Illium had tried to pace Raphael, inevitably fallen behind. He was fast but didn’t have the endurance to keep up with Raphael over a long flight. Go, sire! Illium’s mental voice had been fierce. I’ll follow! He was doing so alone, Jason and Naasir having stayed behind at Sachieri’s stronghold to secure the prisoners.
So when Raphael landed on the wide landing area outside the Medica, he was alone but for the wounded angel in his arms. Keir and several other healers were waiting for him, and he saw the horror on all their faces as they laid eyes on Aodhan. But it lasted the barest moment before they snapped into action.
Dmitri stood off to the edge, out of their way—but plenty close enough to see Aodhan. Hurt them, he said to Raphael in a short, clipped voice, the skin of his face bloodless, it was pulled so tight over his bones. Break them.
Oh, I intend to. He strode inside on Keir’s orders as Dmitri shifted on his heel to go join Galen. Once inside, he forced himself to relinquish Aodhan by laying him down on a large bed designed for angelic beings. But Aodhan had no wings to speak of, looked lost in the whiteness of the mattress.
When Keir and another healer unwrapped him from the blanket with careful hands, Raphael was hit once more with how little of Aodhan remained. “You must heal him,” he ordered Keir, his voice a thing of grit and stone.
Keir had known Raphael all of Raphael’s life, and had little fear of archangels in general. “This is our place now, Raphael. Go. We’ll work better without your wings blazing fear into my staff.”
It was only then that Raphael realized his wings were glowing.
Hands fisted, he glanced around and saw faces bleached of color. Keir might not be afeared of him, but the same couldn’t be said of the others. He had to go, but he wouldn’t leave Aodhan alone without one of his people. “I’ll wait outside this room until Illium arrives. He is not to be separated from Aodhan, understood?”
Keir nodded. “I was planning to ask you to send Illium here, regardless. The child will need his heart’s mirror to pull him back to us.” He brushed tender fingers over the broken straw of Aodhan’s hair. It still glittered bright under the light, but it was faded, brittle.
Retreating to the doorway, Raphael stayed out of sight while positioning himself so he could see inside the room. When a sweaty and breathless Illium ran into the Medica some time later, he grabbed the young angel and crushed him close until Illium’s wings stopped fluttering and his breathing evened out, his heartbeat no longer a drum against Raphael.
“Aodhan doesn’t need your anger or your panic,” he murmured in Illium’s ear. “He needs your friendship.” That term wasn’t enough to describe the tie between the two, Keir’s use of heart’s mirror far more fitting. “Be as you’ve always been with him. Do not treat him as broken. Be his friend, the one he’s always known.”
Illium’s arms clenched around him as he nodded with jagged movements. “I understand.”
Pulling back, Raphael met eyes of aged gold, saw more calm in them than he’d expected. But then, Illium was Lady Sharine’s son. He held far more maturity and kindness within than was apparent to those who saw only the surface flash. “Good. Don’t get in the way of the healers or I’ll pull you out.”
“I won’t do anything to harm Aodhan.” Illium looked over Raphael’s shoulder into the room where Aodhan lay, then back at Raphael. “I want to torture and kill her.”
“No, Illium.” Raphael gripped the side of the young angel’s face. “Your job is here. It is the duty and the pleasure of your archangel to take vengeance.” He pushed Illium toward the room. “Go. And know this—she will suffer.”
Another angel might’ve argued with Raphael, but Illium and Raphael had a bond different from the one Raphael had with any other of his people. Where Raphael saw Aodhan as a warrior first and foremost, it wasn’t the same with Illium. For him, Illium would forever be the little boy he’d cradled in his arms after Aegaeon’s cruel departure, the child to whom he’d given his first sword, the youth who’d run to him in breathless excitement after he gained a place in a junior squadron.
Today, Illium’s eyes glittered, but he nodded, trusting Raphael to do what he would’ve done had he had the chance. He need not have worried. Raphael’s anger was of an archangel’s—nothing could match it.
Keir, he said, touching the mind of the senior healer. I interrupt only to say that every resource I have is at your disposal. If you need something me or mine can’t provide, tell me and I will obtain it.
I know, Raphael. But while we’ll do all we can, this battle will, in the end, be fought by Aodhan. A pause before he said, We must amputate what remains of his wings. They are rotting into his back and will only harm him at this point. Do you give permission as his sire?
Raphael didn’t point out that Aodhan’s parents were alive and awake. Aodhan had handed Raphael the power to make such decisions when he signed onto his team. Yes, you have my consent.
Better to do it now, while Aodhan was so weak he was unlikely to notice. By the time he recovered enough to do so, his wings would be in the process of growing back. Can you tell me anything of what was done to him?
I need more time to examine him, but I can tell you that his wings were clipped. An icy calm to Keir’s mental voice. The damage to the section that should hold his primary feathers isn’t a result of rot. I can see the wounds where his tendons and bones were severed—there are scars that say it was done over and over again.
Raphael could feel the glow coming off his wings begin to intensify, forced himself to get it under control. The instant you know more, tell me. I don’t care if you discover it while it is the darkest hour of night.
I will do so. Now go, leave me to my work.
Before he exited the Medica, Raphael made sure to tell Illium what was about to happen to Aodhan’s brutalized wings. Don’t try to stop the healers. This is necessary for Aodhan’s healing—and you know Keir will do Aodhan no harm.
The young angel’s response was calm. If he wakes and panics, I’ll remind him that I all but lost mine when I was far younger than he is today, and my wings are now so glorious others are jealous. His attempt at humor was shaky at best, but that he was trying was a good sign.
Illium would hold for Aodhan. As long as Aodhan needed, Illium would hold.
Raphael left not for his stronghold, but for the home of the enemy. Dmitri was waiting for him outside, on the wide stone path that led to the main doors. Others who belonged to Raphael guarded the entrances to the property.
“It’s done. Elijah’s people have disowned both of them,” his second said. “She”—Dmitri turned and spat hard onto the path—“is in an upstairs room with Galen standing guard. He didn’t want to risk that she’d take the coward’s path out. He threw that pathetic piece of shit Bathar in with her.”