I snuck a glance at Sunny, who was no longer freaking out about having her wings cut off, even though she was still being held open like a pinned butterfly.
She was now freaking out at me.
I blinked, and blood spurted from my eyes. Oh, shizz. I’d seen this movie. Except it didn’t have dicks or butt plugs. This one ended with a dead exorcist priest, a lot of vomit all over the place, and a major crick in the possessed baby’s neck.Calm down, Feather. Think about puppies, or vibrators, or orcs who love librarians.
No! Rend!the shadowy power counseled, as I felt the swirling blades of smut that I’d drawn inside me refusing to be controlled. I stepped up to Tradition, and his breath stuttered to a halt as the power sucked the air away from him.Mypower.
Yes, I would tear this ashhole into pieces, ones small enough to use as glitter in a t-shirt for Growly Bear.
Glitter?the power grumbled.
Yeahhhhh,I said to the shadows, rubbing my hands together, wondering when they’d come untied.I’ll make a shirt that saysI Heart Feather’s Penis Fly Trap.I’ll do it in green glitter… and black, like my soul.
Wait.
No, I know what I can use the angel scraps for! I’ll glitter bomb the entire realm. They’ll be picking the stuff out of their ash cracks, out of their eyeballs. The bathtubs will be filled with glitter, and it’ll work its way into ears, mouths, nostrils. When they sneeze, it’ll be like a rave. When they poop, the toilets will run with my colors. My colors!I cackled like an insane witch. It sounded awesome and echoey, so I did it again.MY COLORS!
I… I don’t understand.The dark voice sounded as confused as Tradition had. Confused enough that the power started swirling in the other direction, subsiding. The walls stopped bleeding, mostly. But I felt awful as it began to drain away. Sick, and weak, and almost definitely concussed. I was eighty-five percent sure I was dying.
I had felt this same way in Mexico once, when I’d been starving. I’d found a discarded half-bottle of tequila, an empty white-sand beach, and a guy named Enrique who knew how to bust open coconuts and taught me the words, “I don’t understand, that’s never happened to me before,” in Spanish.
Something loud made an enormous cracking sound at the far end of the hall. Then roared. My nape prickled and burned. “Growly?” I tilted my head, and wondered why it felt so heavy. Almost like I had a headband on. Or a hat.
Tradition inhaled sharply. “Kill that demon!” he shouted, pointing at me. “Kill it before it gathers strength again!” Why did he keep pointing at me?
But before I could figure it out, the power inside me snarled and emitted a burst of force. In less than a second, every Guideon the stage was flat on their ass. I thought they might still be alive, but they looked unconscious. I didn’t have time to find out, though; the power had resurged and was fighting me for control again, and it was all I could do to keep from sending out a much larger blast and obliterating the entire Hall. I forced myself to think about the t-shirts I’d made for Mikhail, and Righteous’s roses, and Rumple’s super sexy horns.
Sexy?With that whispered query, the last remnants of the power trickled away, and it was all I could do to stay erect.
While I had fought my evil internal parasite, Sunny had untied Hope, and Hope had pulled her away from Valor. He was screaming with rage, flailing about with the soul knife, cutting anyone who came within reach. Apparently, he had given up on slicing Sunny, and was trying to get to Righteous. In fact, he was going to reach him in a few steps, and he had the blade lifted, ready to stab my bound mate in the heart.
I had no weapons. I’d quenched the dark voice, and the power that had come with it. Now the smut on me wasn’t power, just burden—burying me, crushing me more every second. But I had to try to get to him… had to rescue him.
The air filled with the scent of roses, and the presence that had gone quiet spoke in a voice that rang like a thousand church bells in my ears. It was feminine and masculine, and the beauty of it was overwhelming. And it was still giving me a choice, as it did every time.
Protect!
But therewasno choice. I would always sacrifice to save the ones I loved. There was no smut to take on to use as a twisted energy source. All I had was me.
But that had always been enough. I moved faster than I ever had, my wings pushing me forward as the knife came down toward Ry’s chest.
And I got there just in time to take his place.
Thank you. Thank you for giving me this chance,I prayed. I closed my eyes as the blade flashed toward my heart, and blessed the Singer of All Songs for letting me at least know my Ashtad again, my Ry. For giving me those moments with Mikhail. And Rumple.
For letting me know what it felt like to be loved. Wanted. Cherished.
I heard what might have been Mikhail, his shout filled with holy power. And then an unfamiliar, buzzing sound behind my head, like a hummingbird hovering there.
Time slowed, which I expected.
Then stopped. Which I did not.
Something made a sweet cooing noise in front of me. I opened my eyes. The room had frozen, and a small dark gray creature—a baby with the most gorgeous skin I’d ever seen, that glittered all over—flapped clumsily in front of me. She wore a pink and purple onesie that saidDaddy’s Little Angelbut had the wordAngelscribbled out andDevilwritten over it in calligraphy. She had slightly curly purple hair, two tiny dark horns, and eyes that were entire galaxies… like Rumple’s.
“Mama?” she chirped.
Chapter 31
