Chapter 34 #2
Imriel shook his head. “Whoever opens the door must walk through it. One soul at a time.”
“Fine, I’ll go alone—” I began to say, but my wings suddenly felt like blades of ice were sawing at their base. “Never mind,” I moaned. “I can’t. Fuck! I can’t go!” I’d have to take Precious with me, and I wouldn’t do that to her.
As I fought to get hold of my emotions, I noted dozens of High Angeli joining us, crowding around. As I paced, desperately trying to think of a solution—knowing that this was Feather’s forte, not mine—more and more of the recent inhabitants of Sanctuary joined us.
Hope laid a hand on my arm, stopping me, and then pulled me into a hug, pressing her cheek to mine. “I’ll go,” she murmured, her eyes filled with sorrow and resolve.
My heart felt like it was being torn in two. We hadn’t yet sealed our mating bond with a feather. With all the uncertainty, and Feather missing, it hadn’t seemed like the time. Technically, she could go. But it would be like saying farewell to half of my heart.
“I’ll find a way back in,” she told me. “I’m Hope, remember?” Her lips met mine, and I tasted the combined salt of our tears.
But before we ended our kiss, the gate opened, and closed with a loud slam. Who had gone? I pulled away from Hope and gasped at the size of the crowd. Almost everyone—maybe every single person from Sanctuary—was there.
“What… Who?” I asked Imriel, who was blinking bemusedly at the closed door.
“Perception,” he said. “He just left. What does he believe he can do that Tradition cannot?”
I had an idea about that. “Perception knows the old Celestial hymns,” I said slowly, trying to process the fact that he’d just given up his eternal place in the Celestial Realm so Hope could stay with me.
“He’s been learning them. Memorizing them.
He sings them to her mates every day. A week ago, he told me they’re a language all to themselves.
That the notes actually carry meaning and weight.
I can’t hear it all, but… Imriel, you listen. ”
Imriel held his ear to the door for a few minutes, holding completely still, and then his face creased with wonder and fear. “They can see something approaching. A star that flies on vast, golden wings. Wings of… light?”
“Feather’s wings are tiny. It can’t be her.”
Imriel shook his head. “I know this song. Seraphiel wrote it; it’s the hymn of homecoming. The light carrying the weary wanderer to the restful door.”
Hope grabbed my hand. “It’s not just Feather we’re waiting for. Gavriel, he’s the Lightbearer. It’s him—he’s bringing her home.”
“We have to go,” I said, suddenly desperate. “We have to go out there and help bring her inside.”
“She has a Celestial key, but you do not. You can’t carry one, Sunny. Only the First Children, and Celestials who have undergone centuries of preparations can—”
“Stop saying can’t,” Hope growled. “You’re giving me a stomachache.” Imriel backed away from her slightly; she did look as if she might snap.
While Imriel went to the door to listen again, I fought to control the impulse to race out there. I knew my best birch needed me. The truth of that thought rang in my bones, in every feather of my wings.
Hope’s eyes met mine, and she took my hand. “I’ll go with you,” she whispered.
“The song has changed,” Imriel said, his voice now throbbing with sorrow. “He’s singing the hymn of the lost.”
That decided it. I gripped Hope’s hand in mine. “Is there any chance we can get back in?”
“You can’t—” Imriel began, but when Hope narrowed her eyes, he quickly added, “Not until the balance is restored. Only then will the Celestial gate open wide.”
“Sounds like hope to me,” I said quietly. I’d spent more time around this guy than I’d ever wanted, and I could tell he was quietly freaking out inside. “I have to go.”
Hope smiled. “I’m going too, then.”
My heart bloomed with even more love for my woman.
“Imriel, get Mikhail and Righteous as close to the doorway as possible. When Gavriel and Feather arrive, they’ll need to be right there.
Can you send someone to move them here? And Precious.
As I’m sure you’ll be glad to hear, I’ll need to take her, too. ”
His face froze in a peculiar expression. “You’re taking her away?” He closed his eyes for a moment, as if he was listening to a voice only he could hear. Then he opened his eyes, though they seemed haunted now. “You’re right. You must all go, and quickly.”
“Who’s all?” Hope asked.
“As many as will make the sacrifice for Feather,” he replied, before leaning back to the door to listen. “But Mikhail and Righteous would need to go through as well.”
“We can’t make that choice for her, for them. Deny them all this place?”
