lighting up at whatever it was his best friend had said, Illium chuckled.
âSire,â the light-shattered angel said afterward, his profile a purity of clean lines. âI have been doing further research on the Luminata.â
Intrigued, Elena focused on the angel who was more luminous than any of these Luminata could possibly be.
âTheir leader, Gian,â Aodhan continued, âhas held his position for four centuriesâthis is unusual among the Luminata. They are meant to rotate the leadership through their membership every five decades to ensure that politics and power do not distract from or corrupt a memberâs search for luminescence.â
Raphael, who had gone motionless beside Elena, now said, âHow do you know this, Aodhan?â
âYes.â Illiumâs tone was as hard as stone. âThe Luminata donât exactly advertise their internal workings.â
Elena realized she was missing something, so much withheld aggression in the air that she couldâve cut it with a knife.
Aodhan broke eye contact with Raphael to meet Illiumâs gaze. The words he spoke were edgier than sheâd ever heard Aodhan sound. âIâm no longer a broken doll who needs to be protected from those who might play roughly with me.â
Flinching as if heâd been slapped, Illium shoved back his chair and left the library through the doors that stood open to the lawn.
Elena.
She was already moving.
Iâve got it.
If she hadnât heard that tone in Aodhanâs voice before, she hadnât seen that expression on Illiumâs face, either. So furiously angry and yet hurt. Deeply hurt.
Following the angel outside, she hoped he hadnât taken offâbecause if Illium wanted to outpace her, she had no chance in hell of catching up to him. But he was standing on the very edge of the property, on the cliffs that looked down on the dark waters of the Hudson, the Manhattan skyline in the distance. Angels landed on Tower balconies as she watched, but today, even that sight didnât have the power to hold her attention.
Walking to stand beside Illium, she very deliberately slid her wing over his tightly held ones; a touch that told him he wasnât alone but that made no demands. Words werenât always easy when things mattered.
The wind was quiet against her face tonight. It pushed Illiumâs hair back gently from his face, those black strands dipped in blue that simply grew that way, to reveal the lines of a face that held a pure masculine beauty. But beautiful though he was, it hadnât been his looks but the playful wickedness in Illium that had drawn Elenaâthat light in him, it was a bright, joyful candle against the dark.
Today, the light was snuffed out, his golden eyes strangely flatâas if he was holding himself in such fierce check that heâd buried the best part of himself. Elena couldnât stand it.She took his hand, wove her fingers through his. He didnât respond for a second, two . . . then, at last, his fingers curled around hers.
His skin grew warm in the minutes that followed, the horrible flatness retreating from his gaze.
âDo you know how badly hurt Aodhan was when we found him?â The words trembled. âHis wings were all but rotted away, mere strings of tendons, and bone as soft as unfired clay all that remained. All his beautiful feathers gone, the webbing in shreds, his strength stolen and his body encrusted in dirt.â
Horror clawed Elenaâs gut at the grim recitation. She knew something terrible had happened to Aodhan, bad enough that it had made him retreat from life for two hundred years. Heâd imprisoned himself in the Refuge, had refused physical contact with anyone, hadnât laughed, hadnât interacted with the people who loved him.
It was Illium whoâd reached him, Illium who was his best and closest friend.
âHe was so
hurt
, Ellie,â Illium continued