Titus, Archangel of Africa, had given his heart to Sharine, once the Hummingbird.
46
Sharine looked at the letter in her hand. Once again, it was Trace who’d handed it to her and, once again, the envelope was of expensive and heavy paper. But this bore the seal not of the Cadre, but of Aegaeon.
She stared out at the horizon, toward the south, as she did every evening at sunset. It’d been two weeks since she’d last spoken to Titus; he and his troops had hit a massive cluster of reborn who were no longer obeying the day and night divide—they’d been fighting nonstop for the past fourteen days.
It had been even longer since she’d parted from him in the sky above the thriving heart of Narja. Months of distance. She knew she’d made the right decision in coming to Lumia, as even among angelkind, symbols mattered. It was why Titus wore his armor and why New York’s Archangel Tower was the first structure to be repaired in the city. Right now, Sharine wasn’t just the guardian of their artistic histories and glories, she was the embodiment of angelic survival.
“No matter how awful the world,” Archangel Neha had said to her only a week earlier, “all of us can look toward Lumia and know that we as a people are capable of creating things lovely and extraordinary. I do believe it’ll break us all should Lumia fall.”
Be that as it may, Sharine strained against the urge to race to Titus’s side, her bighearted archangel who’d loved her with such raw passion their one night together. He’d left an imprint not just on her body but on her heart. She knew worrying about him was foolishness, that an archangel couldn’t be so easily harmed.
Yet she watched the skies.
Because those skies would shatter should Titus fall. She knew that as she knew the sun rose in the east and set in the west.
As for the far less honorable archangel who’d sent her a letter . . .
Breaking the seal, she removed the folded piece of paper within.
My dearest lady, I know you are angry with me, and you have every reason to nurture such anger, but I hope you’ll do me the honor of accepting a visit fourteen days hence.
I aim to arrive by the evening hour, so that we may enjoy a meal together and reminisce. It has been too long, and I find myself lost often in thoughts of our life together—and of our son, so headstrong and brave.
Till then.
Sharine snorted.
“Is this a bad time, Lady Sharine?”
She glanced up at Trace’s smooth tone, the vampire having returned through the door via which he’d only recently left. “Did you know that egotistical arrogance has a scent?” She lifted up the page she held. “This letter reeks of it should you wish a sniff.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” said the scamp, his eyes dancing. “I came to convey an invitation—the Lumia squadron would be honored if you’d dine with them this eve.”
“Of course.” Sharine enjoyed speaking with her warriors, and tonight was a special one, for tomorrow, three of her warriors would rotate out and head home, to be replaced by three others.
It was the second of an archangel who’d quietly made the request that three of his senior warriors could do with a respite, and she’d as quietly made a personal request of all three. The warriors had agreed because she was the Hummingbird, and now they’d have time to heal their hearts while they watched over Lumia.
She’d never again be the angel of old, but she’d decided not to leave the Hummingbird totally in the past. She’d done a lot of good and all of angelkind trusted her.
A rare and unique gift that shouldn’t be squandered.
“I leave you to the scent of arrogance, my lady.” A bow so suave it was poetry.
Smiling, she returned her attention to the letter. It was just like Aegaeon to pretend to be asking permission, but to actually be dictating terms. Her immediate response was to carrier back a cool rejection, but then she paused, thought about it. The past was past, yes, but one question haunted her to this day.
So she’d take this chance to ask it.
She’d face the man who was, to her, the embodiment of cruelty. “Come, Aegaeon. I think it’s time this was done.”
It was as she was returning inside to ready herself for the dinner with her squadron that her phone rang. Illium’s face filled the screen. “My son,” she said, her heart ablaze with piercing love. “You surprise me.”
“Ha! I’m not the one dispensing surprises.” Suspicious eyes. “A little bird told me that you and Titus . . .” He blew out a breath, the arches of his healing wings shifting against a background that told her he was in his Tower suite. “Is it true?”
Sharine smiled at the streaks of color on his cheekbones. “Would it shock you if it was?”
Eyes of beaten gold connecting with hers, the blush forgotten. “I like Titus, but I don’t want you hurt.”
Still protecting her, her beautiful child who’d had to look after his mother for far too long. “I’m living now, Illium,” she said, gentle because he’d earned such gentleness even when he trod where most children would never be permitted. “I won’t hide, not even from pain. I’ll never again choose to hide when I can spread my wings and breathe the air and yes, make mistakes and grow.”
Her son took in her face. “You’re truly different,” he said at last, a faint smile edging his lips. “Do you remember how I once insisted you paint me blue from head to toe and you did?”
“Oh.” Her hand flew to her mouth. “You were so very small! How do you remember?”
A shrug that reminded her of the boy he’d been. “I was so excited to be blue.” Smile segueing into a grin, he said, “Does Titus know who you are when you’re you?”
Bubbles of laughter in her bloodstream. “Oh, yes, I’ve concealed nothing from him. He considers me stubborn and aggravating in the extreme.”
A burst of laughter from Illium that made her join in, it was so wildly infectious. When they both calmed down, he said, “I think I’m going to mind my own business now, and not think too hard about what you might be up to with Titus.”
She bit back her smile. “Such is wise indeed, else you might have nightmares.”
“Mother.” His tone was stern, but when she asked him about his life, he answered in good humor, and they ended the conversation with words of love from a mother to her son, and a son to his mother.
Then, of course, she had to call Aodhan, too, to ensure he was well. He’d heard rumors of a possible liaison between her and Titus, and had the same reason to ask her about it. “I wouldn’t have you in pain, Eh-ma.” Emotion-filled words, his eyes shards of blue and green shattering outward from a black pupil.
Truly, she thought after the conversation ended, she was blessed to have known two such hearts from childhood.
Darkness lay heavy on the horizon now. She knew the worst of it was about to begin for Titus and his people; her stomach clenched as it did every night at this hour, a visceral fear thick in her blood. “Stay safe, Titus. Fly home to me.”
Titus had been battling the reborn for months.
So he could hardly believe it when the day came that he found himself standing at the southern tip of his territory, after a blazing wave of battle that laid waste to reborn nest after reborn nest. The Guild Hunters had come through again and again, and though Titus knew that he and his troops hadn’t wiped out the scourge, it was now a matter of isolated nests, and of hunting down lone reborn who’d managed to evade the hunt.