A Witch's Beauty (Daughters of Arianne 2)

David's eyes narrowed. "What does that mean?"

"I shared the memory you requested. You understand the most important root-"

Pericles's voice cut off abruptly. Though weak and unsteady still, David had propelled himself off the ground, launched by the trigger of those words. He stood over the angel, gripping his tunic. "What do you mean?"

Pericles did not appear concerned about David's anger. In fact, there was compassion in his eyes. "I will not let you experience another of her memories. One has been enough to overtax your system. But"-he removed David's hand, squeezed his fingers in silent reproof-"I will tell it to you. There were those, when she was just an adolescent, who dared to corner her, take advantage of her prettier features, perversely fascinated by her harlequin nature. She learned to fight them, to put an end to it, and they regretted their foolishness. At least one young merman disappeared, his fellows claiming he was attacked and killed by a whale, because they would not own up to the truth. He tried to force her to his will before she let her darkness take over and dispatched him. He exploded. Literally."

David backed off, tried to steady himself, gain his bearings while assimilating that knowledge with the vibrating horror of what he'd just experienced through Mina's memories.

"There are many things I do not understand, Lieutenant. Not only does her blood give her every reason to capitulate to evil, everything in her life has pushed her toward it. I suspect whatever tether holds her from that is tenuous. We can pity her, but the ultimate mercy may be in destroying her, as something that never should have been born, the way we treat most Dark Spawn.

"Was her survival a matter of savagery or nobility? You've been in battle. You know at times there is a close overlap between the two. In that memory, you saw there are times there is no separation between them. Do not mistake her Dark One blood as an illness for her to overcome. It is a vital part of who she is, such that she cannot bear too great a threat to it."

David frowned, forcing himself to focus. That uneasiness was back, as if Pericles's words had tripped a switch. "What do you mean?"

"I mean she is the very embodiment of yin and yang. Split between darkness and light, she cannot move toward light without a proportionate response from the darkness. It will not tolerate being abandoned, and of course it would like to take over completely. So she draws in precise amounts from the light to keep it in check. Just as she was half in rock, half in water in the Abyss, so she stands, precariously balanced between two forces. She herself is the greatest potion she's ever concocted."

"So that explains why she stays away from others? Too much light, too little dark..." David's pulse was increasing again, his heart pounding up toward his throat. "She uses the pain to help her."

Pericles nodded. "I have told you far more than I intended. But it is important that you do not let your desire to help her blind you to what may be the ultimate truth. That when her will snaps, others will pay with their lives. Perhaps many others. It is what Jonah fears."

David rubbed his forehead, paced in an agitated circle.

"I didn't speak in her defense, young David," Pericles continued. "I only did not speak against her. She bears blood in her that embraces hatred and death, feeds on fear and pain for nourishment as well as pleasure. She cannot bear the proximity of too much white light. It drives her as mad as cornering does a rabid animal."

Oh, holy Christ. That's it.

As the truth echoed through him, he glanced at the sunlight and swore in a way that Zebul's hallowed hall had never heard. He was way past the hour he'd promised her. Nearly two, in fact.

Almost at the moment he registered that, Jonah's urgent call exploded into his mind.

Thirteen

EVEN before he left Zebul, Jonah's sharp call came to David again, spurring his speed so that he somersaulted a pair of fiery phoenixes drifting through the library area. As he shot down through the levels of Heaven, heading for Shamain, he received more snippets from Jonah's mind. She'd lost patience with the wait, had tried to leave. Became more and more agitated as Jonah tried to reason with her, then as other angels got involved, her reaction had detonated unexpectedly.

They'd not yet harmed her, but that effort was wearing thin.

Don't make her feel cornered, Jonah.

I believe that opportunity has already passed.

The revelations of the last hour had warned him, but even so, the change in the dragon grasping the stone point of Shamain's tallest spire above the keep was startling. The sapphire blue and silver scales were now the ruby brightness of blood, both snake-like eyes a savage match, fangs bared as she roared and shot hot flame in a wide arc around her. Angels leaped easily out of reach, but they had her well surrounded above and below. Many had arrows notched and swords at the ready, prepared to move in.

He'd achieved what he sought here, but the cost might be the exact opposite of what he intended. David cursed himself. Her reluctance, her obsessive insistence on the time limitation, had been warnings, and he hadn't heeded them. She didn't trust easily. He should have paid more attention to what she hadn't said to him, rather than preemptively celebrating what she had.

Pericles was right. He'd been assuming it was a sickness, a disease that wasn't truly part of her. Before his eyes was Jonah's worst-case scenario coming true. The Dark One blood was overpowering everything else. It had surged up, hot and feral, unbalanced by prolonged exposure to light energy surroundings that couldn't be stronger if he'd thrown Mina into the Lady's lap. Great Goddess, Ezekial's whole battalion had been here, meditating to raise white light for the Trumpet.

&n

bsp; Making it worse now was the physical threat posed by the angels. Trained to go into battle mode at the first hint of a Dark One, their senses would have already been on edge with her there.

Now only Jonah's word was holding them back, and the commander had his own sword at the ready.

Perhaps he should be thankful it was her dragon form, for the animal part of her seemed to have claimed most of her rational thinking. Though he knew she could cast spells in this form, he'd seen her do it when she was fully cognizant, the essence of the seawitch still blinking at him out of the serpentine eyes. He saw very little of Mina in this enraged creature's expression.

David arrived at Jonah's side as the latest flame blast seared between two flanks of angels. They parted, then reformed ranks again, driving her back against the spire as she tried to stretch out her wings, launch herself. Mina opened her jaws and howled, a chilling, Dark One shriek magnified into a raw scream of rage and warning.

"Nice of you to show up."

"I found what I needed. Just let her go."

"What?" Jonah glanced at him. "Let her go to wreak havoc on everything in her path? She's turned, David."

"No, she hasn't." I won't let her. "If I get her away from here, she'll be all right. But the longer she stays, the worse she'll get. I didn't know. That's one of the things I found out. It's my fault. Let me fix it."

"She could have told you that. She didn't. I'll send a squadron with you."

"No. She can't perceive any threat. Just me. I know what I'm doing."

"And what will that change?" Jonah's head whipped up at a shout, but the dragon was just repositioning, the angels adjusting accordingly.

"She can control this better. She'll be-"

"She'll still have the blood and the power," Jonah snapped. "The two things occupying the same space, something way too damn thin in between them. She's mortal, David, invested with more power than a mortal can have, and the stronger it gets, the more fiercely that dark side of her is going to want to take control of it. It's time to end this."