AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A shadow moved across the half-open back doorway, and I cursed myself for not checking that entrance. I peered outside, seeing only a few Protectors seated around a picnic table a few hundred feet away. I reached out with my thoughts to check for any other Protectors, but the area was clear. At least,nowit was.
I sent a question to Seraphiel.Are you with Precious?
Yes,he replied immediately. I let out a sigh of relief and returned to Percy, who was already halfway through another mug of beer. I was surprised; he normally didn’t like to have his thoughts clouded, though I supposed today’s events would be better seen through a beer-haze.
I rested a hand on his slumped shoulder. “You know, none of us knew Precious’s infatuation had gone this far. You could have asked for help.”
“I asked Seraphiel. He had me turn her classes over to the lower-level Guides the first time I noticed her flirting with me two years ago.” He laughed, a desperate sound that was somehow also filled with pride. “Righteous, she’s a savant. She learned everything they had to teach—what should have taken a decade—in two years. I ended up giving her instructors the hardest exams I could dream up, just so she’d have something to keep her engaged. The Guides who filled in for me all loved working with her, at first. But she broke them in the process with her insubordinate questions, her filthy language, her antics.”
“Antics? She burned down the school on purpose.”
“Ah, you figured that out?”
I snorted. “You covered it up?”
He took a long gulp of beer. “I didn’t want Tradition to stop teaching her. He’s the only one with close to the breadth of knowledge to be her teacher now. Many days, even he can’t answer her questions.”
“What about Gavriel?”
“We tried that. He goes too easy on her,” he protested. “Same with Seraphiel.”
“Maybe she doesn’t need as much time in the classroom,” I began. “She could work at the energy wells—”
“Absolutely not, Ry. She needs to know as much as possible before—” His jaw clicked shut.
“Before what?” I asked.
Percy shook his head once. “I promised Imriel I would keep this secret.”
I knew he and Imriel shared almost everything. Since we’d arrived in the Limen, Percy had been flying to the closed gate between this realm and the Celestial one, singing through the ugly fire door. Sharing knowledge, and building a friendship. But it had become clear long ago that what the two focused on most days was Precious. Her education, though most of her lessons with the eldest Guide, Tradition, were centered around ethics and morality, not mathematics and literature.
Seraphiel was in on the secret meetings, too. He still had visions of the future, and after he’d had one about Precious the year before, I’d found him weeping over her as she slept. But when I’d asked him to share, he’d said that saying some things aloud made them more possible. More real.
And if the future he and Perception feared awaited our little girl was enough to put terror in the eyes of the oldest of all of us? I knew better than to pry.
“Righteous,” Percy said softly, his too-wise eyes meeting mine. “Even if I can’t stay in the Limen… the rest of you can never give up on teaching her how to be as good as she can be. As much of aProtectoras possible.”
The implication of his words chilled me. I remembered the horrified faces of the Celestials when we’d first entered that realm. Her smut, her glitter, and her horns had the eternal beings there frightened. There had been mutterings about prophecies and the ending of the realm. But I couldn’t believe the Precious we all knew and loved could be capable of destroying the universe. Though she did enjoy fire a little too much for anyone’s comfort.
As Feather would say, it was definitely time to change the subject. “You know what? I’m hungry. Let’s fly over to the Limenteria and grab some food. Maybe I can swing a few votes to my name for this place while we’re there. I was thinking The Pulse of Pleasure. But now I’m leaning toward The Glory Spot.” I grinned, and was relieved when he smiled back.
“The G Spot? Righteous, I think your little mate has worn off on you. Your names are getting worse every time.”
“Or are they getting better?” I mused aloud, and Perception laughed.
Mission accomplished.
CHAPTER7
Seraphiel
Ifound Precious at the darkest edge of the Limen, staring into the void, and landed, lowering myself to sit beside her. In the distance, her dog raced across the cloud floor, stirring up puffs of glitter, stopping every so often to alert at the void, as if he saw or heard something there.
I didn’t like to think about what might be out here, watching my little girl.
Tempting her.
The void had a way of slithering into your mind and whispering suggestions. Convincing you that right was wrong. That imbalance was balance. That there was no hope, or light, or peace to be found, and destruction was the answer to the pain of existence.
