“Age gap is one of my favorite tropes,” I mumbled. “I’ll read you some sometime…”
Then he whispered into my mind, “How old are you, Feather? How many lives did you live on Earth?”
“Too many,” I said sleepily, the darkness taking over. “G’night.” The sensation of being stroked and held lasted for hours.
CHAPTER24
Mikhail
Madness had infected me; that was the only explanation. I could not put Feather down as she slept. Every time I considered doing so, my limbs locked up until I settled back into my chair.
She was filthy, her smut falling in great chunks away from her with every stroke of my hand over her exposed flesh. I didn’t have to use the knife now for the surface smut. With us connected in this way, my touch alone sufficed. The deeper layers, though, would take months or years to clear up.
Still, I found I didn’t mind the scent of the evil so much, not with her own sweet smell just underneath—like the old strains of roses that used to grow in great heaping briars in Ayrshire. I leaned close, drawing it into my lungs.
She was a marvel. Possibly the strongest being in Sanctuary, except for myself and Gavriel. I wore half the smut she had borne when I took her as my mate, and for the first two days, it had been all I could do not to weep with the agony of carrying it on my feathers and body. I’d used every moment I could to carve it away, and when I could take no more, placed the knife in her fingers as she slept, and scraped the thinnest layers off her as well with my hand over hers. I wouldn’t take chances and cut too deeply.
“My love,” I murmured into her hair, smiling as I remembered Sunny’s startled reaction to finding out the color that lay beneath the mucky strands. Pressing my lips into Feather’s hair, peppering her forehead with gentle, light kisses, I let one hand reach behind her neck to the place where I’d pressed my own feather. It had sunk through the layers of grime like a stone in water, embedding itself in her flesh. She wouldn’t see it, as it lay hidden under her hair, so I could avoid the awkward questions that might come… When she did learn of it, she could decide whether to share the circumstances of our bond with the others.
I ran my fingers lightly over it again, watching as a smile flickered across her sleeping face. I couldn’t see the small feather I’d sacrificed to save her, but I could feel its presence. I wondered if she would begin to acquire some of the powers of the High Angeli now. Gavriel and I could speak to one another mentally, as long as we were in the same realm. Would Feather also develop that skill? When I concentrated, I could already feel what she felt, almost hear her thoughts at times.
Her very naughty thoughts. It delighted me to think that she saw me as attractive. That she wanted me, even with my scarred body and the taint I wore now on my skin. When she was clean, and I was as well, if she accepted me, I would show her what it meant to merge with anoth—
“High Angelus Mikhail?” A voice at the door broke through my madness.
“Sunny.” I straightened, wiping any expression from my face. I must not have done so fast enough, as the young Protector’s dark eyes narrowed slightly.
“How is theNovice?” she asked, emphasizing the final word.
“Sleeping. She ate a bit.” I quickly set my unconscious mate down, busying myself with my carving tools. I didn’t dare look up as Sunny bustled over, dropping a large bag by the center table and laying a hand over Feather’s brow. My face burned when Sunny pursed her lips and frowned like a protective older sister.
She hummed softly. “Look at how fast this smut’s coming off. That’s new.” She took a cloth out of her pocket and rubbed it over Feather’s arm. A streak of nearly clean skin was visible through a fine layer of filth. “She may not need the knife at all. Maybe she’ll be able to move back to her own room soon,” she mused.
“No.” My voice thundered, and a few small, shining pieces of glitter flew into the air between us. Sunny stepped back in alarm, and I apologized hastily. “I meant, she’s far too weak. I’ll need to supervise her treatments.” Sunny’s lips tightened again; her eyes were filled with suspicion. “What did you bring?” I motioned to the bag to change the subject.
“I brought her things,” she replied, hefting the bag up on the table. I hurried over to help, and already had the bag open before I realized Sunny’s expression was as filled with mischief as Feather’s had ever been.
“What is—” I began, as the contents of the bag tumbled out, and a far larger cloud of glitter blew up into the cool air. “Glitter? You brought even more glitter into the Maker Hall?” Panicked, I quickly scanned the space for the four new Novice souls I’d been preparing to send to Earth. I’d had to carve out pieces of my own flesh to make their naming marks, as I had for four centuries, but I was too tainted now to harvest more if I needed to repair any damage. I relaxed when I saw they were completely covered and far enough away. Safe, for now. “Take it away,” I demanded.
Sunny deflated. “She really loves making things.” I shook my head, and she bent her dark curls over the table, shoving what looked like enormous t-shirts into the cloth sack.
Feather’s rasp felt like a finger trailing the edge of my wings. “Don’t… mess up… the ones I made for Mikhail.”
Sunny quit her work and raced to Feather’s side. “Oh, Feather, I was so worried!” She patted silver hair away from the Novice’s face. “How are you feeling? How did you get so covered again? What happened?”
“Yes, what did happen?” I repeated behind her. Feather rolled her eyes.
“I told ya, Sunny,” she whispered, her face under the smut moving into a sweet smile. “You can’t clean… a dirty mind.” She held up a trembling hand, reaching for her friend. “Thanks for washing my hair, birch.”
“Only you would have silver hair underneath all that. Are you sure you’re a Protector?” Sunny laughed, gathering Feather up in her arms.
“That’s what they tell me,” she replied, her voice muffled by Sunny’s shoulder.
Even though I’d seen Sunny taking care of Feather for days, it still shocked me. Any other Protector would have been afraid of being tainted. And Sunny was, but the smut wiped away with a quick swipe of another cloth, and I realized her work this week had done more to clean her own form than any number of purification baths. The sweet-natured woman practically shone like an Angelus.
She picked a grape off the plate near Feather and popped it into her own mouth, examining her friend critically. “Girl, how the heck are you going to find someone to merge with, if you keep caking on the smut makeup? It’s not a good look for anyone. And I had almost lined up a dirty Novice boy for you. A cute one.” Her eyes cut to me.
I fought back a shout. “She cannot merge. She’s too weak.”
