Chapter 8 #2
Fudge that. I had lived through way too much ridiculous shizz to have this be the end of me.
I was going to fly my silvery ash back to Sanctuary, get the rest of the Vitamin D I needed for optimal coochie and spiritual health—even if it came attached to a grumpy basshole—then rescue my friends, send up a feather-shaped flare or something for Rumple to find his way to me, and haul them all in a giant sack made out of decent sheets back to this realm.
And then I’m going to take a nap. Because even superheroes get tired, motherfudgers!
Imriel’s lips curled up at the corners as I fumed. “Yes, that,” he said, staring at… my hair? My skin?
I wrinkled my nose. He’d better not be staring at anything else, because we were related, for the love of buttered biscuits!
He closed his eyes—in exasperation, probably. “Whatever you’re feeling right now, whatever you’re thinking—that’s what will get you back to this realm. That fire.”
“You couldn’t read my thoughts?”
For a moment, he looked as surprised as me. “Your thoughts are much quieter now.”
Hmm. Maybe the day of sexy merging had supercharged me. “I was thinking I wanted to kick your ash for being such a perverted douche canoe,” I admitted. His smile dimmed slightly. “Sorry.”
He shook his head. “If disliking me gets you back home, then feel free to think all sorts of ill of me.”
Beside me, I heard Mikhail mumble, “Join the club.”
Imriel’s cheeks flushed. “As I was saying, you will need the key, along with a Celestial Message.”
“Do you actually have one?” Sunny asked. Out of nowhere, Precious popped up on her shoulder, swinging her legs down, a half-chewed marshmallow hanging out of her mouth.
Imriel shuddered. “No, not really. You can decide on a message while I place the key in your spiritual core, along with the song that will speed you to Sanctuary.”
“Cool,” I said, not worried about that part.
Imriel’s mouth puckered tighter than a mosquito’s butthole.
“It is no small thing, Feather, to carry a Celestial key in addition to the song and your message. You must approach this task with the gravity it requires. With an understanding of the difficulty of the task, and the necessity of bearing in mind…” He kept lecturing, sounding more and more like Mr. Collins from Pride and Prejudice by the second.
I boosted Precious on my hip, rocking her back and forth as he droned. “Yeah, thanks, Imri. I got it—it’s gonna be super hard. I’ll probably fail, and blah blah.” I gave him a thumbs up. “Great pep talk.”
Imriel backed up a step as Precious leaned closer to him, babbling softly in demonic, her tiny dark lashes fluttering so hard she was shaking bits of glitter from them to the cloud floor.
“Im-e-ree, E-ne-mee,” she babbled, and then some more in demonic.
I put a hand on her rounded tummy, not liking the intense look she had as she stared at the guy.
I did kind of enjoy the nauseous, slightly terrified expression he got every time she cooed “enemy” at him, though.
He shifted his attention back to me. “Feather, if you tell me what message you would like to give, I’ll wrap it in the song, then place it in your mind.
Along with the power to return and rejoin us.
Once that happens, you’ll sing all the way across the void.
There will be no room in your thoughts for anything but the song.
And I fear that the void may take advantage of that.
It will speak to you, try to lure you into the Abyss. ”
A memory tickled my mind. “This void. It’s got a voice? It can talk?”
He frowned. I tried not to think too loudly about the voice that had filled my mind back in Sanctuary, when I had taken almost the entire realm’s worth of smut into my own soul.
“Um, like hypothetically. If this void could talk, would it sound like a chain-smoker grunting to tear them all to shreds or, uh, strike them all down? You know, if you had to guess?”
He sucked in a breath. “You’ve heard it before, haven’t you?” The Celestial guards were looking at me like they might pull out their balls of danger light, or whatever, and smite me.
“Dude, I was just curious. I mean, I have heard a voice for a really long time.” His eyes narrowed, and I felt his mind brush mine.
So I thought of the voice that had spoken to me for so long, the one Rumple had said wasn’t him.
“The voice I’ve heard forever sounds like all the bells in the world ringing at once, but far away. And it only says one thing: Protect.”
His smile returned. “You heard a voice saying to protect?” I nodded, very carefully not thinking of the scary voice of doom from Sanctuary. “What did it sound like?”
I remembered the voice that told me what to do, every time I had to choose whether to keep going. Keep saving the children on Earth, or even the souls in Sanctuary. Opening my mind, I projected that memory so Imriel could hear.
I may have over-projected. For some reason, the Celestial guards around us all fell to their knees, bowing.
To me.
“That was the Singer of All Songs talking to you, Feather,” Imriel said quietly. “Thank you for allowing us all to hear Her voice.”
Silence beat down on me like bright sunlight. Flapping to my shoulder, Precious crooned happily into my ear. “Oh, I like this,” Sunny whispered, smirking at the guards who were still kneeling to me. “They know I’m your best birch, yeah?”
I cleared my throat and stepped forward, raising my arms. “Know this: Sunny, Light of Truth, is my ride or die birch, my companion in every realm. Anything she desires should be given unto her until my return. Chocolates, to begin with, and far better sheets than those she lies upon now. Also, in all haste, novels, filled with love interests bearing tentacles, and bosoms of a prodigious—” I broke off when Imriel pushed my arms down.
“Save that energy for the trip,” he muttered, turning me toward my mates, who were both staring at me like I’d embarrassed them. Whatever.
“At least my name’s not Anaconda Pants,” I hissed as Ry glared.
Sabriel approached before Ry could apologize.
“Say your farewells, Feather. You must go alone, and soon. Your mates were able to staunch the flow of soulfire to a large extent, but there is still a wound. Oh, and leave your clothing here.” When I groused, she explained, “It would only be destroyed. In the void, you can only carry the gifts that the Maker of All has granted you. Your kindness, your generosity, your resourcefulness, your love.”
