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She scoffed. “I’ve heard the stories.”
I looked up into her reddened, disbelieving eyes. “I’m not lying. I mean, sure, maybe I could have found slightly less violent ways of helping rebalance the Earth. But I didn’t know what I was doing. I made mistakes. I messed things up.” I grabbed her hand. “And I was still deserving of love. Your dads fell in love with me, mated with me, when I was a whole lot dirtier than Shadow here. And I had done a lot worse things than you could dream.”
She whispered, “I remember killing the bad guys on Earth, sometimes.”
I sucked in a breath. I’d wondered. She’d only been a toddler, but she had been like a miniature, fuzzy-winged Genghis Khan, rolling over the continents on Earth for those few months, instinctively finding the worst pedophiles, murderers, and rapists, the most corrupt politicians, and slaughtering them with all the joy of a preschooler knocking down sandcastles.
“I was happy when I killed them. It felt good.” She pulled her hand away and held it up, both of us staring at the smears of charcoal and deep purple that lay under the surface. The glittery stain of her crimes had soaked into her very being. “I wish it didn’t mean that everyone could see how bad I am, all the time. That’s all I wanted, with the chime, you know. To be purified like the rest of you.”
My heart broke into glitter-sized pieces as she went on. “Do you know how hard it is to be the daughter of the greatest heroes of the universe? To have a Great Sacrifice for a mom? To look in the mirror every morning and know I’ll never be able to be like you?” She hiccupped softly. “I wanted to be worthy. To measure up to you, Mom.”
I knew she hated to be hugged, most of the time. But I couldn’t do anything else. I took her into my arms and squeezed her as I answered, as if I could force the truth of my words into her very bones. “Precious, my glitter baby, my beloved child, youmorethan measure up. You’re the center of my universe, the beating heart inside my chest. Never think that you are less than me, or anyone. You. Are. Perfect.” I infused those words with all the truth I could. She gasped in my embrace, then relaxed.
When I pulled away, we had matching tearful expressions. “What did you try to change your name to, baby? If you don’t want me to tell anyone else, I won’t. But tell me.”
“I only tried to add a few words,” she murmured. “After the first part—Precious, Perfect Devil, Little Glitter, shiny, and lovely, and stubborn—I tried to add ‘and pure.’”
I blinked. “You tried to purify yourself with the chime? That’s all?” There was no way that would have melted the chime. In fact, it might have worked, though it could have unmade her as it purified her.
“That’s all.” Her left eye twitched.
“Try again, hon.”
She covered her face with her hand, so I almost didn’t hear the next words. “I also added ‘and Infinitely Seductive and Irresistibly Sexy.’ And I might have tacked on something about having ‘Bounteous Boobs Beyond a B Cup.’”
I bit the inside of my cheek so hard, trying not to laugh. I was surprised my teeth didn’t bite through.
“Don’t say anything,” she muttered, but when her hands descended, I noticed her mouth twitching. I mimed zipping my lips. After a second, she rolled her eyes. “Go ahead, say it.”
I grinned at her, pushing a few strands of her glittering hair away from her face and cupping her sharp chin in my hands. “We may not look alike on the outside, but no one can ever say you didn’t inherit my Naming skills.”
“And your lack of boobs,” she groaned.
“Yeah.” I sighed, looking down at Agnes and Esther, who poked out like two chocolate kisses hiding under my toga top. “And that.”
CHAPTER9
Feather
THREE WEEKS LATER
“Sunny, are you sure this costume isn’t too high cut?” I turned to peer at my back in the mirror. “I think you can see my underwear.”
“When did you start wearing underwear, birch?” Sunny snarked.
I didn’t answer. This was a special pair I’d glitter painted especially for Growly, which saidSpank Here. He probably wouldn’t. Even after years of hinting that he didn’t have to be quite so gentle in bed, he was still reluctant to do anything that even reminded him of when I was hurt. Or that I could get hurt. Or, even worse, that he might hurt me.
“Rough play is more Seraphiel’s or Gavriel’s thing, isn’t it, sweet soul?” he’d said only the night before. But he would never be able to resist a hand-painted invitation on my caboose, not on opening night in The Merge Two.
“The Merge Two: Electric Boogaloo,” I hummed as I took a breath so my boobs would poke out a bit more.
“That’s not going to be what wins,” Sunny interrupted. “No one but you would vote for that.”
I stuck out my tongue. Every resident of the Limen, except for Shadow and Precious, had cast anonymous votes for the name of the new sex club, and tonight, Rumple would announce the winner at the costume party. Then Mikhail would use the somewhat-repaired naming chime to finish the sign. And then we’d all have group sex in the big room.
Well, everyone but me and my guys. None of them wanted anyone else to see me naked, even though I’d been kind of curious about what an entire realm having an orgy would look like, so they’d decided to drink, dance, and dip early. We’d already set up the chocolate fountain and the most vital macramé creations in our bedroom to make sure our private mini-orgy was a sexual smorgasbord to remember.
“What did you vote for?” I asked Sunny as she slipped on her tall, golden, gladiator sandals. She was going as Queen Midas, and she was gold all over, with streaks of her gorgeous dark skin peeking through the paint.
