Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 112287 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112287 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
No tremor this, no mere tremble. The quake was a vicious jerk that lifted up the path and sent Elena crashing down hard on one knee. Pain shot through her. Ignoring it, she grabbed Jessamy before the other woman could be thrown off the path and into the pond beside it. Ahead of them, Naasir did one of those quicksilver movements Elena couldn’t follow with the naked eye and lifted both himself and Andi off the ground as it bucked under them. He landed on feet as sure as a cat’s.
Sam! Elena yelled at Raphael, even though she couldn’t see him. He was hanging out the window. And Tari was holding on to him!
I caught both, Raphael assured her, and she knew he was talking about his archangelic power, not his arms. That power was no longer fueled by the Cascade, but it was power nonetheless.
I’m holding them until the movement stops. Can you get airborne?
No, I can’t even get to my feet.
The shaking didn’t stop for what felt like an hour. A house collapsed next to them, dust exploding outward in a gray burst that lined her tongue with grit; Elena hoped to hell the angels inside had managed to dive out into the gorge.
When she looked up, she saw flights of angels in the sky, many with children in their arms. Good. Down here, the air was turning to dust-choked mist, and the fucking water in the pond was boiling. “Jess?”
“I see it, Ellie.” Jessamy gripped Elena’s thigh with her hand, while Elena continued to keep a death grip on her arm. “I can feel the heat. It’s not just motion. It’s actual heat.”
“Fuck.” Elena transmitted the information to Raphael, who was now in the air, from which high vantage point he could help those who needed it. Galen was with him, an indication of trust in Elena that he wouldn’t have shown in the first years after she’d become Raphael’s consort—because Jessamy was Galen’s heart.
“Trace!” she called out, unable to spot the final member of their group.
“Behind you!” the vampire called back. “I’m on the path off the bridge! If this doesn’t stop soon, start crawling back toward me!”
Then it did stop. With a massive jerk and resounding crack that made Elena’s eyes widen. Hauling Jessamy to her, she rose into the air with a tearing of muscle, just as the bridge collapsed into the boiling water.
Elena wasn’t strong enough to carry another angel, but it helped that her friend was so thin and light.
She still barely made it to the area near Trace.
He caught Jessamy as Elena fell more than landed. Once upright, the three of them looked at the steaming water hot enough to scald even from a distance. Just because immortals could heal from what would be a killing injury for a mortal didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt.
The cauldron would’ve melted off Jessamy’s wings had she fallen into it.
A single second of shock was all they allowed themselves before they began to move. Jessamy broke into a run to take charge of Sam and Tarielle and any other children in the vicinity, while Trace entered a collapsed building to see if anyone was trapped inside.
Elena did the same.
Her left wing dragged and she knew she’d torn a tendon or ligament. Nothing to complain about in the aftermath of a catastrophic quake. She got on with the job.
* * *
* * *
It wasn’t until an hour later that they had a true idea of the overall damage. Three angels were dead, their bodies crushed so badly even their healing abilities couldn’t repair the damage. Five vampires had suffered a similar fate. Elena hadn’t known that severe crush injuries could kill both, and wished she didn’t know now. Because the crushing had to be severe.
People smeared into paste.
Others an inch away from that had survived—but their recovery would be horrific. Thankfully, no children numbered among the dead or badly wounded. The little ones had been saved by the curiosity and excitement that had seen them near windows or on balconies. Easy places from which to take flight or be rescued.
The fatal crush injuries weren’t the only ones. Broken bones, less severe compression damage, collapsed wings, the list was long—and included several residents who’d been burned by eruptions of heated natural gas or boiling water.
“What about the mortal villages closest to the Refuge?” she asked when she stopped for a breath. “Has anyone checked on them?”
Raphael, his face streaked with dirt from assisting the trapped—including rescuing a vampire who’d ended up gripping a rock partially down the gorge after he was thrown off the edge by the quake—nodded. “I sent a wing.”
Because she, his consort, had once been mortal and still had a mortal heart; where other archangels might disregard mortal lives as not worth saving, Raphael wouldn’t.