A taller Guide moved from the back of the group toward the piled cloth. “Valor, have you lost your mind? We told youto isolate Protector Righteous, to question him. Not kill him. Everything we do must be done according to our law and our history. You know this. There is no precedent for killing a Protector without a trial.” They stepped close to the soiled fabric, their hood hiding their expression. But their voice slowed as they kicked out with one foot at the pile. “Your mission was to get information before the trial, on Righteous and that… Novice.”
The room went strangely silent as the group realized there was no body under the cloth. The Guide spun around and their hood fell back, revealing their face. I knew this Guide. It was Gavriel’s most trusted advisor, Tradition.
“Well, Valor, it looks as if the Guide of All Guides has smiled upon you. You will not need to be punished. Protector Righteous is not dead. In fact, I believe… he hasn’t even left the room.” His eyes narrowed. “How are you hiding yourself, Righteous?”
Chapter 27
Feather
He was beautiful. Ortheywere. It was hard to think of this Guide as gender neutral when his hood was down. He was a study in masculine perfection, maybe more so than even Gavriel. His skin was almost as fair as mine, but with a gorgeous milky sheen. His thick hair was steel gray and hismatching eyes fringed by long, dark lashes. His neck was corded with muscle. Tradition worked out.
“Show yourself.”
I fought to do the opposite, but when Tradition stepped toward us, Percy let out a shocked gasp. All eyes landed on the space where he stood, and a wave of exhaustion swept through me. I lost my grip on both the cords of energy and my focus on staying invisible, and fell to the floor. Righteous barely caught me before I bashed my head on the marble. I had no strength left.
A wicked smile covered Valor’s flushed face as he stepped around the Guide. “Not only Righteous, but Perception and the trash Novice.” His gaze raked my body, then moved to Righteous.
And stopped on Righteous’s hand.
“Will you look at that? An unsanctioned mating feather. That’s not yours, Perception. Not with that coloration.” Valor sneered at me. “Is it yours?”
“Yes,” I said, baring my teeth. “But it’s not Righteous’s fault. When I got down here, he was dying. Unconscious, from you beating him almost to death. I had to save him, and I’d do it again if it meant he would live.”
Valor made a disgusted face. “What will Mikhail think when he returns? When he discovers his mate is a little whore.”
Righteous growled and stumbled to his feet, still weak. But Perception planted himself in front of us, and spoke in a voice that shook the walls. “No.” He extended his wings, and a light flared out in front of us. I leaned to one side to peek around him and noticed that when his light fell on Valor, the Protector’s skin appeared pitted and pockmarked. There was no visible smut on Valor, but in the light Percy was giving off, it was apparent that the jerk was rotting from the inside.
Valor hissed and ducked his face, as if the light burned him. It might have hurt his eyes; Percy was that bright.
Tradition glided around the room smoothly. I turned to keep my eyes on him, as did Righteous. “You’ve ascended, Perception?” He tsked. “This saddens me greatly. High Angelus Gavriel signed a new statute only weeks ago. No one can ascend without the permission of the acting leader of Sanctuary, a position Valor holds. You’ve broken our law.” His eyes moved across the room, snagging on me. “All of you have transgressed, it seems. Some in more… significant ways than others.”
The room buzzed with a heavy silence, as if ears we couldn’t see were listening, weighing each moment. Each word. I peered at the others to see if they were aware of it, but only Perception was reacting, shaking his head like he was brushing off a persistent fly.
The corners of Tradition’s mouth twitched downward. “Don’t worry. You won’t languish in a cell, waiting for a decision to come down. It will be convenient to fold you all into the judgment we have planned for today.”
Percy went pale. Righteous cursed at Valor, who was yelling for the Guides to grab us. I let my eyes meet Tradition’s, and asked a question before my own arms were held roughly. “Whose judgment?”
He didn’t answer, his eyes moving over me like I was nothing. Like I was a useless scrap he could throw away. For a moment, it seemed like he wasn’t going to answer at all. But then he replied, with genuine sadness throbbing in his deep voice and a tear in his eye, “Sunny, the Light of Truth.”
We were led directlyinto the largest Assembly Hall, where what had to be every Protector and Guide in Sanctuary was already present. And they were all sitting in the dark, or close to it. Sanctuary still had almost no power, the ribbons of its energy appearing frayed and scattered, glittering in my mind’s eye.
I had done that, healing Righteous. How was I going to fix this?
The only light, besides burning oil lamps spaced out evenly around the Hall, emanated from those of us who had ascended: me, Percy, someone sitting in the center of the Hall… and a little light was seeping out of Ry’s wings, too.
When the assembled Protectors noticed a resistant but glowing Perception being pulled down the risers, his hands cuffed in front of him, a discontented murmuring began. Then, when Perception moved ahead and they saw me there, unbound but with a hulking Guide on both sides, the murmurs got louder.
To be fair, the new murmurs had a note of approval in them. I bit my lip to keep it from wobbling. I knew I didn’t have very many friends in Sanctuary, but I wouldn’t have believed so many of them hated me. Maybe they had thought well of me after I walked into the gate, but now? Now they saw me as a convenient scapegoat for all that was going wrong in the realm. I bit my lip harder, tasting blood.
Then Valor breached the door behind us, he and three other Guides dragging a struggling, freshly-bruised Righteous behind them, and a huge outcry started from the back of the Hall.
They didn’t hate Ry. They admired him, desired him. Coveted his power a bit. Yet no one seemed willing to speak up against Valor’s treatment of him.
Cowards.I felt a prickling of agitated energy run over my skin, and felt that odd hum in the floor beneath my feet once more. No one else did, it seemed—or at least, no one reacted toit. When the prickling stopped, a surge of exhaustion crept up on me.
“What’s going on?!” My eyes flew to the one yelling. It was Truth, though none of his friends were there. I hoped they were singing at the gate.
Truth ran at Righteous, looking like he was going to punch him or something. But at the last minute, he tackle-hugged my new mate. Righteous whispered something in his ear, and Truth nodded. As one of the Guides pulled him loose, I noted a tiny trickle of blood flowing down from Truth’s ear.
