“…someone must make the sacrifice!” I didn’t recognize the voice, and it stopped when a loud pounding covered it. A gavel, maybe.
“Silence,” Gavriel commanded. “Prosperity has the floor.”
“Thank you, High Angelus. As I was saying, the Great Gate must be mended. We all know it’s in imminent danger of falling. And we all understand that a more comprehensive repair is needed. But for now, if one or two Protectors make a Great Sacrifice, then we’ll have the time to decide how to make that change.”
“And what change would you recommend?” I could have made popsicles with Gavriel’s voice and a glass of juice. “What solution have you found that neither Mikhail nor I have been able to unearth in four centuries?”
Prosperity’s voice went up an octave. “We could send an emissary to Earth and leave a message they’ll notice in the Celestial Realm. Something drastic.”
Gavriel’s mocking tone as he replied had me ducking my head, even though I was obscured by the curtain. “A bomb? Should we kill innocents? Or something less violent, perhaps. We could pretend that the Celestial Realm is in fact, in space, as humans once believed. We could send arocket. I suggest you be the pilot of that vessel.”
The room was filled with laughter and jeering. Then Mikhail spoke. “He’s not completely wrong, Gavriel. We do need more time, and more material for repairs.”
“What do you propose, Mikhail? The Well is closed. You know as well as I do that it would take a half-dozen Guides or high-level Protectors to equal the power that one High Angelus’ sacrifice provided the gate years ago. We are all weakened.”
Mikhail didn’t answer at first, but when another voice called out, “What about Arabella?” he cursed softly. The sounds of wings beating, shouts, and scuffling had me stepping out from behind the curtain. Mikhail was restraining Gavriel from lunging at a robed Guide, and it was taking everything he had to keep Gavriel from plunging the—Holy shizz!He had a soul knife in his hand. If that made contact with the Guide, it would kill him.
I gasped. “Gavriel, don’t!”
Mikhail’s head swiveled to where I stood, and Gavriel took that moment to lift his knife high over the Guide.Crapsticks!I only had a second; I ran and slid on the slick marble floor, across the space between the wall and the crowd, yelling, “Not worth it!” to Gavriel as I zipped between him and the Guide. Gavriel’s eyes practically bulged out of his head, and at the last minute, he pulled the knife to one side, letting it drop to the floor.
“What in the name of all that is holy?” he hissed.
Mikhail just snarled, at me or Gavriel, I wasn’t sure. They both stared at me like I’d been the one trying to commit murder in the middle of the Assembly Hall.
“What is she doing here?” Gavriel growled. Mikhail whispered something in his ear and Gavriel’s face went cold. He straightened up, his face stern. “I will have nothing to do with you imbeciles. Why have I even bothered to protect you? None of you have the courage of that pathetic Novice.” He spat at the cowering Guide on the floor, with actual spit.Ew.“Mikhail, you can explain why my soulmate isn’t to be thrown into the gate by an angry mob.”
In a great burst of power and rush of feathers, he flew up and over the crowd, diving through a doorway that was suddenly opened for him. When he left, the entire room fell silent.
“He’s right,” Mikhail intoned. “You are all imbeciles. What have they been teaching you in your lectures?” A few of the Guides protested, but Mikhail spoke a word that must have meant silence, since they all cut off mid-word. “Feather,” he said gently, though his voice remained loud. “You’ve never taken a class here, have you? Never attended any seminars.”
“Never was allowed to,” I squeaked out, surprised that my voice worked.
Mikhail’s upper lip curled. “Possibly they did you a kindness there. If you don’t mind sharing, what would a sacrifice require, do you think?” He fell as silent as the rest of them, and I fidgeted for a moment. This was a really easy question. What was the trick?
“You’d have to give up something important,” I muttered. “Something that was difficult.”
“Right. So can you explain why Arabella would not be considered an acceptable sacrifice, to repair the gate?”
I frowned. “Well, that’s obvious. She’s not awake, so there’s no way she could sacrifice herself.” I stopped. “From her name, she would be the type to do such a thing. True sacrifice is beautiful.” I almost choked up, thinking about how Growly had sacrificed his future to save me. Did he regret it, deep down? He had to.
“That might be true. I like to think we would all be the type to help each other,” he said, his hand coming to rest on my back. A few Guides around us sucked in their breath. I was glad none of them could talk; their eyes were speaking plenty clearly. “So if these imbeciles shoved Arabella through the Great Gate, what would happen?”
I scratched the itchy birthmark on my chest under my borrowed robe. “Sunny said the Angeli who helped shore up the gate the last time all made sacrifices. She never said anything about people being shoved in… I guess it doesn’t work that way. So, if they did that, they’d be murderers, I would think.” I ignored all the silent shouting going on around us, while Mikhail nodded. “And for no reason—it wouldn’t help and then Gavriel would use his soul knife on the ones who did it…”
The Guide, Prosperity, made a gesture that indicated he thought they could take Gavriel, like a middle school bully at a playground fight, so I went on loud enough for everyone in the Hall to hear, “Then the gate would almost definitely fall due to the imbalance, and I would fingerpaint the walls of the cafeteria with her murderers’pretty, shiny blood.”I bared my teeth at the sneering Guides nearby.
By the last three words, my voice had risen to a terrifying shout, and I cleared my throat. Mikhail’s eyes twinkled, one corner of his mouth twitching, and I knew at least he wasn’t horrified at my threat. It wasn’t even a threat; it was a promise. The thought of these sanctimonious morons, unwilling to pay the cost themselves, but totally happy to let an innocent, unconscious woman do it for them made me feel more than a little murder-y.
I stewed while Mikhail released the others from their silence and began lecturing them all on something that he was calling basic gate theory. It sounded technical, all about how much energy could be saved by reducing power use elsewhere in Sanctuary, blah blah.
I ignored his chatter as Sunny slid around the edges of the room toward me. A few weeks before, she could have done so unobtrusively, but now she shone as brightly as Hope or Righteous. I scanned the room as she sidled up, close enough to whisper in my ear. Righteous was stationed by the door, but his eyes were fixed on me. On my body, not my face. My cheeks heated up as Sunny hissed, “Is that High Angelus Mikhail’s robe?”
I glanced down. It was pretty obvious; only the High Angeli had robes this color, golden instead of white. And this one was sort of rumpled. I blushed harder, remembering how it had gotten that way, and clutched it around my neck. I was almost certain I had at least one hickey, and from the way Sunny was grinding her teeth, she’d seen them before I covered up.
Others had seen too, and they were whispering, pointing, and moving closer as a group.
“Why not ask the most tainted ones to make the sacrifice?” a Protector called out from the crowd. “Choose the six least valuable members of Sanctuary and ask them to shore up the Great Gate.”
