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Mina arched a brow. "I wasn't asking your permission."
One way or another, they all wanted to imprison or hurt him. Even if he died, he'd still be trapped, a soul unable to free itself, unable to become anything else. The fragile leash on rationality broke, knocking down her filters. Dismemberment, death, isolation. She couldn't bear it. She wouldn't. "Then I will finish it here. I won't be the reason he's forced to suffer."
Her emotions, all the feelings around her, whirled inside her mind and heart, but at the center of that hurricane was an eye of deadly calm. Beyond thought, lost in feeling alone, Alexis picked up the dagger some obliging angel had left next to one of the whetting stones, focusing every corner of her mind, heart and soul on what she was going to do.
Alexis. No.
She froze. It was faint, so faint. But it was him.
Then it was gone as her father knocked the weapon from her hands, and yanked her attention from anything else as he lifted her up against the turret, slamming her against stone hard enough her head bumped. His thunderous visage was inches away from hers, and she'd never seen anything so frightening, not even in the Dark One world.
"Don't you ever consider doing something like that to your mother," he grated out. "Not ever."
In his gaze she glimpsed a pit of darkness as vast as Dante's. The darkness her mother's love kept in check. But her own darkness rose, an abyss she hadn't even known dwelled within her. As she gripped his shoulders and met him fury for fury, it welled out of her in a terrible voice, raw and enraged. "He is mine. I won't give him up. I won't let you sacrifice him for me. I won't let him be tortured or imprisoned. He is mine."
It went far beyond romantic possession. He was a part of her, something vital she had to protect and safeguard to keep her own soul intact. A part she might conversely destroy her own soul to keep safe.
Recognition flickered in Jonah's gaze, as if he'd just caught a startled glimpse of himself in a mirror.
"Jonah." Anna was at his side, her gentle hand on his silver wrist guard, her face stark with pain. "Stop this." Looking around at the assembled, she met Mina's eyes briefly. "You will go and tell this Seneth our position. Jonah will do everything possible to gain Dante's release. But if he is unsuccessful, Mina must be able to cast her spell."
Reaching over Jonah's arm, Anna drew her daughter's reluctant eyes to her. "Dante would not wish you to die with him. You've already told me he risked himself to keep you safe. Control your feelings, Alexis. You must continue to think, no matter how much you fear for him. We love you. We're your family. We will get through this together, whatever happens. All right? Can you believe in us that much? We are not your enemy in this."
Alexis swallowed, closed her eyes, feeling her father's grip ease. For once, though, their love didn't bring her the comfort she wished it would, and she couldn't bring herself to fully trust her mother's words. Because she always knew their feelings.
"All right," she whispered, though the mistrust in her heart was as painful as knowing her life would likely end, one way or another, in the next few hours.
Twenty-nine
SENETH had mandated that only three angels, the witch and the affected innocent could come. Mina went very few places without David, though it was always unclear whose stipulation that was. Jonah, of course, would come to speak on their behalf, and Marcellus was chosen to accompany him as the third angel.
As Mina prepared the circle for the dizzying transport to the Fen world, Alexis stood apart, trying to do as her mother had said and which she knew was wisdom--steady her mind for what lay ahead. But when Anna came to her, took her hands, she found it hard to meet her mother's eyes and not draw away from her touch. Anna tightened her grip on her forearms, however. "I need you to listen to me, Alexis. I know it's difficult for you right now. Can you listen to me? Don't just say yes. Let me see you focus."
Dutifully, Alexis struggled, bringing her mind out of her worries and fears to center on her mother's blue eyes. "I'm here, Myel."
Anna gave her a searching look. "All right. No matter what terrible thing happens over there, above everything else, I need you to remember one thing. Trust your father."
The angel who, more than any other, wanted Dante dead. But Anna's nails dug into Lex's flesh. Her blue eyes were sharp, the core of steel showing itself.
"Do you understand me, Lex? Trust your father."
