“Have you asked Sanctuary to stop taking your energy, Feather? It won’t damage it as long as you don’t cut it off entirely.”
You think I can talk to a place? To a realm?I sighed.And they say I’m the one with the scrambled brain.The lap I was sitting in rumbled slightly.Don’t laugh at me, I thought, feeling inexplicably grumpy.Just tell me. I mean, no one has explained much of anything. Except Sunny, who told me about different ways to merge, which was super interesting. The thing with the earlobes and the pinky toes? Unexpected.
“Hmm, I’d love to chat about that, little one.” Rumple’s voice vibrated against my back like an expensive massage chair I’d once sat on at a shopping mall on Earth, making my wings send shivers of pleasure to my core.
You gave me clit wings, Rumple,I groused when I could think again.Clit. Wings.
He laughed out loud at that, and the world around us lit up for a split second, long enough for me to see that the hand I’d thought was resting on my thigh was a tail. A long, dark gray, slightly ridged tail that was the same width around as a back-door sex toy.
A rush of lust swept through me as I immediately pictured all the ways a tail could be used in conjunction with my more pedestrian body parts. I swear, I felt a mini-orgasm from the thought alone. That’s what I got for reading monster smut on fanfiction sites for so long. Only the weirdest kinks for this angel.
“All Angeli have sensitive wings,” Rumple purred into my ear, and I melted deeper into his lap. “And I wish I had time to explore the limits of that sensitivity with you, but I must return to the gate before my shadows break through.”
Yourshadows, Rumple?I asked, pulling away. The tail twisted around my thigh, tiny spikes of discomfort spiraling through me. The hands on my shoulders gripped slightly too hard. For the first time, I felt frightened of the soul I’d loved my whole life. I fought to control my reaction; struggling wouldn’t help. He was far stronger than I could ever hope to become. And this was a dream, right?
He hissed. “Not my shadows. Not in truth. It’s just… they’ve been my only company all these years. But I love Sanctuary. I don’t want it to fall, especially with you in it. To be like this place. I vowed to protect it when I became the leader. Nothing has changed since then—not in my soul. Though the rest of me is ruined and twisted.” A silent keening filled my soul. “I taste your fear, little one, and it breaks a part of my heart I didn’t know was still warm. Though if you were to see me, you would truly fear me. You are right to distance yourself, Little Sacrifice.”
I twisted around, my face directly in front of his, and I grabbed hold of his shoulders now.No, Rumple. You would never hurt me. You are not ruined. You are everything. I couldn’t find the words to tell him how I felt, so I pressed my lips to his instead.
His breath was heavy and dark, and the kiss felt at first like kissing thorns. Tasted foul, like I was stuffing my mouth with cold, sour ashes. It burned.
Then, as I opened my mouth wider, accepting the discomfort, it changed. Where mine touched, his lips began to glow, and though I had my eyes closed, I could see an outline, as if a great fire were blazing behind him. As if his wings were flaming, and lighting him up.
Still kissing, I cracked my eyelids open the tiniest amount, and almost choked. He was stunningly beautiful and entirely monstrous. His face was perfection destroyed. The most glorious sculpted features, but burned to ash. Spirals of tattooed wordsand screaming figures moved ceaselessly under his skin. I ignored them, and stared into his eyes.
Sparks ran from them like tears as he pulled back. “Look upon me, Feather. I am ruined. See for yourself.”
I lifted one hand and traced the lines of his face, watching as my dream flesh left a trail of cool, silver fire behind. He leaned into my touch as if it eased some excruciating pain.
Horns rose in graceful, twin arcs away from his forehead, and I reached for them, feeling every inch of their ridged surface, from the thick base to the spiraled tops. They throbbed and warmed under my hands, almost like flesh.
Giving me ideas, Rumple,I crooned into his ear.Making a naughty girl wonder just how sensitive these horns are. Just what you can do with them.
His laugh was desperate, unhinged, as he raised his own hands and pulled mine away. “Can’t have the leader of the Abyss coming undone from a touch, temptress,” he said, his voice every bit as glorious as his form was bestial.
The leader of the Abyss,I asked carefully.Is that who you are now? Not the leader of Sanctuary?
“No, little one. Not that anymore.” His sigh was an exhalation that moved nebulae, and changed the pathway of starlight. “I have no right to Sanctuary now. In fact, if it weren’t for you, I would have let the gate fall and laughed while my shadows trampled the wreckage of what I built. What was once worth saving.” His hands were moving on me—no, not his hands. They were shadows, finger-like strands of the Abyss. “Look at what they’ve done to you. They don’t deserve my protection. If you weren’t in Sanctuary, I would have?—”
But Mikhail?I interrupted.Rumple, you wouldn’t hurt him.
“If he doesn’t do a better job of protecting you, Little Sacrifice, I’ll make no promises.”
The silence stretched between us, and I wondered if I knew Rumple anymore. Something in him had changed. The joyful side of his nature had withered and been replaced with rage.
Before I could ask what had happened, he went on. “But you do live in Sanctuary, so I hold the Abyss back. For you. And I have enough knowledge to help you heal what’s happening to your physical form now.”
You do?
He tapped my nose. “Lucky for you, I wasn’t just the leader of Sanctuary.” His voice dropped. “I helped create it. I know a few things. Secrets.”
Like what?
“Like how to keep from leaking power when you’re there. And how to ask Sanctuary nicely for more.” His lips curled up, and I saw the scrolling tattoos were even on the underside of his lips, though his teeth sparkled white when they flashed in the darkness. “How to draw its power into you.”
You can do that?I gasped.
“I’m the only one who would know how,” he admitted after a long moment. “Other than Gavriel. I showed him, before I left, how to read all the currents of energy, and how to draw it out, on both realms he would guard. But he swore never to pull its power. Worried about taking too much, weakening Sanctuary for his own ends. He’s not wrong; Gavriel was never subtle in his energy manipulations. He’d probably pull a small thread and end up unraveling the realm.” He huffed a laugh, and his voice was almost inaudible as he said something that sounded like, “He’ll never believe why you can also influence the threads that belong only inhishands.” I had no idea what he meant, so I put the thought away.
