Chapter 2
Feather
“Sweet soul, wake up.” The low, growling voice reverberated through my body, but I kept my eyelids as tightly shut as possible. The last time I’d woken, shizz had gone down. There had been pain and even more painful revelations.
Nope, I was going to stay asleep, thank you very much, and hope that what I’d learned about myself was a nightmare.
Anyway, I’d been dreaming that I was the sole photographer for an Australian firefighter calendar, and I’d just instructed the big boys to get naked and oil up with a giant tub of melted butter next to a barbeque grill for the “summer sausage” spread.
“I’ll get naked and rub butter on myself if you’ll open your eyes, Scrap,” another voice said, as something long, hard, and probably not an actual summer sausage bumped me on the thigh.
I sat up, blinking. “Righteous?” He kissed the tip of my nose and pushed his dark hair away from his face.
“Holy hand grenades, you look amazing,” I breathed.
He was golden and glowing, his skin literally shimmering with hidden fire.
His eyes were a brighter gold than ever, his wings blindingly white, and his body… “Ry. You’re naked.”
I took a long moment to make sure he was, indeed, fully naked.
Yes. Every single finely honed inch of him was one hundred percent buck nakedly exposed.
I licked my lips, so thirsty I almost couldn’t stand it.
I’d only had time to explore the full glory of a nude Righteous twice, an error my sausage wallet was about to rectify.
“Sausage wallet? Did she just…?” Laughter rang out all around me, and I twisted my head. Mikhail had me in his arms, and he was also gloriously bare and equally shiny. His scars stood out all over his deep bronze skin, like silver hieroglyphs my fingers itched to trace.
He stared down at me, his turquoise and black eyes dancing.
“You should know, sweet soul, your thoughts are as clear as speech—not just to your mates, but to the Celestial inhabitants. My fingers also itch to trace your beauty.” He leaned over and gave me a long, thorough tonsil inspection, then lifted his head and propped me up on my feet.
I felt woozy and incomplete, but the pain from before was muted. Less searing agony and more lethargy. I had enough energy to take in my surroundings, though.
The world around me was all in shades of white, but tinted with blues and pinks and yellows, like watercolors on clouds. There was some crazy light flickering everywhere, making prisms on the fluffy surfaces, almost like a laser light show.
A glowing face with dancing brown eyes and a curtain of straight dark hair leaned close to mine.
“Feather, the Beautiful Sacrifice, welcome to the Limen.” When she said the word, a thousand others echoed in it: antechamber, vestibule, atrium, couloir, passageway, sacred space, waiting room, threshold.
“Haneul?” The last time I’d seen her, we’d been in…
My mind shut down, not only because it was too painful to think about where I’d seen her, and who we’d been with—my birthmark throbbed like a birch when I even pictured his face—but also, she was stupidly, ridiculously, unfairly hot when she was unclothed.
My eyes dropped to my own insignificant boobs and scrawny limbs. There went my hope of becoming miraculously sexy in Heaven. Or the Celestial Realm. Same thing.
A soft hand under my chin lifted my gaze to meet hers, and Haneul shook her head gently.
“When I behold you, I see a miracle. Your soulfire is phenomenal. Feather, you can’t see it yourself, but you’re the one making the light show.
You’re the brightest soul I’ve ever beheld outside of the Celestial Realm. You rival the First Children.”
Scanning the area, I realized it was my body that was reflecting the tiny prisms of brilliance all around us. I remembered the cleansing fire, and knew exactly who had taken all the external smut away. “Whoa,” I breathed. “I’m shiny.”
“You are, love.” Growly picked me up again, cradling me to his warm chest. Righteous moved next to him and laid a hand on my arm. Suddenly, some of the pain I’d been ignoring was snuffed out. It was manageable now.
I shuddered with relief, then thought about who else was missing. “Where are Sunny and Precious?” My heart skipped as Mikhail and Ry shared a glance. “They didn’t get lost in the void?” We’d all crossed over one at a time, but not all of us were here now. Had Precious gotten lost in the void?
“She’s fine, love,” Mikhail said. “Sunny caught her right inside the Great Gate, and held her all the way here.”
I wanted to relax, but there was something they were hiding from me. “Then where are they? They weren’t hurt coming through, were they?”
“They’re both fine,” Haneul interrupted, her voice as full of music as ever.
And truth. “Every being who approaches the Celestial gate does so alone. We made an exception for Precious and Sunny, as they are bound by Sunny’s vow, and Precious is a child.
This realm has never had an… angelic… child enter its Celestial gate.