All she could manage was a nod of acknowledgment, no more. Mina had begun to speak the words to open the rift and she gave Anna an impatient glance, warning her that her time to step back was drawing close. With one last look, Anna turned from her daughter to Jonah. Lex didn't hear what her mother said, but she saw Jonah's glance flicker toward her, then back to his mate. His gaze softened, though the hard set of his mouth didn't ease. He nodded, and her fingertips brushed his lips before Anna stepped out of the circle casting.
"This is going to be bumpy," the seawitch said. "It will work, but there was no time to make it pretty. Clasp hands."
Jonah closed his fingers over Alexis's, meeting her look briefly. Mina took her other hand, then David and Marcellus finished the circle. Lex had one more quick glimpse of her mother's face before Heaven disappeared, and she was in a whirlwind.
Mina was right. It was like being caught in a tornado with flying debris. But the unexpected made it even worse. Hellfire. Even as she was spinning out of it, she heard startled cries, because of her forced transition.
Just like the Dark One world, this world only accepted her merangel form, so she landed on a grassy knoll off balance, her clothes ripped and torn by the emergence of her tail, her wings flapping madly, a cross between a wounded bird and flopping fish.
She swore in a way that would have made Clara proud, but got herself aloft, hovering off the ground so her tail didn't drag. The only garment the transition had left her was the bra whose straps she wore crisscrossed all the time for just that reason. It was a little provocative for mixed company, particularly company that included people whose modesty requirements she didn't know, but it was better than nothing.
Forcing herself to get oriented, she took in her surroundings. The knoll overlooked a valley, dotted with trees and large, shaggy animals that were a cross between cows and buffalo. The sky was blue, vi brantly clear. In the distance, she saw small structures that might be huts, or tepees such as nomadic peoples used, but other than that, it was all nature. Grass, flowers, trees, sky and wind, bringing the smell of water, perhaps a nearby river or wide stream. It was like looking at preindustrial Earth.
The three angels had automatically moved into a circular flanking position facing outward as they came through, their feet barely touching as they used their wings as well, spreading them out to make it more difficult to make the two women a target. But after gauging their surroundings, the three settled back to the ground, folding their wings to allow her to see the delegation awaiting them.
She recognized the winged creature in the front, the one who'd told her she was unwise to help Dante. Since his stance was practically a mirror of Jonah's, she surmised he must be Seneth. His cheekbones were so sharp he looked almost foxlike. His dark, upwardly tilted eyes didn't have whites as well, another indication he and his kind were cousins to the angels.
Two more of his fellows flanked his right and left sides, but a whole group of them waited twenty feet or so behind these three. Then she realized they weren't there to overwhelm their own delegation. They were guarding Dante.
She bit back her cry only because Mina's hand closed on her wrist, nails digging in like Anna's, only Mina's nails were more like talons in their sharpness. "Be still and say nothing yet," Mina murmured.
They had him bound to a pair of timbers that had been lashed in an X form so his arms and legs could be stretched out upon them. What held him looked like irradiated barbed wire, cinched in tight and spiraling across his limbs, all the way from the joining corner of his thumb and forefinger, down his forearm and to his shoulder. His legs were the sam
e, from foot to thigh. He'd been stripped, so she saw how the wire's razor points dug into his flesh. Fresh rivulets ran over the tracks that had dried on his limbs, chest and abdomen, giving him a macabre appearance. The X was propped up in a vertical position by scaffolding.
Because he'd been hooded with a thick hide covering, she couldn't see his eyes, though a hole had been cut for his mouth. A hard fruit had been thrust into it, his fangs embedded in the orb. Strings of beads, locks of hair, bracelets and scraps of brightly dyed cloth and ribbon had been hooked on the barbs over his suffering flesh. More were threaded through the silver collar.
Dante, we're here. I'm here.
His head tilted, and she saw a frisson of tension run through his muscles. As he moved, every weapon of the dozen guards was drawn. They faced the X as if they expected Dante to snap his bonds and split into an army.
