“Never wasthen!” I announced, grinning so wide that my cheeks hurt. “We’re living in thenow!” I ignored Gavriel’s startled expression.Watch and learn, bucko.“I can teach you to play the kazoo in thirty seconds, or your money back!” The Guides’ eyes popped, but the scared Protectors giggled. “I’m not kidding; it’s really easy. And the lap harp—well, you won’t be good at it. But everyone starts somewhere. And these shadows aren’t classical music connoisseurs.”
Truth nodded. “I’ll go with you. I know where we’ve stashed all the instruments that don’t need repairs.”
The two Guides, surrounded by the Protectors with weapons who were humming in four-part harmony, ran down the hallway to the supply closet. For a moment, at least, everything was quiet, save Arabella’s faint singing. Her flickering glow lit up the planes of Gavriel’s face, as he stared down at me.
“You’re alive,” he said, his voice raw. He reached to brush back my hair with a trembling hand, but dropped it. “I never thought… I never knew.” The unspoken wordsthat we were soulmates hung in the air.
“Yeah, kinda shocked me, too.” I scuffed my bare foot on the ground and suddenly remembered my nakedness. “We should talk. Um, after I get some clothing?” A toga landed on top of my head.
“Stop staring at my little sister,” Arabella called. “I swear this place is full of degenerates.”
“That’s exactly what I said when I got here!” I groused, pulling the toga on. It was too long, but the belt worked to keepit from dragging too much. I almost tripped putting it on as a sudden wave of lethargy swept over me, a familiar, dull pain. Was this what Mikhail and Ry were feeling?
At the slightest thought of them, an ache began in both my nape and—dang you, Righteous!—my right boob. I felt a burst of panic, and tried to sense them at the end of those bonds, but all I got was the pools of power they had imbued the marks with. A very finite energy.
How long would it last? How long had I been in the void? I needed to know that my mates were okay, but there was no way for me to tell. “How long was I gone?” I mumbled.
“Two days,” Gavriel rasped. “The longest days of my life.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I focused on adjusting the stupid toga, which had gotten stuck on my mini-wings. Tears pricked my eyes as I struggled to pull my hair free of the neckline.
Suddenly, hands were there, tying it back with a piece of golden string. Arabella smiled down at me. “Better get to this Merge place while we can. What is it? By the name, I would think?—”
“A sex club,” I finished. “Yep. It’s awesome.”
She muttered, “I thought that was just a rumor. Seraphiel needs a keeper.” She cleared her throat and glanced at Gavriel. His eyes had never left me. I wasn’t sure he’d even blinked.
“Um, are you coming with us, Gavriel?”
He just kept staring. I waved one hand in front of his face, and he startled. “Oh. Come with… No. I’m going to help Rafe. He’s fighting in the lower level, trying to close off the gap. If we can get that sealed?—”
“Rumple’shere?” I shouted, all my tiredness evaporating in an instant. “He’s in Sanctuary?” My heart felt like a butterfly caught in a tornado. I actually clutched one hand to my chest,wondering if Celestial children-High Angelus hybrids could have heart attacks. “Is he…”
Gavriel’s eyes were grief-stricken, and Arabella answered for him. “He’s not what he once was.” Then she added in my mind,But you and I share more than memories, Feather. We see with the eyes of love. And I know it won’t matter to you.
“What won’t?” I asked, but neither one responded. “I have to go to him. I need a weapon or something. Gavriel, where’s your sword?” I shook off his offer of the soul knife at his belt; I wasn’t going to take his only blade.
“We had to melt it to seal a rift in the Well of Souls,” he answered, turning away. His wings flared out slightly, and that was when I saw the missing patches of feathers.
“Cheesy shizzgrits, Grumpy. Did someone pluck you to stuff a pillow?”
He threw an annoyed glance over one shoulder—I was glad to see he hadn’t gotten all soppy and weird, what with knowing I was his forgotten soulmate. But then he said, “I plucked myself. For the seal, and for the nursery.”
“The nursery?” Arabella and I both asked at the same time.
Gavriel ran a hand over his face. “There’s no time now. Let’s just… Rafe will need me soon.”
“He needs me, too,” I argued, already heading in the direction of the basement. “We’ll both go.”
Gavriel’s hand around my wrist stopped me. “No, he said he has it contained for now. He… he asked me not to bring you there. He needs to know you’re safe.”
“He will. I’ll show him I’m safe. And fight at his side, like he would for me.”
“Please, Feather. He’ll be distracted. He promised to come to you when he’s finished this task.” He could tell I was going to argue, so he went on, “I’m begging you as well. I need you to go to The Merge, to help protect the others. Besides the soul knife Igave Perception, they have no effective weapons. We have no…” He didn’t say the wordhope, but it was there in the silence. “I can feel the Abyss trying to break in. It’s so hungry…” His brow furrowed. “Can’t you feel it, Feather? Can’t you hear it?”
I blinked twice, amazed I hadn’t heard it before. Or at least, understood what was there, like the drone of a bagpipe, constantly vibrating underfoot. “That sound is the Abyss?” I’d thought it was a crowd of Protectors in the distance. It was a similar sort of rumbling, the sound of thousands upon thousands of people shouting. Excited.
But not happy. Starving.
