Page 98 of Archangel’s Lineage

The same sunlight caressed the dark gold of her skin.

Glancing down at her own hands, the hue of her skin part of Marguerite’s legacy, Elena saw that they were the hands of an adult, not of the child she would’ve been were this a memory. “I’m scared I won’t see you again after we say a proper goodbye.”

Marguerite snapped a pea pod while smiling indulgently. “Ah, azeeztee. I will always be here.” She placed her hand over the panicked beat of Elena’s heart. “Your maman will never leave you.” She reached for another pod. “It is impossible for a maman to leave her babies.”

Elena wanted to tell Marguerite that she had left her once before, had left Beth, too. But she knew that would wipe away her mother’s smile and cause a cloud to eclipse the sun, so she just snapped peas, ate a few, and spoke with the mother she’d never again see, no matter how long she lived.

54

Raphael and Marduk weren’t the first to arrive at Caliane’s home.

His mother hadn’t moved into the magnificent Archangel Fort when she took over Neha’s lands, had instead settled on an ancient oceanside palace that had gone from white to cream with time, and where the music of the water was a constant.

He found it... a thing to consider, that she’d chosen the ocean, when it was the ocean she’d used to commit the most terrible crimes against the people of two once-thriving cities. Perhaps one day he’d ask her why she did it—to punish herself? Or to ensure she never forgot what she’d done, the ocean a silent and relentless witness?

One thing he did understand was her choice to continue using the Archangel of Amanat as her formal title, rather than switching to the Archangel of India. “I will always rule Amanat, in all my lifetimes,” she’d once said of the city so beloved that she’d taken it into Sleep with her. “Other titles will come and go but Amanat is forever.”

The hum in Raphael’s head had only grown louder as he neared his mother’s palace. Once in proximity to the others who’d already arrived, it intensified into an irritation. They were in the right place. But even when the full eight of them stood with their hands out, the pieces of the Compass overlapping and touching, all they got was an angry hum. Adding Marduk to the mix made no change.

The archangel out of time shrugged when they looked at him. “Attempt it again after Raphael’s consort joins us.”

Alexander scowled. “Why does the hunter need to be present?”

Raphael didn’t stir in insult—because from Alexander, referring to Elena’s track record in the Guild wasn’t an insult. Alexander respected warriors, and he’d come to accept Elena as one in her field. He more often called her a hunter or warrior than he did consort.

“My relic reacted to her,” Raphael said, unwilling to share the painful reason why Elena carried within her a little bit of an archangel. His heart twisted in agony each time he thought back to that moment when he’d come so close to losing her forever.

“Raphael, you know I like Elena a great deal”—Caliane was as irritable as the rest of them—“but this doesn’t make sense. It is a thing of the Cadre.”

The others nodded.

Unexpected, but it was Zanaya who took the wind out of everyone’s sails. “Actually, this is a thing of the Ancestors. Who knows what they built into it.” She glared down at her own piece of the Compass. “For all we know, we need her because she was transformed with ambrosia and that’s the magic last ingredient.”

The group stared at Marduk.

Who shrugged again. “I was nothing to their power when they chose to Sleep an endless Sleep. All I know of the Compass, I’ve shared with you.”

The man was lying. Raphael knew that with every bone in his body. But why he was lying was the real question.

“Is the base apt to be buried or otherwise obscured?” he asked in an effort to work around Marduk’s indirect recalcitrance. “Should we prepare to dig it up out of a volcano or smash through a mountain?”

Marduk’s expression altered. “Do any of that and you will kill the base before the gift of their blood resets the Compass and the world.”

“Kill?” Suyin asked, her pitch high and tone jagged. “Are you saying it is sentient?”

“A person.” Caliane’s face was white. “Dear Havens. The ‘base’ is a person.”

Marduk looked at her and bowed. “Wisdom lives in you, Lady Caliane.” Sorrow in every line of his body. “Most specifically, a person who holds the trust of every single member of the Cadre.”

“Such is impossible.” Elijah rubbed his chin, his brow furrowed. “We are too varied a group.”

“There is always one,” Marduk insisted. “And now you will ask me why I did not mention this to you prior to this moment. As you did not yet have the subcomponents, it was a pointless discussion—and would have hindered you by weighing down your conscience. In ordinary times, archangels have countless millennia to come to terms with the knowledge.”

Raphael looked down at the object shaped like a dagger in his hand. Not as sharp as a true weapon... but sharp enough to rend and tear and cut all the same.

His fingers were chilled, his skin tight.

When he lifted his gaze, he found himself accidentally locking eyes with Suyin.

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