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“You don’t need to explain,” Mikhail said again, infinite patience in his expression. “I know what it is to be young, and in love with the idea of being something else. Someone else. I know you tried to change your name.”
She nodded. “I d-didn’t know I could hurt it, Dad. I thought it would just… work, or not work. That’s what you said before. That it was unbreakable.”
Mikhail paused for a moment. “I thought it was. I was wrong.”
“I ruineverything,” Precious whispered at her lap. “I’m a disaster.”
“No, little spark. You are not a disaster. You’re a force to be reckoned with. So powerful in ways you did not realize. But to be fair, neither did we.” Presh looked up, confused. “The chime would have remained intact, even when used inappropriately as you did, for anyone else. Well, anyone other than you, or perhaps me or your mom.”He nodded to me, and I chewed at my lip, uncertain of where he was going with this. “Feather and I are both Namers. I became one through centuries upon centuries of training, and then your mom became one when I gave her my mating feather.”
We were all silent, before Presh spoke again.“You mean, I’m a Namer, too? I’m like you?” She blinked furiously. “I broke it because I’m… powerful?”
“I believe so. And that is why the consequences of your actions will include your assistance in repairing the chime.”If it can be fixed, he sent to me.I would not wager that it can be repaired at all.
I understood immediately.But she needs to try.
She must. From the way it’s been deformed, only her mixture of power has any hope of restoring it. And only the attempt can bring balance to her actions.
“Every day, instead of going to school, you’ll report to my workshop,” Mikhail pronounced, his tone stern. “You will be my apprentice, and not my child, in that space. You will do everything I ask of you without question. You will not be allowed to socialize, or even sleep unless your duties are done each day. And your duties will be comprehensive.”
Precious swallowed hard at the unyielding steel in her father’s voice. Other than Righteous, Mikhail was the biggest softie of the bunch. But I had a feeling that was about to change.
It will keep her away from Perception as well, Gavriel thought.By the time she’s completed her apprenticeship, she won’t even remember he exists.
“How long is an apprenticeship?” I squeaked out loud. Precious nodded quickly, like she’d been thinking the same thing.
Mikhail closed his hand around the chime. “Mine was eight hundred years, give or take. But Precious is a clever girl. I can’t imagine it would take her any longer than that. Maybe only seven hundred.”He turned away from the rest of us, but not before I saw the sly wink he sent my direction.
Presh didn’t see it. She started to sputter and fume, but Gavriel stood up, with one hand raised. “Those are the consequences for breaking the chime. Stay quiet. You have more coming your way for stealing it, and using Shadow to hide your crime.”
As if he’d heard his name, Shadow came galloping into the park, skidding to a stop as he took in all our faces. He slunk to Precious’s side.
“Shadow will not be allowed to sleep in your room for the foreseeable future,” Gavriel finished, with an apologetic nod to the dog.
“What?” Precious’s wings bristled, and dark glitter filled the air around her as she beat them furiously. “Why would you punish him?”
Gavriel didn’t blink. “You used his bedding to conceal what you’d done. For all we know, he assisted you intentionally. So his bed will no longer be in your private space. He may sleep in the hallway or outside the house.”She burst into tears, kneeling to embrace Shadow. Gavriel’s features might as well have been made of marble for all the emotion he showed her. “The punishment is yours, and fits the crime. I’m disappointed that you would include him in your mistake. If you’d come to us immediately, only you would have been held accountable.” He dropped his gaze to the dog. “I’m sorry, Shadow.”
I’d never heard a dog cry before, and I never wanted to hear it again.
“I hate you,” Precious hissed as she held her dog and cried into his charcoal gray fur. “I hate all of you.”
Not for the first time, I wished that I could hear whether my daughter was lying or not. I wanted to think she was just lashing out.
But it sounded like the truth.
Gavriel gave a heavy sigh, dropped a kiss on my head, and walked quietly away, toward his music room. Mikhail came over for a longer hug and whispered in my ear, “Talk to her?”And then send her to my workshop, he thought.We need to keep her busy, so her anger won’t fester.
I knew what he meant. When Precious got mad, it didn’t fade over time. It seemed to grow, like a forest fire, until she was totally out of control, doing and saying things she couldn’t take back.
I sat close to Precious on the ground, not touching her. After a few minutes of weeping, Shadow moved closer to me so I could pat him, and I marveled at the soft strands of his Celestial fur, as always. “Softer than my sheets,” I murmured. “Even if you’re a whole lot dirtier.”
“He’s not bad. He’s not dirty. It’s not his fault,” Presh rasped.
She might have meant the dark gray of his coat, or the chime; I wasn’t sure. But I didn’t look at her, or stop patting. I just gave her my own truth. “I know. It was my color for a long time. When I was in Sanctuary, I was covered in smut. And just like this dog, none of it meant I was bad. Most of it wasn’t even mine.”
“But you killed people. Like, a lot of them, right?”
I patted Shadow a little faster. “Sure, but not innocent people. And if I could do it any other way, if I could protect the vulnerable people I had to, I didn’t murder.”
