Stop that. Stop looking at me as if this is the last time you will see me. You must have faith that we will see this through together, sweetling.
Oh, I do have faith, Theo. I have faith in you. I have faith in our love. I will love you until the day I stop living, and I have faith that no matter what happens, you will always love me.
Portia, stop—
"I love you," I whispered against his lips, kissing him with every atom of love I possessed. "I found my faith again, and it's you."
Somewhere far away, a deep bell sounded.
"It's the seventh trial," Milo crowed, leaping forward to thrust a finger at me. "She completed it without knowing! She has proven her faith before the entire Court! Now the renascence must begin!"
"Yes," I said, my soul weeping at the pain of realization in Theo's eyes. "I have proven my faith. I accept the position of virtue."
Before Theo could voice the protests and suspicions I knew were building within him, I stepped back, closing my eyes and opening my arms wide, the better to pull in the elements needed from the environment.
"Portia, what are you doing?" Sarah asked, her voice worried. "Theo, what is she doing?"
"She is throwing herself away in the foolish belief it will solve everything," he answered, his voice a deep growl that reverberated through me. I gently pushed him out of my mind, unable to do what I needed to do and reassure him at the same time.
"The mare regret that you acted without consulting them," Terrin said behind me. "They hope to mitigate the damage your actions have done, but request that, effective immediately, you cease any further attempts to deal with Milo Lee. They are quite serious, I'm afraid. If you continue, you risk banishment from the Court, from which there is no return."
Portia, do not—
"I owe you this, Theo," I said, ignoring everything as I narrowed my attention to a razor-sharp focus. "Wind is a mostly horizontal flow of air. It is caused by a pressure gradient force generated by the uneven heating of the Earth's surface."
Around me, wind whipped past us with sufficient force to surprise everyone present. I opened my eyes when a woman shrieked, running after a scarf that had been ripped from her neck. The crowd backed up en masse, their faces frightened as black clouds formed against the mural on the ceiling, thunder rumbling ominously through the ballroom.
"Portia, this is not the time for a demonstration of your Gift," Theo yelled over the howl of the wind, which continued to pick up in intensity.
Terrin met my gaze for a moment, nodding briefly before running to the mare.
"Get out while you can," I yelled to Sarah, then turned and focused on the two people who were huddled together, backing slowly away from me. "You can't leave now. You haven't yet seen the grand finale!" I flicked a finger, releasing the stored energy I'd gathered, smiling at Carol's shrieks of horror as lightning struck around them in a circle of blue electricity.
"Hashmallim!" Disin's voice rose over the noise of the fast-building storm, a storm that I felt in every inch of my body. "Seize her!"
Two flat black silhouettes wafted toward me, the familiar horrible sense of wrongness that trailed after them filling the room. Several people ran out the door, while others huddled in the back, evidently too intrigued with the nightmare about to happen to leave.
Portia, I refuse to allow you to do this! Theo's mind was horrified as he realized my intentions.
There's no other way, my sweet Theo. I love you.
"Hashmallim, do your job!"
Sweetling, my soul is not worth banishment—
Draperies from the far end of the room were ripped from the walls, twisting through the air, flashing brilliant blue streaks as the tornado I'd summoned gathered itself and burst into being.
Milo must have realized at that moment what I intended to do. His face was white and twisted with terror as he shoved his wife aside, leaping over her to race toward the nearest window.
The windows in the ballroom shattered inward with a noise that sounded as if it came from the depths of Abaddon itself. Milo screamed as I directed the tornado on top of him. I ran forward as the Hashmallim reached me, eluding their grasp just as I eluded Theo's.
"I won't allow this!" Theo bellowed at me, lunging forward.
"I can't allow anything other than this," I answered and, for a moment, our being was one. It was a moment of the brightest love, the worst pain. I wanted it to go on forever.
Carol screamed, a high, wailing noise that was sucked up by the tornado, her body consumed by the vortex. Milo tried to get away, but it had him before he could do more than bellow my name. I directed it back toward me as the Hashmallim descended.
"I will always love you," I told Theo as the nearest Hashmallim grabbed me. I threw myself forward, into the screaming wind and cloth, the Hashmallim behind me jerking all of us, the whole twisting vortex, into the black abyss of nothing that was the Akasha.
Chapter 24
Time passed. I don't know how much because consciousness returned slowly to me, but when I regained my senses I was aware of the sound of a woman sobbing and a man screaming his fury at the top of his lungs.
I smiled even without opening my eyes. My plan had worked. I hadn't been sure if the Hashmallim would be able to extract me alone from the maelstrom of a powerful tornado, counting on the probability that they would just suck the whole mess out of the Court and into limbo. "Welcome to the Akasha," I said.
Strong hands jerked me off the ground, holding my neck in a vise of pain. Spots danced before my eyes as Milo's contorted face swam in and out of focus.
"You! You did this to us! You have destroyed everything!"
"Yes, I did. I'm just glad it worked," I croaked, kicking him in the groin at the same time I slammed the palm of my hand into his nose. There was a delightful crunching sound from his face that I fervently hoped was a bone breaking. Milo screamed again, dropping me to clutch his genitals, blood streaming down his face.
"It's over," I told the pathetic man rolling around on the ground. I spread my arms to indicate the rocky black landscape that spread out in an endless plain of misery. "And this is all you have to show for your evil plans. It's worth having to spend the rest of eternity here knowing that you're never going to step foot in the Court again."
Milo spat out some names for me that I felt were best ignored.
"I just have one question," I said, looking around. The Akasha looked the same as when I'd been here for the trial. Carol was draped over a nearby mound of earth, her sobs raw and painful on the ear. I strolled over to her, stopping just beyond her reach. "Why me? Why did you come to me when I inadvertently summoned you? Surely you hadn't been waiting around for me to do so?"
She looked up, her face blotched red and white with a combination of tears, agony, and fury. "Such arrogance! You think this was about you? You were nothing more than a convenient scapegoat, mortal. Long ago we had settled on Theo North as the means to demand a renascence—but when you thrust yourself in the way, we decided the two of you together would do just as well. You were both dispensable."
She spat with the last word. I jumped back, smiling at her. I'm sure she thought her words were cut ting, but I took immense pleasure in the fact that their wicked plans to use us had failed.
She collapsed in another wave of sobbing.
"Well, then." I wandered away, trying to get my bearings. Beyond the small raised area we inhabited, a faint path cut between the scrubby vegetation and boulders that littered the plain floor, a trail twisting through it to the plateau. The same cluster of rocks was in the center, the faint shapes of the Hashmallim visible in between sharp upthrusts of rock. "I guess it's time to get to know the neighbors. I trust you two will be fine on your own?"