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The one fleeting thought which got through was what they might have done to her. That they might have treated her like Maggie, only with a far greater amount of time to defile her, rape her soul. He knew if he found that, then he might just use that destructive power to completely obliterate this planet, eliminating both Her problem and his at the same time. And if She opposed him in that, then he would fight the Lady Herself.
The cave entrance was narrow, but within a quarter mile it widened into a cavern as large as a dimly lit king's hall, domed with tons of red rock. Jonah was able to navigate the narrow corridor swiftly, his feet barely brushing the ground, and he heard them well before he reached that hall.
It was crowded with Dark Ones. Not yet an army, but the advance guard to one. As he paused in the archway, he noted the broad incline of rock that started in the center of the cavern like the arm of a sundial, running in a narrowing point to the upper ledge, probably the result of a thousand years of cave-ins. The symbolism of that was not lost on him. That rocky incline was covered with the writhing, hissing bodies of hundreds of Dark Ones, a nest of unnatural snakes. At the top, one stood taller than the rest. Big and broad as a giant, the Dark One reminded Jonah of how Anna had spoken of angels as large as giants. And earlier, how he'd said that men had once called all divine beings by the name of demon.
At the feet of this giant Dark One, Anna was chained to the ground.
As he stepped fully into the hall, the closest Dark Ones went aloft like startled pigeons, but lost no time diving around him like malevolent bats, veering away before making contact, taunting. There were too many to allow him to simply fly up to her, so he began to walk, ascending the mountain on foot, much as he'd made his journey over the past week. Packed so close together, he had no choice--and didn't care anyway--but to proceed by stepping on a head, a shoulder, a skeletal arm, feeling the greedy whisper of their hands, their saliva mark him, their nails occasionally dare to scratch his leg, his bare foot. None touched the purity of his wings, however, the symbol of his rank with the Lady.
He was surrounded by hundreds of them, the largest group he'd ever seen assembled since the last Great War. It was true, then. The fall of an angel could tear a hole in the universe so great . . . This was because of him. The false confidence he'd created in them.
I've become a liability, Luc. You'll know what needs to be done.
As he approached the top, he could hear her. The clank of the chains as she struggled, the thin fear in her voice as she nevertheless implored him. "No. My lord, you can't . . ."
They'd hurt her; he saw that. Blood had dried at the corner of her mouth and on her chin. Her eyes were haunted by whatever they'd inflicted upon her, but they hadn't done to her what they'd done to Maggie, probably because it would risk her life. They'd apparently believed he wouldn't deal for a damaged or dead mermaid. Never realizing the fact that they'd touched her at all meant he would come, if only to annihilate them. He stopped. "Free her."
"You know what we want." The giant's voice was a death rattle. Another Dark One, tall but not as tall as the giant, stepped before him, to the left of Anna.
When Jonah put out his hand, the Dark Ones nearest shrank away, except for that one. The creature's lips split in a decayed grin. From somewhere in the shadows of his body, he produced the sharp, iron-bladed dagger.
Jonah closed his hand over it. The weight of it was as much from the evil infused in the weapon as the metal itself. It was cold. So cold even the fires of Hell wouldn't warm it.
"Jonah, for the love of the Goddess, don't--"
He plunged the dagger into his own chest, just below the beat of his heart. When Anna screamed, the tall one's talons dug into the pale flesh of her arm, puncturing. Jonah stopped, his eyes narrowing, lips pulling back to bare his own teeth.
"Stop, or I stop."
The tall one removed his hand, though he held Anna back with a grip on the chains. Jonah started carving again. Methodically, while he kept his gaze on the other creature's face. Jonah wondered if the burning in its eyes was a reflection of the agony in his own, a pain beyond the physical, one that would drive him to madness. They were so close, angels and Dark Ones. Why should that surprise him? How many battles brought together odd moments of communion between enemies, only moments before they did their best to kill one another? The killing didn't really have much to do with the connection. Or maybe that was the connection.
