Burn the Night

by Jocelynn Drake

  “We are honored,” I said, forcing a weak smile on my lips as I looked up at Kane. “We accept your offer. Cynnia will be most grateful that you have looked after us during the daylight hours.” I just hoped that we survived without any new problems.

  Eleven

  My right wing screamed with pain as I tried to fully extend it. I had walked nearly a quarter of a mile from the main camp of the animal clan to a wide stream. Stripping off my clothes, I tried to rinse out some of the blood before stepping into the icy water myself. In the center of the stream, the water rushed past my calves, numbing any lingering pain I might have felt in my right ankle. Now I was only left with the wound in my right wing, which seemed reluctant to fully heal. I knew it would be completely fixed by the following evening, but I didn’t want to wait that long. I wanted to go to sleep at sunrise knowing I was back at full strength.

  I had been somewhat reluctant to leave Rowe alone with the animal clan, but he’d already promised to behave himself, and for now that was the best I was going to get. I could only hope he was intrigued by the promise that the Fire Starter planned to join our little uprising. At the very least, he now knew we were headed for Savannah, and the one-eyed naturi could take another swipe at her if he had it in mind.

  Bending down, I cupped the cold water and splashed it on my face a couple times before wiping away the excess. Kane’s blood had covered my face and hands, leaving me feeling sticky and dirty. I pushed the cold to the furthest reaches of my mind as I scrubbed my hands together, washing away the last of the blood. Before rising, I ran my wet hands over my legs and the rest of my body. It had been too long since I’d properly bathed. Too many nights of running and hunting. Cynnia had kept me on the run for the better part of the past month, seeking out any who might join our cause. Savannah held the promise of a day’s sleep on a comfortable bed and a warm bath.

  There was a subtle shift in the air, a slight change in the energy that had me jerking upright. I was completely unarmed in the stream, leaving all my clothes and weapons on the bank. I thought I would be safe so far in animal clan territory, that I could sneak a few private moments to myself. Of course, the alliance with the animal clan was shaky at best, and I wasn’t sure everyone agreed with the idea of working with Rowe and me. Someone could be looking to strike while I was at my weakest.

  When I scanned the immediate region, my heart stopped beating for a second. Rowe had sought me out. The area was thick with trees, blotting out the moonlight, but after a moment I could pick him out on the rise leading down to the stream, leaning against one of the trees. He hadn’t been standing there long since it was impossible for him to sneak up on me with the iron collar around his neck. He couldn’t cloak his presence.

  “What do you want?” I demanded. I pulled my left wing around my front, blocking his view of my body as best I could while my right wing continued to hang limp at my side. I turned in the stream so I was facing him, taking an unsteady step backward on the slippery rocks.

  “How is your wing healing?” he asked, descending the rest of the way to the bank of the stream.

  “Fine. It will be just fine,” I snapped, taking another step back. “Return to the camp. I will be right behind you.”

  “It’s not fine,” he growled back at me. “You can’t retract your wings yet. It’s not healing properly.” He took a step into the water and I took a wobbly step back as my left foot settled on some shifting gravel. “Stay still! I’m not chasing after you. I just want to look at your wing.”

  “And I said it’s fine! I don’t need you looking at it!”

  “Look! If your wing isn’t properly mended, we’re not flying out of here tomorrow night, and I’m anxious to set foot in Savannah,” he admitted. “Now let me look to make sure that it isn’t broken.”

  “It’s not broken. Please, Rowe, don’t come any closer.”

  The naturi shoved his hands through his shaggy black hair, pushing it away from his one good eye. For just a moment I could clearly see the scars that stretched across one side of his face, disappearing under the eye patch and down his neck into his shirt. “What? You make these grand speeches about me being the savior of our people and you don’t trust me! I’m not going to hurt you. If I was going to do that, I wouldn’t have bothered to walk out into this icy water.”

