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Vicious triumph had swollen the ranks around him, the shrieks of the Dark Ones building until they were deafening, until they were like a chant in a dark forest of evil pressing in against him. Where heat poured sweat off the skin, and the bowels turned to water.
They'd been afraid when Anna held him, he knew. They feared her goodness and its power over him. But what they should fear was what was coming. He would go down with them, but that was all right. Anna would be safe. Luc would make sure of it.
With a feral grin, he severed the arteries that connected the heart to his body, and dropped the pulsing organ into the skeletal hand of the tall Dark One.
High above the ground, the sun turned its face away. The Earth hid beneath the gathering shadow of black clouds as the skies began to weep.
Twenty-three
And lend the eye a terrible aspect.
--Henry V, SHAKESPEARE
ANNA landed in the water with a splash, the last scream she'd made to dissuade Jonah barely out of her lips. No, no, no.
The speed with which she'd moved through the air had been blinding. At another time it would have scared the life out of her. But as she slowed in the descent and had time to focus on the ocean to know where he was dropping her, she'd confirmed he'd taken her so far away there was nothing she could do to aid him further.
Not alone at least.
She spun in the water now, getting her bearings, airsick from the speed of her trip and now the rock of the ocean, her fear and stress combining to give the nausea weight. But she didn't have anything to throw up, not after being in the hands of the Dark Ones for nearly twenty-four terrifying hours.
Her first fear, all those hours ago, had been for David. He'd gone down, fighting amid a horde of them, such that she'd lost sight of him after several of the winged Dark Ones caught her arms and legs, tearing at her clothes and flesh even as they ascended with her. She'd seen the flash of his face, a battle snarl on his features. Her name had been on his lips, calling out to her.
When they got her to the cavern, they hadn't tried to invade her body as they had Maggie's, but they had fed on her fear, devising ways of tormenting her. Delighting in her humiliation, frightening her into nausea and vomiting and voiding her body, such that she was glad for the cleansing touch of the water now. She fought through the panic and disorientation that she knew would likely translate into a lifetime of nightmares once the shock wore off. But that didn't matter. She found her center, focused. Hoped the connection David had implied she had with Mina did exist.
Mina. I need you. And David. If he was still alive, Goddess willing. Please. Help.
She didn't even bother to transform, treading water and crying, hoping the emotional venting would steady her and make her coherent before they arrived, but she'd forgotten how quickly angels could move.
Less than two minutes after she sent out her mental call, she received a response. At any other time she would have been mesmerized by the sight of over twenty angels winging through the sky to her, their wings a variety of colors and patterns, all with the unearthly beautiful features and bodies the seraphim seemed to share.
Like Jonah. He'd known he was beautiful, was so casually arrogant about it, about using it to get her to do things. She wanted to smile about that, but all it brought was more tears.
When the water boiled beneath her, Mina surfaced with the speed of an eruption. The source of her propulsion gave Anna a wave of relief as David let her go and exploded from the sea, his wings showering them both as he acknowledged the incoming squadron. His face was bruised and swollen, and he was favoring his left arm. She remembered it had been snapped during the fight. The skin stretched over his rib cage was a mass of black and blue welts, but he'd obviously had someone work on him, for he was flying, though nowhere near as easily as she'd seen him do the night he and Lucifer came to their rescue.
"What happened, Anna?" he asked urgently, turning back to her now. His expression was far more intimidating than she'd yet seen it, and she didn't think it was just the effect of the many lacerations. Even Mina looked a little unsettled by him, or perhaps it was his quick ascent to the surface with her in tow.
"His heart." Anna could barely get the words past the sobs, and she struggled to get hold of herself. Mina moved close enough to prop her up with one tentacle wrapped around her waist and another beneath the soles of her feet to stand upon. "He told me to call you. There are hundreds of them, maybe thousands . . ." She swallowed, made herself meet his eyes. "He told me to tell you . . . he'll be leading them, because they have his heart. Because of me. He was rescuing me."
"Great Goddess," David murmured, and his eyes closed briefly. Then they opened and he nodded to Mina. "Hold on tight."
There was no time for the two women to ask his meaning, for in the time it apparently took him to transmit the thought, the sea heaved, and a legion of dark-winged angels split from the depths like a forest of geysers exploding across the ocean.
Lucifer was the spearhead, a dagger strapped across his chest, the wicked-looking reaper's scythe grasped in his hand. The handle of the weapon was wrapped in a red sash that rippled, snapping the water off itself with a sharp noise in the wind.
"Where, Anna?"
Anna had to shake off this amazing spectacle to focus on David again. "The Grand Canyon. We need to come. I need to come with you."
She had to shout it, because before the first words were out of her mouth, he was already departing with the others. David paused, looking down at her from thirty feet, a distance that would make it easy to keep flying and ignore her request. Lucifer already had, taking to the skies with his dark battalion, joining the other angels and heading out like a migrating flock so thick they blotted out the sun.
"Why?"
"I have to be there."
David's doubt on that score was obvious, but Anna turned desperate eyes to Mina. "Please, tell him. You said that first day that I was important. I'm still important, aren't I?"
"No," Mina said flatly. "Your part is done."
"Wait," Anna shouted. David completed a flip that apparently cost him, for pain jolted across his features before he controlled it and leveled a scowl at her.
"What? Anna, I have to go. There's more at stake here."
"I know that," she snapped. "Goddess, you think I don't? Mina is lying to protect me, because she doesn't realize how much is at stake." Anna turned a pleading gaze to them both, even as Mina's tentacles squeezed her uncharitably. "Mina, if Jonah defeats the angels, that will be the end of our world. You know that. You know more about this than any of us. I have to go to him. I'm the only one who might be able to get through to him, aren't I? Aren't I?"
When Mina refused to answer, Anna snarled. Lifting her hand from the water, she slapped Mina across the face.
Mina's head whipped around, eyes blazing with rage and shock.
"Don't do this." Anna spoke low, fury and resolve in her tone like she knew Mina had never heard from her before. "Don't take choices away from me. I would never take one from you. Deny whatever else you wish between us, you will not deny that simple truth."
Mina stared at her, then shifted her glance to David, who'd picked up enough of the undercurrent of what might be true that he was willing to sacrifice the extra few seconds. Anna had seen it in his face the day he came to their aid. She knew he loved Jonah as she did, and if anything could save him, and win the battle . . .
"My vision said she is the only one who can save him, if he can be saved at all," Mina said at last. "But if she goes, I go."
Now it was Anna's turn to look startled, not only by the bald admission of what Mina had only implied up to now but because she'd never known Mina to leave the ocean's embrace. But David was already speaking to two angels that hovered behind him, apparently part of his small command. They swooped down, one plucking Anna out of the water, quickly anchoring her to his waist so he could fly with wings spread and hold on to her.
"Anna, meet Orion. He'll get you the
re." David dropped, came back under Mina and lifted her up as her tentacles dissolved and she took the easier-to-carry human form that could also do without the water. Though that didn't seem much of a factor at the moment, since it had begun to rain. Heavy, fat drops that Anna realized were salty and warm, splashing down with a touch of silver against the churning sea.
