Smelling fresher than I have in my entire life and wrapped in the largest, softest towel I’ve ever seen, Sparrow and I stand next to a small table tucked in the corner of the room, near a balcony. Next to us are carts of food holding an array of platters of meats, cheeses, breads, vegetables, and pitchers of water and sweet wine. I load my plate with roasted chicken, creamy rice, tiny ears of corn, steaming peas, warm rolls and a generous slab of soft butter. Sitting down, I wait for Sparrow and drink a glass of water. He sits across from me, pours two goblets of wine, and pushes one towards me.
We eat, both of us so focused on filling our empty stomachs that neither of us able to speak a word.
There is a knock on the door. It swings open and Teari walks into the room. She gives us a half-approving look. “Seems you both found the shower and the food.” She walks towards us. “Feeling any better?” she asks me.
Mouth full and stomach about to explode, I nod, chewing slowly.
“You’re going to make yourselves sick eating like this.” She glances at the nearly empty buffet.
“Haven’t had real food in weeks,” I remind her between mouthfuls. And I haven’t felt full in weeks. This is the first time the hunger slows and the fullness sticks around.
“Yes, well…” She blows out a breath of air, her eyes settling on my naked shoulders, then Sparrow’s naked chest. “You know they stocked the closets for you both? There are actually clothes in there that will fit both of you.”
Sparrow’s hands stop just before he fills his mouth with a large cut of steak. “Clothes can wait.” He shovels the beef in his mouth, leans back and moans. “Oh,” he mumbles, “you have to try this, Meg.” Cutting a large slab of beef, he moves half of it to my plate using his fingers.
“Seriously, Sparrow.” Teari places her hands on her hips. “Have you forgotten all of your manners? You’re not some wild human-” she stops short, glances at me.
I shrug. “Did you just stop by to pester us?” I ask, stabbing the beef with my fork and cutting it roughly, annoyed.
“No. I actually came to let you know that King Gabriel is planning festivities tomorrow. In celebration of your return.”
Apprehensive about attending some fancy angel party, I look towards Sparrow and try to gauge his feeling about the situation. But just like when we were standing at the Canadian border and he was watching the birds in the trees, he now shovels food into his mouth with the same distracted look on his face.
“It will be fine.” Teari waves a hand at me. “Just don’t make yourselves sick on the food.” She turns and heads towards the door. “Sparrow,” she turns just before leaving, he pauses mid chew. “I know it’s been a while since you got to experience the joys of life, but make sure Princess Meg gets some rest. Don’t want her looking like crap at her debut party.” With that, Teari closes the door.
We both stop chewing and look at each other. Sparrow’s lip twitches, and for some reason, a laughter bubbles up from deep inside me. Food sprays out of my mouth and I lean back in my chair, clutching my distended stomach, laughing.
Sparrow tips his head to the side, chewing calmly and swallowing. “Are you okay?” he asks.
Trying to stop the laughter, I sit up, take a few deep breaths. “She just called me Princess Meg.”
Sparrow looks longingly at his nearly finished plate of food and back to the buffet. He takes a swig of his wine, wipes his mouth across the back of his hand and replies, “That’s who you are.”
“Oh, no no no. I’m not a princess. Just a little piece of North Country trash, raised by a fucking demon. I killed my mother the day I was born, got the shit beat out of me, and now… and now…” Confusion twisting my insides, I stand abruptly, tipping my chair over.
“Meg?” Sparrow’s brow wrinkles in concern.
I head for the closet door and open it. There are rows of clothes, every color and every fabric imaginable. I reach for a pair of soft looking pants. Sparrow’s hand lands on mine, stopping me.
“Let’s wait on those,” he says softly, wrapping his hand around my wrist and pulling me close, pressing his lips to mine.
When he breaks the kiss, I let out a sigh of frustration. “What did Teari mean, when she said it’s been a while since you enjoyed the joys of life?”
He moves his free hand behind my neck, his fingers running through my short hair. “With banishment for losing King Gabriel’s last born daughter, came the punishment of death.”
“Death? But… you seemed so alive there. We spent weeks together and never once did I recognize you as being dead.”
