When I looked back at Truth, though, he had a strange expression on his face. “Feather, when Arabella redeemed us all and sent us home, she showed each one of us the whole story. In the moment where we were purified, she sent the knowledge to each of us, of how you were made and how she met you. Who you truly are, and who you became to save others. You were always Gavriel’s mate, and you were the only reason any of us survived—not just the shadow beasts, but Seraphiel’s rage, and the imbalance in their own souls.”
The palanquin had stopped, and I swung my legs down. Gavriel turned to me, along with the dozens of High Angeli who were there, blocking the way to the edge of the cloud wall. But as soon as they saw me, every one of the Guides and Protectors I’d known before dropped to one knee, bowing.
Not to Gavriel. To me.
“Our Great Sacrifice,” the hushed voices were murmuring. “Feather, our true leader.”
Well, that was unexpected.
A slightly louder voice, one I’d kind of hoped never to hear again, caught my attention. “Great Soul, you honor us with yourpresence,” Tradition called from somewhere in the crowd. They stepped forward, smiling, and I saw they had gone completely bald. When they came near enough to see clearly, they collapsed to the ground in a deep, full-bodied bow. “Forgive me, Beautiful Sacrifice. I wronged you greatly in Sanctuary. I will dedicate my life to living into your example, Great Leader.”
I fidgeted awkwardly, not at all sure what to say. “Um, sure. I mean, you came out to help us get back to the Limen, so we’re kinda even.” Then I noticed the Head Guide’s wings. They had been shredded. “What happened to your feathers?” I gasped, horrified.
Tradition straightened, holding their tattered wings out proudly on both sides, showing them off. “I learned how to love. From you.” They seemed overjoyed to see the missing patches, that resembled a kindergarten classroom glockenspiel missing many of its keys. But their face was wreathed in smiles. “Did you know, Great Soul, that when you give up your feathers here, there is no pain? And there is such joy in the sacrifice. In seeing your own soul being used to create something new. I never understood why parents on Earth—” They moved forward suddenly, but Gavriel extended his wings of light and stopped the Head Guide’s momentum. They bowed again, flushed with embarrassment. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I just… I’m so grateful to you, Leader Feather. For showing the beauty in sacrifice. I made you these.”
They had a bunch of roses in one hand, tiny pink buds that hadn’t opened yet. I stepped around Gavriel and accepted them, taking a deep sniff. “Thank you so much. They smell amazing,” I said truthfully, offering them up to Gavriel.
He leaned down, placing me squarely in front of his torso while he took a short sniff. “Very nice,” he gritted out when I leaned back against his sudden, raging erection.
Pervert,I thought.
Don’t kink shame me,he replied.
Perception cleared his throat and moved past Tradition, who was now bowing to me yet again. I enfolded Percy in a hug, and he clasped hands with Gavriel before explaining what had happened here. “For the first months, we had no external source of power. All the former Guides and many of the Protectors gave up feathers to help keep the younger ones replenished, and to create more space in the actual Limen as well. When I told Imriel what they were doing, well…” He backed up and led us to where they had been looking.
“Precious!” I shouted when a woman who had been kneeling moved, and my glittery daughter’s form was revealed.
She whirled around, her multi-colored eyes flashing, and yelled “Mama!” She flung herself across the space between us, embracing me and covering me with her signature mixture of sticky, roasted marshmallow goo and glitter. I noted that many of the smiling Angeli nearby were covered with patches of the same glittery paste, and wondered at it. Every last one of them was smiling indulgently at my daughter, like doting aunts and uncles, as she jabbered in her usual mix of demonic and baby talk. I peppered her face with kisses, noting how much she’d grown in the months since I’d seen her. I was grateful she even remembered me.
I felt a pulse of sadness in the feather on my chest, and glanced at Gavriel. Before I could hand her to him, her dark wings bristled with excitement. “Gaga!” she shouted and threw herself just as excitedly into his embrace. She seemed extremely worried when she noted his missing limbs, but then he extended his new wings, and her eyes went saucer-wide. She stroked through the light-feathers with one gentle hand, making cooing noises.
“Where’s her puppy?” I asked, and at least half of the previously smiling Angeli adopted expressions of concern. Well, okay, maybe terror.
“DADO!” Precious shouted, obviously understanding what I’d been saying, because she was a total genius. In less than a breath, an enormous, silvery-gray beast came racing out of the clouds—no,througha cloud wall.
One Angelus grumbled, “I just built that,” but no one else complained.
“This is Shadow?” I wondered, petting the enormous mastiff-looking beast. He’d been a blindingly pure white when I left, but now he was a shimmering hematite. A very familiar color—the precise shade of the void-matter under my skin. “Why’s he gray now?”
“His diet,” Sunny said with a long-suffering sigh. “He won’t eat anything but burned marshmallows.”
“I’ll correct that soon enough,” Perception said, steel in his tone.
“Ooh, Perception, are you the zookeeper here?” I teased.
He rolled his eyes at me, but Sunny sent me a thought.More like a headmaster. Professor Perception, He’s Not Mad, He’s Disappointed. I think it suits him; a whole lot of the younger ex-Protectors have been having kinky sex fantasies about him calling them in for discipline in his “office” after class.
I giggled, and let it go. Except… “Can everyone still hear all the thoughts?” That could get really weird for Percy. And for me, considering how much horizontal catching up I’d been doing with my mates.
Sunny wiggled a hand back and forth, but gently pulled me along the cloud wall to sit on the ground next to what looked like a basketball-sized mud puddle. “More or less. I can’t hear the more mature Angeli. And you’ve always been a special snowflake, so stop worrying.” She smirked. “Though we do allstill have ears, so you might want to stuff a sock in your mouth. Or Ry’s. What have you been doing to that boy, birch? He’s a screamer.”
I felt my cheeks flame. “Things, Miss Merge Expert.Things.So what are we looking at?”
I peered up at Gav, who was holding Precious and eating marshmallows—well, mostly pretending to eat them and sneaking them to Shadow behind his back. Truth hunkered down next to us, and stuck his whole hand into the mud, then lifted it to his mouth.
“What in the name of sweet baby pickles, Truth?”
“I’m mining soulfire,” he explained after he’d swallowed. He had an enormous glowing mud mustache, and I had to laugh. “Try some. Sunny likes to sing hers into truffle form, but I prefer it straight from the source.”
