Free Sword of the Gods: Agents of Ki (Sword of the Gods Saga) by Anna Erishkigal

forth from Ebad's shoulder. She stared at Ebad as though she were seeing him for the very first time. No longer soft. No longer weak. No longer incompetent. Using Mikhail's training, Ebad had transformed himself into everything Pareesa had ever wanted in a man.
    "We did," Pareesa squeezed his hand. "We did it together."
    The Ubaid warriors poked fearfully at the wall of lizard demons, not certain what to do now that they witnessed creatures of nightmare materialized into the flesh. It was, ironically, Ipquidad, the portly son of a flaxseed oil dealer, who was the first to climb over the wall of bodies. He stared down at Mikhail with dismay.
    "Tell us what to do?" Ipquidad's voice warbled with emotion.
    "Go. Go tend to Mikhail." Ebad gave her a weak smile.
    Pareesa let go of his hand and stood, anger surging through her veins at the sight of the red cape peeking from between Mikhail's black-brown wings.
    "Get her out of here!" She jabbed her index finger at the red-caped dead woman. "That is not Ninsianna!"
    Ipquidad grabbed the red-caped traitor by the feet and dragged her out of Mikhail's arms, dumping her body face-down in the dirt, two of Pareesa's arrows sticking out of her back.
    Pareesa glanced down at the Angelic she had risked everything to save; an unearthly creature, not of this world, but a man who had fought with the armies of a god. He did not look so god-like now.
    “Mikhail!” Pareesa sobbed.
    She crawled to him, praying for him to be okay.
    Oh gods! Oh gods! He was so pale and limp!
    "Please please please please!"
    She fumbled at his neck, searching for a pulse. She felt nothing. A sob wracked her chest as she pressed trembling fingers deeper into his jugular.
    "Please!" She shook his shoulder as if that, alone, might wake him up from this terrible nightmare.
    The weak kiss of a pulse throbbed against her fingertips. Emotion tore through her chest as a sob of joy.
    "He's alive!"
    The warriors cheered.
    Pareesa rolled Mikhail onto his back to assess his injuries, careful not to crush his feathers. Her lip twitched with a gasp of horror, capturing a single tear. There was a knife. Sticking out of his chest. How was he even still alive?
    She grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze.
    “You must hang on!" Tears blurred the sight of his slack jaw. "Needa will tend your wounds. She can fix it. I know she can.”
    She turned back towards the warriors who had grown silent, the reflection of the bonfire making a garish mockery of their expressions of grief, and looked beyond them to the conflagration the lizard-demon sky canoes had left billowing black smoke into the darkness of the horizon, the place where they had left behind the regional gathering of chiefs … including Ninsianna's father.
    "Immanu!" Pareesa cried out. "Oh! Gods! Somebody go fetch Immanu!"
     
    ~ * ~ * ~
     

     

Chapter 5

     
    Galactic Standard Date:  152,323.11 AE
    Alpha Sector: Haven-1
    Brigadier-General Raphael Israfa
     
    Raphael
    It was time to go meet his maker…
    The light grew brighter with each step he took towards the beautiful, white-winged Angelic who beckoned to him from the far end of the hallway which reminded him of a tunnel. They'd agreed she would wait for him at the entrance to the Pearl Gate, to guide him past the challenges all seekers faced who wished to gain an audience with their Emperor and god. White crepuscular rays streamed down through the atrium and gave her the appearance of wearing a sunlit crown. His heart beat faster, though whether it was because he was happy to be running towards her , or fear that he was about to answer to his creator, he couldn't say. An electrifying sense of feeling sparked between them as he stepped into the light and slipped his hand into hers.
    "Are you sure he'll be okay with us?"
    Brigadier-General Raphael Israfa carefully relieved his lover, Jophiel, of the red-winged toddler who'd fallen asleep in her arms and tucked their son into the shelter of his golden wings. By 'he' he meant