His hand came up to trace my cheek, and I felt tears well up in my eyes and burn trails down my
cheeks. His fingertips came away wet from my face, and he raised them to his lips.
Please.
I might have changed my mind. I can't swear that I would have, or I wouldn't; the fracture
between my head and my heart ran right down to my soul.
I didn't have time to find out.
The aetheric caught fire. At first I thought it was David, erupting in frustration and anger at me
for what I'd done, but then I realized that it wasn't him at all.
We were under attack.
David spun away from me. So did the other Djinn, all facing outward, blindly seeking the threat.
''You know what to do,'' David shouted to Ashan. ''Protect the Oracles!''
A silver scar formed on David's right cheek, then darkened, and the infection I'd seen earlier at
Ortega's house began to spread its tendrils again under his skin, moving frighteningly fast.
''David!'' I grabbed for him, but he spun away, avoiding me. Doing his job. Dispatching his
waiting Djinn according to some plan he hadn't shared with me. . . . Lewis was moving, too,
shouting at the Wardens. Everybody had a plan, it seemed, except for me.
I felt the black wave sweep over me. It wasn't meant for me; it was centered on David, but even
the edges of it made me feel faint and sick.
He collapsed against me, shuddering, and I felt a scream trying to rip loose from him. I was the
only thing holding him up, the only defense he had left.
The Oracles vanished, leaving gusts of hot wind in their place that fluttered the pale layers of my
gown. David's weight pulled me down. It seemed as though he was growing heavier with every
passing second.
Ashan stood there, immobile, impassive, perfect.
''Help!'' I screamed at him, and grabbed his hand. It felt like cold marble. ''Damn you, he's
your brother! Do something!'' The two of them were the same, united by purpose and power, if
not by the ties of blood that humans understood.
Ashan pulled free of my grip. ''If you want him,'' he said, ''save him. He won't save himself.
He could, if he wished.''
I couldn't hold David up. Lewis lunged forward and tried to help take his weight, but there was
something strange happening here, something worse than anything I'd expected.
''God,'' Lewis muttered. ''Hold on, we're trying to put up the shield. Hold on-''
The Sentinels attacked from all around us, on every front. I heard some physical confrontations,
and saw a bloom of fire erupt somewhere off to the side, followed by shouts and screams.
Security piled on top of me and began hustling me away; I gathered up my train with both hands,
clutching it out of the way of traffic. Lewis had arranged our forces in teams, but even so, the
assault was shocking in its suddenness and force. I grabbed Lewis's arm as he pushed past and
shook it fiercely. ''They're using Rahel to get to him! If you're going to counter, it has to be
now. Right now! Go!''
''Already on it,'' Lewis snapped, and spun away. ''Stay here. Draw them if you can.''
David was down on the ground, surrounded by fierce-eyed Djinn protectors ready to fight
anything that came for him, but they let me through. I sank down at his side in a flutter of silk
and held him. He was gasping and trembling, eyes molten gold but with ominous sparks of
darkness flying through them. The gray mottling on his face was taking on a shocking life of its
own, moving dark tendrils beneath his skin. Seeking out the aetheric pipeline that made David
the Conduit. Once it had that . . .
''Let her go!'' I shouted, and grabbed him by the lapels. ''David, you have to let Rahel go,
please!''
He shook his head. His hand grabbed for mine and clenched tightly. ''Say it,'' he said. His voice
was raw in his throat, almost primal. ''Say the words. Say it!''
I felt tears trembling in my eyes. The whole world was coming apart. I heard the crack of gunfire
somewhere off to the side, and more screaming. Someone was shouting about a Warden down;
someone else was warning of a Sentinel attack coming in the form of a tidal wave from the
ocean.
This couldn't be right. It couldn't be.
I squeezed my eyes shut, felt the tears burn down my cheeks, and whispered, ''Oh God help me,
I do. I do.''
There was an eerie second of utter silence, not even the wind moving. Conflicts stopped, pinned
on the instant, and I felt something inside me shifting, aligning like a puzzle box.
And a wave of pure golden power flowed into me, through me, and out.
I opened my eyes and saw David watching my face with a look I could think of only as awed
relief. The gray faded from his face, back to a silvery scar. Gone.
And I felt the echoing power between us build, and build, and build, waves on the beach,
pounding and ceaseless, cascading out into the other Djinn, enhancing their raw power and
refining it into surgical weapons.
I'd just made the New Djinn a quantum leap more powerful, by giving them a second anchor
into the aetheric.
I'd also just gotten married, even if the minister hadn't quite gotten around to saying the words
before he'd fled to the hills, along with most of the others.
The Djinn snapped a glowing shield of power over us, brilliant as shimmering gold. It covered
not just the two of us, but all of the Palms-hell, it went so far out that it might have been
covering all of Florida. Whatever the Sentinels were doing, they quit doing it, fast, rightly
recognizing that they had just been dealt a very serious blow. It would take them time to figure
out exactly what had happened.
''Did you know?'' I felt giddy, halfway to heaven. Endorphins kicking in. ''Did you plan that?''
David grabbed me and kissed me, long and hard, with a good deal less restraint than most
bridegrooms would have shown under similar circumstances. His hands roamed, stroking down
the silk, crushing it to my hips, his fingertips brushing over the skin left exposed by the open V
of the corset at my back.
''Absolutely,'' he said, deadpan, when he pulled back.
''You had no idea.''
''I knew.''
''You liar. You guessed!''
He laughed and buried his face against my neck, picked me up, and whirled me around in the
deserted gazebo. A storm wind lashed surf against the rocks, and a wild cascade of lightning
slashed out of the sky and grounded spectacularly out at sea. It was the joy of the Djinn, made
real.
David sobered, but the light stayed in him, burning fiercely. He kissed me again, this time more
gently, with a promise of things to come, and I felt the curling smile on his lips. ''I need to go,''
he said. ''Things to do.''
''Same here,'' I said. ''They'll be looking for an explanation of what just happened.''
He stepped back, and his gaze raked me from head to toe, ravenous and warm. ''Don't change,''
he said. ''I'll be back. I want to take that off you.''
I shivered, nodded, and watched my lover-no, I supposed I was going to have to get used to the
idea of husband-mist away on the hot, humid breeze.
I couldn't see any other Djinn, but there were plenty of hired security, all looking grim and
efficient as they herded guests to cover. I had a whole contingent of them stationed near me, all
facing outward. I reached up and tapped the nearest one on the shoulder. ''Hey!''
''Ma'am?'' He angled in my direction a huge ear that looked as though it had been badly
mangled in some kind of sculpting accident, but didn't turn to face me. ''You ready to go?''