Page 55 of Archangel’s Lineage

The blue fire in his eyes was a thing piercing. I am not leaving you after I have finally come home. I’ll be in range to receive a report from Dmitri in less than an hour.

Elena’s front jacket pocket buzzed. Or sooner. She reached for the zipper. Someone’s calling.

Ah, I did not charge my phone when I left.

“Are you with Raphael?” was Dmitri’s curt question when she answered.

“Yes,” she shouted over the roaring wind of flight. “Wait!” She held up the phone. Comprehending the silent signal, Raphael flew slightly below her—the span of their wings meant he couldn’t come close enough if they flew side by side.

Now.

She dropped the phone into his hand, saw him put it to his ear as he eased up on his speed at the same time to lower the interference from the wind noise. Instead of easing up with him, she kept on going. He’d catch up without trouble, and this way, she could ensure she didn’t hold them back any more than necessary.

How bad? she asked when he returned to fly next to her.

No casualties reported so far, and while a few buildings have lost windows, the shake seems to have been worse in uninhabited or sparsely populated areas.

Elena frowned. That’s weird.

Yes. A sigh in his voice. I do not want weird, hbeebti. I would far rather deal with a major quake than anything weird. Mind-numbing boredom would be far more welcome than the least whisper of weirdness.

Elena made a face. Yeah, because it’s never just one weird thing, is it? It’s always the start of something, and—“Oh, fuck!”

34

Elena came to a halt in the sky.

So did Raphael.

They both stared down at the swollen creek below. A small enough thing, nothing at all like the vastness of the Hudson. Pretty when it sparkled in the sunlight.

“What is that?” she said, her hands on her hips.

“Looks like... scales.”

The word perfectly fit the iridescent patches that rippled over the water, sinuous and strange and unlike anything Elena had ever before seen. “Did Dmitri—”

“No, he said nothing of this.” Raphael pulled out her phone from his pants pocket to make the call. “Dmitri, how does the Hudson look?”

Frowning at Dmitri’s answer, he hung up without goodbyes, the two men having been friends for so long that such niceties weren’t necessary. “He says it appears normal, and that he’d like it very much if I didn’t curse it with my questions.”

“Should we fly down?”

“Yes, we must.”

They soon stood beside the creek that looked like a snake that curved and flowed, its scales gleaming in the sunlight. But the water itself was normal, and when Raphael tested it he felt no shock of power. Neither did Elena.

“Pass me the phone—I’ll take a video,” Elena said.

They took off the instant she was finished. They couldn’t allow this small anomaly to keep them from heading to the city. Except... the anomaly followed them. Iridescent scales appeared in every body of water they passed, a stunning and languorous river of inhuman color.

Then they reached the Hudson.

“It’s beautiful,” Elena said begrudgingly. “Weird but beautiful.” The colors were astonishing, jewellike in their clarity. “You said the waters changed on your ascension. Plus I know stuff happens when archangels wake, too.”

Raphael’s face was no longer as grim as it had been. “This doesn’t feel like an ascension—it is too slow. Ascensions are hard, fast, as you saw with Suyin. But yes, it’s possible that an archangel is waking.” A sudden, unexpected smile. “I don’t know these signs, so it may be another old one. It’s the one weirdness that would be a good thing right now.”

Elena was in firm agreement. Even an old blowhard like Aegaeon would be welcome. “Let’s ask Caliane if she knows who it is.”

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