Page 58 of Angel's Smoke

Bronze scoffed. “Oh, please. You’re never in the mood.”

“I’ve had a lot on my mind.”

“Tell me about it. Otherwise, you’d have catered the shit out of this affair.”

Whatever annoyance Iron had tried desperately to hold onto flooded from him, deflating his chest and carving out the exact right amount of room for the hard chuckle he couldn’t keep from shaking his shoulders. “You’re something else.”

“I’m a goddamn delight, is what I am.” Bronze clapped him on the back of the neck and squeezed deeply before stepping away to rejoin Clara.

It was another punch to the gut Iron didn’t see coming. Bronze’s ability to light up the scene—in their case, an abandoned strip mall—find someone’s pressure release valve, and flick it just enough so that the worst of the tension oozed out and went elsewhere.

Every angel there had an essential part to play in each other’s lives, in how they fought not only for their survival but for the survival of a race of beings that had no idea they even existed.

And whatever Anna had released within him was about to affect all of that.

“We’ve all come here today because the significance of what may or may not be revealed by the relic’s shard impacts all of us,” Tung said, his booming voice carrying the weight of his words far beyond the rubble. “Whatever decisions need to be made after this shall be formed by the findings.” Then he squeezed Tammy’s hand and kissed the back of her palm. “I cannot dictate how this will go, nor tell you what path you must walk down when it’s over. All I require is that we take the next step together, in whatever way that manifests.” His tone cemented a finality into their circumstances, illuminating a fact none of them had ever really thought they’d achieve. It was in the shifting of boots and the broken eye contact.

Somewhere along the journey, hope and happiness had become integral players in their eternal game of homeward bound, with none of them feeling ten kinds of confidence about the path to take anymore.

A path that had been so straightforward for so long was now clear as mud.

There wasn’t anything left to say, which was just fine with Iron. He needed things to move a hell of a lot quicker than they were. The sooner he had information, the sooner he could act.

Iron placed the small shard of the Empyrean’s relic on the same flat slab of concrete as before. One by one, the angels took their familiar places in a circle surrounding the shard. The mates wisely stood way the fuck back, covered largely behind a broken bit of stone wall.

That was good. He needed Anna to be out of sight, because if he caught one more look of worry-laced encouragement in those jade-green eyes, he was liable to walk out on the whole thing and kiss the concern right out of her.

Putting her from his mind, he focused on the shard in front of him and called his power forth. “Let’s light this candle.”

Iron roared his fire’s full release, pummeling the tiny shard with a power capable of demolishing cities. His brothers’ cries joined in, their beams of fire coupling with his and infusing whatever fate had planned for them all into a fragment no bigger than Iron’s pinky finger. He went on like that for as long as he could, until his muscles quivered and his abdominals strained with the force emanating from his core.

Like before, he capped off his fire and let his depleted body land on whatever it needed to. This time, it was Anna’s softness that supported him. She ran up behind him and caught his arm just as he fell to his knees. “I’ve got you.”

He smiled and appeased her caregiving spirit by leaning some of his weight on her and giving the rest to the stones beneath him. He was about as willing to risk crushing her as he was willing to let her know that her five-foot-nothing frame was no match for his bulk, regardless of her desire to think so.

Rhode was the first to his feet and, with Neela at his side, walked toward the relic. “That looks . . . different.”

This time, the small shard glowed with the vibrant light and health they’d all hoped for. It pulsed with a radiating energy that struck Iron hard in his chest.

“Holy shit,” he said, laying his palm flat on his pecs. “The realm resonance. I can feel it.”

But as soon as he said the words, he knew they weren’t right. The pulsing power that had once been so familiar to his body when he used to pass through the realms with ease now hummed a very muted cord, like a newborn baby plucking a harp string.

Chrome massaged his chest as well and frowned. “Something’s off.”

Iron eyed the shard, which still glowed as brightly as a proud daisy finally pushing out its petals in spring. The thing was powerful, there was no doubt, and far more so than last time.

What the hell wasgoing on?

Around him, murmurings of confusion and speculation passed from brother to brother. Errant theories or posited outcomes made the rounds for good measure, but none of them landed with any sort of sense.

“You all feel it, too, right?” Bronze asked.

Steel nodded. “Yeah. It’s the hum of what used to pull me through the realms, but it’s so weak. I can barely sense it.”

“Should we try again?” Brass offered. “Give ourselves a few minutes, then hit it with more fire?”

Tungsten shook his head. “I don’t think that will do anything. It’s already glowing and maintaining what we fed it. I don’t see how it could hold more.”

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