He doesn’t sing,I interrupted.Gavriel hasn’t sung for a really long time, according to Ry. And there’s no music in Sanctuary at all now. The Guides decided they needed to focus on war efforts. They locked every instrument up in this big storage closet, not long after the Well was sealed by the betrayer, Azazel.
“Poor Azazel,” Rumple sighed. “He was the one who was betrayed. I never meant to break him. I was trying to speak through him.”
You… spoke to him, like you did me?
“I sent him visions. He was a weak vessel, a sweet soul. I was desperate.Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa.”
A part of me wanted to ask what Rumple had done to Azazel, but I was more worried about Gavriel. Rumple needed to understand why Gav was failing.
Gavriel’s broken, Rumple. I think when you left, and then especially after Arabella fell, it broke him in a way he can’t come back from on his own.
The void pulsed with despair as he began singing again, this time a song of grief, and waves of it flooded me. I felt those frigid droplets falling on me again, on my hair and wings—I had my wings again. I flexed my back and they moved slightly, brushing up against an invisible torso. I waited, thinking about Gavriel, Mikhail, Sunny, even Righteous, and wishing I could see them again. But I wouldn’t do it if it meant leaving Rumple alone here again.
I felt hands moving along my wings, stroking each feather softly. He came to a spot on one wing where a feather was missing, the one that I thought had gotten stuck in the gate. I felt Rumple’s surprise, and then amusement joined his sorrow.
“I didn’t think it would be possible. But of course, with you… you change all the rules, don’t you? Is there no end to the surprises?” he rasped, after a long while. “I have to send you back, Little Sacrifice. Icansend you back.”
“You’ll have to come with me,” I said aloud.Yes! I have lips and vocal cords.“I’m not going to leave you.”
“I don’t want you to. But if you don’t go, if you don’t sing the songs for me, no one will. I can’t. I can’t reach across the gate into Sanctuary.”
“But you did,” I complained. “You’ve been coming to me on Earth for years, and in my dreams in Sanctuary, and?—”
A finger stopped my lips. “That was because you were on the other side of the gate, darling one.” A hand curled behind my ear, stroking my hair back. “I can’t return there now, little one. I’ve changed too much since… since my first sacrifice.” He laughed softly. “If they think Mikhail is ugly, they would know me for a monster.”
My heart raced so fast, I thought I might fragment again. “What do you mean? Are you scarred like Mikhail?”
“I’m glad you can’t see me here. I want you to think of me as beautiful. Is that vanity?”
“No,” I said. “Or if it is, I don’t think it’s a sin.” I sighed. “And I do think you’re beautiful.”
Then a gentle, teasing touch landed on my chest, where the small, feather-shaped birthmark I’d had since forever lay. I couldn’t see it, but it felt… different now. Thicker, somehow.
Holy shizz.
“Rumple?” I swallowed. “Seraphiel? Did you put that feather on me,inme, when I was created in Sanctuary? Before I wasthrown away all those centuries ago?” Had he somehow placed it inside me when I was born?
“No,” he said softly. “I did not.”
A part of me threw a tantrum like a three-year-old. For a split second, I had wanted that feather to be his—had hoped it meant he was my soulmate, too. But of course, it couldn’t be. He was the legendary leader of Sanctuary, a million times older than me.
Why, oh why had I read so many age gap romances? That had to be the reason I kept thinking these hot-as-fudge geezers would want to be with me. I resolved, if I ever got to hold a book again, to only read sweet, clean Amish romances. No more dragon daddies or monster peen for me.
Rumple pulled me in close, but his arms stayed stiff, like he was trying to keep his distance. “That’s a terrible hug,” I whispered. “The kind you get from a great-aunt, or a bad blind date. Come closer.”
He growled, and the space around me vibrated with a thrilling tension. “I’m as close as is safe, little one.”
For the first time, the endearment grated. I wasn’t a child, and I didn’t want him to think of me as one. “When did I ever choose safe, Rumple?”
He groaned. “You know you have to go back to Sanctuary. Not only for yourself, but for Mikhail. And to fulfill Gavriel’s vow for him. I need you to promise you’ll sing to the gate. Find an instrument, or make one, and nourish it from that side. You know you were never a regular Novice, or even a Protector. Your power will help balance the gate, and make it possible for Sanctuary to survive… even if I can’t be there with you.”
“I promise,” I said quietly. “But I need you. I want you, and I want my prize.” As soon as the words left my lips, I felt something flutter on my forehead. Eyelashes? Then Rumple’s lips were on my cheek, and moving down my neck. A low moan broke, and the Abyss echoed with it. The trail where his mouthmet my new flesh burned with a sensual fire. I wasn’t certain if it hurt or felt better than any touch ever had.
He leaned close and murmured words in angelic that didn’t pain my new ears at all. In fact, I understood snatches of what he was saying.
And, oh mercy, my sweet Rumple had a dirty mouth on him.
“…settle you deep in a cloud and pull those soft thighs open. My mouth will feast on your sweetness while my soul plunders yours. I’ll draw every whimper, every cry, and store it like a song, my love… I’ll bind your hands together with my energy, and your feet apart, and work my way into you, filling you so full of me we won’t know where you end and I begin, and it won’t matter…”
