Michael caught and steadied her. "Just once, try trusting me, would you? Have I done anything to harm you?"
"Trust you? Why should I? You're crazy bringing me out here like this in the middle of the night. Take me back." She was trembling and couldn't stop.
"Not until you see what I have to show you."
"Even if you have to drag me?"
"Unless you'd rather ride over my shoulder."
She jerked her hand free. "Go on ahead."
"All right," he said. Angel swung around to go back but couldn't see the cabin or barn through the tress. When she turned around, she couldn't see Hosea either and panicked. "Wait," she cried out. "Wait!"
Michael caught hold of her. "I'm right here." He felt her shaking and drew her into his arms. "I'm not going to leave you in darkness." He tipped her face and kissed her gently. "When are you going to understand that I love you? Come with me..."
She tried to hold him back. "Wait, please. All right. I am afraid of the dark. Being out here reminds me of ---" She stopped.
"Of what?"
"Of something that happened when I was a child." He waited and she bit her lip. She didn't want to talk about what happened. She didn't want to think about the horror of that night. "Please. Just take me back... take me back to the cabin..."
"You don't hear me. You don't understand anything. I can't take you back. You're not going to have it your way. It's going to be my way or not at all." Michael took her hand. "Now, come on." He walked through the dark woods. Her palms were sweating, but her hand didn't lay in his hand like a dead fish anymore. She was holding on as though her life depended upon him.
Angel heard sounds everywhere, a constant ringing and humming that came from all directions and penetrated her head. It was a quiet that was so quiet it screamed. She wanted to be back in the cabin, away from the black, moving things around her. Winged demons, watching and grinning.
She was cold and weak from exhaustion. "How much farther is it?"
Michael swept her up in his arms and carried her. "We're almost there." The woods were behind them, the moon above making the hillsides an eerie silver gray. "Just to the top of that hill."
When he reached the crest, he set her on her feet again, and she looked around in confusion. There was nothing. Just more hills and then the mountains in the distance.
Michael watched the night breeze making her pale hair dance in the moonlight. She huddled into the quilt and glared back at him. "There's nothing here."
"Everything that matters is here."
"All this way for nothing." She didn't know what she expected. A monument. Something. She sat down, exhausted and shivering from the chill night air. The quilt wasn't enough. Ten quilts wouldn't be enough. The chill was inside her. What did he think he was doing dragging her up this hill in the middle of the night? "What's so special about this?"
Michael sat down behind her. He put his strong legs on either side of her and pulled her back against him. "Just wait."
She wanted to resist his embrace, but she was too cold to fight him. "For what?"
He put his arms around her. "For morning."
"I could've waited for that in the cabin."
He laughed against her hair. Lifting it, he kissed the nape of her neck. "You can't understand until you see it from here." He nuzzled the soft skin beneath her ear. She shivered softly. "Sleep a while if you want." He tucked her more closely against him. "I'll wake you at the right time."
She looked at the stars, tiny jewels against black velvet. She had never seen it like this before, so close she felt she could reach up and touch each bright speck of light. The night sky was beautiful. It had never looked likt this from a window. And the smell - thick, moist, earthy. Even the sounds around her became a kind of music, like the birds and insects, like the rain plinking into the tin cans in a dingy wharf shack. Then the darkness lightened.
It began slowly, hardly noticeable. The stars grew smaller and smaller, and the black softened. She stood up, hugging the quilt around her, watching. At her back was darkness still, but before her was light: pale yellow growing brilliant, gold-streaked with red and orange. She had watched sunrises before from within walls and behind glass, but never like this...
"...that's the life I want to give you... that's what I'm offering you... Give me a chance..."
-Redeeming Love
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