“Feather’s back? That glorious little handful.” Merry’s grin was two shades too enthusiastic for my taste.
“What do you mean?”
He shrugged, his expression cocky. “I chatted her up a while back. She’s a firecracker; she sparkled so brightly you could see it clear through all that smut. I bet she knows how to have a good time. It’s a prayer answered for her to be back in Sanctuary. Maybe we can merge before the end of the realm—oof!” He grunted as I opened the door into him, knocking him down.
“Unseemly language about a young Protector,” I told him sharply. “One who already has a mate. You may need to drink purifying lotion.”
Merry scowled, straightening his robes. “I’m not the one who needs to gargle it. That’s the Guides.”
I had no idea what he meant, but I let it go. I needed to check on my mate, then go to the gate. And then get as far from the alluring Feather as I could before I lost all honor.
Chapter 13
Feather
Mikhail flew with me so fast, I couldn’t hear anything but the wind. But underneath that, there was something like a whisper. I wondered at first if it was the gate, or Rumple trying to speak to me outside of a dream. But when I plugged my ears and pressed my head up against Growly’s muscled chest, I heard two whispered voices.
It was Gavriel and Mikhail, speaking to each other. The words were indistinct at times, like I was hearing them through two tin cans and a long piece of string. But it was them.
Is Arabella well?
Yes. I just walked in. She’s being guarded. Why is that?
I don’t know. I’ll ask Righteous when I see him. The tremors are quieting; he must be at the gate.
There was silence, and then Gavriel’s voice cut through.I’m glad you have her back. I need your forgiveness as well.
Mikhail’s mental laugh was more joy-filled than I’d ever heard it.You have it. You pledged yourself to her, Gav. You vowed on your wings.
I’ll protect her as if she were my own mate.Mikhail hummed into the silence, and Gavriel’s rushed reply sounded strangled.I mean, as I would Arabella.
Gavriel’s mental voice shared far more of his internal state than his normal speaking voice. I could taste the subtle flavors of emotion in the thread of sound. I almost spoke up to let Mikhail know I could hear them—this was the telepathy thing that they’d said I wouldn’t get unless I was a High Angelus. It had to be. But he banked around a corner sharply, and I held on while he landed.
“Hope?” Mikhail set me down, calling out to the senior Protector who’d just descended and was already running toward the gate. Hope whirled around, and her eyes almost fell out of her head when she saw me. It was the first time I’d seen the blonde Amazon-warrior angel even slightly off-center.
“Feather?How?”
Mikhail grinned. Righteous stood a few yards away, facing the Great Gate, which explained why the tremors were settling. He was singing a quiet lullaby, and it was working. I recognized the tune; Rumple and I would sing it in harmony together when I was between lives on Earth.
“Sunny didn’t tell you? Feather stepped out of the gate a few hours ago.”
“Ah, I haven’t seen Sunny today.” She tilted her head, taking in the smut on my face and limbs. “How did this come to pass, Feather? I saw you sacrifice yourself.”
I glanced at Mikhail, who shook his head subtly. “I was a Great Sacrifice,” I said, hoping I wasn’t giving away too much. “But I was pushed back through.”
Hope’s eyes filled with confusion. “Pushed… back?”
“Maybe I was too much woman for the gate to handle.” I raised an eyebrow at the golden barricade, wondering if it really could understand me. It was the usual combination of landscapes and animals today, with panicked people running back and forth. In the golden sky that swirled over the shifting hills, I saw a large wing wink in and out of a space between clouds. “I guess some gates don’t know how to hold onto a woman,” I teased, hoping whoever was inside the gate would show himself again. Or maybe I would see Rumple in it. He was on the other side, right? Maybe if he came close… I raised my voice. “I guess some chickenship gates don’t know a good atom girl when they smoosh up against her lady parts.”
“It obviously affected her cognition,” Hope muttered to Mikhail. “Maybe with time, she’ll recover mentally.”
Mikhail snorted. Righteous shot me a dirty look, but didn’t stop singing. I winked, and stepped up beside him, coming in on a major third above him on the next verse. For a moment, he stopped singing, his jaw wide, and it was only my voice echoing in the space around us. Then he picked up the melody again and sang with me. Our voices meshed perfectly, my own high lyric soprano balanced by his clear, pure tenor.
To my amazement, when the next verse came, the Latin words rolling off both our tongues, he reached out and took myhand and began singing directly to me, not the gate. My cheeks heated up, but I didn’t look away or stop singing.
“I saw something much like this in a musical on Earth once,” Hope said behind us. “But the singing wasn’t nearly as good.”
“My mate is good at everything,” Mikhail replied, and I blushed even harder.
