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)
“The olds ones saw that in their own time—with power this violent, there will be periods of fatal echoes, dangerous ripples. Our kind must have a way to calm that storm or, at best, our entire civilization will fall . . . as it did once before. At worst, our very world will fall.”
It was in the war that unmade our civilization that the Legion came to be . . . by the time we gained victory, angelkind was nearly destroyed, and our home hollow and dead.
The Legion’s words. A story of a world so battered, it could no longer sustain life. Caused by war. Caused by archangels.
“As for the appearance of the subcomponents.” Marduk’s voice slammed into his consciousness, pulling him out of the memory. “They take the shape of a blade. This makes it easy to slot each piece into the base to complete the Compass.”
“What about the base?” Caliane’s features were strained, the blue of her eyes stark against her skin. “What does it look like? Perhaps we have seen it?”
“The base is irrelevant until you have the other parts.” Marduk waved away the question. “It cannot be seen or known until that point in time. It has no set appearance.”
“I know where my piece is,” Titus said without warning. “Embedded in my crest—or at least the physical representation of it in my main court.” He frowned. “I found it the day after my ascension. It was in a dusty old trunk in the court I was to take over—I was fascinated by it, having never seen metal of its like. I still haven’t.”
“That is how it works.” Marduk’s inhuman tone. “It finds its way to the person it’s meant for.”
“I have a vague memory of Sha-yi talking to me of a dagger that was a relic of utmost importance . . .” Caliane pressed two fingers against her temple. “I—”
A sudden pause.
“Yes, I’ve seen it. Not in Amanat. It was once, but no longer. I think . . . it lies in Archangel Fort. Part of Neha’s golden throne that I had placed in storage . . . and I especially noticed the blade. I meant to go back to it, examine the strange metal from which it is made.”
“I have never seen anything of its like to my memory,” Suyin said.
“I can’t say I have, either,” Elijah murmured. “But I have been in my territory for hundreds of years. If what you say is true, Marduk, it’ll be close by.”
“I will search both my chosen home and my predecessor’s favored palace.” A scowling Aegaeon kicked out his booted feet, crossing them at the ankles.
“I believe I’ve seen such a blade.” Zanaya looked into the distance. “What I can’t recall is if I saw it in my first reign or my current one.”
Alexander, who’d been quiet until then, reached down into his boot to pull out a blade, held it out.
The metal was unlike any Raphael had ever before seen. It wasn’t multihued or in any way flashy, but it seemed strangely fluid. As if it was alive while lying quiescent in Alexander’s hand. And . . . “Can you hear the hum?” he asked, raising his hand to push absently at the Legion mark that had begun to throb with renewed fervor.
“What hum?” was the resounding answer—from all but Marduk.
The other man gave him a considering look but kept his silence.
Letting the conversation continue, Raphael listened as Alexander explained why he had the blade—the subcomponent of the Compass. “I found it in the sands near my court soon after I woke.
“Though the blade is nowhere as sharp as my others, I felt it was meant for me as soon as I took hold of it.” He closed his fingers over it now, and in that moment, they all saw the eerie blade glow within his fingers, light blue-black escaping through his firm grip.
“So”—Marduk looked around the circle—“all that remains is for the rest of you to find your pieces of the Compass.”
“No archangel ruled this land until I took it over,” Raphael pointed out. “There wasn’t enough mortal or vampiric civilization here for an archangelic base. No other archangel could’ve left behind a blade for me.”
“It will be here,” Marduk insisted. “That is its entire purpose—to find an archangel, then stay dormant until needed.”
Archangels—even angels—shifted in their Sleep, Raphael remembered. Was it possible these so-called subcomponents had access to the same power?
“Can we set our people on the hunt?” Caliane asked.
“No. To their eyes, it will be nothing but a dull blade. Only an archangel can help another.”
After that, no matter how much they spoke, there were no further answers.
“I am not an Ancestor!” Marduk shouted at one point, the bass of his voice filling the chamber and bouncing off the walls in a roar. “I was a child to their eyes when they chose to Sleep. I know only that which I learned as an archangel in my time—and you now have that knowledge.”