  “I trust you,” I whispered, staring down at the water, wishing it was darker out, but it didn’t matter. His night vision, like mine, was perfect.

  “Then what? You’re embarrassed about being naked in front of me? We’re soldiers, Nyx, tending wounds. That’s all. Besides, it’s only your back.”

  “I know.” And that was where the problem lay. He was going to see my back and I was afraid of taking the risk.

  “Will you hold still?” he asked after a long tense moment.

  “Only if you promise to never breathe a word of what you see.”

  “This is ridiculous—”

  “Promise me!”

  “I promise,” he grumbled as he trudged out into the icy stream to where I stood. It wasn’t until he was almost directly next to me that I finally turned around so he could look at my injured right wing.

  His touch was amazingly gentle as his fingers first glided over the feathers in a soft caress before slowly moving up along the bone. I flinched beneath that touch as he neared the wound and his hands stopped until my wing settled again.

  “The bone might have been initially cracked, but it feels solid to me,” he announced after completing his inspection. “You’ll probably have to sleep with them out today to allow the healing to finish, but you’ll be in the skies again by sunset. I’ve seen far worse.”

  I watched him out of the corner of my eye as he bent down and cupped his hands together so he could capture some water. He poured it over the wound, washing away some of the dried blood that was sticking to the feathers.

  For a second I thought I was in the clear. Then he repeated the process a second time, pausing to stretch the wing out.

  “Great Mother forsake me,” he swore, his hand stilling on my wing while his other hand rested on my left shoulder. At that moment I knew he had finally caught sight of the tree tattoo on my back.

  “You promised, Rowe,” I reminded him desperately.

  “Nyx,” he whispered in return. He released my shoulder and I could feel the cold tips of his fingers tracing down my spine along the massive tree that covered my back. “I don’t understand. You’re younger than I am. Younger than the ancient weavers, and yet . . .”

  “I know,” I murmured, hanging my head. I could only envision what he was seeing. I hadn’t seen a reflection of my back in more than two centuries, but I could guess what was there—the branches now stretched over my shoulders and were starting to creep down my arms.

  All naturi were born with the tree tattoo. It was a symbol of our connection to the earth. As we grew in age and strength, the tattoo grew as well, stretching across our bodies and gaining more details. My father had not kept me alive because of some deep love for his daughter. He had kept me alive because my tree had been more developed than any other child he’d ever seen. In me, he saw great possibilities, a deeper connection to the earth.

  Unfortunately, it all had to be hidden. I was the Dark One. If anyone suspected that I might be stronger, more powerful, than some of our ancient weavers, I would be killed on the spot.

  The fingers on both of Rowe’s hands traveled up my back again. He gently forced me to lower my wings so he could see the branches starting to stretch down my arms.

  “The roots have reached the backs of your knees,” he whispered in awe. “At this rate, in a few years, the soles of your feet will be covered in the roots. You will be in constant contact with the earth and her powers.” His warm breath brushed against my neck, sending goose bumps down my arms. I could feel his body heat against my exposed back and the gentle brush of his shirt.

  “If I live that long,” I muttered under my breath. With the war coming, I was no
longer counting my remaining expanse of life in years.

  Rowe abruptly stepped away from me, dropping his hands back to his sides. “Your tree is more advanced than Aurora’s,” he declared. “That’s why you’ve always dressed like you have. You’ve had to hide.”

  “It was for the best,” I quickly argued. “Our people needed to believe in Aurora, and it would not have helped their faith in her if they knew that her younger sister had a stronger connection to the earth. She would have been dethroned.”

  “And you would have been killed,” he said, finishing the thought to its natural end, but he quickly continued. “Why hide it now? Let the world know that you are stronger than her.”

  I twisted around to look at him, holding my left wing to my front with my left arm. “I’m still the Dark One. They don’t follow me. They follow Cynnia. Our people still need the promise that I will never be their leader. No matter what strength the Great Mother may give me, I will always be in the shadows.”

