Burn the Night

by Jocelynn Drake

  “It is not as if you walked away empty-handed from our time together,” Nomura stated.

  “Oh, you’re correct. I gained more than my fair share of blood magic—”

  “You taught him how to use blood magic?” I demanded, raising my voice for the first time. “Do you know what trouble that has caused for all nightwalkers during the past year? Do you know that knowledge enabled him to open the doorway between the worlds in the first place? You are the reason Aurora is here now.”

  “Don’t lay too much blame at their doorstep, Mira,” Rowe noted, earning a growl from me as I looked over at him. “They tried very hard to kill me over a five-year period. I’m sure while they were teaching me the magic, they never expected me to survive the lessons.”

  “I don’t understand,” Danaus spoke up. The hunter laid a hand on my shoulder and squeezed, subtly hinting that I needed to calm down. There was no need to start a fight with four very powerful nightwalkers when I still had a fight with Aurora ahead of me. “Why bother teaching him in the first place if you only planned to kill him?”

  “It was a form of torture,” Nomura replied in a nonchalant voice. “The learning process was extremely painful for the naturi since the style of magic went against his very essence. We were curious if it could even be done. Unfortunately, Rowe escaped us before we were able to complete our process.”

  “You mean, the process of slowly trying to destroy him,” I said in a cold voice. “Leave.”

  “I beg your pardon,” Nomura said softly, cocking his head to the side. “I don’t believe I understood you correctly.”

  “No, I’m sure you did,” I snapped, glaring at the quartet of nightwalkers. “Leave. Leave Savannah and the New World. Return to Japan, and if I have my wish, never leave your home again. You are not welcome in this world.”

  “You’re turning your back on our superior strength and abilities because you would rather side with the naturi?” Nomura demanded.

  “I’m turning my back on you because of what you did to him! Because of what you tried to do to me!” I snarled. “I’m turning my back on you because of the fact that you brought this on us all in the end. If you had not been so cocky in your decision to give him knowledge of blood magic, Aurora might not be here. Leave here and take Matsui with you, now.”

  “As you wish,” Nomura replied in clipped tones. He turned on his right heel and quickly exited the town house, his companions following close behind him. Matsui paused in the hallway outside the parlor and bowed deeply to me before he left the house as well. There was a look of genuine regret on his face. I preferred to think that he actually liked serving as my bodyguard. It had to at least be less formal than following behind the Japanese nightwalkers.

  “I’m confused,” Rowe announced when the door slammed shut. “Are you angry at them for torturing me or for failing to kill me?”

  “I’m angry they used you as a science experiment that could have triggered the end of humanity as we know it if we don’t stop Aurora,” I replied, glaring at the naturi. The story was all too familiar, as Jabari had been content to experiment on me. Both Rowe and I had merely been puppets, playthings for powerful creatures. And in the end, if the Soga clan had succeeded to get me to Japan to help them with their naturi problem, I would have been forced to stay so I would become their next pet project.

  Rowe pushed out of his chair, standing so he was looking me directly in the eye. “It didn’t have to be the Soga clan. I would have begged for the knowledge of blood magic from anyone willing to teach me, regardless of the cost. My job was to free Aurora and the others.”

  I took a couple steps closer to him. “And you don’t regret it, do you?”

  Rowe smirked at me. “Nope.”

  “Considering all the lives that have been lost over the years, do you regret anything at all?”

  “Just not killing you when I had the chance.”

  I matched his smirk with one of my own. “Which time?” Rowe had more than one shot at me over the long years, and here I still stood, alive and smiling at him.

  “All of them, from our first meeting till this very second,” he replied.

  Shaking my head, I turned my back on the naturi and started to return to the other side of the room. To my shock, Danaus brushed by me in a quick sweeping motion. I twisted around in time to see his meaty fist land squarely on Rowe’s nose, throwing the naturi back into his chair. I placed my hand on Danaus’s chest to keep him from taking another step toward Rowe. However, my eyes were locked squarely on Nyx, who had come away from the far corner like a dark shadow. Her face remained expressionless, but there was a new burning in her gray eyes that hadn’t been there before. This seemed to be more than just protectiveness of her own kind—there was something between her and Rowe.

