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?"
"You'll never leave here either," Milo screamed at me, pulling himself onto his knees. "You'll never again see your Dark One. You have damned him to an eternity of hell, just as you have yourself."
"No," I said, touching my chest. "Theo is a part of me. He will always be here, inside me. Nothing can change that, not even banishment to the Akasha."
"Fool," Milo snarled, his face twisted with rage and hate. "He will forget you."
I shook my head as I started down the path. "You really should learn to have more faith. I've found it's worth the effort."
He raged after me, hurling invective, rocks, and bits of the scraggly black shrubs that dotted the landscape. I dodged all of them, feeling it preferable to spend the rest of my existence talking with the Hashmallim over indulging in Milo and Carol's company. The sooner I got used to them, the better for all of us.
The familiar sense of impossibility grew the closer I got to the Hashmallim, their flat, two-dimensional voids seemingly sucking in surrounding light. The air around us grew darker as I began the climb to the crown of the rock formation.
I took every ounce of strength I had to push myself up the path, but what else did I have to do with my time?
"Hello," I said, looking up into the terrifying black nothingness of the nearest Hashmallim. "I'm Portia Harding, and if you don't mind, I'm here to tell you about the man I love. His name is Theo, and he's a nephilim."
"Dark One is the preferred term. Nephilim cannot be members of the Court of Divine Blood, and as I am, in fact, a member, I must abandon my claim on that particular title."
My heart leaped at the familiar deep, softly Irish voice that rumbled around inside me until I felt it in my blood. The Hashmallim moved to reveal Theo standing with his arms opened wide.
I sobbed his name as I threw myself on him, merging myself body and soul with him. "I didn't think I'd ever see you again."
"I know." He kissed me once, a kiss that spoke volumes, yet left me wanting so much more. "My sweet little virtue. Are you through being a martyr? Would you like to go home?"
"I can leave?" I clutched him even tighter, overjoyed to find the darkness inside of him was gone. "You've got your soul back. It worked?"
"Of course it worked. You are my Beloved," he said dryly. "Your selfless act completed the Joining, returning my soul. In addition, your brave - albeit foolish, and never again to be attempted without first receiving approval from me - act saved the Court. The mare have a few things to say about the method of your madness, but after a little pressure by the sovereign, they have rewarded your bravery by granting you full membership in the Court, as well as anticipating the exculpation you would present on my behalf."
"The sovereign?" I gazed into his eyes, basking in the glow of love and happiness that shone there. "The sovereign who never makes an appearance showed up?"
"Yes. The mare weren't going to grant you a full reprieve, but the sovereign pointed out that you had earned it with your selfless act."
My jaw dropped a little. "You saw the sovereign? What does he...she...what does it look like?"
Theo laughed, gently closing my mouth as he pulled me after him toward a bright portal of light that sat in the very center of the rocks. "Yes, I saw the sovereign. We were all sworn to secrecy, though, so I can't tell you any details."
"Theo!" I smacked him on the arm.
"Well...I suppose it won't hurt to tell you that the sovereign has been known to keep an eye on things by pretending to be someone holding a minor position in the Court."
"Who?" I asked, my mind rapidly going over every face I could remember there. "Is it someone we know? Terrin? Gabriel? No, they're not minor. How about the dapifer? Oh! I know, it was that officious little man who introduced the mare. I'm right, aren't I?"
Theo just laughed, and kissed me.
"It's not him? What about the messenger girl, the one who rode around on the pink bike? The woman selling bread in the square? One of the people who sat around the well and gossiped?"
Theo didn't answer, just pulling me into the portal.
"Dammit, Theo, I insist as your Beloved that you tell me!"
"No."
"Well, at least tell me why the sovereign, evidently completely out of the blue, decided to make itself known and intervene."
"Think of it this way, sweetling - you have all of eternity to use your womanly wiles to persuade me into telling you about it," he answered, a wicked glint in his eye as he pulled me into a kiss that I knew would melt my socks off, not to mention drive all thoughts from my mind but the joy he brought me.
I was right. As his mouth took possession of mine, his tongue swept aside my irritation to send me spiraling into the familiar well of ecstasy.
You're hungry, I said, feeling the burning need inside of him.
Yes. For you.
It took an effort, but I managed to pull my mouth from him, looking around with wonder. We were in a familiar room, the one we'd been sent to while waiting for the hearing.
"You're a man of many talents," I said, my voice muffled as he pulled my shirt off.
"Oh yes, and you've just begun to tap the surface of them." He paused in pulling off my clothes when my stomach gave a rude growl. "Would you prefer to eat first?"
"Yes," I answered, kicking off my shoes, pants, and underwear before striking a seductive pose on the bed. "I'd like to eat you first, then you can nibble on me. Sound fair to you?"
"Oh, yes." His eyes burned black with desire as he ripped his own clothes off, his body positively burning as he lowered his length to me. "I couldn't have survived without you, you know."
"That's a sweet sentiment," I murmured between kisses, my hands busily stroking his back and sides, reacquainting myself with his deliciously silk-covered steely muscles, my toes all but curling with ecstasy as his kisses moved to the spot behind my ear that had me shivering with anticipation.
It's also the literal truth. Dark Ones - even redeemed Dark Ones - cannot live without their Beloveds. So you see, sweetling, I just couldn't allow you to sacrifice yourself that way. Something had to be done.
His penis nudged those parts of me that were pleasurably anticipating its arrival, the tight burn of arousal causing my knees to slide up around his hips. His teeth pierced my flesh at the same time he penetrated me, our bodies, minds, and souls merged into one burning conflagration of love.
The meaning of his words sank in as I drifted down from a climax that went beyond the merely sexual. Theo had flipped us over so that I was resting on him, my heart beating against his, sharing one rhythm. I lifted my head from his damp chest to look up at his face, propping myself up on an elbow to look at him. "Are you saying that you got the sovereign to intervene? You managed to not only figure out who the sovereign was pretending to be, but you convinced him...her...whatever, to help us? You faced almost insurmountable odds to do all that, and you seriously believe you are not going to tell me everything about it, in the most excruciating detail?"
His smile was lazy, filled with smug masculine satisfaction. "You haven't sufficiently persuaded me to tell you, sweetling."
I sat up on him, pulling one hand behind my back, the other tracing a line down his damp chest. His eyes opened, the banked fires of desire beginning to smolder again as I slid down his legs.
I smiled as his penis twitched in anticipation. "Then I guess I'll just have to try harder, won't I?"
The fingers of the hand behind my back grew cold from the snowball that was forming in my palm.