Hope’s voice was gentle. “Do you really think Feather would leave you and Precious in the Limen? Do you believe Mikhail would want to stay here, with Precious outside with you? Or Feather, for that matter? We’re a family, Sunny.
” She circled me with her arm. “We’ll bring them out with us.
The bond is suffocated by the Celestial gate anyway.
They’ll start to recover as soon as they go through. ”
“You’re right,” I said, my voice clogged with tears. “Honestly, the sheets here suck so bad, I already wasn’t sure I was going to stay. I didn’t want to say anything but, birch, please.”
“That’s the spirit.” Hope smiled. “Time to go then.”
Imriel’s face was a mask of sorrow. “I never imagined I would allow anyone to take souls without their express consent through the gate—no one has ever left. Ever wanted to leave!” He had his hands in his hair and was tugging at it, like he could pull a better solution out by the roots.
“This can’t be the only way. It’s too… permanent. ”
“If you have a better idea, let’s hear it.” He paced and fumed for the next ten minutes, but came up with nothing, while more and more residents of the Celestial Realm gathered behind the crowd of souls from Sanctuary.
While Imriel stewed, we had everyone gathered up: Mikhail and Righteous on their floating cloud bed as well as Truth and his octet.
They had enormous bags filled with instruments, but Imriel shook his head.
“Remember, you can only take your gift from the Singer of Songs.” It dawned on me that Tradition’s gift must have been his harmonica…
and that meant I could take my kazoo. And nothing else.
“What about Mikhail’s shirts, and Righteous’s roses?”
“Voilà.” Hope pulled back a corner of the sheet on the floating bed, and I saw their gifts stacked neatly underneath, next to their bodies. I kissed her soundly for being so prepared. There was nothing sexier than competence.
“Right. Choir Leader, can we live out there? Is there energy for healing and food out there?” I only remembered some cloud furniture.
“On my wings, I vow there will be,” Imriel promised, and I saw why he was the leader then. The world around us shook with the force of his vow. I could tell that whatever he had promised, it was not some small thing.
“Thank you,” I managed to say when the thunder stopped.
“It is the very least that I can do for…” His voice broke, and I remembered that he would not be able to leave. He had to lead this realm, and this meant he might never see us again.
“I’ll make sure Perception sings to you,” I promised. “We’ll get word back.”
His eyes shone as he called out to the crowd, “You will need fuel for your soulfires. Our friends are surrounded by the Abyss. Lost in the void. They cannot see their way home. If you go, tether yourself to the liminal space, and fly as far as you can, in hope that they will see you.” He frowned.
“When you step out into the void, you will draw shadows to you, like moths to flames.
Stay true to your mission. Sing without ceasing.
“Know this, Sacrifices of Sanctuary. Leaving means you may not see this realm for a very long while. Not until the balance is restored. But your names will be sung in these halls and your deeds praised from now until the Singer ends the final song.” With that, he bowed and did.
.. something. It felt like a soft hook being embedded inside my chest. Not terribly painful, but not comfortable.
“It’s a spool,” Hope murmured, her hand on her heart. “A spool of pure power.” Imriel’s power. I could see his hand moving, pulling it out of the ends of his wings.
“A tether,” I breathed. Now Imriel was at the side of Righteous and Mikhail, his hands on their arms, singing something almost harsh in its beauty. They glowed with the light that poured out of him, and for a moment, I thought I saw Righteous take a breath.
Precious was awake now, and blinked up at the Choir Leader.
“My,” she said, reaching for the stream of power with that lightning quickness that seemed so at odds with her toddler appearance.
Her hand shot into the beam, making a tiny fist around the light.
When she did, a huge cloud of glitter exploded from her, drifting down onto the sheets.
Imriel staggered slightly. “What did you—” He had glitter all over his face.
Where had it come from? I stared at Precious, who was cooing softly, and realized she had changed.
Her body was so much less contaminated by smut; I could almost see patches of her golden Novice material underneath it in places.
The smut redistributed itself after only a second, though, so the smooth golden-bronze glow vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
Shadow lifted his wrinkled head and sneezed into the glitter covering him.
“You’re going as well?” the Choir Leader asked the dog, staring like he’d never seen a glitter-covered puppy before.
Shadow, far larger than he had been even a few days before, only yawned and lay back down, snuggling into the sheets.