At some point, they found themselves near the gorge, a massive split in the stone of the Refuge. Sneaking to the edge on their bellies, they peered down. Angelic aeries dotted the insides at the top, but there was nothing lower down. Only a darkness that made things secret.
“Papa says river there.” Illium pointed.
Aodhan squinted. “I can’t see.”
“It’s too far.” Copying his friend’s expression, Illium peered down, too . . . and noticed there were no grown-ups in the vicinity. “Wanna fly there?” he whispered.
Aodhan looked at him with those eyes that weren’t like anyone else’s. “Not allowed.” Solemn words. “Mama said.”
Illium looked down again, his heart beating too fast. “Yeah.” But his wings twitched.
“Okay,” Aodhan said suddenly.
Grinning, Illium rose and stepped a bit away from his new friend. Otherwise, their wings might tangle up. “Ready?”
Aodhan nodded, then the two of them stepped off the edge together before flaring out their wings. Illium wanted to yell in excitement but he tried to stay quiet so the grown-ups in the aeries wouldn’t bust them.
When he looked over at Aodhan, he saw his new friend was smiling for the first time, his face bright not just because he was sparkly. It was bright from the inside. Illium grinned back and they both circled down . . . and down . . . and down . . . and down.
His wings were beginning to get heavy, and he thought he’d maybe begun to hear the first sign of a rushing river when a big hand grabbed him by the back of his pants and hauled him up.
“Hey!” He began to wriggle . . . and glimpsed wings of white and gold.
Poop.
Raphael grabbed Aodhan the next second, before flying up out of the gorge on powerful wings, taking the two of them into the sunshine once more. Illium looked across at Aodhan and shrugged. His friend grinned and shrugged back, and Illium had to fight off a giggle. They’d really be in trouble if they didn’t take this see-ri-us.
He had to admit it was nice to get a ride up. His wings had been getting so tired. The gorge was big, far bigger than he could’ve imagined in his whole entire life. So he smiled when Raphael deposited them at the top.
Raphael didn’t smile back. He folded his bare arms over his favorite old leather jerkin, one eyebrow raised. “Explain.”
“It was me,” Illium admitted. “I make Adi go.”
“No.” Aodhan scowled. “I go.”
“But I said,” Illium insisted, not wanting his new friend in trouble.
“No.” Aodhan stood beside him, not moving, not trying to run away.
“I see,” Raphael murmured. “So you are both culprits. Then you shall both be punished.”
Illium groaned. “Rafa, we no do again.”
“Do you think I was born yesterday?” Raphael’s lips curved up. “Turn. March.”
Sighing, Illium took Aodhan’s hand as they began to head toward Raphael’s stronghold.
“What the punish-ent?” Aodhan whispered.
“School. Write letters. Stay inside.” Illium had once tried to point out that he was too young for school—and Raphael had pointed out that Illium was too young to be trying to fire a crossbow, and “yet didn’t I just find you dragging a crossbow on the ground with felonious intent?”
Illium didn’t know what that meant, but he’d understood the tone. So he’d kept on practicing his letters.
Aodhan didn’t look worried. “I like inside.” His voice was quiet. “People point and look outside.” He made a staring face.
“Because you’re so shiny.” Illium had stared at first, too, but now Aodhan was his friend. He decided to tell him a very important thing. “My papa an archangel.” It made Illium so proud.
Aodhan turned toward him, his eyes all big. Then he looked back at Raphael. “Papa?”
“No, Rafa friend.” He felt proud to say that, too; not many baby angels were friends with an archangel. “My papa Aegaeon.” It took him time to sound out his papa’s name, but he got it right.
“Inside.” Raphael ushered them into the cool stone of his stronghold, just as Dmitri was walking out.
Illium had used to think the vampire—who his papa called “Raphael’s deadly right hand”—might not like small angels, but then one day, he’d fallen and hurt his knees bad, and Dmitri had brushed him off, then carried him all the way home. He’d stroked Illium’s hair and told him he was brave, and Illium had felt good even though his knees hurt.
Today, Dmitri raised an eyebrow as dark as his hair. “In trouble again, Illium?”
“Yup.”
Dmitri’s smile was barely there, but Illium could tell it was real, not like the fake smiles some grown-ups used with kids. “And with a partner in crime now.”
Illium smiled at Aodhan. “Adi. My friend.”
Aodhan smiled back.
Illium and Aodhan, it is now nigh-impossible to see one without the other. I find myself both looking forward to and laughingly dreading the day the two enter my schoolroom. There will be chaos, this I predict with all certainty.
Aodhan is some few years younger, but I think I must allow him to attend when Illium does, else Illium won’t concentrate for wanting to be out playing with his friend, and Aodhan is already such a quiet little one that I don’t want to separate him from his closest ally. So together they shall enter their school years.
I can already feel the gray hairs beginning to take root.
—Jessamy, Teacher and Historian
10
Today
Illium’s luggage reached the stronghold just before sunset.
He’d been in the air at the time, had actually seen the transport vehicle arrive from the otherwise deserted local airport, flanked by angelic guards. Because nothing in Lijuan’s land could be trusted. Not yet. Not before Suyin had dug out and eliminated every piece of darkness.
Supplies for Suyin’s people filled the large transport vehicle to the brim. Illium’s luggage had ridden in on the front passenger seat—it didn’t amount to much, just a duffel of replacement clothing, a few extra weapons, and a stack of horror movies he was to pass on to Aodhan.
“He can download them,” Illium had muttered to Elena when she put the package in his bag. “He knows how.” Unlike with many other immortals, Illium hadn’t had to badger knowledge into Aodhan; he’d learned as Illium learned, both of them in agreement that to be ignorant was to be left behind.