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)
Alexander snorted as he worked out in the beaten dirt of his home practice ring the next dawn, his feet bare and his body clothed in nothing but streaks of paint made from the local pigments. Alexander was no idiot. He knew that no angel, no matter how powerful, challenged an archangel and came out the winner.
Archangels were as far beyond angels as angelkind was beyond humankind.
Spiking his fighting staff on the ground, he spun up, then around to land on both feet, sending up puffs of dirt. There was no applause, no cries of encouragement. He did these morning sessions on his own, pushing himself to the edge and beyond. To his mind, a true general should be in the same or better form than his soldiers.
That was what it meant to lead.
Alexander planned to be that way even after his ascension.
But as the years passed, ascension seemed nothing but a foolishness laid on his shoulders by others. The lack of growth did have one positive outcome—Esphares began to use him as a general in truth once again. So it was that Alexander flew into ruthless battle against the army of another archangel.
But where that archangel’s general stayed safe behind the front line, Alexander was right at the forefront. That was why he brought home victory, winning another massive stretch of land for his archangel.
When Esphares stirred in Callie’s direction, however, Alexander talked him down. “She’s a young archangel, barely born,” he said, talking to the ego because archangels this old were all ego and nothing else. “You’ll gain more from becoming her mentor. The biggest threat to those in the Cadre is age and distance—she’ll anchor you to the world, and her power will become yours.”
The latter was a lie; Callie would always know her own mind, and she’d be no one’s puppet. But the rest . . . yes, that was true enough. Now that he was working so closely with the Ancient who was his archangel, he’d begun to see that this being was in no way similar to angelkind. Half the time when Esphares looked at Alexander, it felt as if an alien intelligence, cold and distant, was weighing him up as food.
“Is that who I’ll become one day?” Callie said to him when Esphares invited her to dinner and she accepted so she could visit with Alexander. “A creature devoid of empathy and humanity?”
“I don’t know.” Alexander couldn’t imagine his friend so—of all their childhood peer group, Callie was the most empathic, the one most apt to speak on behalf of the underdog. “I guess we’ll find out.”
Laughter, Callie’s hair a black river under the sunshine. “Oh, Alex, you do keep me from diving too deep into the weeds.”
He shrugged. “What’s the point of worrying about a future we can’t see, can’t know? Live the now, and deal with the rest later. Cassandra wouldn’t have gone insane if she could do that.”
“You’re right,” Caliane said, but her eyes were soft, hazy. “Yet I sometimes have the strange sensation of fate bearing down on me, the knowledge that there exists a future I could avoid if only I knew of it. It’s too bad Ojewo has vanished—we have no living seers any longer.”
Sighing, she shook her head. “Or perhaps all archangels are a touch mad.” A slight smile as she glanced up at him. “Could be you’ll be the one making such pronouncements soon.”
Scowling, Alexander shook his head. “I’m not going to ascend. I’m strong but clearly not the right person to be an archangel or I would’ve become Cadre by now. I plan to be the best general the world has ever seen.”
Callie continued to watch him. “You’ll never be satisfied with that.”
“It is what it is.” All the talk of ascension had spoken to his pride. And a prideful fighter was a dead fighter if he didn’t have the skills to back himself up. “Perhaps I can be your second after all. You still haven’t found a permanent second?”
“No. Though there are possibilities. But you and I?” She shook her head. “You have too much arrogance in you, Alex. We’d be in constant battle over who was right and who was wrong.”
He couldn’t argue with her on the point. “Then I hope that I don’t ever have to lead an army against your troops in battle, Callie.” Quiet words, quieter than Alexander ever spoke. “It would scar my heart.”
A touch of her fingers to his arm, a quick wince from them both as a result of the repulsion effect that didn’t seem to be fading even as it became clear he wasn’t destined to ascend. “I think you’re safe enough for now,” she said, rubbing her fingers on the fabric of her gown. “Whatever you said to Esphares, he seems to be trying to set himself up as my guide on the Cadre.”