“That’s how our kind exists in Hell.”
“Why?”
“Because we don’t belong there.”
“Oh.” I try to step away from him, but his hand behind my neck just draws me closer, until the towel stretched across my chest presses against him. “And now you’re alive?”
“King Gabriel, your father, he can do that sort of thing.”
“Oh Jesus…”
“What?”
“I had sex with a ghost.” I look at him, slightly horrified.
He chuckles. “Well, I wasn’t really a ghost. Don’t think too much about it. It was good-no, great. Leave it at that.”
“This is all too much.” I shake my head. “Will they know what happened to me? Does this entire kingdom know that I almost birthed a child to the son of a demon? And what those Hellions did to me? I don’t want them… I can’t stand them looking at me the way those doctors did when I woke up from that coma.”
“Don’t know.” Sparrow draws me closer, presses his lips to my forehead. “Give yourself time. Slow down.”
“Oh,” I mouth, taking it all in. “This is so fucked up. All of it.” Taking a calming breath to settle my nerves, I reach up on my toes and press my lips to his. As I lean back, Sparrow’s eyes turn to pools of emotion. “You have your wings back.” I reach out and run my finger over the downy white feathers on is back.
He runs his palms over my shoulder blades. “You should too.” He moves his hands to my hips. “You’ll have to ask your father how to call on them.”
I shake my head. Remembering what he, my father, the King, said to me. “He wants heirs to the throne?”
Sparrow nods.
“I can’t…” Remembering the loss of the child I once carried, I find myself unable to finish the sentence. “Doesn’t he know what they did to me?”
“When Teari healed you, she healed all of you. Even what you lost.” His hand travels over my towel-covered stomach and stops at my lower abdomen. “But that’s not important.” He tightens his arm across my back, pressing me to him. “You’re safe, you’re home, and I’m never taking my eyes off of you again. If there is one thing I learned from my twenty-five years of death, it’s that I cannot live one second without you.” Sparrow dips his head, presses his lips to mine. That emotion I felt in the burning caves, when Sparrow ran into the room to rescue me comes flooding back, flooring me. Finally, for the first time in my life, I have someone who really cares for me.
“I love you,” Sparrow whispers on my lips between kisses.
“You promise?” I ask, running my fingers over his chest and across his shoulders, pulling him closer.
He stretches his arm behind his back and pulls one of the downy white feathers out of his newly replaced wings. Holding it between us, I take the feather from his fingers.
“No one has ever given me a feather before.” I stare at it, run my fingers over the velvety softness, the memories of all our time spent searching for feathers flashing through my mind.
“I would give them all to you,” Sparrow says. “Every single one.”
“You promise?” I ask.
“I promise.”
“That’s kinda weird, you know. Offering to mutilate yourself for me.”
“Doesn’t matter. A promise is a promise.” His hand moves down the towel covering me, sliding between the part of it.
“What are you doing?”
&n
bsp; “A promise is a promise, and you swore just a few minutes ago.”
An involuntary shiver runs through me as he touches my bare hip. “Seems I did,” I whisper as he bends, presses his lips to mine.
“Ah, Meg,” he whispers on my lips as his hand dips lower, pushing my legs apart. “I can’t seem to get enough of you.” My hands move to his chest and around his neck, gripping onto him. “You’re so perfect, for me, just for me.” His hand slides across my abdomen, stopping at my belly button before sliding lower. I tilt my hips, showing him exactly where I want his hand to be and a moan escapes my throat as his fingers taunt and torment me in places no one else ever has. Sparrow whispers sweet words, snowy owl words. And they make me forget that I ever felt wrong here, at least for this moment.
…
Unable to sleep, possibly from so many nights spent running, I lay in bed, wide awake with Sparrow’s arm and leg draped over me, his face buried into the crook of my neck. I untangle myself from him, slide across the mattress-the best mattress ever-and head for the closet. Pulling out the soft pants I found earlier, and a plain black shirt, I dress myself. When I’m done, I turn and watch Sparrow as he sleeps, his face slack, hair tousled and body limp. He sleeps soundly for the first time in twenty-five years, I imagine.
