Fighting on, he lowered Rumple to my side and snatched the sword from his bloodied hand, fighting more effectively now with the gate at our backs, though his exhaustion was palpable.
While his sword sang a metallic descant to Gavriel’s thundering song, Rumple reached out.Revel, can you help us?His mental voice was as bleak as I felt.Can you open for us?
Brother, you know my power is limited in this form, Revel answered.But I will try.The gate vibrated slightly behind me. It almost felt like a tiny trickle of energy was coming through it. Revel sighed.I would have to become something new, and there’s no time. As it stands, I’m only useful as a conduit. A bridge, not a battery. I’m almost depleted entirely. It took some work, and all of Thysia’s power, to keep the bridge standing for the entire realm to get across. I would need a new sacrifice.
“I feel energy in you,” Rumple snarled. Was he talking about the vibration?
Oh. Revel sounded embarrassed.Sorry, I didn’t realize that was still on. The vibration stopped.
Mike? Mike Oxbig?Had that been the vibrating feeling?Ew.
Revel sent a quiet thought back.Another terrible name, Feather. You should probably stop naming entirely.
Ithadbeen Mike. Ugh, I was going to die and the last voice I’d probably hear would be my stepbrother moaning while he got off with my vibe.
Rumple let out a tiny snort of laughter as Revel explained the noise.Revel, my little one was right. You are a complete degenerate.I’d never wanted to high five someone so hard in my life. But my stomach plummeted at his next words.If I make the sacrifice, and you open, can you hold the way for Gavriel and Feather? If I give my life, is that enough? I’m corrupted, I know. But deep down, I still have some of my power.
Revel didn’t answer.
I was screaming at Revel to tell him no, to let him know there was another way. I was not going to let Rumple do this, not while I had a key that could accomplish the same thing. So what if I couldn’t get into the Celestial Realm? At least, if I could get close… Revel’s answer put an end to my internal planning.
Seraphiel, you know that the life of the First of us all would open every gate in the universe. And it won’t come to that.I relaxed a little at that, until he continued.But there’s another problem.
Rumple’s mental voice was frayed as he gasped,What?
You’ve left the Earth vulnerable to the Abyss, brother.
No,Rumple insisted.We sealed the Well of Souls.
Yes, but these shadows are strong. And smart.
They’ve been opening my angelic locks,Rumple agreed.They have access to my memories.
I thought so. I’m sure they’ve been attacking the hinges of the locked doors they can’t open. The fuckers have even been gnawing at mine. In time, they’ll break them down. Everything you created, Rafe, will all be undone. You know where they’ll go next. For all we know, they’ve already breached…
The brothers’ mental voices both muttered, at the same time,The Flight Hall.
Chapter 31
Feather
Gavriel,Rumple called out, rising once more to battle back a fresh surge of shadow beasts.Please tell me that at some point in the last two thousand years, you changed out the locking mechanism on the Flight Hall doors.
Not… only the… key?Gavriel gasped as he sang an almost-shrill note, and cleaved a particularly thick creature into two thinpieces, both of which rose to fight independently.The lock’s… still yours, Rafe. Why?
I could see immediately what was worrying them. At the top of Sanctuary, the Flight Hall was where Protectors and High Angeli went to go on their missions, after their very first ones via the Maker Hall. If the angelic lock was the same one Rumple had put there, then the void knew how to dismantle it. And if what Revel suspected was true, all of Rumple’s creation was in jeopardy. The whole realm.
Once the Flight Hall lock fell, the Earth would be inundated with powerful shadow beasts in no time at all, and the balance would be lost in days—if it even took that long.
Fuck,Rumple grunted, battling with renewed energy, but his voice bleaker than I’d ever heard.Revel, when I make the sacrifice to get them out, would the backlash of power from my unmaking be enough to seal the Flight Hall at the same time?It pissed me off to hear him casually mention his unmaking. If I were able to, I’d smack some sense into him.
Brother, listen, Feather can?—
Rumple cut him off.No, she has sacrificed enough. I’ll be the one to pay this price. Just tell me, would it work?
You know the answer, Seraphiel. You built this place. The only way to be sure to seal it would be with a Great Sacrifice there.
I can’t be in two places at once,he groaned.
