Page 107 of Archangel’s Lineage

Thankfully, Titus was close enough to catch him, so he didn’t crack his head on the rocks. “He’s alive!” the Archangel of Southern Africa called out. “His heart is beating, and there, his chest rises and falls.”

“Where are the subcomponents?” Suyin whispered, her attention on Keir.

Marduk hunkered down beside the healer. “Gone until they’re needed again.”

Raphael’s phone rang at the same time.

Taking it out, he looked at the screen. “Vivek,” he told Elena before putting the phone to his ear.

“The Mantle is regenerating at rapid speed,” he announced within seconds.

“But the records exist now,” Elijah murmured. “Of how the mountains of our homeland truly appear.”

“It should not matter,” Caliane pointed out. “Remember, part of the function of the Mantle is to discourage curiosity. And since our Ancestors were powerful enough to make the Compass, I do not think such modern things as photographs taken by eyes in the sky will defeat them. Mortals will forget they were ever interested in looking at these mountains, and soon the images will fade into obscurity.”

Elijah spread, then closed his wings. “I can only hope you’re right, Lady Caliane.”

61

Illium woke flat on his back on the ground—to a sense of lightness he hadn’t felt since before the Cascade. “I think, Sparkle, I’m normal again.”

Aodhan continued to frantically pat him down in a search for injuries, the beauty of him a shower of light that was Illium’s eternity. “What?”

Illium ran his fingers through Aodhan’s hair, the strands so soft and fine for all that they appeared to be coated in crushed diamonds. “Whatever the Cascade shoved inside me, it’s gone.”

Finally satisfied that Illium was unharmed, Aodhan took Illium’s face in his hands, said, “Explain.”

“I’m in no danger of ascending.” Relief was a drug that bled into his veins, his entire self euphoric. “Whatever was out of whack in me has been put right. Balanced.”

“You’re sure?”

“Beyond any doubt. I could... sense power on the horizon that was too big for me before. I can’t even see a glimmer of it today.”

Aodhan’s hands trembled. “I’m going to sleep much easier now that I know you’re in no danger of being torn apart by a premature ascension, but how do you feel about the loss?”

Illium closed his fingers on the glittering beauty of Aodhan’s hair. “I’m happy that I have time to grow with you now, time to walk my own path, time to be part of Raphael’s Seven. Because I’m not done there yet and won’t be for a while. I plan to be his first general—he needs one, like all respectable archangels.”

Aodhan’s smile was affectionate and of the person who knew him best in all the world. “Of course you have to be first.” Laughter that ended in a kiss, their wings and legs entangled.

“You know it’ll still happen one day?” Aodhan murmured gently against his lips, the blue of Illium’s wings reflected in the crystalline shards of his eyes. “You’re the son of an archangel and Lady Sharine. There is a reason the Cascade chose you.”

“Yes. But it’ll be on my own natural timeline.” He had hundreds of years to be a lover, a friend, a loyal warrior to his liege before he ever had to worry about the Cadre and politics.

Thank. Fucking. Havens.

62

Six months later, and the world hadn’t suffered a natural disaster since the instant of the reset, the calm so pristine that it had been scary at first. Once they got over that, however, they’d put their backs into the cleanup.

Caliane had also been proved right. Articles about the “newly discovered” mountains had begun to proliferate when the Mantle started to drop. Those articles vanished overnight. They were still physically there if you searched for them, but the pages had no traffic.

People just weren’t interested.

It freaked Elena out that there existed power that could effectively control people’s minds from the other end of time. “Your Ancestors are flat-out terrifying,” she said to Raphael that morning as she pulled on her clothes. “Just in case you forgot.”

Raphael, already dressed, leaned against the vanity, watching her. “I don’t think I am in danger of ever forgetting. It has come as quite the shock to realize that archangels are not the most powerful beings in existence.”

“Well, the Ancestors seem to be happy Sleeping forever, so I wouldn’t worry too much about becoming dragon food.” The quip fell flat because her heart wasn’t in it.

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