Even thinking about what we had to do next filled me with the kind of terror that on Earth would have made me pee my pants. Here, I just trembled, andwishedI could pee out the fear.
I thought through the steps of my plan. First, we had to camouflage ourselves, so we could travel the hallways unseen. Rumple had assured us that the shadows didn’t see him as the enemy. There was enough of the void in him—ugh, that reminded me of the void being inmeagain—to fool them. And he could pull more to the surface.
I’d done the same, and my skin was now a glittery gray that was growing on me, the more I looked at it. It reminded me of the iridescent feathers some pigeons wore. The only problem I had was my wings were still silver. But with the application of some of the juice from the box and a dusting of the glitter from Rumple’s armor, I was covered.
Honestly, I looked amazing. My formerly white toga had been treated in the same fashion, as had Rumple’s improvised loincloth, an item of clothing I felt deserved a comeback. He filled it out better than a thousand gym rats in their gray sweatpants ever could.
“I look ridiculous,” Gavriel complained. I peeked over at him, fighting to keep from smiling. He so did.
“I love the whole ensemble,” I said truthfully. “And you have to admit, the white and gold would have been a dead giveaway you weren’t from the void.” I stalked around him in a slow circle, doing a final inspection. He’d put his black leather trousers back on, but the rest of him had been slathered in sticky juice. He’d stood still, leaving the juice to dry until it was perfectly tacky. Then we’d poured a pile of glitter onto the bed, and he’d rolled in it until it covered every single bit of exposed flesh.
“I have glitter in my ears, Feather. In my nostrils. I am never going to get all of this off. I could live for a million years, and I would still be pulling glitter out of my?—”
“That’s the spirit, Gav!” Rumple said, pounding him on the back and making glitter fly up in a huge cloud. “You’re going to live through this, and in a million years, when people ask you where that glitter in your teeth came from, you’ll have a great story to tell!”
Rumple passed me, carrying the giant sack of glitter to the door. I mouthedthank youas he went by; he always knew how to make me forget my fear and pain. He nodded, goosed me with his tail, and opened the door quietly.
“After you,” Gavriel said, his eyes whirling at my own changed appearance.
The hallway outside was almost free of shadows, but we moved soundlessly anyway. Every so often, we passed a larger shadow beast, usually pounding at a door or clawing at a lock, trying to get in. I still didn’t know what they hoped might be inside.
Nearer the stairs, we skirted past the shadow I’d told to face the wall. As we passed, I slapped it on what I thought was its ass and whispered, “Stay there, you naughty, dirty beast. Stay there and wait for me to come back and whip you like you deserve.” It spilled another pool of shadow goo on the floor, and I fought a wave of revulsion.
What the actual fuck?Gavriel shouted in my mind.
Rumple was silently laughing like a loon, but he eventually thought,No more talking, okay, Dommy Mommy?I nodded in agreement.
When we reached the Dining Hall, Rumple stopped stock still in the center of the corridor. Gav’s mental sigh ofnot another oneechoed in my mind.
How many of these did you play with, imp?Rumple asked.
I peered around his wings, and swallowed. The shadow beast I’d tied up earlier was still there, kneeling on the floor. The ropes that had been gold when I left him had faded, and I wonderedif he’d eaten the power. Would that make him more dangerous, stronger? Possibly. I should’ve thought for a moment before leaving him with a snack.
Gavriel motioned for me to go past, but I shook my head.I can’t leave him, I thought.I promised I’d come back.
You promised a shadow… what?Rumple demanded.
I told him the truth. That he was worthy. That the Maker of All made him, and misses him.I peeked around to check that no other shadows were close enough to hear, or whatever it was they did since I’d never seen ears on one. Walking up to the bound creature, I nudged it with my toe. “Did you think about what I said? Did you remember?” I asked it. Something occurred to me, and I leaned down. The other shadow had liked being called a bad boy. But this one… “Were you a good boy?” I whispered, trying to sound like an ASMR reel I may have listened to about ten thousand times.
Bingo. It shivered, not like it was cold, but with anticipation and pleasure. I leaned closer. The shimmering ropes hadn’t loosened at all, though the power seemed almost fully drained. I wasn’t sure if the thing had been hurt, but its energy felt quieter somehow.
I found the end of one of the ropes.What are you doing?Gavriel thought.Get away from it.
“It’s okay. I think it’s in subspace,” I murmured, slowly undoing the knots. Every time my fingers brushed it, it gave a little shiver. I had a feeling, if it had a mouth, it would’ve moaned. The knots were tricky, and it took me a while to undo the first few. But Gavriel and Rumple waited patiently. Or at least, Rumple did.
Subspace. Are you kidding me?Gav’s mental voice was panicked.It’s evil. Kill it, Feather. Use Mik’s soul knife. Or I’ll use mine.
I frowned at him. “No, Gavriel, I won’t kill it, and you’d better not either. This is my good little shadow. He’s been waiting for me to come and untie him once his punishment was over. Haven’t you, baby? Such an obedient toy.”
“Why am I getting turned on?” Rumple mumbled, stepping up to me. “This is all very sweet, Feather. I’m happy to see you’re exploring some of your darker fantasies, but this is not the time.” He raised an eyebrow. “Allow me?”
I nodded once, and he made a gesture with his hand that caused all the knots to unravel at once, allowing me to pull the once-golden cord to me. It felt warm, and I was getting colder by the second, so I handed my soul knife to Gavriel and stuffed the wadded-up rope into the top of my toga. It was better than the chemical hand and foot warmers I’d used a few times in Chicago, and it coiled around my boobs like Princess Leia’s bikini. Sweet.
When I glanced back down, the shadow beast was creeping toward me slowly along the floor. Gavriel lifted the knife, and I hissed a warning at him. When it reached me, the shadow touched a part of itself to my foot, in what I was pretty sure was a kiss. A few specks of glitter came off my foot and stuck to it as the thing slunk away, vanishing around the corner.
“Only you, little one,” Rumple muttered, then took my hand to pull me along behind him. I was certain the shadow beast was following us—I could have sworn I saw him peeking around corners as we went, but he never tried to come near, so I stopped looking.
At last, we approached the hall where the door to the Maker Hall was. It was a good thing the door had been locked. Dozens of shadows paced up and down the hallway, snarling at the door like hungry lions. Each one was at least three times as broad as Rumple and twice as tall.
