Mina shrugged. "And a great deal of trouble you've been. I gladly turn you over to Jonah."
But when Anna smiled, lowering her attention to her daughter, Mina looked at the two of them, and knew Anna was wrong. "You looked after me, with no curse to compel you to do it," she said slowly. "You made sure Jonah sent David to me. You visited me, wouldn't let me be, even knowing all the time what I was." When Anna raised her gaze, Mina locked onto it with her own. "You assume that curse has ever been able to tell me what to do. I'll protect you if I want to, and you can't stop me."
The mermaid princess smiled again, the type of smile that made Mina look away, but not before she saw a look on Jonah's face that she was sure she misinterpreted, since it gave her the alarming sense he might reach over and embrace her in a flood of new father sentiment. She dropped back behind David, quickly, saving them both.
Thankfully, he shifted that look toward her angel. "Lieutenant, will you cut the cord?"
David started, then nodded. "I would be honored, my lord."
Out of habit, he always wore at least one of his daggers. When he drew it, Mina shifted so they were side by side. Anna lifted the baby and extended her again. "Hold her while he does it, Mina."
As Mina took the small body, and David bent over her, Anna spoke again. "We want you to be her godparents."
As one, David and Mina looked up.
"Jonah," David spoke, his voice thick with emotion. And Mina, wondering at more tears coming from her eyes, thought that between her and Anna, they'd be affecting the water level in the spring soon.
"And promise me, if something happens-" Anna continued.
"It won't." This came, adamantly, from three voices. Jonah, David and Mina at once, making Anna blink away renewed moisture, but she lifted her chin resolutely. "I want to believe it won't. But if it does, promise you'll step in, be her mother, Mina. I know you think you can't, but you can. You and David can, together. I know it. Promise."
Mina looked back down at the tiny infant with huge blue eyes. Her mermaid tail had the coloring of Anna's. But she had a dark mop of hair already, her father's. As well as the little wings. Mermaid and angel.
There was nothing more pure than a child, so she remembered to up the strength of her shields as something filled her heart to bursting. Was this love? Perhaps it was. Stripping yourself bare, willing to take the chance that you would hurt someone by trying to take care of them, because the alternative, indifference, was worse.
Still holding that tiny, squirming creature, she watched David capably sever the cord between mother and child under Raphael's guidance. Those beautiful hands, that serious expression, the core tranquility in those warm brown eyes. As she looked into his face, she found she might have the courage to believe it was true and real. And say to him what she never had.
"I love you, too."
He raised his head, staring at her face with such raw emotion, she couldn't handle it. She looked back down at the baby, and when she did, the baby scrunched up her face and made her first attempt at a Jonah-intimidation stare. It was so like him, she couldn't help it. She laughed.
David couldn't breathe. So overwhelmed by the gift of her words, her joyous laugh made this moment everything he could ever want.
And because his seawitch was a young Goddess, as she laughed, the water in which they were resting started to sparkle, the blue of a Caribbean sea spreading across it. White water lilies appeared, scattering all around them, delighting the infant and her new parents.
"Yes," Mina said, encompassing them all in her mysterious, bicolored gaze. "We'd be honored to be her godparents."
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Berkley Sensation trade paperback edition / January 2009
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