  “She spared your life in Budapest,” Danaus growled. “She gave you a second chance at life and still you persist in hunting her.”

  “I’m not as easily tamed as some,” Rowe said in a low voice as he rubbed his nose, checking to make sure it wasn’t broken. Danaus tried to lunge at the naturi again, but I held him back, my eyes remaining on Nyx. There was no weapon in her hand, but I had a feeling she was only waiting for Danaus to make another move toward Rowe.

  “Enough!” I shouted, shoving against Danaus so he was forced to take a couple steps back away from Rowe. Summoning up the energy swirling in the air around me, I turned off the lamps in the room, plunging the room into complete darkness for a breath before lighting all the candles as well as igniting a fire in the fireplace. Everyone grew still, seeming to hold their breath as they waited to see if my temper had reached its breaking point.

  “We’re not getting anywhere with these talks!” I complained, returning to the other side of the room with Danaus. It was better if there was physical space between Rowe and us. I still wanted to set the bastard on fire after his little dig at Danaus, but I knew we would need him healthy for the battle ahead. “Aurora is out there somewhere waiting to attack. She is not only looking for the heads of you three, but I’m willing to bet she would like to add mine to her collection as well.”

  “It’s more than that,” Cynnia said, letting her voice fill the silence for the first time in a while. “Aurora launched an open attack on the city. I think she’s picked the place where she wants to have her final battle with you and her sisters.”

  “You mean Savannah?” I asked. “She wants to fight out in the open?”

  Nyx fell back into the shadows, but her voice crept forward to replace Cynnia’s soft soothing words. “What better way to strike fear in the hearts of men than for them to witness a battle of the magical arts they can’t hope to understand or win. She will intimidate them, subjugate them, and then finally destroy them all.”

  “We need to give her a reason to draw away from the city,” I argued. “We need to give her a reason to pull back her forces to some of the open, uninhabited areas that surround Savannah. Get her out of the city.”

  “How will we do that?” Knox asked.

  I smiled at him for a second before turning my attention to Cynnia. “With bait. We make her come after Cynnia outside the city.”

  “I’m not leaving my sister unguarded and vulnerable,” Nyx countered.

  “Who said unguarded?” I shook my head at her, still smiling. “Didn’t you say the animal clan was waiting outside the city at a safe location? Stick Cynnia in the middle of the clan for a time. They’ll keep her safe, correct?”

  “They would protect her,” Nyx reluctantly conceded.

  “Hell, you and Rowe can go with her as added protection if that’s what you want.”

  “And what if you’re her target?” Rowe inquired.

  “Then we’re fucked,” I snapped. “I’m not leaving my city without some kind of protection. If it looks like Aurora is going to come after Cynnia outside the city, then Danaus, the nightwalkers, the lycans, and I will come riding to the rescue, attacking her from behind. But until I know that she has turne
d her sights elsewhere, I’m not budging from Savannah. She’s done enough damage here and destroyed enough lives.”

  Rowe stared at me with a strange expression as he scratched his chin with his right hand. “You’re willing to take a lot of risk for a group of people that are going to come at you with a cross and wooden stake once they discover you exist.”

  “This is my home and I will protect it,” I said. “I’ll worry about what they think about me later.”

  Rowe gave a soft snort and shook his head. “I wish you luck.”

  I remained silent, holding onto the luck bequeathed to me by my enemy. I knew I was going to need it. Aurora’s shocking daylight raid on the city proved to me that she was willing to take chances we weren’t willing to take, in an effort to not only protect the humans, but also protect our secret from the humans. I had a dark feeling this war was going to take a turn that I couldn’t protect my people from, and result in more deaths. And possibly even the truth.

