Aodhan wanted to be scary like him. But today he was only thinking about what Naasir had said. “That’s not . . . paw—paw—”
“Polite,” Naasir completed, then shrugged. “Polite is for pretending. You don’t like him, either.”
Aodhan bit his lower lip, worried Illium would see his secret, too.
It was as if Naasir could read his mind. “Don’t worry, small sparkles.” He patted Aodhan on the shoulder. “Small blue wings sees only his father.”
Exhaling, Aodhan looked to where Aegaeon was now hugging Illium, holding him close. “He makes Illium too hungry.” He knew the words weren’t the right ones for what he meant, but Naasir nodded.
“Yes. He creates a desperation in the child.” Right then, Naasir sounded like a proper grown-up. “I wanted to bite him when he came to visit Raphael, but Raphael said that might cause a political incident.”
Aodhan only understood part of that, and it made him grin. “I would bite him if I had sharp teeth.”
Colors rippled over Naasir’s skin for a moment, like the fur of a tiger. His teeth glinted, his eyes reminding Aodhan of a snow-cat’s. “Too bad we have to be polite.”
“Too bad,” Aodhan parroted.
They sat there, watching the reunion in the sky until Aegaeon flew off with Illium, toward Eh-ma’s house.
Aodhan stayed where he was, not wanting to go there while Aegaeon was around. He’d rather stay with Naasir. “Are you a proper grown-up in Raphael’s court?”
“Sometimes.” Naasir yawned. “It’s annoying, but I only do it when I want. Dmitri told me to be myself, but I know Raphael is a new archangel. I know others watch him.”
Aodhan didn’t understand much of that at all. “Are you here to do work for Raphael?”
Naasir nodded. “But I have time to see small sparkles and small blue wings.” A wild grin. “Come. I brought you presents. One from me and one from Raphael.”
“What about Illium?”
“We’ll give him his presents later.” Naasir scrambled off the roof with a grace that Aodhan had seen in no one else.
Stomach still in knots, but knowing Illium was happy for now, he flew down to join Naasir. He was still wobbly in flight, so often it was much easier to walk. And he liked to walk with Naasir. He always saw interesting things and pointed them out so Aodhan could see, too.
Once it had been a giant spider as white as the snow.
Lifting his hand, he slid it into Naasir’s warm one. “His papa’s not mean,” he said, feeling a little bad for not liking Aegaeon.
Naasir didn’t say anything for a long time.
“Nasi?”
Silver eyes locking with Aodhan’s own as Naasir crouched down in front of him. “Sometimes, small sparkles, meanness is hidden inside.” He tapped the place over Aodhan’s heart. “You see it with your heart. Listen. Remember.”
He got up, squeezed Aodhan’s hand. “But right now, you are a cub. Cubs don’t have to worry about things like that. You just have to be Illium’s friend.”
“I’ll always be his friend.” He looked up. “And yours, too.”
Naasir’s smile was a dazzling white. “One day, small sparkles, we will be allies in battle, and we will bite all our enemies.”
Laughing together, they walked through the Refuge hand in hand, while in a cottage not far from them, a little boy grinned in his father’s arms.
15
Today
Aodhan hadn’t been able to talk to Illium at dinner, they’d been seated too far apart. He could’ve initiated mental contact, but this wasn’t a conversation he wanted to have while surrounded by others—especially when Illium’s eyes kept flicking to the doors that led into the kitchen.
His muscles threatened to knot once more, but if there was one thing he knew, it was that Illium could be brutally stubborn. There was no point in attempting to lead him away from Kai even when Aodhan knew there could be nothing healthy there for his friend. Kaia was dead and gone. No matter what, Illium couldn’t re-create the past. Aodhan hoped he didn’t; hoped he didn’t talk himself into another obsession.
For now, he pitched in with the final necessities of the move. Vetra had been delayed due to injuries sustained by the people she was escorting in, would be hours yet. She, too, Aodhan thought, would appreciate the move to the coast for she loved to surf the waves. But no one wanted it more than Suyin.
“I hunger for the freedom of the endless horizon, Aodhan,” the archangel had said to him an hour earlier, as the stars glittered overhead. “Zhangjiajie has made me see that no longer am I a child of the mountains as I once was. They loom over me now, throwing shadows I cannot escape. The sea and its vast openness is what I need for this eon of existence.”
Aodhan knew her meaning well. Part of the reason he’d been able to move to New York was its proximity to the ocean. But unlike Suyin, he also loved the mountains, the reason why he’d stayed so long in the Refuge. The sunlight there was brilliant, dazzling, even painful at times. And light of any kind was freedom to him. He’d been trapped in the dark, light the taste of hope.
“Aodhan, could you carry this out?” Jae’s request had him glancing back to see her indicating a box that he knew held heavy weapons.
No one expected war, not now, but it would be foolish to go out unprepared when so many of Lijuan’s sympathizers still called China home.
“Of course,” he said, and picked up the box.
Jae herself was laden with two bags, one on either shoulder.
“Food,” she said to him. “Emergency supplies in case the hunting fails or we hit one of the toxic areas.”
Those areas were dead patches in the landscape where it was as if Lijuan’s death fog had permanently settled, turning the soil black and the area shadowy even on the brightest summer’s day. Suyin had banned angels from landing in those areas, while mortals and vampires hadn’t needed her order—they refused to go near the tainted sections.
Rii, the forty-something man who spoke for the mortals, had shivered when he told Aodhan of one such patch he’d passed on his journey to Suyin. “It smells of the dead.” Then he’d muttered prayers to a god older than Lijuan had ever been.
Despite Suyin’s order banning angels from making contact with the blackened and dead surface, Suyin had planned to land herself, to bring back samples for the scientists.
It was Raphael who’d talked her out of that. “We know I’m immune to Lijuan’s poison,” he’d pointed out at the time. “Why should you take the risk when I can do the same task without risk? Remember, Suyin, the Cadre is already down multiple members, with more than one either not at full strength or with no willingness to be in the world.”