physical representation of it.”
Elena understood the complexities of immortality far better than she once had, took time to think through his answer. “Did you always feel called to heal?”
“Since I was a very young child.”
Elena nodded slowly. “You’re content in a way that’s more than happiness.” Keir radiated peace. “If I didn’t know about your lovers, I’d compare you to a monk who’d meditated his way to total serenity.”