Archangel's Heart (Guild Hunter 9)

Sucking in a breath, Elena took the feather from him, slid it into a pocket. They wouldn’t leave anything for those who might be coming or going to find—and she’d give the feather to Maggie, who loved to stroke them with her small, soft fingers. Zoe already had several of Raphael’s in her growing collection. Do we go in?

From the sounds we heard, someone entered only moments ago. Raphael stared at the wall. No one exited or we’d have caught sight of them as they turned the corner.

Elena’s pulse raced. She didn’t want to wait, didn’t want to give any more time to whatever evil was going on behind those doors. Because it was nothing good if it had to be so darkly hidden. We have to wait, she forced herself to say. We don’t know how to get in and we can’t risk harming someone by using your power.

Raphael nodded, but his gaze held unrelenting determination. Storm or bloodlust, we will not leave until we have the answers, hbeebti.

Swallowing her furious impatience, she satisfied herself—for now—by dropping a blade into her palm. We’d better hide so we can try to see how to get in.

Raphael smiled and opened his wings.

Her eyes widened. I am an idiot. Walking into his arms after he shifted to put his back against the opposite wall, she let him close his wings around her as she faced forward, her own wings against his chest. She couldn’t feel the glamour, but she knew from the outside, they no longer existed. Good thing the Luminata didn’t think to have security cameras. She’d checked.

Being hidebound is an immortal’s greatest weakness. Raphael closed his arms around her shoulders, held her close to the muscled warmth of him, his scent so deeply familiar to her that it settled her on the innermost level.

He was hers. She was his.

And together, they were something far better than either one of them was alone.

Stroking the underside of his wings, Elena stared at the wall on the other side, willing it to open. She jerked when it did only five minutes later. The Luminata who walked out was the tall and thin one who’d been their guide the first night.

Gervais. Gian’s best buddy.

His hood was off and he had a smile on his saturnine face that was more a smirk.

Pulling up his hood with spidery fingers, he glanced back over his shoulder and spoke in that rough voice she’d noted the first night. “You’d better hurry. You know he doesn’t like anyone else inside when he goes into the special chamber to see his pet.”

“. . . got here.”

“You should’ve come earlier. Of course, you can delay if you want to stay in there permanently.”

A second angel huffed out, this one short and stouter than any angel Elena had ever seen. Angels just generally didn’t carry any extra fat on their bodies—partly because of the immortal metabolism and partly because winged flight took serious energy. This one wasn’t so much overweight as just really solid and round. Hard fat, she realized. A man who’d been fit but who’d let it go.

For that to happen to an angel, it meant he wasn’t bothering to fly much.

Right now, his face was hot red and he was in the midst of pulling on his robe over what looked like a pair of pants and a tunic. “That’s the quickest coupling I’ve ever had in all my centuries of existence.”

Gervais clapped him on the shoulder. “Never mind. You’ll have plenty more time once the Cadre has left us in peace. The sluts and toys will spread their legs on command or pay the price.”

Elena didn’t realize she’d pulled out the knife she’d slid away until Raphael closed his hand over her wrist. Later, Elena. We will take care of them later.

Her body vibrating with rage, she somehow managed to keep her blade from leaving her hand. Then, as Gervais and the other angel walked away, the wall beginning to shut behind them, she and Raphael moved. Not so fast as to create a gust of air that would alert the two Luminata, but not so slow that they’d miss the door. And then they were in and at the top of a flight of stairs that wasn’t as steep as it should’ve been.

The door shut behind them in smoothly oiled silence. However, what was a seamless part of the wall on the hallway side was clearly a door from this side. Having separated from Raphael so that they could move independently, she tucked her wings back tight against her spine. The staircase was easy to navigate side by side, the lights on the walls guiding their way.

And then they reached the bottom.

Raphael’s fingers clamped on to her forearm. Since she’d begun to fling out that same arm against his chest in an unconsciously protective move, she figured they were even. Both steady now, they looked over the edge of the doorway into nothingness. The only way to tell that they were looking down a deep shaft dug into the earth were the lights placed a regular distance apart going down.

“We’re next to the Gallery,” she said, the words a whisper. “Why would the builders dig a hole but not utilize all of it?” This shaft was nowhere near the diameter of the Gallery—maybe a tenth the size—but it was significant. And while it had exposed beams, it was structurally shored up.

“I think it was to provide a back way for the archivists to enter different levels of the Gallery.” Raphael pointed out what looked like an old door across the way, the wood a little warped and not appearing as if it had been opened anytime recently. “It may have been specifically created so the archivists could reach the final, hidden section without disturbing any guests in the Gallery.”

Elena blinked. “This shaft is an angelic elevator?” Which meant that final level had once had a legitimate use, likely for handy Gallery storage as Laric had assumed when he saw the staircase.