Archangel's Heart(81)

“The spymaster treats her well?” Hiran gave a thin smile. “The question is General Rhys’s—he says he knows it is not his right to ask such questions, but Mahiya has no father to watch over her.”

No, her father had been Neha’s consort and a useless waste of space from what Elena knew. “She has a very scary mother.”

“Nivriti loves her, this I do not doubt,” Hiran murmured thoughtfully, “but I think for Neha and Nivriti, they have ever been one another’s most important relationship. Even in hate, they are forever bound.”

It was an unexpected and insightful comment. Mahiya’s mother and Neha were twins, but it wasn’t that bond alone that bound them. It was centuries of emotion, of memory, of betrayal. Elena understood. The same mess of emotions bound her to her father. “Jason and Mahiya are very happy,” she said, knowing she gave away no secrets.

What she didn’t say was that the man known for his impenetrable darkness would do anything for his princess. Anything. It would’ve made the spymaster painfully vulnerable had Mahiya not possessed the exact same vulnerability. If Jason asked, Mahiya would carve out her own heart.

“I’m certain General Rhys will be pleased to hear that,” Hiran said with enough warmth that she knew he respected the other man a great deal. “His heartmate, Brigitte, has sent a gift for Mahiya.” A pause. “With the cool relationship between your consort and my lady, they have felt disloyal in reaching out to Mahiya, but they could not let this opportunity pass. It would be a great favor if you could take their gift to her.”

“I can do that,” Elena said, knowing she’d also go through the gift with a fine-tooth comb. No way in hell would she take anything back to Mahiya that had the potential to hurt her.

“I will get it to you before it is time to leave Lumia.” Hiran inclined his head in a polite good-bye and then he was sweeping away, his wings beating powerfully as he caught up to Valerius.

Xander, meanwhile, was flying far below, skimming close over the golden landscape of this sunlit land, the gold filaments in his wings and the silver on the underside afire as he dipped this way and that with youthful exuberance.

Reminded of Izzy and Illium both, Elena dropped to his altitude. “What’s so interesting?” she called out when she was close enough.

“There are animals below!” he yelled back. “Goats perched on such narrow ledges that I can’t believe they aren’t falling off!”

Elena joined him in goat-spotting. Not an activity she’d ever before considered. This was definitely not New York. But it kept them both amused—and Xander was right: some of those goats had to have glue on the bottoms of their hooves or something. The landscape below wasn’t particularly hilly, but the hills that did exist were steep and devoid of heavy foliage.

“Magnus!”

The lion-maned rider below them looked up at Xander’s cry and waved a hand before going down low over the neck of his black stallion again, a man clearly at home with that means of transport though he lived in an area where it wasn’t exactly common. But angels and vampires, as she’d learned, had long histories.

Magnus could well have been born in a landscape filled with horses.

When she, Xander, and the others eventually passed over Lumia’s walled border, the aerial guard dipped its wings but didn’t get in their way.

The first thing she noticed was the lack of any guards without wings—vampires need not apply to Lumia in any capacity apparently, not even as guards. The second thing was the sheer size of the defensive squadron—and what she was seeing was only the part of the force assigned to this section of the border.

Raphael, do you know Lumia has an army of its own? She didn’t have the strength to “send” that far, but Raphael could hear her from great distances.

The crisp bite of the wind sliced through her mind an instant later. How big?

This is only an estimate, Elena said, then gave him the numbers.

Interesting. Raphael’s tone was cool—not Archangel cool but thoughtful cool. Lumia has always had a guard complement fed by volunteers from all of the archangelic territories. Unless one of the others in the Cadre has seconded large numbers of people here, the Luminata must have recruited beyond the volunteers.

Elena twisted her lips. I can’t see any of the archangels weakening their defenses to supply a heavy guard to men who are meant to be a bunch of monks.

It could be that these monks are no longer neutral and are providing a service to an archangel, Raphael pointed out. I’ve asked Aodhan to keep a sharp lookout on your return, see if he can identify any of the angels in the squadron.