Chapter 5 #2
Imriel turned back to her. “Indeed. By coming here, your soul was torn wide open. The psychic wound will not heal until you and Gavriel are reunited as beloved mates.” He looked shocked when Feather burst into laughter.
“Beloved mates? Gavriel couldn’t stand me. He literally cut me up with a soul knife the first time we met.”
The clouds around us suddenly turned dark, lightning flashing between them. “He did what?” Imriel snarled.
Feather shrank back. “Hey, what’s a little torture between mates?
I mean, he got better. He apologized. Eventually.
” The lightning flashed even brighter. Righteous and I both spread our wings, prepared to protect her if Imriel’s storm of anger threatened her.
“He swore on his wings never to hurt me again. To be my friend.”
The thundering ceased. “You’re… friends now?”
“More or less. We’re on speaking terms.” She chewed at her lip. “Even though I may have sort of renamed him my nemesis.”
Comprehending at once, Imriel sighed heavily. “That’s unfortunate.”
“Look, I make mistakes. Sue me,” she complained, sitting up and straightening her t-shirt. Her hand slipped inside the loose neckline, and she rubbed unconsciously at the feather there. “Anyway, I am a mistake, so that’s pretty much on brand for me.”
Imriel smiled gently, though if he leered at her again, I was going to punch him right in that too-pretty face. He winked at me—hearing the thought loud and clear—before looking back down at Feather. “You are not a mistake, little sister. By some, I suppose you might be called a divine error.”
Feather rolled her eyes so hard it had to hurt. “What’s the difference?”
One corner of his mouth lifted. “Divine errors are Her mistakes. She likes to call them miracles. And they usually turn out.”
Suddenly, the air around us hummed with ethereal music as Imriel… prayed? Yes, I was sure of it. His thoughts were a music that transcended time and space. I closed my eyes and prayed as well, for my mate’s health, and Gavriel, and Seraphiel.
Next to me, I felt Feather’s energy drifting away from her, one particle at a time.
Her essence, growing weaker. I pulled at the blue healing power all around me and fed it through our bond into her.
For a moment, she grew stronger. Righteous felt what I was doing, and he mirrored my actions, funneling the realm’s power into our mate.
I felt her energy stabilize for a moment, as the outrush of her soulfire slowed.
Gavriel must be dying as well, she thought. I have to go back. Not just for me, but for him.
You can’t, my love. There is no way back there. No way to return.
I’ll find a way. Her voice was resigned.
I raged at the injustice of it. She’d never had the chance to say no to an impossible task. She’d saved countless innocents, while lost and alone, and then returned to Sanctuary to do the same for an entire realm who had never loved her as they should.
And now she would fight to leave what she called Heaven to save a soulmate who she believed never even wanted her, though I knew better.
Sweet soul, I love you more than my own life, and more than this place.
If it means we leave here forever, so be it.
Heaven for me is wherever you are. I opened my heart and allowed her to merge mentally with me.
Our souls sang together beautifully, my own song deep and rich, hers bright and swift-moving.
We stayed there for a moment. Then Righteous’s song joined ours, and I felt his soul next to mine, supporting our mate as she rested in the notes we spun together. His voice was golden and pure. Strong for one his age, and full of belief in impossibility.
We would need that.
We must save Gavriel. Soon, before she weakens further, I thought to Imriel, clearly enough that we could all hear. We must go back.
He answered, his thread of mental communication so strong it was almost painful, No one who leaves here can return. At least, no one ever has.
What about Celestial Messengers? Feather asked. Haneul got back in.
Imriel hummed. I suppose it’s theoretically possible, but only because you’re made of Celestial matter. You would be cut off from your mates here in the same way you are now separated from Gavriel’s soul. The pain would be doubled.
I can deal with pain. You could say I’m an expert at it, Feather replied. How would it work?
Imriel’s eyes gleamed as he considered the problem. Then he breathed, “She would have to become a bridge.”
No! we all thought at him.
No, not like Revel. Another rush of music spun through my mind, a bright cacophony. She would be a different sort of bridge.
Explain, I demanded.
When we focus here, meditate, we can send a single thread of power through the gate.
We never know if it’s reached its intended recipient; we just have faith that the ones we’ve prayed for have received its gift.
If you two sent energy down a single thread to Feather as she traveled as a Celestial Messenger, in theory, she could follow it back to you.
As long as you stayed alive here. His gaze was doubtful.
She would be a temporary bridge. But there is no way of knowing how long she would be gone.
“I would be a what now?” Feather said aloud. I was glad to move the conversation back out loud; Imriel’s mental thread was potent. My head felt like it might burst from the pressure of his thoughts.
