She was too happy.
Malachi was at her side. The passionate, intense man who had slowly been returning to her was back completely. He joked with his brothers. Held her close to his side all night. Teased her shamelessly and was quick to open his shirt and show off the new mating mark to anyone who asked.
He also watched every door and window like commandos might crash through at any time.
“Relax,” she whispered to him when she’d gone to stand by the window and watch the moon. He’d drawn her away from the window without a word, distracting her with a kiss.
“What are you talking about?”
“You. You’ve been like… poised for action all night.”
He slid his hand down to cup her bottom. “Well, if you’d like to leave now—”
“That’s not what I’m talking about,” she said with a laugh as she wiggled away. “You and Max and Leo looked all over the city today. And I know you’ve got some of your buddies outside right now. We’re not going to be invaded by enemy forces.”
His smile wavered. “We don’t know that.”
“What did Orsala find out about Vasu?”
“That he was supposedly killed by the archangel Galal over two centuries ago. But before then, he’d been an ally of Jaron’s in Central Asia. He was also known as one of the more… human of the angels.”
“How—”
“The legends say that Vasu was young—the equivalent of an angelic child—when the angels fell. He interacted with humanity more than the other Fallen. Humans in his area considered him a kind of god because he came among the population so much.”
“Interesting. Well, he was different from Jaron. He, um…” She cleared her throat. “He kissed me.”
“What?”
“It wasn’t sexual.” She put a hand on his chest. “It was after the fighting. I was in shock. And he was… curious, I think.”
Malachi’s face was stormy. “He kissed you?”
“I didn’t kiss him back!”
“What did you do?”
“Well…” She paused, trying to remember the tumult in the cemetery. “I think right after that I crawled over to the bushes and puked. Probably not the reaction he was going for.”
Malachi burst into laughter. “Probably not.”
“Just relax,” she said. “How many mating feasts are we going to have after all?”
“My mother had seven.”
Ava blinked. “What?”
“Yes, one with her immediate family and new mate. One with my father’s. Then the extended families host one. And of course, my father’s family was in Turkey, so—”
“Wow, so…” She looked around the room. “Are we going to have to do a lot of these?”
“Not if you don’t want to,” he said. “We’re not exactly the traditional Irin couple.”
“No.” She smiled. “We’re just… us.”
Rhys wandered over. “I feel privileged. The first mating of an Irin scribe and one of the kareshta. Doesn’t this feel historic?”
Ava could see the scholarly excitement, but she had a hard time thinking of her own life as historic in any sense.
“Historic may be stretching things, Rhys.”
“I don’t think so,” he said. “I want to know when Damien plans to reveal the existence of the Grigori women. We should all be in the Library for that.”
Malachi seemed hesitant. “Do we need to? We promised Kostas our discretion. He has women and children he’s protecting. Revealing anything to the elders could be dangerous at this point.”
“But we must,” Rhys said. “Not only could this change everything about how our race views the Grigori, but we may have trouble getting a mandate from the elders unless they know there is something to be gained.”
Ava asked, “What exactly do you mean by mandate? In Irin terms.”
Rhys said, “Think of it as… a rule of engagement. Officially, our mandate as scribes now includes protecting humans, killing Grigori, and hunting angels if they hunt us first. A watcher who deviates from that can be disciplined. His scribes could receive censure.”
“So, officially, Damien and you guys have been breaking all kinds of rules.”
“Yes,” Malachi said. “But Damien is old and powerful enough that no one is going to question him too much.”
“Did you know he was a Templar Knight?”
Both the men blinked.
“What?” Malachi said.
“This is awesome,” she said. “I love knowing stuff you guys don’t.”
“Whether that’s true or not,” Rhys continued, “one of the reasons Damien has been petitioning the elders is to change the mandate of the scribe houses to include more offense against the Fallen—specifically Volund—based on the attacks in Istanbul and Oslo.”
Malachi nodded. “He’s not having much success.”
“But the knowledge that there are Grigori women being victimized would be another motivation for taking action.”
“Yes,” Rhys said. “Leo was right. There are thousands of scribes without mates because there are so few women left after the Rending. The elders would not be able to ignore that. The Watchers’ Council would force them to expand the mandate. They would see the kareshta as potential mates, as you and Ava are mates.”