Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 118699 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 593(@200wpm)___ 475(@250wpm)___ 396(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 118699 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 593(@200wpm)___ 475(@250wpm)___ 396(@300wpm)
Her first breath of the desert air was colder than expected, the landscape around her glittering white rather than the golden sands through which she’d risen.
Her brow furrowed.
A stir in the air, a whisper of a familiar wingbeat.
Her heart sighed . . . and felt no surprise when he landed in front of her, an archangel of such classical beauty that the mortals had wanted to worship him as a god. Hair of gold and skin kissed by the sun, his eyes a startling silver and his wings the same, Alexander was the most beautiful man she’d ever known.
He was also as hard as stone, a honed warrior who’d shot down any attempts to worship him. “I am no god, Zani,” he’d said. “If such exalted beings exist, they are far more evolved than I.”
Arrogant the general might’ve been, but he’d also been earthy and honest.
“Xander,” she said, her voice lazy from Sleep and her language the one they’d spoken most often prior to her rest. “We meet again.” It felt inevitable that he should be here on her waking; their lifelines had been entwined for an eternity, had they not?
“That is my grandson’s name now.”
Delight in her breath, her eyes widening at the idea of such a thing. “You jest? You are a grandfather?” It was impossible to do anything but smile at the thought. “I have Slept long.”
“That is a matter of opinion.” A grumble.
Laughter bubbled out of her, his bad temper a familiar thing. “Oh, Alexander, do not say you are not happy to see me.” It was such temptation to play with him, to knock at that hard head. “I am crushed.”
Feeling stiff and in need of movement, she reached her arms toward the sky as the sun began to emerge from behind Zanaya’s endless night. Her bare toes dug into the snow, her wings stretching out to their maximum width before she closed them in and turned her eyes to the ground. “It did not snow in this desert when I went to Sleep.” Crouching down, she gathered a handful of the cold white. “Does my Nile yet flow, or is it ice?”
“It’s begun to ice over,” was the most unexpected response. “We are in a Cascade. You are the only Ancient I know who has woken with such suddenness, but there are signs Aegaeon is also stirring. Caliane woke before I did.”
Smile wiped away, all playfulness erased, Zanaya rose to her full height. Once, lifetimes ago, she’d been a girl who’d railed against her short stature, but she’d long left that child behind, was at home in her skin, in her curves. Curves this very man had stroked with a possessive hand so many times that his touch was embedded in her flesh.
But those were pleasures not for a Cascade, those unpredictable points in time where archangelic powers turned vicious in their strength—and madness was only a heartbeat away. The pressure of a Cascade was an intense vise that had fostered many a war. “I will Sleep,” she said at once, for too many archangels awake would equal catastrophe. At least this explained what had wrenched her from her Sleep. A Cascade respected no one, least of all the Cadre.
Inj’ra had once told her that “archangels are playthings to the Cascade.” It had been her then sire’s opinion that the Cascade was a natural event that took place to “humble” the most arrogant creatures in the world: the archangels.
Zanaya wasn’t sure she didn’t believe Inj’ra.
But Alexander gave a slight shake of his head. “I do not think the Cascade will let you Sleep.” Folding his arms in a silent repudiation of her, Alexander said, “I will call a Cadre meeting about you, but first, I have to rescue a village buried under ice and snow.”
She couldn’t help it; she never could when he got this stiff and formal. “Why so bad-tempered, lover?”
Silver fire in his gaze. “I am an Ancient. Treat me as such or . . .”
“Or what?” She winked at him because she knew very well that he couldn’t stand being winked at, but even so, her heart sighed to see him hearty and whole. Never would she want to be awake in a world where Alexander didn’t exist—even if it was only in Sleep. “So, tell me what you’ve been doing since I decided I’d caused enough mayhem for ten immortal lifetimes.”
His glare warned her that he hadn’t forgiven her for going into Sleep while they were yet angry with each other. Oh, that’s how he’d think of it, she was certain. Forgetting all the many, many times when she’d spoken to him of her need for Sleep—and his. Not that he’d ever agreed with her. Not Alexander.
Now, he snapped, “I have work to do,” and lifted off.
Laughing because she knew this man, no matter if they’d been apart for millennia, she rose with him, her wings glorying in flight.