She shrugged. “Honestly, they seem happier to be out here, as angelic pioneers, or homesteaders, than they were in the Celestial Realm. I think it’s because they have purpose now, and they’ve finally been able to forgive themselves. A little sacrifice is good for the soul.” She linked her pinky in mine. “And a Great Sacrifice is perfect… for a ride or die birch.”
“Don’t get sappy,” I warned. “I promised myself I wouldn’t cry today.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” she muttered.
For some reason, her words made me remember a promise I’d made months before.In any life, if we were born again and again, no matter what you looked like, I would see you and want you. I would chase you across a thousand galaxies, Rumple. You’remine.I will never give you up. And I will never give up on you.
Had I made a promise I couldn’t keep? I didn’t know how to chase Rumple down, if he was still alive. I couldn’t fly off into the void on my stunted wings. I wouldn’t leave my mates.
But I would never give up on him.
My eyes prickled with tears, but I fought them off. I hugged Sunny for a while, but when Righteous started yelling at Shadow not to eat a Guide, we both jumped up. I gave the yawning emptiness of the void one last look over my shoulder, and tried to not think about Rumple while we spent the day making truffles and keeping Precious and Shadow entertained.
But the next morning, I was back at that same spot, watching. Waiting.
Hoping against hope that my beloved first teacher was still out there, loving me, though I could feel in every fiber of me that he wasn’t.
Chapter 38
Mikhail
“She’s not happy, Mik,” Gavriel said softly. We stood far enough behind Feather that she couldn’t see us. As usual for the past weeks, our disconsolate little mate was swinging her feet over the void, her sheet stuffed in a ball on her lap.
The thing was filthy, but she wouldn’t let us wash it, even though a new spring of fresh water had erupted a week beforeat the edge of the cloud wall.“It smells like him,”she’d finally explained.
“No, she’s not,” I agreed, assessing my sweet soul. I could feel her grief in the feather we shared, though I knew she had been trying to control the flow of emotions through her bonds to all three of us. She didn’t want us to suffer. “She needs work to do.”
“She won’t. She says she has to watch for Rafe.”
I folded my arms over my chest, looking for a solution. Feather had taken to sitting on that cloud edge for hours every morning, and hadn’t been sleeping well at night either. Dark circles marred the skin below her eyes, and even her shining silver hair seemed flat and lifeless. “I’ve been using the naming chime to create things we need all month. I’m glad Imriel sent us all the soulfire wells. I wouldn’t have felt comfortable making so much with the Guides’ feathers.”
“I would have,” Gavriel grumbled. “Fuckers could be plucked clean and still not make up for all the shit they put her through.” He still held a few significant grudges against some of the Guides, though he knew they had been redeemed.
It was difficult sometimes, living in such close quarters with all the same souls who had been so horrible to our little mate, not to remember their unkindness—though Gavriel had no stones to throw in that regard. And no one had been anything but kind to Feather since her arrival. Precious, on the other hand… I stifled a growl.
Gavriel nodded. “You’ve been working hard, Mik. I’ve seen the lovely playhouse bungalow for Precious. And the furniture in the public spaces. I was a little surprised at the barrel I found in the new fields yesterday, and the stacks of enormous purple dild?—”
I cut him off. “I didn’t make those. Feather did.” He laughed as I added, “And to be specific, it was a fifty-five-gallon barrel of lube, and strap-on toys. She also made some very lovely goldenhardware before I confiscated the naming chime.” I sent him a mental image of the supplies she had fabricated for his promised dick piercing.
“Shit.” He slapped his hands over his crotch. I laughed so loud, Feather heard me and hopped up.
“Growly, what’s up?” She gave me a thorough kiss, then ran to Gavriel and tweaked his nipple before climbing up him and greeting him the same way. We both ignored the silver tear tracks on her cheeks. “So what are we doing today?” she asked with an assessing look at Gavriel. “Are you feeling back to normal yet? Ready for some… fun?”
“No,” Gavriel moaned, grabbing at one of his shoulders, the faker. “Maybe the pain from my injuries will fade in a year or so. I’m not sure.”
“I was thinking you’d like to make some artwork while we wait for Rafe to arrive,” I said gently to distract her, handing her the bag of supplies I’d grabbed shortly after I heard her sneak out of our bedroom in the wee hours of the morning. I’d begun making them the week before, after a conversation with Perception.
“Oh, Growly,” she whispered, pulling out the first part of the gift. It was a hot glue gun, powered by a single barb from one of Truth’s feathers. He’d caught me on the verge of using one of my own and threw a fit, saying I’d already given too much of myself away, and it was time to let others share the honor of sacrificing for our new community.
“It should never run out of power. And the power barb fabricates the glue.” She pawed through the bag, pulling out the sealed packets I’d placed inside, one of every color of the rainbow. “Your best birch has been collecting glitter throughout the Limen for the past three days as well. She has a few bags of the stuff, but I made some extras, so you’d have more to work with than just Precious’s dark purple.”
Gavriel had leaned over the bag to see what was inside, and she picked a piece of pink glitter off his neck with a smirk. “Oh, we have sources of glitter you’ve never even considered, Growly Bear.” It looked like she was going to tug at Gavriel’s trousers to show me something, and I held up a hand.
“I don’t want to know. Where Gavriel keeps his glitter is between him and you.” I went on, over Gav’s spluttered protests, “And possibly Righteous, as long as he consents.” In seconds, both she and Gavriel were wearing matching blushes, and I laughed loud enough to wake the whole of the Limen. “Now, I didn’t make t-shirts, because I thought you might like a larger canvas.” I pulled Feather along to the edge of the cloudbank. “I also thought perhaps, if you used enough glitter, it could be visible from?—”
“From the void,” she rasped, wrapping her arms around me again. “When he comes past, he’ll see it. Oh, Growly, this is the best gift I’ve ever had. If I start now, this place will shine like a spotlight. He’ll have to see me. Us.”
Without another word, she grabbed the sack and went right to the edge of the void. Drawing on the cloud surface with the glue gun, she sprinkled just enough glitter on the semi-circular pattern to stick, then moved on, over and over.
