Chapter 2 

Feather 

“Sweet soul, wake up.” The low, growling voice reverberated through my body, but I kept my eyelids as tightly shut as possible. The last time I’d woken, shizz had gone down. There had been pain and even more painful revelations.

Nope, I was going to stay asleep, thank you very much, and hope that what I’d learned about myself was a nightmare.

Anyway, I’d been having my dream where I was the sole photographer for an Australian firefighter calendar, and I’d just instructed the big boys to get naked and oil up with a giant tub of melted butter next to a barbeque grill for the “summer sausage” spread.

“I’ll get naked and rub butter on myself if you’ll open your eyes, Scrap,” another voice said, as something long, hard, and probably also not an actual summer sausage bumped me on the thigh.

I sat up, blinking. “Righteous?” He kissed the tip of my nose and pushed his dark hair away from his face. “Holy hand grenades, you look amazing,” I breathed. He was golden and glowing, his skin literally shimmering with hidden fire. His eyes were a brighter gold than ever, his wings blindingly white, and his body… “Ry. You’re naked.”

I took a long moment to make sure he was indeed, fully naked. Yes. Every single finely honed inch of him was one hundred percent buck nakedly exposed. I licked my lips, so thirsty I almost couldn’t stand it. I’d only had time to explore the full glory of a nude Righteous two times, an error my sausage wallet was about to rectify.

“Sausage wallet? Did she just…?” Laughter rang out all around me, and I twisted my head. Mikhail had me in his arms, and he was also gloriously bare and equally shiny. His scars stood out all over his deep bronze skin like silver hieroglyphs my fingers itched to trace.

He stared down at me with his turquoise and black eyes dancing. “You should know, sweet soul, your thoughts are as clear as speech not just to your mates, but to the Celestial inhabitants. My fingers also itch to trace your beauty.” He leaned over and gave me a long, thorough tonsil inspection, then lifted his head, and propped me up on my feet.

I felt woozy and incomplete, but the pain from before was muted. Less searing agony, and more lethargy. I had enough energy to take in my surroundings, though.

The world around me was shades of white, but tinted with blues and pinks and yellows, like watercolors on clouds. There was some crazy light flickering everywhere, making prisms on the fluffy surfaces, almost like a laser light show.

A glowing face with dancing brown eyes and a curtain of straight, dark hair leaned close to mine. “Feather, the Beautiful Sacrifice, welcome to the Limen.”