Blushing, he didn’t meet her eyes.
“I spoke to the healer in charge of you,” she continued. “He says you’re a remarkable patient who is recovering far quicker than anyone expected.” Izzy was only a hundred and seventeen years old, a baby soldier in angelic terms. “Galen was so impressed with the healer’s last report that he sent you homework.”
“More?” Izak looked so horrified it was comical.
Giving in to his shuddering legs, he collapsed into a seated position on an infirmary bed, his wings spread out behind him. “I can barely do all the exercises he’s already sent me.”
Stifling her laugh lest his young heart take it the wrong way, Elena showed him the tablet she’d picked up on her way out of Raphael’s office. “Not that kind of homework and it’s not all from Galen. Some of it’s from Jessamy.”
“Jessamy?”
“Uh-huh.” Sitting down beside him, their wings overlapping in an affectionate intimacy she knew would comfort him, she said, “Being in a consort’s Guard isn’t always about strength.” Since she’d somehow ended up with a Guard, she was doing her best to understand how it worked. “Apparently, you have to understand all the courtesy stuff so you don’t accidentally insult an archangel and, you know, start a war.”
Izak gulped.
Patting him on the upper arm, she said, “Don’t worry. If I can learn this stuff”—or at least enough not to stick her foot in it—“then you’ll be an ‘A’ student.”
“Can I rethink being in your Guard?”
“Funny.” And because his small, mischievous smile was adorable, she kissed his cheek.
He went bright red.
“What’s this? An orgy?” came a slow male voice that held a Cajun cadence. “Seems like we’ve been invited here under false pretenses, sugar.”
Looking up, Elena saw Janvier and Ash in the doorway, both wearing leather jackets and holding a helmet in one hand. Ash’s long black hair was unbound, the knives strapped to her thighs only the most visible of her weapons. “These two miscreants are your study buddies,” she told Izak.
“Hey.” Ashwini scowled, not shifting her lithely muscled dancer’s body from the doorway when Elena moved toward it. “What about you?”
“I’ve been in remedial etiquette school since I became Raphael’s consort. I’m way ahead of you.”
Loud grumbling from Ash at her smug statement, but the other hunter’s dark eyes weren’t laughing. Everyone liked Naasir, but he, Janvier, and Ash were especially close. “No news,” Elena said softly.
Janvier ran his free hand through the dark mahogany of his hair, a lopsided smile on his lips. “Don’t worry, cher,” he said, throwing his other arm, helmet and all, around Ash’s shoulders. “Naasir once got the two of us out of an alligator-infested swamp in the middle of a raging hurricane at night, and had fun doing it. He’ll be fine.”
Elena and Ashwini both stared at the Cajun vampire. Fangs flashing and moss green eyes laughing, he gave a sinful grin that illustrated exactly why he was such good friends with Naasir. “I’ll tell that tale when Naasir is here to tell it with me. He always says I forget the good parts.”
“Yes,” Ashwini said firmly. “It’s Naasir.”
Sneaky and strong and with the scent of a tiger on the hunt.
21
Even with the handicap of Andromeda’s wings and the unexpected resumption of search squadrons that forced them to hide out for an entire five hours on the forest floor, Naasir got Andromeda to the nearest water border in the dark of night two days later.
Part of that was because at one point, he’d cleared her to fly at night while he ran below. She’d never seen anyone move that gracefully, that dangerously on the ground. Like a silver tiger shadowed with darker stripes.
Their arrival at the border was almost anticlimactic after the stealth required for the rest of the trip. She’d expected guards bristling with weapons and air squadrons crisscrossing the skies, but Lijuan’s people were distracted, drawn to another part of the border. “Jason?”
“Or one of his people.”
“How did they know when to act?”
“They didn’t. I’m guessing there have been annoying incursions or manufactured dramas along this border for at least twenty-four hours.” He lifted a finger to his lips as a harried guard ran past them to join in the melee in the distance. “Now,” he said once the guard was clear, and held out his hand.
Taking it, she followed him to a battered barge which Naasir told her was run by vampires allied with Astaad. It appeared the Archangel of the Pacific Isles had chosen to fly his flag with Raphael’s.
“Naasir,” she said quietly after they were safely on board.
Her wings would’ve made her stand out, except that no one had seen her and Naasir board, and as soon as she was on deck, she moved so she was hidden from view of the bank. He didn’t have to tell her that she could only take to the air once they were past the last of the aerial scouts.
“What is it?” Naasir asked, his eyes scanning the shore as the barge pulled away mere seconds later.
“I think we should go to Amanat, get supplies, and head to the most probable location.”
“Did you tell Lijuan that location?”
She rolled her eyes. “Of course not. I lied.” Being forced to witness Heng’s torture at the teeth of the hounds had only strengthened her resolve. “Very convincingly, I might add. Xi is probably somewhere near Mount Kilimanjaro right now.”
“I knew you were sneaky.” Eyes glinting on that approving statement, Naasir wrapped an arm around her neck and hauled her close. This time, the snap of his teeth was playful. “You fly to Amanat once we’re out of range of the sentries. I’ll make it there on my own.”
Her instincts and her heart both rebelled. “I’m not going to leave you alone.”
“I’ll be able to travel faster on my own once I hit land.” He took something from his pocket. It was a heavy gold ring with the letter N engraved on it, the engraving embedded with diamonds. “This will get you into Amanat. Stay outside the shield until a sentry appears, then show this to him.”
Taking the ring, she ran her thumb over the jewels. She wouldn’t have thought this was his kind of jewelry—the identity bracelet he wore suited him much better. “Why are you carrying it instead of wearing it?”
He kept his arm around her and rubbed his jaw against her temple. “I like shiny things but not to wear. Caliane gave that to me as thanks for my help in protecting her city when it first woke.”
“I’ll keep it safe,” she said, just as he reached out and unhooked the simple gold chain she always wore around her neck and that had survived all their adventures. Sliding the ring onto it, he hooked it back around her neck, his fingertips brushing her nape.
Her nipples tightened, a shiver rippling over her skin.
She should’ve protested the familiar handling, but it didn’t feel wrong—as it hadn’t felt wrong to stroke her fingers through his hair. Andromeda couldn’t think too much about that or it started to hurt deep inside. “Is there someone I should ask for when I arrive in Amanat?” she asked instead, glancing away lest he see all she sought to hide.
“Isabel.” Naasir pulled her back against the heated muscle of his body. “She was my partner during my time there and she has chosen to remain in the city.”
Andromeda had no will to fight his hold. “I’ve seen her at the Refuge.” A tall, competent warrior who chose to walk the path of an ascetic.
Four hours later, she flared out her wings in readiness for flight. “I’ll wait for you.” Nothing would be right until he was with her again. “Stay safe.”
Naasir watched her soar into the sky, his silver hair bright in the light of the moon.
22
Having taken advantage of the renewed border aggression between Titus and Charisemnon to stealthily invade Titus’s territory, Xi and his squadron had spent multiple days in and around Kilimanjaro, searching the demanding and often harsh landscape for any sign of Alexander. He’d flown up and down all three of the volcanic cones that made up Kilimanjaro, studied the cold, deep crater that scored one, walked on the glaciers, and far below, in the caves.