  “That’s wrong.”

  We stood in silence, embraced by the darkness. Only the sound of the stream flowing around us filled the night air. He knew my great secret; the one thing I had hid my entire life from my people, and I felt that I could trust him. I just wondered how far he trusted me.

  “Will . . . will you show me your back?” I asked.

  “Why?” he demanded, suddenly very defensive.

  “I can guess that the scars stretch across your body. I want to know if they had hindered the growth of your tree,” I admitted.

  “Growth?” he scoffed. “Our Great Mother abandoned me centuries ago.” Yet as he spoke, Rowe grabbed the top back of his shirt and jerked it over his head. He stood with his back to me, facing the thick woods that surrounded us. Even in the darkness I could easily make out the white lines of the scars that crisscrossed his arms and went over his shoulders. There were a few that streaked through his tree, but I was relieved to find the tree tattoo had grown over the scars, indicating that his connection to the earth had not actually been damaged. It didn’t seem as advanced as it should have been, considering his age, but I could still spot bits of new growth near his shoulder blades.

  “Do you trust me?” I asked.

  “Why?”

  “Because I want to help you.”

  “How?”

  Instead of answering, I placed both of my hands against his warm back. Muscles danced and flexed under my touch, but he didn’t move. Closing my eyes, I spread my wings as far as I could, ignoring the pain that shot through my right wing. I reached out, pulling the energy straight from the earth and through my body. It left through my hands and poured into the limbs of the tree that graced Rowe’s strong back. He jerked once and then a low groan escaped him as relief rolled through his body.

  Unfortunately, it wasn’t just the power from the earth that was flowing through me and into his body. My own thoughts and emotions poured unbidden into him no matter how I tried to control the flow. I had admired and cared for Rowe for as long as I could remember, but was careful to hide all those emotions deep inside as I fought to become his strong comrade in arms. I was his second in command of the armies, the weapon of the queen, the protector of our people. I was the Dark One. I wasn’t permitted my own feelings.

  After nearly a minute my hands began to tremble under the weight of the energy flowing through me and my knees buckled. I collapsed down into the icy water so it flowed around my hips. The cold water helped to clear my head from the fog that seemed to have grown around my thoughts, but fatigue still kept me on my knees.

  Throwing his shirt on the nearby bank, Rowe turned around and knelt in front of me. He gently captured both of my upper arms in his hands, his thumbs slowly caressing my flesh as if he could push away the growing cold. My wings hung limp behind me and I no longer cared what he could see of my naked body. I was too drained and emotionally embarrassed.

  “What did you just do to me?” he whispered.

  I kept my head down, staring at the water that flowed between us. “I strengthened your connection with the earth. It had grown weak because of all the trials you’ve been through. It was like I rejuvenated your tree.”

  “You can do that?”

  A half smile twisted on my lips. “I learned long ago that I had more skills as a healer than as a soldier. Unfortunately, my father only saw my strength with the earth as a weapon of war.”

  “I’m sorry.” He lifted his right hand and pushed some of my hair away from my face.

  “It’s no matter,” I replied brusquely, lifting my eyes to meet his. “The important thing is whether I have won you. Will you help us?”

  A smirk danced across his face, lighting his expression. “My brain still rebels at the idea of fighting against the woman I still see as my queen, but I cannot just simply bow down and die for her, because she does not see my work in a positive light. I struggled and gave her freedom, and yet she calls me a traitor. But I will be accepted in Cynnia’s world, once again given a place as commander of armies.” He paused and his smile grew even wider. “I will be once again faced with the Fire Starter, allowed to be close to her as she is forced to work with me. It will be an interesting experience, and I wouldn’t miss it.”

  With rubbery, tired legs, I pushed to my feet and stepped around him as I walked back to the shore. “I’m realizing that this is the best answer I’m going to get from you.” Shuffling through my clothes, I picked up my left boot and opened a small compartment in the heel where I withdrew a small iron key. I walked back out to where he was standing in the water, watching me.