  Thirty

  The wind threaded its fingers through the black feathers of my wings as I soared overhead toward a distant thicket of trees. The sun had just broken over the horizon and was glazing the earth in its golden glow. I could feel myself growing weaker the brighter the sky became. We had spent most of the night arguing tactics before we were all evicted from Mira’s town house in Savannah a couple hours before sunrise. The Fire Starter declared that she needed to have a private meeting with the other gathered nightwalkers before they sought a safe place to spend the daylight hours.

  Cynnia, Rowe, and I retreated to the house Shelly was renting in another part of the city. The witch tripped into the house minutes after our arrival, looking exhausted and pale, but also relieved. The human called Gabriel would not only survive, but might also regain his ability to speak due to her diligent ministrations. I had a feeling the news would go a long way toward calming the Fire Starter’s frazzled nerves, but her temper would not be under tight rein again until we finally took care of Aurora.

  With protective spells in place, we all settled into our respective sleeping spots an hour before dawn, but sleep would not come. I lay with Rowe’s arm possessively thrown across my stomach, his soft snoring rumbling in my ear. However, my own rush of thoughts kept me awake. I knew what we were planning would never be enough if we hoped to defeat Aurora. Something else needed to be done if Cynnia, Rowe, and so many others were going to survive the coming days and nights.

  Using a spell to deepen Rowe’s sleep, I slipped away from him and out of the house without disturbing the protective spells or alerting anyone to my exodus. With a sigh on my lips, I took to the sky with my wings spread wide on the breeze I had conjured up. The feeling of flying free above the earth, even as the sun rose behind me, was exhilarating. For just a brief moment in time I felt free of the burdens that had been weighing on my shoulders during the past several months. There was only me and the soft caress of the wind blessed by the Great Mother.

  Yet, as I drew closer to Aurora, I knew it all was an illusion. The weight was still there and growing heavier by the second as I approached her camp. I didn’t know her exact location, but then I only needed to step into the perimeter of her camp and her guards would pick me up and take me to the demented queen. I hated not telling Cynnia or Rowe about my plans, but I knew that neither would have let me out of the house if I’d revealed my intentions.

  I circled the clearing once before bringing in my wings enough to glide down to the earth. My feet had barely sunk into the soft soil when a harsh voice ordered me to halt. I raised both of my hands, palms out, to show that I was unarmed. I extended my wings as far as they would reach on either side of me, keeping myself vulnerable. I was surrounded by six naturi, all of whom had weapons trained on me.

  “I’ve come to speak with Aurora,” I announced in a loud voice, so it carried to the other guards, who were waiting in the shadows of the forest. A low murmur of conversation drifted through the trees like a breeze whispering through the leaves.

  “Her Majesty has nothing to say to you, traitor,” barked one of the naturi. “She simply wants you dead along with your traitorous sister.”

  “She’ll meet with me. Just ask her,” I said, my voice full of confidence.

  The murmur of conversation resumed as they weighed my words. I’d been banking on their hesitance to kill the one person who had led them through the centuries. Once Rowe had been trapped outside the cage, I became the captain and commander of Aurora’s armed forces. They were accustomed to following my orders.

  “Besides, wouldn’t she rather see me killed in person than hear about it later?” I asked. This new incentive was enough to get one naturi ordered back to Aurora’s camp for orders. I was a dangerous creature in my own right, and they were more than a little wary of bringing me within their safe haven.

  Slowly lowering my hands while wrapping my wings around my shoulders, I sat on the ground and crossed my legs as we all waited to hear what Aurora wanted. The five naturi that stepped out of the woods upon my landing edged closer. Wrist crossbows, short swords, and bows and arrows were trained on me, ready to be loosed if I so much as breathed too deeply.

  While I didn’t come to Aurora’s camp unarmed, I was careful to keep my weapons limited to a couple small daggers concealed on my person. I was secretly hoping they would forget to search me—I might need to fight my way out of Aurora’s camp before this meeting was over.

