White Fire: Timewalker Chronicles, Book 5 by Michele Callahan Page B

a male lost to him so many years ago that his own brother was a stranger. Aron had spent centuries locked away and tortured by the Triscani. And yet, he’d never turned. Never given in. He did not know the ancient male that stood beside him, that shared his face, but he respected that, and he adored Aron’s Marked Mate, the fiery-eyed Zoey, a human rebel who was determined to help Aron battle the Triads on Earth. Assuming they all lived through the next week.
    “It would help if we could find Celestina.” Bran’s frustration was evident. And judging by the knowing smirk on Teagh’s face, the Seer had pushed Bran’s patience, and his heart, to the razor’s edge.
    “How long has it been since anyone’s seen her?” Raiden asked.
    “Three days.” Bran’s left hand gripped and released the hilt of his sword as Aron corrected him with a grin of his own.
    “Three days, four hours, and twelve minutes since the Seer told you off and disappeared.”
    “Shut it, asshole.”
    Aron burst out laughing and Ajax was shocked to see that expression on a face identical to his own. When was the last time he’d laughed? Or even smiled?
    Emma’s kitchen. Gods be damned, why did his mind keep circling back to that female? He was the Marked Mate to Angeline, and she was here, somewhere, he just had to find her. Angeline was a delicate beauty from an affluent Immortal lineage. He should not be thinking about Emma. And he should not want to kill a male he’d never met because Katherine was determined to offer Emma to him, “ on a silver platter ”.
    The males took his brooding silence as consent to convene and he didn’t stop them from returning to their Mates. They left him alone on the beach, all except Bran, who sank down beside him to sit in the sand. He had a feeling the male didn’t want to be in that house, around all of the happily Mated couples, any more than he did.
    “I know where Angeline is. After your escape from the stasis pod, I made it a point to find her. I thought, perhaps, that might be where you’d go first. I can take you to her, if that’s what you’re sure you want to do.”
    Ajax tensed. “Where is she?”
    Bran tossed a shell into the waves. “She’s here, on Earth.”
    “How is that possible? Her mother served in the Queen’s Third Circle.” The Itaran Immortals had seven lineages, and seven Circles of power with a designated number of representatives from each family’s House serving at each level. The First Circle was the Queen. The Second Circle was comprised of One member of every House. The Third Circle held three members of every House, and so on until the Seventh Circle was reached. The Seventh Circle handled most of the day-to-day governance on Itara, and held eleven members of each House. Every seat of power was handed down through maternal lineage, with the Second Circle members having much more power and influence than the Seventh.
    The seven maternal lines were the the Queens, the Seers, and the Archivers, as representations of the spirit of the goddess. The remaining four families had mastery over the elements of creation, or the sacred body of the goddess.
    The Angeline he remembered had been a diplomat and a servant of the people, in line to replace her mother in the House’s Third Circle. A powerful female from a powerful and respected family.
    “Angeline’s in Denver, daughter of a Triad member.” Bran patted him on the shoulder. “Sorry, brother. You can go after her, if that’s what you want. But the Angeline you remember doesn’t exist anymore. Not in this timeline.”
    “How is that possible?”
    “Her mother was accused of conspiracy and got the chute while you were locked away. Her mother survived her arrival here on Earth, wiped out the entire Denver Triad and took over the region about eighty years ago. Angeline was born there.”
    Ajax remembered Angeline’s mother very well. “She always was a power-hungry bitch.”
    “Yes. Well, that didn’t