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"I can’t allow this folly," Ashan said "Maybe you truly believe this is right, but we can’t take the chance You expose us all to slavery, David, not just yourself No"

The minister looked justifiably bewildered, and not just by the sudden popping in of supernatural guests I was thinking his brain had skipped right over that part The human race was absolutely stellar at plausible deniability "But I haven’t asked for any objections, " he said faintly "We don’t do that anynored lorious bright star, burning with potential, Ashan was his polar opposite: leached of color; pale as an undertaker; gri black - a severe suit, with a black tie paired with a white shirt His idea of forht have even passed, if it hadn’t been for the bitter expression and the cold, cold fire in his teal-blue eyes

"You have no place here," David said I felt the power of the Earth rising up in him, rich and thick and irresistible; Ashan was a Conduit, yes, but this was David’s territory, David’s horound, in a sense Ashan was an intruder, uninvited and unwelcome "Leave us"

Ashan slowly shook his head "I don’t come for myself," he said "I come for all of us, to ask Don’t do this, David Don’t destroy us again, for your personal satisfaction"

I’d expected assault, not a plea, and especially not a plea that had the ring of sincerity to it

David didn’t respond He gazed at Ashan, fire in his eyes, but he didn’t lash out

Ashan said, even more quietly, "I also didn’t coaze, but I felt the shocking flare on the aetheric, and suddenly there was a presence beside him It was human in shape, but not human at all - a wild power, barely contained by flesh His skin was hot red, shifting with patterns of color, and his eyes were the pure white of the hottest flame I’d never seen him take human form before, but I knew him

The Fire Oracle had left his protected home in a crypt in Seacasket I hadn’t even known he could

With a whisper rather than a flare, another presence shaped itself out of the air on Ashan’s other side Milk-glass skin, a vessel containing fog and ice The Air Oracle was only barely huynous in form Two of them The Air Oracle had no fixed abode that I knew of, but still, it took a major event for it to , that it had never happened before Not in all the history of the Djinn

Another surge of power, this one fahter, Imara - human and far more than human, beautiful and unreachable and remote She looked sad, but sure of herself - a mirror of my face and form, but with a totally individual core she’d inherited fro with the others, against us

David closed his eyes, and I knew it hurt hione dark, alht for a few heartbeats that she ht throw her support to us, but then she bowed her head "I’erous So much at risk You can’t, Dad You justcan’t"

Silence The audience hispering I couldn’t i out of this Lewis hadto be any, but so to come to fireworks Not this time

David slowly turned back to me and said, very simply, "I do"

My mind went blank for a second, and I felt the seductive flow of poash over e of vows; his was powerful, but not complete without my consent Thefrom David, to me, to Ashan, to the three Oracles

"Do you, Joanne - " His clerical voice was about half an octave higher than it ought to have been He cleared his throat and tried again "Do you, Joanne, take this man - "

"Wait," I said

All of the Djinn - even Ashan - let out a sigh, and David’s grip on htened painfully His eyes ide, and his skin bone-pale

"Jo - "

"Just wait," I repeated "Ashan, the Oracles - you admitted yourself that you don’t knoill happen, David How can we do this? How can we change the rules like this e don’t even knohat’s co the fire die in him, and it hurt "It isn’t about us It’s about the to take the risk," he whispered "Believe in us, Jo Please Believe"

His hand came up to trace my cheek, and I felt tears well up in ertips came aet froht have changed my mind I can’t swear that I would have, or I wouldn’t; the fracture between ht down to my soul

I didn’t have tiht 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 fro outward, blindly seeking the threat "You knohat to do," David shouted to Ashan "Protect the Oracles!"

A silver scar forht cheek, then darkened, and the infection I’d seen earlier at Ortega’s house began to spread its tendrils again under his skin, rabbed for hi his waiting Djinn according to so, 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 es of it ainstto rip loose fro 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 h he was growing heavier with every passing second

Ashan stood there, imrabbed his hand It felt like cold !" The two of them were the same, united by purpose and power, if not by the ties of blood that hurip "If you want him," he said, "save him He won’t save himself He could, if he wished"