  After several minutes, two naturi returned to the clearing, including one I’d rather not have seen.

  Greenwood was tall and lanky, his long brown hair flecked with gray. His face was slashed with wrinkles, as if worn by exposure to the elements. The earth clan did not age gracefully, but remained long-lived and spry despite their appearance. Greenwood had always been upset that Rowe was chosen to be Aurora’s consort over him. He had both age and experience over the wind clan member. However, Rowe’s ruthless grace had appealed to Aurora at the time. Now it seemed that Greenwood was finally getting his shot.

  “I’m surprised you came,” he said, opening with a soft chuckle. “You were always a careful strategist, taking only calculated risks that were in your favor to win. Surely you realize you’re not leaving this camp alive, even if you are permitted an audience with Aurora.”

  “I did not come to speak with you, Greenwood. The earth clan and your play at politics are of no interest to me. Take me to Aurora. She will want to hear what I have to say.”

  Greenwood took a wary step backward as I rose, eyeing me with a new caution. I showed no fear despite the fact that my heart was pounding like a thing gone mad in my chest, and my stomach was twisting into knots. Six naturi surrounded me in the immediate vicinity, but I could sense another dozen waiting in the shadows of the trees. I didn’t have much of a chance against these odds. Even if I took straight to the sky, there was a good chance they would shoot me down before I got far. But given my reputation, the naturi watching me now were afraid to be the first to strike. I had to use that fear to my advantage.

  After a long silence, Greenwood let out a low chuckle that sounded strained and forced to my ears. “Lose the wings and let us bind your hands, then I will have you escorted to Aurora so she can see you killed in person. I’m sure that would bring her some pleasure. Wouldn’t it be a great triumph to carry your head on a pike into battle so it is the first thing Cynnia sees as she faces us?”

  I said nothing, focusing on causing my wings to dissolve into black sand that poured like a waterfall down my back to the ground. Putting my hands together in front of me, I kept my face perfectly blank as one pale naturi stepped forward and roughly bound my wrists behind my back with a thick piece of rope. At the same time, a second naturi stepped forward and patted me down, removing my two knives.

  The naturi that bound my hands gave me a hard kick that sent me stumbling forward. “Get moving,” he ordered with a laugh.

  The walk to Aurora’s camp was one of the longest in my entire memory. It seemed as if all th
e naturi that rallied around her banner had come out to see me, jeering, spitting, and stabbing me. While most of the wounds were relatively superficial in nature, I was bruised, bloody, and covered in dirt when I was finally brought to Aurora’s pristine white tent. Beside it, there was a somewhat less grand green tent, most likely Greenwood’s. It was somewhat reassuring that they were maintaining separate residences for now. If I knew Aurora as well as I thought I did, I suspected she was waiting for him to deliver both Cynnia and me to her feet dead before finally taking him as her consort.

  As I came within a dozen feet of the tent, the two sides were parted and Aurora stepped out. It seemed as if a shaft of golden light shot through the trees to shine on her beautiful blond hair and pale skin. She shone before me like a fallen star or a ray of perfect sunlight on a cloudy day. She wore her usual white robes, but now with a breastplate made of polished, gleaming gold. I knew, however, it was merely a ceremonial piece in an effort to more closely align herself with the army that she would soon order to their death.

  My older sister looked down on me and smiled smugly. She didn’t care that she would never have been able to accomplish this if I hadn’t willingly turned myself over to her. Her only care was that she had me bound and battered, striking a blow against the traitors rising up against her.

  “The first of the traitors has come to meet their fate!” she exclaimed to the crowd that had gathered before her. A loud cheer went up, causing the tree limbs to tremble. A shiver ran through me as I listened to those bloodthirsty voices. It sounded as if she had acquired a greater army than I initially thought she would. I knew all the naturi would not flock to her side. Some had rallied around Cynnia’s banner, while another group remained as far from the two sides as they could, hoping to remain unnoticed until the fighting finally blew over.