And it sounded like the same voice I’d heard my whole life.
I was stunned into speechlessness.
He let out a shuddering breath. “Friends, this is the reason for our rules, our laws. So when one of our own, our finest, is tempted from the paths of righteousness, we can protect the rest of us. Valor?”
Valor nodded, and pointed to two Guides. Suddenly, Hope was being held on both sides, as another slapped a gag over her mouth. They wrestled her over to where Sunny stood, and the two of them stared into each other’s eyes while Tradition stated somberly that Hope would also be receiving judgment. All of us on stage started shouting at once, before suddenly, cloth gags were being put over all our mouths.
The crowd grew ominously silent as well. I could feel the waves of conflicted emotions surging in the Hall. It was making me feel almost seasick.
The trial was a farce. Hope was found guilty of sedition and disobedience to her superiors, and sentenced to be “detained within a cell” until the High Angeli returned. Valor couldn’t contain his evil smile at her sentence, and I picked up on his sick plans to visit her with the soul knife and do the same as he’d done to Righteous.
Perception and Sunny were both found guilty of ascending without permission, but Perception’s judgment was delayed until they had more information about what had caused his ascension. Sunny’s sentence was being debated, and would be announced at the end of the trial.
When Righteous was brought forward, however, the mood in the room turned against the Guides and Valor. Righteous’s eyes met mine, and I heard his thoughts.I know what they’llask, Feather. I won’t tell them; this is information I don’t want shared widely. But you should know, I studied ancient High Angelic sacrifices long ago. I read that if you had the material and the power—the kind a true sacrifice generates—you could create almost anything out of soul energy. As Sanctuary does with food and drink. As Mikhail did with his own flesh, making the Novices. I was planning to use my wings at the least to crack the gate back open. At best? To make a rope. To tether one end in Sanctuary, and travel beyond the Great Gate to pull you out. I failed you once; I was determined to save you, no matter the cost.
I felt my jaw drop. That was nuts.
His smile was wry.They’re not wrong when they say I was temporarily insane. But what is love, if not a beautiful madness that makes the clamoring world fade into nothing, and brings clarity to one moment, one soul? I would sacrifice far more than my wings to save you. And given another chance, I will.
What do you mean?He didn’t answer, and I remembered he couldn’t hear me. He was so close to ascending, though. Maybe, if I focused, I could use my High Angelic powers to get through to him.Ry? That book you studied—was it calledGreat Sacrifices of the Ancient High Angeli?
His eyes widened as he heard my question.Yes. How do you know about it? Gavriel removed it from the library long ago, right after…He swallowed.
Yeah.I sighed mentally.Perception said Valor found it. He’s been reading it.
Fuck.
I had worse things he needed to know.Ry… I think that I’m to blame for the darkness. For Sanctuary’s loss of power. Rumple—Seraphiel—taught me to take power from Sanctuary. I’m not sure I was supposed to do that.
His eyes were filled with forgiveness.You weren’t. But you didn’t know. Mikhail and Gavriel will fix it. I’ll tell them what happened. We just have to make sure we survive until then.
While we had been conversing mentally, Tradition had suggested that Righteous was mentally unbalanced. “Head Protector Righteous, you were seen attempting to remove your own wings at the Great Gate. Can you tell us what your aim was? Why would you attempt such a thing?”
Ry refused to answer, again and again. Finally, Tradition declared him incapable of leading, and the tenor of the room made it clear that there weren’t many who disagreed. To my relief, Ry was only ordered back to the cell to “meditate” until Gavriel returned. But that was only because I was the criminal mastermind who had broken into the cells and somehow mesmerized Righteous into mating with me.
When my turn came, with Tradition ready to question me, I was so exhausted I could hardly stand. Valor tore the cloth off my mouth roughly, whispering, “You picked the wrong side.”
I didn’t answer. I mean, maybe I had. Whose side was I even on? If Rumple came rampaging through the gate right now, overrunning all of Sanctuary with a shadow horde, with the exception of a few friends, I’d say “Clean house, birches,” and make popcorn.
“Feather, that’s what you claimed as your name, wasn’t it?” Tradition asked once I’d been escorted to the very center of the podium. “But your real name was very different. Tell it to us.”
I was startled. Sharing my true name in front of everyone here seemed a lot more invasive than being strip-searched. Righteous’s mischievous eyes gave me courage, dared me to go ahead. “Feather, The Most Beautiful—,” I began, but Tradition cut me off.
“No. What name did High Angelus Mikhail give you?”
I slumped, half-relieved. “Oh, that one. I was Nothing, a Useless Scrap of the Beautiful One?—”
Before I could finish, he was speaking over me, asking rhetorical questions about whether I had even been meant to exist. “Who taught you how to sacrifice yourself to the gate? Who gave you the idea in the first place?” I had just taken a breath when he asked, “Did you even go into the gate when you left Sanctuary?”
“No. I mean, I guess at first? But then I was in the Abyss?—”
He sucked a breath through his teeth. “How did you survive? Are you in league with the forces in the Abyss? Did they send you back to break the gate, to sabotage our mission? Did you seal it intentionally when you left? Or damage it further on your return? How did you return, for that matter, and for what purpose? Do you mean to harm the High Angeli here?”
Reading his thoughts was like trying to swim through mud. All I could make out was that he needed to protect Sanctuary from me. “I… I don’t know what to say,” I whispered when he finally stopped shouting questions.
“Answer this truthfully then. I heard a rumor that you were mated a second time to High Angelus Mikhail shortly before he flew down to protect the Earth from a corporeal demon.”
“That’s true,” I said, and waited.
