The sight of her instantly stopped the panicked haze of thoughts. Her stern-featured face stopped time and pain and thoughts of God and the Devil. There was only her, his angel, entirely mortal as she put a cool hand to his head, her gray eyes assessing him in the firelight. She was a woman. Just a woman, now. But he had come searching for judgment, and here she was.

His mouth was dry, lips cracked, but he found his voice again. “My lady. Who are you?” She didn’t answer, looking down at his bare chest, examining him. Her hands left his brow and reached for a cup beside him on the floor. That was a discovery – he lay on a pallet, a fire at his left side. “Who?” he rasped, as she lifted the cup to his lips.

She never answered, holding the cup steady as he drank. It was not bitter this time, but sweet. It tasted of apples and honey, a fitting taste to have on his lips at the hour of death. He knew it would be death, swift and welcome, when he saw what lay gleaming on the floor where she knelt: the dagger, sharp and slim, with a fine edge and a wicked point.

She lay the cup down and picked up the dagger, using the point to pry gently at the bandage on his chest. As exhaustion swamped his mind, he called up the last of his strength and lifted his hand to hers.

There was no surprise in her, no emotion at all in the eyes that met his. He pulled their hands and the knife across his chest. He held it there, over his heart, looking steadily into her clear eyes for a long moment before letting his fingers fall away from hers. She kept the blade there, plainly catching his intention.

“Mercy.”

He said no more, thinking it a fine word to end this world. He was too tired to say anything more. It took all the strength he had left to hold her stare for an endless time, until something in her face changed at last, a ripple in the still pool. In a blink, she was not so mortal after all. She became an angel tempted to deliver judgment, her fingers tightening round the knife at his breast.

He waited for the thrust, looking at her suddenly changed face, the strange light in her eyes making the moment more real. It took but a moment for his patience to break. Do it now, he prayed to her. Now, before the strength left him.