Please don’t call me that.
My heart pounded.Wait, you can hear me? How?
Eh, I might be pulling on a little of your battery.
My feather? Get off. That’s Rumple’s. I need it to keep hoping.
No, Feather. Not Seraphiel’s gift to you. I wouldn’t take that.For a split second, I saw what looked like a small gray and purple feather spinning in an ebony hand, and felt a staggeringly painful pulse of longing. But he went on.I mean the fission battery Imriel stuck inside you. That’s some quality juice you got there. I’m just licking around the edges; it’s mostly sealed tight. My guess is that’s why you’re not dead?—
I interrupted.You mean the Celestial key?
Yeah. Don’t worry, there’s enough to get you back in, not that I see that happening.
Mikhail and Righteous are going to be fine,I insisted.They’ll wake up when I get there.
Sure, little one,Revel said in that tone people used with the unhinged.
Little one.I could hear Rumple’s singing voice again now, raw from projecting too strenuously, and I knew he had to be reaching the end of his strength.Rumple’s in trouble. He needs to reach us, and then we need you to open. And I don’t want you to accept Rumple’s sacrifice. I have a better sacrifice to give you.
Revel didn’t ask what I meant; he saw in an instant what I intended, and I could tell he approved.You’re leaving, aren’t you?He sighed.You’re abandoning Sanctuary.
We have to. Mikhail and Righteous are dying. This realm is lost. We need you to open, and then we all need to get home.
Something dawned on me then, and I was ashamed it hadn’t occurred to me earlier. Revel needed to get home, too. And it would take a shit ton of power to make that happen. Or maybemore. Maybe someone had to take his place. But Arabella was gone.Revel, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize?—
Gav!Rumple cried out.Save me!
Gavriel’s face crumpled.Go to him,Revel ordered.I’ll take care of her.
All I have is a knife.Gavriel’s thoughts were desperate, but he was already untying me and placing me at the base of the gate, on top of the thick burlap cloth I’d been wrapped in. Slim Shady slipped over me like a tiny shroud, but I could see through him.
And what I saw broke me. The shadow monsters had converged all around Rumple. He was tall, eight feet at least, but they were giants. Twenty, thirty feet. To reach anything higher than their knees—if shadows evenhadknees—he had to fly.
So he flew and sang, a martial hymn of protection and righteousness. He was a dark poem, gleaming with silver-gray, his wings outstretched, his arms moving so fast it was almost impossible to see the swords he held.
They were golden swaths of light that sliced and ruined everything they touched. Gavriel’s sacrificed wings were the perfect weapon against shadows, yet they were still going to fail. There were just too many foes for any one warrior to confront.
Rumple was bleeding copiously, a mixture of thick gray sludge, red blood, and hints of golden ichor. Some of the cuts were more or less chunks of his flesh completely missing. But the beasts, even when they were cut down, only rose to form new, layered monsters, attacking once more.
For that one moment, I hated the shadows. Hated what they were doing, hated that they even existed. If I had the power, I would destroy them, wipe them all out of existence. I watched them bite and tear at my beloved teacher’s already ragged wings, and he fell. My heart bubbled with fear and loathing, and more anguish than I could bear. I wanted more than anything to closemy eyes to it. Not see, not be forced to watch the ones I loved as they were destroyed.
I almost did. I stopped fighting the weights on my eyelids that wanted only to fall… and at that moment, the helpful shadow that was wrapped around me squeezed itself, pressing against my shoulders and back, in what was unmistakably a hug. I felt two strong arms wrap around me. And a face buried itself in my shoulder. I would have sobbed if I could. The shadow that was protecting me, hiding me, had the same texture as the sheets I loved.
The moment of revelation came without any light show, or sound. But my heart bloomed as I understood the quiet, persistent lesson that the Maker of All had been whispering into my ear for so long now.
It was all the same. We were all the same material. The universe the Singer of Songs had created was made up of this fabric. Shadowed or not. Golden or stained. Underneath, every soul was Hers. Every particle in all of Her creation was as dear to Her as these men were to me. And She could never look away.
I listened to Gavriel’s battle song and watched as he fought his way to Rumple using only his small crystal knife. One of Rumple’s feathers, given long ago, to the very friend who used it now to try and save him.
I grieved as Rumple fell, dropping one sword, and watched as half the shadows swarmed around one of the blades mindlessly, attacking it instead. Turning like moths to the closest flame.
That chance was all they needed, the slightest lessening of strength in the shadows’ attacks. Still singing, Gavriel threw his arm around Rumple and somehow found the strength to drag him back toward me, a step at a time. Gavriel stabbed and parried the jagged shadows while Rumple fought with the remaining sword, protecting his back. Both of them were beingslowly consumed. Extracted into the air around them as they bled.
Their particles, the individual motes that made up the men I loved, moved into the maws of the shadows around them, and spread out, their very blood fighting. But not to harm the beasts, merely to balance the scales. To bring the shadow creatures back into harmony. Just as the moths reached for the flames, their holy fire embraced the dark wings that quenched them.
I could hear the songs of power as it moved. The swelling melody of angelic soulfire, and the answering harmony of the beasts that consumed it. Each droplet sang a welcome, reaching out to join with the rest of Her world in the unending song. To bring them all together, in balance. The world became a great, glittering sphere, with ever-shifting motes of light. Souls, moving closer to Her. Inexorably closer.
Ah, little sister.Revel’s voice bloomed in my mind.You see with Her eyes now. You give me hope.A song so filled with joy and praise began in the gate, like a choir marching from far away. And when it finally reached us, so did Gavriel.
