Archangel's Light

 

Archangel's Light (Guild Hunter #14)- Nalini Singh 

Berkley Publishing

Release Date: October 26, 2021

Rating: 📚📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Illium and Aodhan.  Aodhan and Illium. For centuries they’ve been inseparable: the best of friends, closer than brothers, companions of the heart. But that was before—before darkness befell Aodhan and shattered him, body, mind, and soul. Now, at long last, Aodhan is healing, but his new-found strength and independence may come at a devastating cost—his relationship with Illium.

As they serve side by side in China, a territory yet marked by the evil of its former archangel, the secret it holds nightmarish beyond imagining, things come to an explosive decision point. Illium and Aodhan must either walk away from the relationship that has defined them—or step forward into a future that promises a bond infinitely precious in the life of an immortal…but that demands a terrifying vulnerability from two badly bruised hearts.

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Aodhan has spent the past year helping new archangel Suyin find her footing in China, the territory that keeps on giving- in the horror movie sense of the word. As extra help moving her people from one of Lijuan's area's to a new, "safe" part of China, Raphael sends Illium to assist. When patrols discover a suspiciously empty village of seemingly vanished people, Aodhan and Ilium stay behind to investigate.They'll have more than their own issues and ghosts to deal with, for Lijuan has left at least one last unspeakable monster behind to walk in her footsteps. 

Archangel's Light tells the story Guild Hunter fans have been waiting for: Illium and Aodhan. Illium, the seemingly carefree angel, always playful, always curious, always kind to mortal or angel alike. Aodham, the angel made of sparkling light but trapped in mental darkness, a tortured artist slowly coming out of his protective shell. We know they've been friends their whole lives despite seemingly opposite personalities. We know something unspeakable happened to Aodhan that he's only now mentally healing from. We know their relationship has been rocky the past year or so as they struggle to find new footing as Aodhan finds his new self. And we are pretty sure we know what they haven't figured out- they belong together in every sense of the word.

Singh takes the phrase "slow burn" to a whole new level here, probably because most readers are going to be familiar with the backstory of her main characters. She isn't just telling us the 'today' story, she's giving us their past stories as well.  How they first met, early triumphs, Illium's infamous first love, Aodhan's capture and torture at the hands of other angels. The highs and lows that shaped them into who they grew up to be both individually and together. It took a little while for me to get used to this style of back and forth, but I ended up liking it more than I expected too- possibly because it often came as a welcome break to some heavy hitting horrors in the 'today' portions of the story. Vague spoiler-ish warning: Singh does not pull any punches in her descriptions of the latest atrocities so have a strong stomach ready for when the guys go searching for danger.

A lot of Archangel's Light seemed to be about the downsides of being immortal. How easy it becomes to lose your core goodness and light (if you had it to begin with) to petty cruelties that become larger cruelties because of boredom or madness. Lijuan is always the main example, but thanks to Illium and Aodhan's comparative youth they see it in many of the others around them as well- even in Raphael and Dimitri before those men found the women they now love. They constantly question what people missed about Lijuan's descent into madness while acknowledging some things are acceptable in the angelic world that the human world wouldn't accept. Most characters see Illium as the rare example of an angel who might never let immortality harden them, although Aodhan and even Suyin are also mentioned as possibly being the same way. Each of these people has suffered and now tries to find a balance in their life, a light to the darkness they know exists in the world. As much darkness as we find in this book, the light of hope is continually held out for those who can see it, and those brave enough to reach for it and work to keep it lit.  Something we can take great inspiration from in these days.

Weaving past and present together, Archangel's Light is a complex tapestry of friendship and love and loyalty that reaches soul deep. It asks strong people to bare emotional weaknesses that could leave them destroyed or fly higher than ever before, and in a triumph of world building and character creation, takes readers soaring on an incredible ride along the way.