Walking towards the balcony and grabbing a roll off of one of the carts as I pass, I step outside, breathe in the fresh air, turn and look up. A castle, a fucking castle. I move my focus across the grounds. Everything still seems to twinkle and glow, even at night. It’s strange, different and more beautiful than anything I’ve ever seen in my pathetic life.
Feeling slightly recovered from my pity party earlier, I still sense a nagging in my gut. And since I’m not able to figure out exactly what it is, I do something that I know I shouldn’t, but I just have to at this moment. There is something I need to see.
Envisioning my little house, picket fence and all, I repeat those words Sparrow told me, “Angele Dei, illumina, custodi, rege et guberna.” And faster than I can blink, I’m out of the castle and standing on the sidewalk in front of my house.
Well, my old house. In the human realm. Let’s see if certain items exist in both places.
It’s dark, a slight breeze blows and there is a creaking noise. I turn to find a For Sale sign swaying in the front yard.
The roll is still in my hand. Shoving it in my mouth, I walk up onto the porch and look in the front windows. The living room is empty. Knowing that no one ever locks their doors in Gouverneur, I try the front door, and when the handle turns, I push the door open and walk inside. Figures. At least there are no stray cats here. I wander the empty living room and kitchen before heading for the stairs. Stopping on the landing, I swallow hard, break out in a sweat, and I am reminded that you never go back to the scene of the crime.
The carpet is gone. The rest of the stairwell and the upstairs hallway are stripped. But the old wood is still there, parts of it stained a deep brown. Blood. With one bare foot, I use my toe to open the hidden compartment in the first step above the landing. It’s empty. The gun that saved my life is gone.
I make my way up the stairs, take a right and push open my old bedroom door. It seems they haven’t started renovations in here. The sweating gets worse. Stepping over the stains in the carpet, I head for the corner near Jim’s side of the bed, where Sparrow found the lock-box. Flicking the light on, I search the nightstand, under the bed, the entire area, until I find it tucked behind the nightstand in a tiny space cut in the wall.
“What a dick,” I mumble to myself, twisting the hook and opening the metal box. It’s filled with papers, the same letters from the banks and the lawyers that were there when Sparrow found it. I dig through the things until I find what I’m looking for: the blurred picture of my mother. It seems strange to me that these same things can exist in both realms. Something I’ll have to ask Sparrow about.
There is the sudden pounding of footsteps running through the house and up the stairs. As I jump to my feet, a figure arrives, standing in the doorway of my bedroom. I recognize him instantly. Officer Sullivan, Jim’s father, his Watcher as Sparrow explained, from the human realm.
“You.” He reaches for the gun at his hip, takes a step into the room. “Figured you couldn’t stay out of trouble for five minutes, dumb shit. You’re going to pay for your little band of fucking fairy men killing Jim. His real dad is pissed.” Officer Sullivan takes two more steps towards me.
Mumbling to myself, I poof the hell out of there without saying a word to him and find myself on the balcony of the castle, before I can bat an eyelash at Officer Dickweed-Sullivan. With my heart beating from the adrenaline rush of seeing Jim’s Watcher, I catch my breath for two minutes before heading inside the castle.
Moving into the room, I take another roll off of the buffet and stop to take a swig of the wine before heading towards the closet. I tuck the lockbox along the wall in the back.
Returning to my side of the bed, I slide under the covers and next to Sparrow. Propped up on one elbow, I watch him, just as I watched him in that field and unbuttoned his coat while he slept. This time he doesn’t wear a coat. I know he wears nothing under these blankets. I pull them back, revealing him in all of his fabulous manliness. A muscle along his ribcage flexes, another along his thigh. Leaning forward, I inspect the downy wings on his back. They seem to flex and fold, molding to his body as though they were another set of arms. Reaching out, I run my finger along the feathers closest to me.
“You smell like humans.” Sparrow’s voice startles me.
Pulling my hand back, I reply, “I am human.”
He reaches for me, pulling me tightly to him as a child would their favorite stuffed animal, pressing his face into the crook of my neck and breathing in deeply. “No, you’re not. Did you find what you were looking for?” he asks.
“I…” He squeezes me tighter. “I’m not sure.”
