When we approached the Channel, the Ophanim of Guild 7 were lined up. They congratulated me and wished me a good ascension. I didn’t say anything and would’ve kept my vow of silence had Celeste not come tearing down the quartz hallways like a bowling ball. She flung her arms around me, and my rickety heart dropped another crumb, one for her thistime.
“Oh, Leigh, I’m going to miss you so much,” shewept.
I crushed her against me wishing I could take her with me at least. “Ditto,honey.”
Our system was cruel—casting us out, making us grow up without parents in a world that wasn’t always kind, and then, once we’d made a home for ourselves, once we’d woven bonds with humans and Fletchings, it called us back and expected us to sever the strings of our past so we could start braiding newones.
“Leigh, we need to go,” Asher said softly, the first words he’d spoken since leaving Jarod’s study that morning when the world had still been a lustrousplace.
“Grow those pretty purple feathers fast,okay?”
Celeste wiped her freckledcheeks.
I leaned toward her ear and whispered, “And watch over Jarod for me. Protect him until he gets to fifty.” As I straightened, I added, “AndMuriel!”
I hadn’t even said goodbye to the woman who’d mothered me this past month. Hadn’t hugged her. Hadn’t expressed how grateful I was for her endless patience andtenderness.
Another crumb tumbled from mychest.
Celeste swallowed, her eyes so red her irises seemed more amber thanbrown.
“Love you, kiddo.” I stamped a long kiss onto her brow, then turned, and entered theChannel.
Asher stepped in after me, and the sparkling smoke thickened as it lapped at our bodies. He extended his hand, and even though the only one I wanted to hold had been ripped from my fingers, I placed my palm overhis.
As we rocketed upward, I thought I heard the archangel mumble that he was sorry, but perhaps, it was the windwhooshingin my ears and dancing in my hair that created the illusion of anapology.
Chapter 61
Our childhood had been filledwith stories about Elysium—the arch made of mother-of-pearl that welcomed angels and souls into the quartz capital, the seven glittery waterfalls that coursed down the white stone walls and crashed melodically into a fountain broad as a lake, the floors of abodes and shops and restaurants carved into the glossy rock, the rainbow-colored creatures that frolicked through the balmy air, their scales, fur, and feathers glinting in both sunlight andstarlight.
My broken heart pumped with hollow joy as the stone beneath my feet began to glow, the veins of angel-fire flickering to life as the elysian day dimmed. The glittery lavender smoke twined around my feet as I stepped out of the Channel, a cavity built right into the rock façade, too symmetrical and smooth to benatural.
“The Canyon of Reckoning,” I whispered, spinning to take in the walls of solid white rock so tall they seemed to pierce the verysky.
Above me, a skein of birds—not birds . . .angels—flew around the arch, some swooping beneath it and others climbing higher before diving back down. I missed their landing because of the distance and the tall wall guarding the entrance to the fortifiedcity.
I’d dreamed of this place; it outshone all of mydreams.
How I longed to hear Jarod carp about how everything was so tediously shiny and white, how I yearned to feel his fingers squeeze mine and twirl me so I could take everything in. But the man who stood beside me was blonde and winged and blue-eyed, not my dark sinner with his twisted sense of humor, ridiculously expensive suits, and smooth winglessshoulders.
“Is this how you imagined it?” Asher asked, and I sensed him trying to inject enthusiasm into his voice, enthusiasm he himself wasn’tfeeling.
“It’s morebeautiful.”
His eyebrows quirked, probably surprised I was capable of finding splendor inanything.
“I can’t wait for Jarod to see it,” I murmured. “That’s the Pearly Arch, isn’tit?”
“The one and only.” His timbre was low and gentle like the breeze that gusted through the square, carrying the scents of citrus andsalt.
The arch’s pearlescent surface refracted light and dappled the stone surrounding it. Two rainbow-winged sparrows swooped around me, greeting me with a melodious aria before flocking down the opposite end of thecanyon.
“The Nirvana Sea,” Asher explained even though I hadn’t asked what lay on thatend.
“And where isAbaddon?”
He lifted his chin toward the opposite wall and the identical hollow that graced the rock wall. “The entrance is through thatChannel.”