  “You had the key?” he demanded.

  I reached up and inserted the key into the lock, trying to avoid his gaze. “Of course. I had to be able to set you free if you saw reason.”

  “And what if you were killed?”

  “Cynnia has a second. You would have had to go see her,” I replied as I removed the iron collar and tossed it out into the water.

  “I should have suspected as much,” he grumbled.

  “I’m sorry, but keeping you weak was the only way of keeping you from killing me in my sleep.”

  A weak smile crossed his mouth for a second as he reached up and let his fingertips stray across my cheekbone. “I don’t think that I would ever be able to do such a thing to you, no matter how bad things became.”

  I shook my head, my cheek brushing against the palm of his hand. “You would have done so to protect yourself. It would have been understandable.”

  To my surprise, Rowe continued to stare at me with his piercing gaze roaming over my face. “I always suspected that I married the wrong sister.”

  I tried to form the words that Cynnia would have been a wise choice, but the words grew stuck in my throat because I knew without a doubt that he was talking about me. I knew by the softened gaze and his hand lingering on my face. Also through the infusion of power from the earth that I had given him, he now fully knew my feelings for him.

  “You look at me with the same compassion in your eyes that you always have. You don’t see the monster that I’ve become. You don’t treat me like an outcast like the rest of our kind.”

  “Because you’re not,” I argued, cupping his cheeks with both of my hands. “All I see is a man who has sacrificed more for us than anyone else. You only wear the scars to prove the trials you’ve been through.”

  “And you wear your scars on the inside. We are a pair.”

  Rowe pulled my face closer to his and kissed me gently on the lips. My eyes fell closed, basking in the feeling of being touched by another; to feel such warmth and intensity toward another creature was new to me. No naturi had ever touched me in such a way. They had used weapons to hurt, but I’d never been touched with compassion and what could only feel like love.

  Threading his fingers through my hair, Rowe pulled me tighter against him, deepening the kiss. My hands slid from his cheeks to his chest as his tongue slipped into my mouth, tasting me. I moaned against his mouth, enjoying the fee
l of his warm chest pressed against mine. I traced his scars with one hand, trailing from his shoulder down to the top of his pants.

  Rowe gave a soft chuckle as he slid his mouth away from mine and down my neck to my shoulder. “You taste sweeter than honey and your hands are driving me more than a little mad.”

  “Should I stop?” I whispered, stilling my hands where they rested on the sides of his stomach.

  “I don’t think there is any stopping now. We owe each other this after so many years,” he admitted. “You’re not the only one who has been watching from afar, admiring but remaining silent.”

  This time I leaned in and pressed my lips to his mouth, kissing him deeply. We had done our duty to our people. We were owed this moment, no matter how brief it might be. Without breaking the kiss, Rowe scooped me up in his arms and carried me out of the stream to gently lay me down on the soft earth of the bank. He pulled back and looked at me laying beneath him in the pale moonlight. My black wings were thrown out to either side, like two dark glistening sheaths of night, while my pale white body shone like a grounded star. A small sharp pain intruded into the moment from my wounded wing, but I paid it little heed as I focused on him.

  “I’ve watched you grow as a warrior,” he said. “I’ve admired your determination and your strength, but I never for a second expected you to be so beautiful.”

  Kneeling beside me, careful so his knee did not crush any of the feathers on my wings, he drew his hands slowly over my naked body. His fingertips danced over my thin waist and cupped my breasts, drawing a soft moan out of me as my back arched.

  Rowe pulled away from me for a second to remove the last of his clothes and then gently spread my legs so he could kneel between them. My heart pounded in my chest as a mixture of fear and longing raced through my veins. I had never been with a man. I wanted his touch more than I wanted my next breath, and yet at the same time I feared what was about to happen. What if I couldn’t perform as he hoped? What if I disappointed him? What if . . .