” Amusement and concern warred in her gaze.
I nodded, slightly less concerned. “And us three?” I nodded to Ry and squirmed against Growly’s massive, warm chest. “We go in together?”
“Not normally.” Her brow creased in a slight frown.
“You were cleansed of all the external smut from your adventures in Sanctuary, between stepping through the Sanctuary gate and your travels through the void. But you were unusually tired. We decided to give you a little time here to rest so you could fully experience the next spiritual crossing.”
“Oh, that’s good,” I said, confused. I was still well past exhausted. Where were we? “I don’t want to sleep through the spiritual parts.”
“Indeed,” she replied in that soothing, melodic voice.
At the same moment, I heard Righteous think, I thought you were into spiritual somnophilia, Scrap. I seem to remember you liking it more than a good girl should.
I’ll show you a good girl. I narrowed my eyes at him and thought of myself as a naughty librarian, tapping a doeskin flogger on one hand while Ry sat at a tiny desk, dressed in a schoolgirl uniform, wings folded behind him. Waiting for his punishment.
Haneul muffled a laugh, and Ry’s cheeks colored. Growly muttered, “Every thought, sweet mate. Save that one for later, though. It has possibilities.” Ry went into a coughing fit, while Haneul rolled her eyes.
I shook my head, then gasped, lifting my hands to my hair. “My clit horns are gone! Did someone cut them off?”
More laughter. “No, Scrap. They dissolved with the rest of the smut.”
A feminine voice echoed faintly in my mind.
It’s a good thing, too. If they’d stayed there through her passage, they might not have been removable.
And she would never be allowed inside. I kept my face still; I was pretty sure Haneul hadn’t meant for me to hear that.
I was certain my mates hadn’t picked up on it since they didn’t react at all.
“What happened to Precious?” She was a Novice, but also sort of a shadow demon, and her horns were definitely not removable. I squinted at Haneul, but Growly answered.
“She’s fine. I watched as they let her inside, as is.” The glint in his eyes told me he might have had something to do with her being allowed into the Celestial Realm, horns and all.
Haneul shifted uncomfortably. “It wasn’t quite that smooth an entrance. But no matter. As I was saying. You appeared here externally purified, Feather, but you still have some smut inside you.”
At that, Righteous, Mikhail, and I all had the same dirty thought, and the clouds around us shook, but not with laughter. Impatience?
Haneul faced the clouds and hissed, “I’m trying! Hold on for a moment, Sabriel. Honestly, you’d think you were the newest Celestial.”
“Is that what we are? We’re not called High Angeli anymore?” I whispered to Mikhail.
“Both titles work,” he whispered back. “Not that they matter. We’re done with all that.”
Done with jockeying for advancement and worrying about hierarchy? Fudging Hallelujah. I peered around. “This isn’t the Celestial Realm, though.”
“Why not? Not fancy enough?” Ry teased, turning in a circle to gesture to the very fluffy cloud walls and… cloud sofas? We were in some sort of lobby. He stepped back, hands on his hips. “What did you expect, streets of gold?”
I tried not to let myself look at his bobbing anaconda for more than a moment. It was waving at me, though, so it was hard to focus on talking. I waved back discreetly and mouthed the word later. “Puppies,” I blurted out as Mikhail growled impatiently. “Haneul promised.”
She hummed in agreement. “That I did. Now, you do have to enter alone; our gate has been… adjusted since Sunny and Precious went through. Once again, it will only admit one soul at a time. Normally, it doesn’t hurt at all.
In fact, it’s an exquisitely joyful moment.
But without your mates, you might…” She chewed at her lip. “You’re going to feel it.”
“I get it. It doesn’t hurt as much when they’re touching me. But it will when I go through the gate.” She nodded. “It won’t hurt them to be away from me?”
She smiled tightly. “They’ll survive.” It’s you I’m worried about.
“All right. Then let them go first.” Mikhail started to protest, but I finished, “It’ll give me even more reason to get through.
” As if my words had activated it, a huge door appeared in the side of one of the clouds.
A fire door, with a bar handle, like elementary schools had.
“That’s your gate?” I scoffed. “Not sexy at all.” Not like Revel.
Ry leaned in and kissed me hard. “You’re such a deviant,” he murmured. “Gates, Feather? Really?”
Haneul was laughing as she pushed him through the door-gate. I patted Growly’s chest as he put me down. He kept one hand on me until the very end, and then, with a snarl that told me exactly how he felt about leaving me behind, he slammed through the door.