“Not much. I mean, mostly I can tune it out. Especially when there’s a lot of others around. But when we’re alone?—”
“What. Did. You. Hear?” she shrieked.
“Nothing!” I yelled back, angry now. “You’re the Light of Truth. You don’t have terrible secrets. Your thoughts are all wonderful, and caring. You’re worried about me, but you think I’m pretty, even with all my smut. And you want to watch a three-way with me, Mikhail, and Righteous.”
“For purely scientific purposes!” she shouted back.
We both stopped, our faces frozen. “For science!” I yelled.
“Just to see how it would even work!” she agreed, her lips twitching.
She stepped forward, and I grabbed her hands, staring deeply into her sparkling dark eyes. “I know. I want it for the same reasons.”
She hugged me too tightly. “You know it hurts me when you lie, you thirsty, dirty birch.”
“Sorry,” I managed to wheeze.
She pulled me back to the bed, and when we were sitting cross-legged, face to face, she ordered, “Try to read my mind.” She closed her eyes, screwing her face up. It looked like she was holding her breath.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Clearing my thoughts.”
“Well, it worked. Now think of something. Something good.”
All of a sudden, an image of the Protector Hope popped into my mind. She was stroking Sunny’s arm and leaning close, whispering, “I’m telling the truth, lovely Sunny. It feels like you were made for me. Made to be mine.” She tapped Sunny’s cheek. “I’d put my feather right here if they’d let me. Claim you so that every soul would know.”
“Fudgesicles,” I breathed. “Sunny, Hope asked you to be her mate?”
Her eyes popped open, and she nodded breathlessly. “When you were gone. I told her it was too soon… Mikhail was so weak, and I had to take care of him. There wasn’t time for the traditional seven-day merging celebration when she asked me.”
“Wait,” I said, suddenly annoyed. “You mean to tell me there’s a party?” I waved off her sputtered reply, but in her thoughts, I could see the interior of The Merge, with everyone watching a smiling couple exchange feathers, then fuck like deranged rabbits on a stage under a disco ball. Ew. “Of course there is. We’re talking Sanctuary—any excuse for an orgy. But why didn’t Mikhail say anything? Was he ashamed of me?”
Sunny shook her head. “No, Feather. You have to remember, he thought you were a Novice. It was… unorthodox. I’m sure he planned to tell the world.”
Something in her tone alarmed me. “Sunny, he hasn’t made any big public statement yet. And we had days together. He kept me in his Hall?—”
“I didn’t hear any complaints about that,” she interrupted.
“Yes, but… what if he just didn’t want others to know?” The way she chewed her lip made me think there was something she didn’t want to tell me. “Don’t make me read your mind, Sunny. Spill.”
She cradled her head in her hands. “Okay, so I missed a lot of what was going on while Mikhail was so sick. But Hope said the Guides got together after you left, while the Maker was sick and Gavriel was on Earth, and made a rule—it was unanimous, Feather. They have to approve any Protectors’ matings before they take place. And Hope floated the idea about the two of us. But Valor, who is apparently now the Head Guide’s right-hand douchenozzle, laughed in her face. Told her if she wanted to mate with me, she’d have to get on board with his plan.”
“What plan?”
“The plan to get out of Sanctuary and leave the Earth to rot.” We both uttered a few inventive curses before she went on. “I think he’s trying to get appointed the leader of Sanctuary.”
“But…” I closed my eyes, trying to think what it was Righteous had said the evening before. True to his word, he’d been taking me to and from my classes, and escorting me from my room to the Great Gate each evening so he could sing.
The first night, I’d just listened to him, made googly eyes at the gate whenever it shimmered extra brightly, and snacked on the cheese cubes and grapes Righteous brought for me. We’d talked about Italy, and Dina, and I’d told him about the weird smells from my Purity prof. The next night, Ry asked me to sing with him, and we’d both ended up pretending not to notice the tears on each other’s faces. Even the gate had seemed subdued, barely sparkling, and I’d gone back to my room wondering what Ry wasn’t telling me.
But last night, something had changed.
“The zephyr blows from the stars at night, and stills at the break of day,” Righteous sang to the gate as I hummed aharmony an octave above, since I didn’t know the lyrics. “But the strongest wind could never blow my soulmate’s love away.” Righteous’s voice was always exquisite, but tonight there was a new depth of emotion in his singing. Pain.
“Are you all right?” I asked, taking his hand in mine. He stared down at our entwined fingers and shook his head.
“Something’s terribly wrong in the realm,” he said. “It’s been bad for weeks, maybe months, but it’s gotten much worse in the past days, since the High Angeli left. I’ve lost the confidence of the Guides. I think… Tomorrow, there’s a meeting. I’m not sure what they’ve got planned.”
