Page 66 of Hers to Keep

“I have been consumed by vengeance much too long.There is nothing else for me, now that I cannot have it.”He looked briefly at Dohal.“And I refuse to take him from you.I will not become another monster in your life as my final act.”

“You never intended to survive this,” Mari said, the certainty of it a heavy weight in her stomach.

“I no longer belong to this world.It has continued on without me.”His voice was tired, but not sad.“But you do.”

Warmth tickled through her, starting at the crown of her head where his hands rested and filtering down through her body to the soles of her feet, spreading into the ground.

Suddenly the earth under her churned with life—deep roots and wriggling bodies and a distant deep heartbeat, all coming together to form another kind of magic.And now she could feel that too, leaching up into her from the most ancient of places.

Mari gasped as it overwhelmed her, but only for a moment, because just when she thought she would drown in the sensation, she understood how to temper it so that it was no longer a flood, but only a trickle.At least until she needed it.

The Old One let his hands trail down to her shoulders.“It is all I can do for you, so I hope it will be enough,” he said, his voice soft.“They will come for you not long after I am gone.But do not forget that this place is not theirs.”He cupped her cheek in one huge, rough hand.“What I am can never end, only be passed to another, and it is yours now.Guard it well, daughter.”

She braced herself for some kind of discharge or explosion, but instead, his body faded slowly into countless motes of green light that danced around her for a moment before settling into her skin.After they were absorbed, she shone with that same light, and as she looked over the men that she had claimed to see them bathed in that green glow, she smiled.

Dohal looked her over with a critical gaze, making sure she was unharmed.He seemed about to ask her as much, when noise unlike anything Mari had ever heard surrounded her.On every side, people fell to the ground, covering their ears and wailing.Dohal was among the last to fall to his knees, reaching for Mari as she crumpled next to him.

She looked up into the sky and saw dozens of angels descending toward them.

Chapter 22

Maristruggledtostayconscious as the noise continued pummeling her until the last of the angels touched down.When the sound level returned to normal, the silence felt oppressive, as if something huge was crushing her.

Ashdei recovered before anyone else, pushing to his knees and helping her to stand as he rose.“That was needlessly dramatic, even for you.”

Darveyn watched them with an impassive stare, not offering any sort of explanation as the people around them slowly managed to regain their feet amid groans and sobs.

“Guess you were serious about that timeline after all,” Mari said, tired of waiting for them to say something.“He left of his own accord.It was nothing I did.”

“We’re aware of what transpired,” Darveyn said in a voice that somehow harmonized with itself.“We are here to render judgment.”

“You can’t be serious, she’s done nothing wrong,” Ashdei said.

“Quite the contrary,” Dohal added.“She’s only done good.”

“Your defense of her is admirable, but a few selfless acts don’t excuse the greed that is in evidence,” Darveyn proclaimed.Several of the angels standing in judgment turned Mari’s way with dark expressions.“The glut of power she has acquired in so short a time is unprecedented and seems to be without limit.Considering her rearing, there are valid concerns that she will misuse it.”

They were going to judge her before she’d even done anything wrong just because of what she could do.Mari considered speaking up for herself to say she would never hoard power and use it to hurt people the way her father had, but it seemed unlikely they would take her word for anything right now.

They’re not going to listen to you, she said to all her men.She felt them lining up behind her, ready to jump to her defense if it was necessary, but there was no way any of them could stand against a host of angels.She might be able to, but that would just give them an excuse to proclaim her evil and obliterate them all.The idea that any of the people around her might suffer whatever judgment the angels planned for her made her cold to her bones.Please don’t give them a reason to hurt you or anyone else here.

She felt them all settle slightly, though none of them moved away.She could feel all of them behind her, each one an individual that she loved for a different reason and didn’t want to consider living without.There had to be some way out of this.

Behind her, a commotion started, but she didn’t turn around to see what it might be.She couldn’t.If she looked away, she might miss her one chance to do something, even if she had no idea what that might be at this point.Aggression didn’t seem like it stood a chance of working, but neither did reason.

“I will speak to her character.”Willow’s normally soft-spoken voice cut through the murmuring of the crowd.They stepped up to draw even with Mari.“At every turn, Mariana has sought to make up for the cruelty of her father.No one would have blamed her for just leaving once she got free of him, but she stayed and has improved the lives of everyone in her orbit—hundreds of people.”

“We respect your wisdom, honored chronicler,” Darveyn said with a bow of her head.“But we have concerns that your judgment may have been impaired by your extended time in this realm.”

Willow crossed their arms.“That stubborn refusal to consider anyone who disagrees with you as an equal has always been your weakness.”

Darveyn looked at her companions before nodding.“Nothing you have said has convinced us that the danger posed by the abomination should be risked.”

Dohal growled loud enough to make those closest to them cringe away.“Call my mate that again, and I will rip your head from your neck, decorum be damned.”

Mari reached for his arm.

The disdain the angel felt was clear in her expression as she regarded the dragon in front of her.“And to think, some among us wondered if we’d done the right thing when we purged your kind from this realm.”

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