“I didn’t mean it like… like that,” I stammered. But I sort of did. We both stared at each other with comically wide eyes. “He didn’t know?”
“Nope. I’m guessing he knows now, though.” She rubbed her birthmark gently, and I could feel the energy flowing from it and dissipating. “Is it mean to hope it feels just like this for him? Like your soul guts are being unspooled slowly and stretched out for miles?”
I felt like I might throw up. “How are you still alive?” Fear speared me. “Ishealive?”
She smiled. “Mikhail and Righteous and the blue clouds are keeping me going for now. But it’s not working well enough. They say if Gavriel had died, I would have, too. So maybe Sanctuary is keeping him going. I guess I’ll find out.”
“But… will you be able to come back?”
She tried to answer, but fell into a coughing fit. Righteous stepped up, handing her another glass of glowing water, and filled in the details for me.
I held up a hand. “Let me get this straight. You’re planning to go alone, across the Abyss, back to Sanctuary. Through the gate somehow? And get Gavriel?—”
“And Arabella,” she broke in, able to speak again. I made a mental note to drink some blue juice myself. “And Percy and Hope, too. I swear I’ll bring her here by her hair if I have to.”
I swallowed. Of course she would think of me. I grasped her hand tighter. “Don’t do that, birch. She likes her hair pulled.”
“Things I did not need to know for two hundred, Sunny,” she snarked.
I took a deep breath to keep from crying. “I have a few questions. First, how do you get out of this realm? Isn’t it a big deal, like they only send Celestial Messengers every thousand years or so?”
“Yes. I’ll have to carry a super important message.” Her eyes twinkled, and she tapped her nose again. I knew that mischievous look. It gave me hope.
“How are you going to get back into Sanctuary?”
“Pfft,” she said. “Details are for amateurs. I’ll use my Heigel Jelly powers?—”
I stifled a laugh. “Birch. You’ve got to stop calling High Angeli that—it makes you sound demented.”
“She is demented,” Righteous butted in as he took the water glass back.
“Rude.” Feather pulled a face at her mate, then flipped her hair. “Anyway, then I’ll use myHeigel Jelly powersand my sparkling personality to convince the gate to open up, but…”
“But what, girl?” She had turned a weird shade of pink.
She gulped, and rushed out the next words. “But also apparently the gate is sort of my brother.”
We locked eyes in horror, then both yelled, “EWWWW!”
When we finally stopped laughing and taking back every time we’d discussed the gate’s hotness, I blurted out, “This isn’t a plan. It’s a suicide mission.” I couldn’t stop thinking of all the things that could go wrong.
She whispered back, “If I stay, it is for sure.” Before I could apologize, Mikhail walked back into the room.
“When are you going?”
“She must leave tonight.” Mikhail’s voice was lower than ever, gravelly with emotion. “They’re preparing the Celestial gate now.”
“You’re not even strong enough to stand. How are you going to sing your way back to Sanctuary?”
The twinkle in her eyes got more pronounced. “That’s the best part of this whole plan. But for it to work, I need a favor.”
“Anything,” I promised, crushing her close to me. “What can I do?” I would give her my wings if they would help her.
“I need you to babysit for the rest of the day,” she whispered. “Because apparently, merging is the best medicine they have up here. And Daddy Bear and Anaconda Pants over there are gonna play doctor with me up until the very last minute.”
For a moment, it was like the first day I’d met her. She laughed, a mixture of sly, naughty, and wide-eyed innocence. Joy filled the room as Ry and Mikhail joined in. Feather seemed rejuvenated by the sound of the laughter, as if positivity alone had some sort of healing effect. Maybe it did? Who knew how stuff worked in this realm.
As she kissed Precious and Dado goodbye, I told myself it was all going to be fine. It had to be. Because if Feather wasn’t with me, this place wouldn’t be any sort of Heaven at all.
