I didn’t notice until too late the shadows all around him, around me. It wasn’t until the man lay dead at my feet, my sister dead beside him, that I realized I’d done something terrible.
Ashtad was pounding at the door. My heart pounded even louder as the shadows coalesced into a terrifyingly large form that reached for me. Andspoke. “What have you done, beautiful one?” The shadow’s hands were cold on my hot flesh.
“I t-tried to save her.”
A hissing in my ear, almost inaudible, sent prickles of pain up my back. “And yet you did not. She was already gone when you killed the man. You know what that means?”
I did. The Sisters had taught us all about Hell. “I don’t care. It would have been a worse Hell to live, knowing I’d been a coward. That I hadn’t tried.”
The hands seared like burning coals, and I tried not to cry out, but tears fell down my face. I felt a pinch as the flames raced across my neck and chest, then heard a strange gasp. “It’s not possible. It can’t be.” A burning brand ignited on my chest where my birthmark lay. “How did you get so lost?” I didn’t answer; I was in too much pain. Then he sighed. “Such a brave little sacrifice you are.”
I thought of Dina, who had been truly brave in trying to protect me.Thatwas bravery. What I had done was nothing compared to her selflessness.
For some reason, the burning stopped. The hands became warm, soothing. “Little Sacrifice, do you want to live? To protect others like your sister?”
I agreed, and found myself sitting on a warm lap, those hands around my neck, from time to time pressing just beneath my collarbone. He taught me to take the burden from the murder I had committed inside myself. But then I also had to take the man’s sins as well. Every one he’d ever committed, and he’d done so many horrific things. It was indescribably painful, like having my skin stripped away over and over, and boiling pitch poured over the wounds.
Finally, when I was done, I fell asleep. And woke up in another body, years away.
The song ended at the same time my memory did.
“That was beautiful, Rumple.”
“Thank you, Little Sacrifice.”
I mentally rolled my eyes. He hadn’t called me that for a hundred years. “You won’t tell me your name?” Silent amusement. “All right. I still get three guesses. Is it… Eduardo?”
“You already guessed that one. In 1862. Still no.”
“Zeus?”
“Don’t insult me.”
This time, I rolled my eyes for real. “Vladimirov?”
“We’ve talked about this. I’m not a vampire.”
“I could make you into a sparkly one if you’d show up here. I have plenty of glitter.”
He hesitated, then choked out, “You brought glitter into Sanctuary? Oh, Gavriel deserves that.”
“He’s on a mission. He doesn’t know yet,” I said with a grin. Suddenly, I realized what he’d revealed. “You know Gavriel? How do you know him?” I felt rather than heard him moving away. “Rumple? Rumpelstiltskin Johnson the Third, you get back here!”
He didn’t come back, though when a cold wind blew a bunch of glitter from the floor and into my hair right before Sunny knocked, I could have sworn there was laughter in the room.
CHAPTER13
Feather
“So, Sunny bunny, did you find somebody to merge with last night?” I asked my question around a mouthful of some sort of strange golden porridge, then peered across the cafeteria to see if anyone had noticed my gross manners. Nope, everyone was still very carefully not looking at me, as they had been since I showed up.
When Sunny arrived at my room that morning and announced I was allowed to go back to the main Dining Hall—High Angelus Mikhail’s orders—I had been excited. Then I got there and realized they’d made a new grouping—a small table with two cushions, set as far away from the rest of the Protectors as possible. To be fair, a few of them had smiled kindly at first, but the odor I gave off was still horrific. If they made eye contact, they probably assumed I’d come over to chat, and I didn’t blame them for not wanting me near while they ate. Or ingested energy, or whatever.
Breakfast was a disappointment in more ways than one. I’d been happy to have something besides grapes and cheese. Unfortunately, while the porridge looked delicious, it tasted like a mixture of mashed beans and paste. When I’d asked about donuts, Sunny had poked at her middle and laughed, saying something ridiculous about the number of bakery items it was “safe” to eat. If I ever got to meet the chefs, I was going to show them I could safely devour as many as they could safely keep coming.
I put my sludge down and lifted an eyebrow when Sunny didn’t answer. “I’m waiting.”
“Not yet.” She sighed, then sat up a little straighter, leaning forward in a classic “spill the tea” pose. “I did get to watch one of my friends do her first merge. It was… awkward.”