The glowing flow of blue blood splashed to the rock. Dark Ones scattered, hissing in revulsion. Reaching in, he lifted his heart, took it out of his own body, but did not yet sever the arteries. The world was darkening around him. Darkening. Narrowing.
"Free her."
"Heart."
Jonah's lips curled back in another snarl, his rage made sharper by the pain ricocheting through his body. He could cut out his own heart and go on standing, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt like a son of a bitch to do it. Immortality didn't come with a pain-free card. "Let her go now, or I'll crush it in my hand and laugh at you as I die."
The giant's eyes narrowed. When he nodded, the tall one shoved Anna forward, the chains dropping away in a shower of sparks. Anna stumbled and fell, but then she was up and at his side. Jonah caught her arm with his free hand before she could reach toward his chest. "Be still, little one."
She stopped, trembling, her eyes filled with tears. All that they'd done to her, but it was for him she was crying. His mermaid. His miracle.
He glanced at her then, bidding her to remain still with the silent command of his expression. Letting her go, he dipped his hand into his open wound and painted the blue cross on her forehead so it gleamed there, his mark. Her protection.
"Go," he said, and it was the tone of a man who had commanded an army for over five hundred years, and fought as a soldier over a millennium.
"No," she replied, and it was the tone of a woman who would not be budged.
"Anna."
Her face crumpled. "No," she whispered, though with the intensity of a shout. "I won't leave you with them." Despite that, her trembling knees gave way, but when she fell to her knees, she wound her arms around his legs. "You can't have him. You can't."
"Anna, come up here."
He had to wait a bit, and the Dark Ones milled restlessly, but they would not come near the blue circle of blood in which she now rested and he stood.
Eventually she rose, wiping her nose gracelessly with a hand, almost making him smile. "You need to go, Anna."
"I can't leave you here."
"You can. You will."
As he stared down into her face, Anna thought her whole world could be destroyed by the intensity of such a look. "There are many angels," he reminded her. "There is only one of you."
"There's only one of you," she sobbed out. "To me." She put her arms around him, despite the awkwardness of doing so while he was holding his own heart, his chest cut open. She put her cheek against the unmarked side, her breath sobbing out, lips brushing his bloody fingers. "I love you, Jonah. I love you with all of my heart."
"I know that, little one. And never has there been such a great gap between the value of a gift and the worth of the recipient."
She snuffled against him. "You told a joke. Your timing is wretched."
"No," he said into her hair, his eyes closing. Suddenly, there was a quiet in this dark and evil place, a still space of just the two of them. "You're just too good of heart to understand the cruelest truths. I wish you to be always so blessed. Go now. That's the gift I need from you. The mark on your forehead will allow you to leave, but it will only last awhile. You must warn the others. A battle will be coming, and I am the enemy my angels will be facing."
He put her away from him at last, firmly. Still balancing the heart in one hand, he looked between her and it. "You know this has always belonged to you, from the beginning. I give them only the shell. You take the true marrow of it with you."
"Jonah--"
But then he focused on the cross on her forehead, those dark, fathomless eyes sharpening. Anna found her feet leaving the ground, her body caught in the grip of bonds she could not shake, her body going cold from the expression in his eyes. Deadly. Still. Lifeless. "No, Jonah. Don't."
"Good-bye," he said.
He sent her soaring through the air as if from a catapult, high over the heads of the Dark Ones who would be unable to touch her with his protection, and out through the tunnels from which he'd come.
Somewhere deep inside, Jonah wished he could have warned her. He wouldn't want her to be frightened by how high and fast he took her in the sky, without his presence around her. But that didn't matter anymore. He pushed that away and focused on her destination, the deep well of the ocean, near where they had first met. When he was sure he had her on target, and that she would slow as much as needed before she hit the water, many miles away, he turned his attention back to the matter at hand.
