Chapter 71

"What have you been doing?" Erica demanded.

"What do you mean?"

"The Dark Ones were loose and swarming about the ocean floor, seeking one of the winged ones. And it's all over you, his aura. You are fair glowing with it." Erica was already rummaging through her stores, reaching into crevices in the rock used for storage for her healing tonics and potions.

"He said I would be safe as long as I wasn't with him."

"Idiot."

"Erica," Mila gasped. "He's an angel."

"And an idiot. Here, drink this quickly. It will purge you and you'll be rid of that glow. Go on or I'll pour it down your throat."

Anna hesitated. "What do you mean, purge? Not . . . forget?"

Erica stopped, stared at her. "No," she said at last. "It's a cleansing, not a . . ."

"Cleansing. How . . . Does that mean . . ." He'd said he could voluntarily withhold his seed, but what if . . .

Erica peered at her. Now her gaze traveled more slowly over Mila, apparently seeing far more than auras.

"Mila, you lay with him."

"It was necessa