“A temporary bridge of power between realms, as well as a Celestial Messenger, so you would have the power to re-enter this realm. If your mates stayed here, they could anchor you, and funnel the energy of the realm through your bond. You’re still tied to Sanctuary through your link with Gavriel, whether or not he deserves that connection. ”
“No,” I said at once, but Righteous cut me off.
“Arabella and Feather’s souls have a link as well. She’d have two tethers there, and two here.”
“No,” I repeated quietly, though they all ignored me.
“And Rumple, too,” she breathed. “He’s inside me.
When he remade me, he mixed us up a bit.
Maybe when I go through the Abyss, he’ll sense me.
I could go back and grab Gav and Arabella, and then pick up Rumple on the way back here…
though I had a terrible dream that he was gone.
” The deep truth in her words was obvious. Something had happened to Rafe.
I wanted to say yes to the pleading in her eyes, but I could not. Taking her face in my rough, scarred hands, I lifted it to mine, pressing a kiss to her pale lips. “No, my love. I promised you I wouldn’t be parted from you again. The Abyss is too dangerous. I will go with you.”
“Could he go with me?” she asked Imriel.
“Mikhail is strong,” he said, examining me like I was some sort of equation to solve. “It usually takes decades to build up a vessel that can carry the Celestial key to return, but he has inner resources…” He shook his head. “It’s too dangerous. If it fails, you’ll be unmade instantly.”
“Then you can’t go.” She blinked her impossibly green eyes. She was terrified, but trying to hide it. “I can do this, Growly. I can do it if you’re here to come back to. You and Ry, and Precious.”
Righteous shot me a glance and picked her up, carrying her across the room to where her inappropriate gift from the Maker of All glowed bright against the pastel cushions of a sofa. Distracting her.
I can’t leave her, I thought to Imriel as he stood, waiting for my answer.
If you don’t let her go, she will leave all of us, he replied.
We can’t repair her wound. If theirs were a normal mating, then perhaps we could heal her.
But Gavriel’s feather isn’t on the surface; it can never be cut away.
It is part of her very soul, so if she doesn’t go, she’ll die.
But even if you could go with her… His glance flitted to Righteous, and I knew what he was thinking, what he was seeing.
A young High Angelus, only ascended for days, with a heart that was willing, but nowhere near the vast reserves of power he would need to pull not only Feather, but Gavriel and me, back across the void.
He was right. I knew it. I had to stay, had to let my love leave me here, and act as her anchor. As Gavriel’s support.
But I didn’t have to like it.
Imriel had work to do to prepare the guard for another opening of the Celestial gate.
He pulled Righteous and me aside while Feather fiddled with the controls of the gift she’d been given.
I hadn’t taken a very close look, but there was something about it that made me wonder if it wasn’t something more than a toy.
“I’ve asked for a room to be prepared for you three,” the Choir Leader told us.
“Our Healer, Sabriel, has a special chamber that can be saturated with the healing power of the Celestial temples. We haven’t had a High Angelus enter our realm for a long while, and she’s eager to use her healing on you three. ”
“Just Feather,” Righteous insisted. “Use all of it on her.”
Imriel shook his head. “She’ll need it, but you both will as well. When she exits the gate, you’ll feel as if your souls have been torn open. You’ll need strength to keep going until her task is done.”
“When she re-enters the realm with Gavriel?” I sighed. “And we just sit here, until then. Not knowing. Just hoping.”
“This is bullshit,” Righteous grumbled at my side. “She’s not strong enough for this. Her spirit, yes. But she’s losing her soulfire with every second.”
Imriel nodded. “There is something you two can do to help strengthen her. You could give her a large portion of your energy in advance. She might not even feel the pain of your separation for some time. It would make it far harder for you here—”
“We’ll do it,” Righteous and I both said at the same time. I fought back a smile. A very worthy co-mate for my sweet soul, indeed.
“Then merge,” Imriel suggested. “Spiritually and physically, for as long as you can, as vigorously as you can, until the very last moment. Draw on the healing room for yourselves, but feed its power into her as well as your own, as quickly as possible, and as deeply. Tie your souls so tightly together that she will feel your love and your strength, even across realms. You can leave small reservoirs of your own soulfire within hers.” He showed us, mentally, what he meant.
How to use mating marks as energy storage.
“That’s possible?” I asked. I’d never heard of such a thing. Imriel shrugged.
Righteous answered for him. “With Feather, all things are possible.”
The Choir Leader was laughing as we turned to retrieve our mate. Our miracle. It was time to merge like our lives depended on it.
And more importantly, like our beloved’s life did.