She leaped into my arms, tackling me so hard I almost fell. “You idiot! You didn’t steal it. I gave it to you, I’m sure. I was sort of cum-drunk, I think, but I remember pulling some threads from Sanctuary after my fourth or fifth orgasm, and a feather coming loose.”
Pulling some threads from Sanctuary? What did that mean?My mind flashed to the ribbons of power. She was connected to Sanctuary itself? But not giving her power to the realm, instead… No. She wouldn’t do that. I couldn’t believe it.
“Yep, that’s what I did. Got drunk, got a tattoo, woke up with no clue.” She arched her neck and flared out her wings, examining them for a missing feather. “Just like that time in Mexico. Except it’s on you now. And it’s not misspelled.”
Oof. I hadn’t thought I could feel worse. “It was amistake?”
Her eyes went warm. “No, Ry. I mean, I wasn’t thinking clearly, or I would have asked you. I know I should have talkedto Mikhail about it first. But I would have. I wanted this. Wanted you.” She scowled. “Don’t get any ideas. I still want the chocolates.”
It took everything I had not to dissolve into tears of relief and joy. She wanted me. She had mated me.Chosenme. Sure, she’d been out of her mind with lust at the time, but for some reason, that thought made me preen slightly.
“Hi, Trouser Snake.” Feather’s whisper interrupted my musings. In the semi-darkness, I couldn’t see her expression, but when she blew a soft puff of breath across my groin, my cock jolted at the sudden attention. “You’re a friendly fella, aren’t you?” She reached out and stroked the sides of it with her fingertips, giggling as it seemed to move on its own.
I stifled a laugh. “Are you talking to my cock, Scrap?”
She hummed an affirmative. “Who’d a thunk I’d be dickmatized so easily? That thing you’re carrying down there—and I’m not sure how you haven’t thrown out your back hauling it around all these years—must be some sort of snake-charming monster. OrFeather-charming. Thoroughly dickmatized.” She flopped back, resting on my torso.
“Dickmatized?” I repeated. That didn’t sound like a bad thing.
She nodded solemnly. “One hundred percent lured to the dick side by your Jurassic peen. I mean, no one will blame me. The others are all gagging for it. Heck, just about every guyandgal in Sanctuary wants to put the devil into hell with you.”
“What?” Was she talking about the Abyss?
She snorted. “You know, depending on what they got under the togas. Take the skin boat to tuna town, or maybe play a few friendly games of cornhole. Stash the wand in the chamber of secrets. Bake the potato, butter the biscuit, toss a hot dog down the hallway. Ugh. Now I’m hungry, and not for peen. You know, never mind. But there is going to be some tricky explaining to dowhen Growly Bear gets back.” Her face tilted toward the ceiling, and I heard a heartfelt sigh. “Do you think a blow job might help fix it?”
I shook my head, still trying to piece together the games, and fish, and dogs, and… I blushed when the meaning of “skin boat” finally registered.
“You’re right, a blow job’s not going to be enough,” she muttered. “Mated you and broke the realm apparently. Hmmm. Well, I’ve been wanting to try anal with Mik anyway. I guess this’ll be as good a time as any…” Her voice trailed off at the choking sounds that emerged from my throat. Her giggle was half-panic, half-mischief. She’d said all that to distract me from my concerns.
“Feather, it will be fine. He loves you. How could anyone not?”
“You don’t mind being my mate?” she asked softly. “You really love me?”
“It’s every dream I never dared would come true,” I said. “And if Mikhail kills me for it, it will have been worth it. I’ll bear your mark with pride, even if I have no idea how it came to rest there. Now, you mentioned breaking the realm?—”
She scrambled to her feet in the dark room, and I noticed her hair and wings were gleaming ever so slightly. “Oh fudge. The Guides. They made it illegal to mate. You can’t let anyone see that feather, Ry.”
“Illegal? What are you talking about?”
“Just a few days ago, the head Guide, Tradition? They made a huge announcement, and dragged Perception off when he protested.” She raised her voice slightly. “Percy, you still there?” I sucked in a breath when I realized we hadn’t truly been alone for the past few hours. Well, technically. The door had been left open a crack.
Percy? I didn’t recognize the name or the exhausted, annoyed voice that answered. “I am. I’m trying to pretend I didn’t hear everything you two did. If anyone asks, I’m going to tell them you were doing metaphysical meditation.”
“That’s it,” Feather said, pacing the floor, more energetic than she’d been since before she vanished through the gate. She almost tripped over the blanket and our discarded clothing. “Plausible deniability. You were trapped in here, with no access to the soul knife, and didn’t know about the rule change. So they can’t cut the feather out?—”
I stood, amazed at how strong I felt. “Cut it out? That’srevolting.”
“You ain’t heard nothin’ yet.” She stopped pacing. “You might want to sit back down for this.”
I didn’t sit down. I fell to the floor in a horrified daze at the tale she wove. Glory and Heart, two of our brightest souls, both soon to be lost if what Feather said was true. “Curfews, strip searches? Valor’s lost his mind. No one knows what he did when he came back down here. He was supposed to bring me food…”
“It’s not just Valor,” she said gently. “He’s acting as a puppet for at least some of the Guides. And they’re very careful not to get caught breaking rules. They’ve twisted some of the Protectors. It’s easy to tell who—I hear their thoughts, and they’re awful. But anyone can smell them.”
“Smut?” I asked. “It should show, if they’re that corrupted.”
She wobbled her hand back and forth. “It’s internalized, somehow. The Guides’ arms—probably their whole bodies, not that I want to check—are perfectly shiny to look at. But there’s an odor. They cover it up.”
“I smelled it,” I agreed. “Valor is bad, though he looks fine. He smells like?—”
