“Birch, you’re walking really funny,”Sunny said under her breath as I joined her on a cloud bench, sitting gingerly, for good reason. “I kind of don’t want to know what you did to cause that. But as your best friend, I feel like it’s my duty to be here for you. So I’ll suffer through every last, disgusting detail.” Her eyes flicked to the Celestial guards and the small group of High Angeli who stood by the Choir Leader, conversing in hushed voices. Mikhail was holding Precious and glaring at Imriel for some reason, while Righteous was spelling out the plan.
I smiled, and said through my teeth, so no one else would hear, “All I’m saying, Miss ‘Light of Truth,’ is you lied back in Sanctuary when you said you’d already taught me everything I needed to know about merging.”
“Birch, I did not. I’m literally truth incarnate.” She hissed and lifted my hair away from my neck. “What did they do to you?”
I knew she was looking at the scattered teeth marks—and possibly handprints—that my lovers had left on my shoulders and neck. I discreetly pulled my hair even farther to the side, revealing my nape.
“Hedidn’t.” She darted a shocked glance at Mikhail, who stopped giving Imriel the stink eye long enough to smirk at us.
“That’s not all,” I whispered. I leaned forward slightly, letting my t-shirt neckline gape wide.
She made a weird, garbled noise in her throat as she stared down the open front. “Ry? What the fu—fudge was he thinking?”
Righteous must have been listening in, because his shoulders shook with silent laughter as he sent a jolt of energy to his mark. I shuddered with a mini-orgasm and shot him the finger. A few of the Celestials hummed in what might have been disapproval—not that I cared. They were nice enough to me, but if they treated Precious like she was a demon from… Well, anyway, it wasn’t how she deserved to be treated, so I didn’t owe them any respect. I sneered at the one closest to me.
He smiled back, a condescending look on his handsome face. I shot him the finger.
“Feather!” Sunny grabbed my arm and wrenched it down.
“What are they gonna do, huh? Throw me out? Celestial guards? CelestialGuides, more like,” I jeered.
“You are out of control.” She pulled me a few steps away, turning me so I couldn’t see what was going on. “Tell me everything. They… doubled mated you? Or wait, did Ry and the Maker exchange feathers, too? Because I know you were working up to asking for a man sandwich, but that seems a little extreme?—”
I slapped a hand over her mouth. “No, they didn’t mate each other.” I slanted a glance at my two mates and mentally sent that image to them, though. With a tiny littleput a pin in this, boysattached.
They stepped slightly away from each other, and Ry’s cheeks went a very deep gold. I smirked, sending an exceptionally detailed image of a man sandwich with Feather bread to them both. I even added mayonnaise.
“Mikhail’s looking at you like you’re gonna get a spanking, girl,” Sunny giggled.
“Don’t threaten me with a good time,” I shot back. And then we were in each other’s arms, hugging too tightly.
“I wish you didn’t have to go,” she said once we’d gotten hold of ourselves. “Give Hope a hug and a kiss for me? Not with tongue,” she specified. “Unless the situation really calls for it.”
“Of course.” I adjusted the bandeau top she wore, which was streaked with Precious’s deep purple glitter. It looked amazing against her dark skin, especially with the tiny miniskirt she’d made out of another towel, or pillowcase, or whatever. “I’ll be back soon,” I said quietly, not meeting her eyes. Mik and Ry were heading over with Imriel, their conversation done. It was time. “I’ll bring Gavriel, and Hope—I’m sure she’s cleansed by now. And Percy was already ascended, so I bet he’ll come. Oh, and I’ll grab my sheets. Anything else you want?”
“Just you here, safe.” She pulled out her gold kazoo, tapping it on my nose. “I already got my kazoo. No vibe, though. But apparently, we can ask one of the retired Makers here to make us whatever stuff we want.”
“Dude, I’m a Maker. You better not be asking anyone else to make your sex toys, or whatever.”
“Heck no!” she scoffed, putting the kazoo in between her lips so her hands were free to fix my top. Mikhail coughed, raising an eyebrow at Sunny’s kazoo. Righteous grinned at it, too. I didn’t know why, but now really wasn’t the time for kazoo questions.
Imriel bowed in front of me like I was someone important, and I curtsied awkwardly back, holding the bottom edge of my shirt. “Young Feather,” he said, and I bit the inside of my cheek not to reply with something snarky. “The way to your destination won’t be lit with Celestial fire as it was when you traveled here. There is no road to Sanctuary.” I nodded, remembering the blue light that Haneul had mentioned we needed to follow… not that I had. “And the song you’ll need to guide you there is not your name.”
Sunny frowned. “When she comes back, will her name be the right song then?”
“Yes, along with the Celestial key, her name will help her find this realm again,” Imriel replied, but even I could hear the truth he was hiding underneath his words. He didn’t expect me to return.
He didn’t expect me to live through this.
Fudge that.I had lived through way too much ridiculous shizz to have this be the end of me. I was going to fly my silvery ash back to Sanctuary, get the rest of the Vitamin D I needed for optimal coochieandspiritual health—even if it came attached to a grumpy basshole—then rescue my friends, send up a feather-shaped flare or something for Rumple to find his way to me, and haul them all in a giant sack made out of decent sheets back to this realm.
And then I’m going to take a nap. Because even superheroes get tired, motherfudgers!
Imriel’s lips curled up at the corners as I fumed. “Yes, that,” he said, staring at… my hair? My skin?
I wrinkled my nose. He’d better not be staring at anything else, because we were related, for the love of buttered biscuits!
He closed his eyes—in exasperation, probably. “Whatever you’re feeling right now, whatever you’re thinking—that’s what will get you back to this realm. That fire.”
