I shocked myself by laughing through my tears. “You birch! You didn’t tell me you took my boobs as well as my wings!”
“Nah, baby sister. These are all mine. Now close your eyes.” She winked, then turned and ran toward the gate, singing at the top of her lungs.
I slapped my hands over my eyes, but peeked through my fingers for the first few seconds. She went from her normal Celestial glow to an eerie incandescent flare. The light she emitted was far brighter than the gate, and I slammed my eyes shut. Then the darkness behind my eyelids turned bright red, and a sudden, punishing heat seemed to sear them shut.
For a moment, I felt a strange sorrow, but not for her or myself. For all those shadowed souls, the ones that had been trapped in the Abyss and had become these beasts. They would all burn up and die. Be unmade, and never reach the Celestial fields.
It wasn’t right. If what Rumple told me was true, if no soul was beyond redemption, then what sense did it make to valuethe ones in Sanctuary more than theirs? I felt hot tears slide down my overheated cheeks as the fire grew more intense, and I knew Arabella had become a divine bonfire.
I fought to bring up enough of Sanctuary’s power to fashion a shield, and protect the ones I was with before we were all burned up with the shadows. It worked just in time for the intense flare to explode. The shadows caught in the blast didn’t cry out in pain, though. They sang.
They sang a song of redemption and overwhelming joy, and when I could open my eyes and see again, I realized what she’d done.
The gate stood wide, open to all of us. Arabella was gone, but there was a trail of light that led across the void, and I knew where it ended. The area in front of us wasn’t empty, though. The shadows were still there. Only they had become light.
They had been purified. The bright forms were almost all human, but a few had glowing wings of light as well. Some of them looked familiar, but their faces were too indistinct to be sure. And my eyes were too tear-filled.
“So beautiful.” Hope was breathless next to me. “That was more than a Great Sacrifice. She redeemed them all.” I nodded, staring in wonder as the glowing creatures began to race for the open door, following the pathway she had made for them.
“Feather, she cleansed us as well,” Perception murmured on my other side. He held up an arm, and I noted the sparkles.
“No, Percy,” I corrected him, licking my finger and rubbing it on his bicep, then showing him what I’d done. “That’s glitter. It’s already the perfect artistic medium.”
He’d just begun to reply when I realized the gate was creaking shut, an inch at a time.
“Everyone, sing your names!” I yelled. “And run for it!”
I’d been caught in a stampede once, trying to save a little brother who’d been wandering on the plains far away from ourvillage. There were dark clouds in the distance, and I mistook the thundering hooves for the brewing storm. A noisy flock of egrets had flown up in front of me, and distracted me from the thundering herd of wild cattle. Until it was too late, and they’d left my body broken underneath them.
This felt exactly like that. Beautiful and deadly.
Almost every being in Sanctuary was singing their name as loud as they could. It was cacophonous, but somehow it worked. The notes stacked on top of each other in an exquisite harmony, like a chord I had never thought to imagine. I was entranced. If my friends hadn’t grabbed me—Percy on one arm, Hope on the other—and dragged me up into the air, I would have been trampled again.
A thousand or more Guides and Protectors raced for the slowly closing gate, running over each other to get through before it shut. I saw Truth and the naked octet, holding their position and singing their names in beautiful eight-part harmony. They marched at the back of the crowd, helping some who hadn’t gotten out of the scrum to their feet. Discarded robes littered the floor, like enormous petals of white and gold.
It’s almost pretty, I thought as Hope and Percy set me down right outside the gate. And it would have been beautiful, but the cost of opening that gate had been far too high.
When it was only wide enough for two people to fit through, Truth and his octet slipped out. “See you on the other side,” Truth called to me.
“I’ll be right behind you,” I replied. His eyes shot to mine as he slapped a hand over his mouth, feeling the effects of my lie. I sighed in relief when I heard him singing his name again.
Hope started dragging me to the exit, and I dug my heels in. “Hope, no!”
“She will kill me,” Hope yelled, spinning around, her blue eyes flashing with anger and desperation. “Your best birch will never forgive me if I leave you here, Feather. Don’t ask me to.”
“I can’t go. Not without them.”
Perception leaned down, gave me a hug, and said, “Feather, I understand. I’ll take care of the refugees until you all join us.” He pressed Gavriel’s soul knife into my hand and was gone, though I could hear him singing his name even on the other side.
The gate was closing, and Hope stuck one foot in the gap, as if she could delay it. “Don’t do this, Feather,” she pleaded. “What am I going to tell them?” I knew who she meant.
“Tell them I would come back faster if they’d promise me some sword crossing in bed. I amowedan orgy for this,” I teased as she slipped through, already singing her name.
Then the gate shut, and the Hall was utterly silent. I stood with my forehead pressed against one of the columns for no more than a few seconds, wondering if I’d just killed myself and all my mates. Then I wheeled on one foot and ran for the basement, calling up more than threads from Sanctuary. I demanded and received ropes of burning fire, and began rolling them over my arms. I had a job to finish. Everyone else was safe now, so all I had left to do was save the man I had been meant for from my childhood.
And I suppose Gavriel, too.
Chapter 18
