“You did well to conceal your partiality.” A faint smile. “I’m glad I took her with me to settle Jinhai. It allowed us time alone, and I saw how she is in difficult situations.” Stopping, she turned toward him and held out a hand, palm up.
When Aodhan enclosed it in his own, she said, “You are extraordinary, Aodhan, and I will never forget you and all you did to help me take these first steps into my reign. I hope you will not be a stranger to my lands.”
“I promise you I will honor our bond in the eons to come, sire.” With that, Aodhan went down on one knee, his wings spread in a bow of respect to his archangel.
When he rose, he was no longer her second—though she asked him to maintain the appearance of it until they reached the location of the new citadel. “We need to minimize disruption on this last leg of the journey. Arza is in agreement. My people love you, too.”
Aodhan agreed, and they separated to take care of their own tasks.
His first one was to find Arzaleya. She was seated on a rock cleaning her sword but stood at once when she spotted Aodhan. “Aodhan, I hope this won’t impact our friendship?” Pale eyes searched his face. “Suyin was adamant you didn’t wish for the position.”
“I’m not the right second for her, Arza,” Aodhan confirmed. “I’m one of Raphael’s Seven and I have no wish to change that.”
Her smile held unhidden relief, her body relaxing from its at-attention stance. “I’ll be contacting you often for advice,” she said with a wry look. “I’ve long been a general, but being second, that is another thing altogether.”
“Contact me as often as you need,” Aodhan said. “If I have one piece of advice, it is that you must walk into the future. Don’t fight progress. Nudge Suyin if you have to, but if China is to heal, it can’t stay stuck in the past.”
Arzaleya’s expression turned solemn. “Yes, we think the same there.” She held out her arm.
Aodhan had never before touched her, but today, he grasped the other angel’s forearm in the way of warriors. It was the beginning of his good-bye to China, but there was still much to do until his departure, and he got on with it.
“Why are you planning on leaving right after we reach the coast?” Illium demanded when he shared his plans that night, while they stood in the privacy afforded by the dark—and by the wall of trees behind which they’d stopped to speak. “Suyin will need help with building, everything else.”
“Because you can’t have two seconds.” Neither Suyin nor Arzaleya had made any demand of him, but that was because they trusted in his heart and in his intellect. “Right now, I’m the one everyone turns to instinctively. Only once I’m not here will Arza have a chance to grow into her position.”
Illium gave a grudging nod. “Yeah, I can see that. What about me? Raphael sent me to assist Suyin.”
Aodhan gripped the arch of Illium’s left wing, ran his hand down the curve in a touch of stunning intimacy between angels. Illium flushed, ducked his head a little, and when he looked up, his eyes were wild gold. “Aodhan.”
“I don’t want to be apart from you.” Aodhan’s journey was far from over, but one thing he knew: he wanted to do it with Illium by his side. “But we can’t be selfish. China has borne so much, needs help. I believe Suyin will want you to stay behind, help with the build.”
Jaw tense, Illium nonetheless nodded. Because he was a warrior. Because he had honor. Because he was Aodhan’s Blue, the most unselfish angel Aodhan had ever known.
“What am I going to do with you?” Aodhan murmured, overwhelmed by tenderness. “You and that heart of yours really need a damn keeper.”
A playful smile that did nothing to hide the depth of Illium’s emotions. “Do I hear you volunteering?”
Aodhan thought of the metal disk in Illium’s pocket, of the way Kai watched him, of the centuries Illium had carried that particular torch. Then he thought: Fuck it, Kaia and her damn doe-eyed descendant can fuck right off. What he felt for Illium? It was a thing of eternity and forever, and he wasn’t about to step back and be self-sacrificing.
If Kai wanted him, she’d have to fight Aodhan.
Shifting until their boots touched and their body heat warmed the winter air, he cupped the side of Illium’s face and said, “No, I’m not volunteering,” in a voice gritty with need and hard with confidence. “The position is already mine.”