I blinked up at her. “I can only take my gifts from the Maker of All?” She nodded. “Sweet. Sunny, can you fly back to the healing room for me and get Mike?”
“Of course.” Sunny flew off.
When I turned back to my mates, Mikhail had a hand over his face, and Righteous’s eyebrows had practically vanished into his hairline. I shrugged. “Well, She gave it to me. It’s my gift. And I might need a weapon in the Abyss, right?”
Righteous made an odd gurgling noise, then said, “You’re going to fight off the shadows with…”
“Mr. Oxbig, my battery-operated boyfriend,” I agreed, as I saw Sunny fly back into view.
“Otherwise known as Mike.” Righteous rubbed his forehead, like he was getting a headache.
“Come on, it kind of scared you when I came at you with it this morning, Ry—” I started, but he growled and swung me up into his arms.
“I’ll scare you,” he threatened, but I could see a tear in his eye.
“You come back to us, Scrap. To me. I can’t lose you again.
” His jaw worked for a moment, and then he whispered, his voice ragged, “I love you, Tili. And if I have to fly across the Abyss to get you back, I will. There is no limit to my love. No boundary to what I’d do or give to remain at your side. ”
I stared into his golden eyes and kissed him, neither of us blinking, as if we wanted to memorize each other in the moments we had left. “Just remember, Ashtad. The right thing is almost always the scary thing.”
He nodded once. “Yes. I’m terrified right now. So this must be exactly what we’re meant to do.”
I pulled his head down and whispered into his ear, “Take care of Growly, Ry. He’s weaker than he’s acting, isn’t he?
” I already knew the answer. Both of them had juiced me up all day, and I could almost feel the energy coursing into me from my new mating feathers as well.
When Mikhail had placed his feather on my nape only hours earlier, I’d felt a sudden dip in his reserves.
I was afraid the straining of our bond, once I left, might damage him further.
“You do whatever you have to do to keep him safe for me, okay?”
“I swear it on my wings,” he vowed, setting me on my feet and pressing a kiss to the top of my head.
I put my hands on my hips and mock-glared. “You keep those wings right where they are, Mister. I have a feeling we’re going to need them.”
I hadn’t finished turning away when I felt warm, burly arms wrapping around me.
I buried my face in Mikhail’s chest, letting the tears fall where no one could see.
“I’m scared,” I admitted, my voice muffled against his muscular chest. I stroked the feather on his forearm, and felt an answering hum in the one on my nape.
“What if I don’t come back? What if I don’t get there in time?
What if I don’t get there at all?” I let out a single sob.
“Who am I to think I can even try this?”
With one finger, Mikhail tipped my chin up to look at him, his other hand moving to my sensitive nape.
“You are my beloved, the sweet soul who saved me from a lifetime of loneliness. The beautiful sacrifice who has the army of the Singer of Songs on their knees before you.” His fingers moved gently over my features, tracing each curve and line.
“When this realm is nothing but dust, my heart will still sing your name. When the stars go dark, and the universe goes cold, the light in these eyes will be the fire that keeps me warm. I love everything about you. My hands have memorized your form, and my soulfire has lived in your soul since the moment we first mated. Rafe remade you once, and my love? If it comes to that, I will do it again.”
Everyone around us was weeping, even Precious, though I wasn’t certain she knew why she was crying.
“I’ll hold you to that, Growly,” I murmured, standing on my tiptoes to kiss his chin.
“But I have one request.” He lifted a dark eyebrow.
“I want bigger boobs next time. At least as big as Ry’s man breasts.
It’s super embarrassing to be mated to a guy with a better rack.
” Mikhail swept me up into a bear hug and closed my mouth with kisses, while we both laughed.
When he set me down, Imriel stepped forward. “Your song, Feather. It’s time. What message should I weave into it?”
I leaned as close as I could, whispering so quietly that no one else could hear.
Honestly, it wasn’t the worst message I could have come up with.
When I felt his confusion and distaste, I mentally suggested a few alternate ideas, which had him psychically flailing.
I sent a mental wink and eyebrow waggle his way.
“You really are like a little sister,” he said, exasperation mingled with humor in his expression. “Such a brat. However, older brothers can be just as bad.”
That was why, when he opened a pathway between our minds and sang it back to me in a language that had everyone besides him and me slapping their hands over their ears, the notes of the music trilled just like laughter.
The power he placed into my soul’s vessel was almost unbearably heavy.
But the music filled my heart with an unexpected joy.
Joy and hope.
The song rushed through me like a tidal wave, filling not only my soul, but my physical form. I felt like a water balloon that had been overfilled; if I didn’t start singing it soon, I’d burst. My vision blurred, but I heard a plaintive “Mama!” and felt Precious’s arms round my neck.
“Get that thing away,” Imriel commanded. “She has to start singing and go now, or she won’t make it!”
My vision went hazy and red for a split second.
I almost opened my mouth to tell him what I thought of him, when Precious uttered a very clear, “Fucking fuckface fuck,” and zipped over to him, moving like lightning.
Before he could say another word, she’d created an enormous, half-melted marshmallow and plopped it right on top of his head, covering his too-perfect hair with white and golden-brown goo.
Sunny whisked her away before he could react, and Mikhail and Righteous swept me over to a part of the cloud wall that became an ugly fire door as we approached.
Ry handed me my dildo, and Mik set my hands on the door.
It didn’t move at first, but then I let my lips open a bit, and sent the smallest hint of breath between them.
The world burst into light and sound, prisms reflecting all around me. For a moment, I felt the universe embrace me, like a mother holding her child for one last moment before they ran off to play.
And then I stepped through the door and into the Abyss, singing as loud as I could.