When I turned back to my mates, Mikhail had a hand over his face, and Righteous’s eyebrows had practically vanished into his hairline. I shrugged. “Well, She gave it to me. It’s my gift. And I might need a weapon in the Abyss, right?”
Righteous made an odd gurgling noise, then said, “You’re going to fight off the shadows with…”
“Mr. Oxbig, my battery-operated boyfriend,” I agreed, as I saw Sunny fly back into view. “Otherwise known as Mike.” Righteous rubbed his forehead, like he was getting a headache. “Come on, it kind of scared you when I came at you with it this morning, Ry—” I started, but he growled and swung me up into his arms.
“I’ll scareyou,” he threatened, but I could see a tear in his eye. “You come back to us, Scrap. To me. I can’t lose you again.” His jaw worked for a moment, and then he whispered, his voice ragged, “I love you, Tili. And if I have to fly across the Abyss to get you back, I will. There is no limit to my love. No boundary to what I’d do or give to remain at your side.”
I stared into his golden eyes and kissed him, neither of us blinking, as if we wanted to memorize each other in the moments we had left. “Just remember, Ashtad. The right thing is almost always the scary thing.”
He nodded once. “Yes. I’m terrified right now. So this must be exactly what we’re meant to do.”
I pulled his head down and whispered into his ear, “Take care of Growly, Ry. He’s weaker than he’s acting, isn’t he?” I already knew the answer. Both of them had juiced me up all day, and I could almost feel the energy coursing into me from my new mating feathers as well. When Mikhail had placed his feather on my nape only hours earlier, I’d felt a sudden dip in his reserves. I was afraid the straining of our bond, once I left, might damage him further. “You do whatever you have to do to keep him safe for me, okay?”
“I swear it on my wings,” he vowed, setting me on my feet and pressing a kiss to the top of my head.
I put my hands on my hips and mock-glared. “You keep those wings right where they are, Mister. I have a feeling we’re going to need them.”
I hadn’t finished turning away when I felt warm, burly arms wrapping around me. I buried my face in Mikhail’s chest, letting the tears fall where no one could see. “I’m scared,” I admitted, my voice muffled against his muscular chest. I stroked the feather on his forearm, and felt an answering hum in the one on my nape. “What if I don’t come back? What if I don’t get there in time? What if I don’t get there at all?” I let out a single sob. “Who am I to think I can eventrythis?”
With one finger, Mikhail tipped my chin up to look at him, his other hand moving to my sensitive nape. “You are my beloved, the sweet soul who saved me from a lifetime of loneliness. The beautiful sacrifice who has the army of the Singer of Songs on their knees before you.” His fingers moved gently over my features, tracing each curve and line. “When this realm is nothing but dust, my heart will still sing your name. When the stars go dark, and the universe goes cold, the light in these eyes will be the fire that keeps me warm. I love everything about you. My hands have memorized your form, and my soulfire has lived in your soul since the moment we first mated. Rafe remade you once, and my love? If it comes to that, I will do it again.”
Everyone around us was weeping, even Precious, though I wasn’t certain she knew why she was crying. “I’ll hold you to that, Growly,” I murmured, standing on my tiptoes to kiss his chin. “But I have one request.” He lifted a dark eyebrow. “I want bigger boobs next time. At least as big as Ry’s man breasts. It’s super embarrassing to be mated to a guy with a better rack.” Mikhail swept me up into a bear hug and closed my mouth with kisses, while we both laughed.
When he set me down, Imriel stepped forward. “Your song, Feather. It’s time. What message should I weave into it?”
I leaned as close as I could, whispering so quietly that no one else could hear. Honestly, it wasn’t the worst message I could have come up with. When I felt his confusion and distaste, I mentally suggested a few alternate ideas, which had him psychically flailing. I sent a mental wink and eyebrow waggle his way.
“You really are like a little sister,” he said, exasperation mingled with humor in his expression. “Such a brat. However, older brothers can be just as bad.”
That was why, when he opened a pathway between our minds and sang it back to me in a language that had everyone besides him and me slapping their hands over their ears, the notes of the music trilled just like laughter. The power he placed into my soul’s vessel was almost unbearably heavy. But the music filled my heart with an unexpected joy.
Joy and hope.
The song rushed through me like a tidal wave, filling not only my soul, but my physical form. I felt like a water balloon that had been overfilled; if I didn’t start singing it soon, I’d burst. My vision blurred, but I heard a plaintive “Mama!” and felt Precious’s arms round my neck.
“Get that thing away,” Imriel commanded. “She has to start singing and go now, or she won’t make it!”
My vision went hazy and red for a split second. I almost opened my mouth to tell him what I thought of him, when Precious uttered a very clear, “Fucking fuckface fuck,” and zipped over to him, moving like lightning. Before he could say another word, she’d created an enormous, half-melted marshmallow and plopped it right on top of his head, covering his too-perfect hair with white and golden-brown goo.
Sunny whisked her away before he could react, and Mikhail and Righteous swept me over to a part of the cloud wall that became an ugly fire door as we approached. Ry handed me mydildo, and Mik set my hands on the door. It didn’t move at first, but then I let my lips open a bit, and sent the smallest hint of breath between them.
The world burst into light and sound, prisms reflecting all around me. For a moment, I felt the universe embrace me, like a mother holding her child for one last moment before they ran off to play.
And then I stepped through the door and into the Abyss, singing as loud as I could.
Chapter 9
Seraphiel
Iwas lost. Not in the Abyss, the void that had stripped me of both morality and beauty, leaving behind a putrid sludge that filled my veins, my mouth, my organs, and my very thoughts.
No, I was directionless now that I knew my little sacrifice was still alive. Now that I had seen Gavriel, ruined.
His soulfire was flooding out of him at an alarming rate, and though a large part of me didn’t care if he died on the floor of the realm he’d failed, the deepest core of me loved him still. I wanted him to live… but mostly for her sake. It was the only reason I had clung to life. For her protection. Her safety.
Feather had once been a weeping child in my arms. Over the centuries, she had turned into something more. An addiction I could not resist. A beacon of hope—if not for myself, then for the universe at large. If a soul as perfect as Feather could exist, not all was lost.
Her humor, brilliance, and stubborn belief in goodness in the face of horrifying evil had pulled me away from complete self-destruction dozens of times. Without her, I had nothing to keep me from ending my miserable existence, though I knew that to give my own energy to the Abyss would ruin most of the Maker’s plans. The First of Her children, allowing his soul to die the final death? That sort of imbalance could spell the end for every realm.
