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)
The taste of her threatened to bring him to his knees.
Winds encircled them, the swirling sand threaded by glittering midnight as Zanaya cocooned them in a wild privacy that made this moment about nothing but the two of them.
33
The kiss, it was everything, feeding his parched soul and healing broken things inside him. But they couldn’t stay thus forever, and soon the sands dropped and they stepped apart. “I’m different,” Zanaya said, her expression troubled. “Not the eyes. I could live with that. There’s something not quite right with me.”
Alexander cupped her cheek, needing to touch her, reassure himself she was truly here. “You’re the only one of those who fell to Lijuan’s powers who has woken. I thought you were gone forever.”
“I know.” Rich brown began to bleed back into the pearl of her irises, the effect eerily lovely. “I spoke to Cassandra before I rose. She said that they’re still ‘caught in-between.’ ” Flaring out her wings, she then snapped them back in with martial precision.
“There’s a reason I’m awake when they’re not,” Zanaya continued before he could tell her that her eyes were once again as they should be, “and I’m not sure it’s a good reason. Especially with these.” She pointed two fingers, angled in a sharp vee, toward her eyes. “That insane monster did something to me. Maybe insurance in case she died.”
Alexander was horrified at the idea that Lijuan could’ve somehow infected Zanaya. “Do you have her voice in your head?” He tightened his hold. “Any urge to do things that you’d never do?”
Hands on her hips, Zanaya stared down at the ground. When she lifted her head at last, it was to shake it. “No, my thoughts are my own.”
“So are your eyes,” he said, finally breaking contact—but only so he could stroke his fingers over the arch of her wings. “The gray has vanished.”
She shivered at the intimate caress before saying, “At least I won’t see her when I look in the mirror.” Biting words, but her expression was taut. “How will I know, Alexander?” A rough question. “What if I am infected with her menace, but in a way I can’t discern?”
“I will be your lieutenant in this watch,” Alexander vowed. “I know you. I’ll tell you at once if you begin to act in ways that are outside your personality or your morals.”
Zanaya had always had a mischievous streak that led her to stir up trouble—but it was never trouble deadly or dangerous or ugly. No, it was the wicked kind that had almost made him burst out laughing at more than one tense meeting of the Cadre.
Zanaya loved to tweak “the general’s” nose.
Now, she pressed her lips together. “I would not have you watch over me, lover,” she muttered. “But let us consider this a battle exigency. It stops the instant we know that I’m myself again.”
Alexander agreed with a nod. “It appears you’ll be ruling the northern half of Africa. Your Nile will welcome back its queen.”
Raising both eyebrows, she said, “The Cadre moves faster than it did in my time.” She shifted to place one hand over his heart before he could reply.
As if she, too, couldn’t bear to be apart.
He closed his hand over hers, spoke through a throat gone rough. “No. Titus has simply made it clear he has no quarrel with another archangel taking over this half. He’s caring for it because there was no other option—but he feels spread thin, believes it shortchanges his people.”
“I knew I liked Titus.” A pause, a tap of her lower lip. “So, how much have I missed this time? Another grandson?”
“It has been but ten years,” Alexander said, his voice ragged. “And how could I father another child when I have touched no woman since?”
Her expression softened into piercing tenderness. “Ah, I’m sorry you had to see me fall, lover.” Fingers touching his jaw. “I didn’t wish to rise until I knew you’d survived the war.”
Chest aching, he wrapped her up in his arms and his wings again. She slid her own arms around his waist, laid her head against his chest. And they just stood there for a long time, in an embrace that healed fractures in both of them.
When cool night winds blew through Alexander’s hair, he looked up and saw that the stars of early evening had begun to appear. Zanaya’s darkness was fading, to be replaced by the natural state of the world.
Zanaya sighed and stepped back.
Fighting his need to hold on, he released her. And picked up the mantle of the Cadre. “There’ll need to be a meeting.”
“Yes. When can it be arranged?”
“A day or two. We’re at peace, so not everyone will be at their strongholds.”
Expression pensive, Zanaya nodded but lines creased her forehead.
“Will you spend the night with me, Zani?” he asked, reaching over to smooth away those lines. “Before the world re-enters our lives?”