…
Waking up, it’s hard to tell if it’s morning or later, since it always seems so bright here. There is a knock on the door. The handle jiggles before the door opens. Teari walks in. Sparrow shifts, propping himself up on an elbow and running his free hand up my back.
“Seriously, you two are still in bed?” Teari asks as she carries two large garment bags to the closet and hangs them on the hooks of the closet doors. “Get up and get showered.” She turns to look straight at me. “You have less than an hour before your debut Ball begins.”
Sparrow throws back the covers and stands, naked as a baby. Teari makes a huffing noise, reaches into the closet and throws something behind her back. It lands at Sparrow’s feet and as he lifts it, I see that it’s a white robe. Teari throws another one at me.
“Let’s go. Let’s go. Let’s go!”
“What about breakfast?” Sparrow asks, pulling on the robe.
“You’ve missed breakfast. And lunch. There will be food at the Ball.” Teari unzips the garment bags, revealing a creamy white suit and a sparkling golden dress. She turns swiftly, walking out of the room. Before she closes the door, she shouts, “You have twelve minutes before I return and you both better be showered and dressed by then.”
When Sparrow and I exit the bathroom, both refreshed and awake, we get dressed. Since my hair is too short to do anything with, I simply leave it as it dries. Both done, we turn to face each other. I gasp. Sparrow wears the white suit, a stark contrast to his brown hair which is now combed, parted and styled. Under the suit jacket he wears an emerald satin shirt, which makes his eyes seem an even brighter green.
When he says nothing to me, just stares, eyes wide and mouth slack, I turn to face the mirror. The dress is a fitted, sparkly gold sheath stopping just below my knees, the straps across the shoulders show the feather tattoo across my collarbone. The scar in the center of my chest, where Jim stabbed me, is now completely healed and invisible.
“Is this how you people always dress?” I ask.
Sparrow clears his throat. “Definitely not.” He
takes two steps towards me, but before he gets too close, there is a sharp rap on the door and Teari steps in wearing a gown similar to mine, but in shimmering white.
“Why are you guys wearing white and I’m wearing gold?” I ask.
“Because, Princess,” Teari replies. “This is your Debut. You will be the only one wearing color.”
“Oh.”
She thrusts a pair of shoes towards me. They’re not Keds, which I would normally wear when dressing up, in a jean-skirt and tank-top. They’re towering heels which I am sure I will break my neck wearing.
“No, Sparrow, I do not have food for you.” Teari snaps. “There will be a buffet, so stop looking at me like that.” She walks close to Sparrow, tucking something into his breast pocket and when she steps away I see that it is a peacock feather in bright green and blue. Teari pats his shoulder. “All set, Legion Commander, Sir. We’re glad to have you back.”
The corner of Sparrow’s lip twitches up.
Teari inspects me, now that I’m wearing shoes. She fans her hands over me and nods. “Good. You did get some rest.” She pauses. “You know, I can heal your skin too, Meg. Make those tattoos go away.”
“No,” I respond firmly. “They are part of me and who I am.”
“Yes,” she settles her finger on her chin, “about that. You are royalty here, there are things that are expected of you. King Gabriel has let the rules slide because of your… background. But this is the last night of it. We can’t have you living in sin within the Seven Kingdoms of Heaven. That’s blasphemous. Sparrow will return to his home tonight and court you like a true gentleman.”
“You’re not the King, Teari,” Sparrow says.
“No. But I am his personal healer, and he listens to the words that I say.” She nods swiftly, snaps her fingers. “Let’s go. We can’t be late.”
…
When Teari said that everyone would be wearing white, I guess I didn’t understand how many people would be wearing white. It’s like a reverse wedding.
My father moves towards us. What’s even more intimidating than his size are the giant, multihued and gold colored wings that have seemed to sprout from his back. He holds out an elbow for me to take, motioning for Sparrow to step aside. I hesitate. The old habit of avoiding the touch of others is hard to break. As I look up to his face, which is oddly reminiscent of my own, he smiles, a soft, warm smile that breaks my uncertainty. He’s so tall I have to reach up, uncomfortably. All noise in the cavernous room stops.
Sparrow Man Page 23