“That easily?” She screwed up her nose. “Just, ‘okay, Rumple is Seraphiel, and you’re right’?”
I tapped the end of her nose, then let my finger trace her cheek to the stubborn curve of her small chin. How had I notrecognized her? So much of Feather was identical to the young girl I’d loved as a dear friend, and lost.
“Tili, I made the mistake of not listening to you four centuries ago, and I’m still wearing the smut for that error. I lost you because of it.” Her eyes glimmered with unshed tears as she regarded me cautiously. I fell to my knees next to the bed, still holding her hands. “Forgive me, Feather. Tili.”
“I told you, I did forgive you for not intervening. You were young, too. And it wasn’t your fault that he killed her. He might have killed you as well.”
“Not for that.” I shook my head. It was clear now why I wore the stain. The error I’d made hadn’t been one of cowardice, but pride. “Forgive me for not listening to you. For not believing you when you told me what was going on. That your sister wasn’t there by her own choice.” I bowed my head. “Forgive me as well for not understanding why a soul as glorious as yours wore so much suffering and pain on your skin when you arrived here. Forgive me for judging you. Hurting you. I know now, every inch of you is blameless.” I kneeled in silence and wondered how many others in the past I might have judged wrongly. Others I might have treated cruelly, or dismissed as unworthy. Remorse burned the back of my throat.
“You really do believe me,” she breathed after a long moment. “That it was Seraphiel who took me away. And that all the other things I did on Earth, I did them to protect people. You believe it all.”
“Yes,” I said. Before I could look up, she’d pulled my arm to get me back onto the bed, had risen to her knees, and was doing something with the sleeve of my robe.
“Where is the dang thing?” she muttered, then “Oh, wrong arm.” She attacked my other sleeve, and I pushed it up for her, but it kept sliding down. “Off,” she demanded. I unfastened the top few buttons of my shirt, pulling it free of the trousers I’dgotten in the habit of wearing when Sanctuary had been colder. Feather slipped the loosened fabric down over my shoulder and I pulled my arm out, allowing her to lift it up to the light. She grunted as she rubbed at the bottom of my bicep with a bit of the sleeve. “Really doesn’t want to come off.”
She stuck her finger in her mouth, then pulled it out and started rubbing at the stain that was the size of two thumbprints. When that didn’t work, she leaned forward and licked the stain from top to bottom.
I tried to hold in my groan of pleasure, but didn’t quite manage it. She wiggled her delicate brows at me. “Might need to try that again.”
“Watch it, Scrap. You’re playing with fire,” I muttered when she did just that. I had loved Tili when we were both children, but the way I felt about Feather was a completely different flavor of affection.
I burned for her, not that I had earned the right to tell her that. To even imagine she might desire me as well. No matter what she may have whimpered when Mikhail had her in his arms, about me watching and learning how best to please her, worship her…
As she licked at my skin again, I fought to keep my hands from grabbing her. My cock jumped as she circled her tongue on the stain. In retrospect, sitting on the bed had been a grave error. All I could think about was throwing her down and burying myself in her softness, tormenting her with my tongue.
“Feather, I’m begging you. If you don’t stop…”
I fell quiet as she grabbed my robe and held it up to her face. “Hang on,” she said, and closed her eyes, holding my arm still. After a few seconds, she opened her eyes, and I stared into the brilliant green, the color of wet grass. I could almost watch the memories flashing behind those pools of emerald. Our stolen moments running over the hills outside the abbey. Hersister warning us both not to get caught up in the thorns where blackberries ripened near the overgrown, fragrant rose bushes. That last day, when I tried to save her, and she’d refused to be saved. And chose sacrifice instead.
A tear trickled down her face, and she caught it with the edge of my robe. “Got it.” Then she used that tear to make small, gentle circles over the area where I’d worn the stain for centuries… and I watched it vanish, like water evaporating in the sunlight. “All clean!” she announced.
“Feather?” I breathed, staring first at my clean arm and then her proud face. “What did you…”
She smiled nervously. “You didn’t think I spent all my time making t-shirts for the past few months, did you? I’ve put in a lot of hours learning how to deal with stubborn smut stains. I’m practically the Sanctuary expert in it.”
Before she could say another word, I’d gathered her into my arms, jumped up, and began spinning her around the room. “Feather! You did it!” I could feel my soul expanding into the space she’d somehow created in my well of energy. It wasn’t entirely pleasant; it felt as if I’d worn a tourniquet for years and suddenly taken it off. Pins and needles lanced through me as I breathed into my new reality.
“Ry!” she squeaked after a few more spins. “I’m dizzy.”
I stopped and stared down into her face. “Oh, Feather, I…” But words weren’t sufficient for what I had to tell her, show her. Without thinking, I lifted her close, pressing my lips against hers and opening a part of my mind to her. I needed her to see my gratitude.
There were many different kinds of merges, thousands of ways to blend two or even more souls. But there was also this: a simple unveiling of a deep emotion. I didn’t ask for her to reciprocate; I owed her this and more, without any expectation that she might open her mind to me.
Like pulling the curtain away from a small scene—just a glimpse, and no more—I opened the part of my innermost being to her inner gaze, and let her look. “Oh, Ry!” She gasped. “You really did love me. Loved Tili.”
I knew what she was seeing: my memories of her, stitched together into a tapestry of laughter and longing. She had been irrepressibly mischievous all those years ago, and I had stored away every moment I’d spent in her presence. Hoarding it like a dragon with treasure.
And then, something unexpected happened. I should have known to be on my guard. With Feather, the unexpected was the norm.
She thought,You’re glorious, Ry, and as if a clear spring of power had sprung up inside my soul, the curtain that hid the rest of me—my innermost being—was washed away. Her unstoppable, silvery energy flowed into me, shocking me to inaction, as she peeked into the space that existed inside me, and then reached further, opening my soul to her gaze.
My spirit’s vessel was as golden as my skin in Sanctuary. Roses bloomed there too, made of golden-pink energy, climbing the walls that protected my true self. Music filled the space, all the songs I’d learned as a Novice ceaselessly repeating, but with her name woven into them. I would have blushed if I was able. She would know. She would know that I had been obsessed with her when we were children together… and been more enraptured when she came to this realm, though I’d fought the pull. Struggled, and hurt us both.
And after she’d gone into the gate, I had spent every day praying for her, wishing for this chance to make it right. To show her how much I honored her.
The music crescendoed, the notes and lyrics filling the walls of this imaginary place, painting them in wild, vibrant shades. Bright green the exact shade of her eyes, silver that gleamed andsparkled like her hair, and even brilliant, glowing feathers in silver, gold, and gleaming gray covered every wall.
Feather blinked, and pulled away an inch. “Are we… merging? Did we merge just now?”
