Then the room erupted in laughter.
“Of course, he is,” Aethan drawled, shaking his head.
A flow of power swept over the castle, and Michael stalked into the rec room, Bob tucked safely in his arms, while the two spindly little pups yelped around his heels, still trying to get to the cat.
“Found him running away from these tiny terrors,” he said, smoothing the cat’s long pelt, who gave the little leaping dogs the stink eye.
Laughing, Nia hastily picked up a pup, and Kira the other, and blessed silence reigned.
“All’s well?” Michael asked, his eerie, shattered blue irises with the silvered cracks seeming to see right through Race.
“Yeah.” He nodded. “Let’s just say justice is served. I’ve left Attor as steward, overseeing everything. He will send someone to me with updates and what needs my attention…”
He stroked Ash’s back. “I’m going to need another favor, Michael. Call it my off days, considering I never took any. I need to go to Lemuria from time to time, so my people can see me and know that all will be well. It won’t interfere with my Guardian job.”
“I know,” Michael murmured. “I have spoken with Gaia since you were last here. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Race frowned. “Tell you what?”
“That Gaia’s now renewing your allegiance one century at a time—after your three-thousand-year service ended?”
His brethren all tensed.
“Oh, that?” Race shrugged. “Yeah, she mentioned it, but I didn’t pay much heed as to why she did.”
“Didn’t you even care why?” Týr demanded.
Hell. Race rubbed his jaw. He was confused like the rest of them. He shrugged. “I’m always going to be a Guardian first.”
Michael shook his head, and Bob leaped from his arms, nearly skidding on the marble to waddle around Echo’s ankles. The pups barked, eager to join.
Aethan calmly picked up the hefty feline as they all waited with bated breath.
“Well, then,” Michael rumbled. “That’s good for my nerves, since you’re the last one I have to account for.”
Race cocked an eyebrow and waited.
The archangel raked back his hair, dislodging his shades on top, and he caught them before they fell. “Gaia has decreed this will be your final century of allegiance,” Michael said quietly. “When it ends—four decades from now—you’ll be free to return to Lemuria.”
Ash gasped, then her fingers slid into his, holding on tightly as silence dropped like an anvil.
His knees gone a little shaky, Race leaned against the pool table. He pulled Ash close and just held her. “You knew?”
Michael shrugged, strode to the small mini fridge near the bar, and got out a Coke. Tab cracked, he guzzled the thing like it was nectar from the gods. “Hard not to, when she allowed you to leave for Lemuria.”
Ash looked up at him, her eyes wide. “So, you…”
He nodded. “Wewill be leaving in forty years back to Lemuria. I think it’s time.”
Her throat worked as she swallowed.
Don’t worry, you’ll still see your family.
She gave him a tremulous smile.
“So, we’ll be short one Guardian soon?” Týr declared.
“We have forty years still, what’s so soon about that?” Race retorted.
