A gust of wind heralded a rush of wings.
Talon twisted around.
A daeva screeched. Its clawed hands flailed, inches from his face. With a steely slither, the tip of a sword emerged through its stomach.
Jaden kicked the injured daeva off his blade and executed it. “Watch your back.”
Talon gave him a quick nod of acknowledgment.
A scream of anguish howled through the night.
Jaden spun.
Another vampire died, his blood spraying over the woman and the child he had defended from three daevas.
With a hiss of rage, Talon threw himself at the daevas, drawing their attention away from the humans. Inches away, Yuri hacked down a daeva advancing on a cowering man.
Across the city square, two vampires barring entry into the cathedral were slaughtered by a winged mob of daevas. A panicked cry rose from the humans taking shelter in the building.
Tera swooped down. Deadlier than an elder vampire, she tore through the daevas like a knife cutting through paper. Her wings spread, carrying her into the air. She hovered over piles of twitching daeva limbs. “Yuri!” she shouted.
The vampire warlord nodded, sprinting across the square to defend the entrance of the cathedral—a hopeless task. Daevas died in tens, vampires singly, yet the tide of the battle inexorably shifted to favor the daevas.
Jaden scanned the city. His breath shuddered out of him.
Blood ran through the city’s streets, more crimson than gold. His people were dying. The icrathari were outnumbered. The vampires would perish, and the city with them.
A hand seized his upper arm. He spun around.
Michael’s direct stare pierced him. “You’re right. We will follow you.” Behind him, humans, armed with swords and bows and arrows, nodded, pale-faced but grim.
Jaden took a single step back, his gaze sweeping over reinforcements numbering in the thousands. Hope fluttered in his chest. “Archers in the towers. Bring down the daevas so that we can fight them on the ground. Avoid the icrathari—they can hold their own. The rest of you, rally around the vampires. Take the pressure off them. They’re our last line of defense.” He raised his voice and gestured as he issued orders. “Michael, you and your men stay with Talon. Clear the city square and then push out. Laird, your team goes with Yuri. Start at the periphery and circle in.”
Vampires and humans alike nodded their assent. The townspeople surged past Jaden like a tidal wave, crashing through the city center, and hacking down the daevas who were attacking the hard-pressed vampires.
Yuri’s sword flashed, killing two daevas that Tera had ripped from the sky. Accompanied by a few vampires and a horde of humans, the vampire warlord raced north through the narrow streets to clear the outskirts of the city.
Talon kicked a daeva off his sword and then turned to Jaden. Their gazes met briefly over the battling humans as they dragged down the daevas through sheer weight of numbers. The elder vampire inclined his head to Jaden in a gesture of thanks as humans gathered around him, willing to follow his lead.
Both Jaden and Talon looked up sharply as a daeva, larger than the rest, hovered over the city square and snarled. Six daevas broke off their attack and followed the lead daeva to the upper levels of Malum Turris.
“They’re going for the ark,” Talon shouted. He threw Jaden a glance. “Go! I’ve got this under control.”
Jaden sheathed his swords and looked up at the two streaks of silver slicing through the black spread of bat wings. “Ashra!”
One of the silver streaks twisted in midair and plunged through a curtain of daeva wings. A distant scream pierced the air. Golden blood drizzled from the sky. A shrieking daeva, its wings shredded, plummeted to the ground. Jaden sidestepped the grisly missile and held up an arm. Ashra swooped down, caught his arm, and pulled him into the air.
“The ark.” The rush of the wind tore his words away, but Ashra nodded. Her massive wings beat down, carrying her effortlessly through the air. She pulled him close to her chest and wrapped both arms around him. Her grip tightened.
His heart sank. Oh, damn.
He forced himself to keep his eyes open as she spun and twisted to avoid the grasping claws of the daevas. Her flight path took her straight up, parallel to Malum Turris. They skimmed inches away from the unyielding surface of the tower as daevas tried to claw her from the sky. Jaden’s scream was, mercifully, lost in the painful gusts of air rushing past him. She could not possibly have emerged unscathed—no, her shoulders and arms were bleeding, as were her legs, but her speed and strength did not falter. She screamed. The sound shattered the glass doors on the balcony attached to her suite. Glass sprayed, scattering on the floor, glittering dully in the pale moonlight. She twisted sharply and soared through the ruined doors.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the door of Khiarra’s antechamber was open and caught a glimpse of a pale hand—an adult hand—flung out lifelessly on the floor beneath a pool of red-gold blood.
“Khiarra!” He twisted, trying to break out of Ashra’s grip, but her greater strength and momentum drove them forward. “Wait!”
Ashra shook her head. “We’ll come back. We have to get to the ark.” Two powerful wing beats later, they were through the suite and diving down the central shaft to the ark.
The door of the ark was open. Phillip’s body was sprawled on the floor; his eyes were wide and unseeing, his white coat darkening with his blood. Ashra skimmed low to the ground and released Jaden before soaring up to take on the five daevas circling the high ceilings of the ark.
A solitary daeva stood at the console. Its clawed hands tapped keys. Pods flashed red, clusters of them lighting up in sequence until all of them glowed.
“No!” Jaden raced forward.
The daeva spun around, its hand poised on the button that would alter the chemical composition of the pods and kill all the hibernating children. Jaden lunged and grabbed the daeva by both wrists.
The creature beat down with its wings, lifting them both into the air. Jaden swung his legs up and wrapped them around the daeva’s waist, leaning back as the daeva tried to claw his eyes. It flapped its wings, carrying him high above the rows of pods, and twisted to shake him off.
Vertigo pounded through Jaden’s skull. The daeva spun into a dizzying display of aerial acrobatics. Jaden kept his eyes fixed on the daeva’s glowing yellow eyes and hideous grimace, but it did not calm the nausea swirling in the pit of his stomach. Its wings flapping hard, the daeva launched itself forward.
Jaden’s back smashed against the wall. A gasp of pain ripped from his throat. Blackness flashed across his vision. His grip slacked for a split second before tightening again. The daeva chittered, a sound of triumph. The massive wings flapped back, drawing both of them away from the wall, before driving forward again.
At the last second before impact, Jaden twisted, throwing his superior weight to the side to spin the daeva around.
The daeva smashed into the wall. Its left wing crunched from the impact. Its yellow eyes flared wide and then closed. It dropped like a stone. Jaden spared a brief glance over his shoulder. Panic clawed through him. They were too high. He would not survive.
A slender arm wrapped around his waist, pulling him up from his death dive. Ashra’s wrist closed around the daeva’s arm. “Let go,” her voice murmured in his ear.
He released his grip on the daeva. Ashra flung the unconscious daeva away from her. It smashed against the far wall and crumpled to the floor. “Creatures without wings don’t belong in the air.” Amusement sparkled in her voice.
Jaden closed his eyes and prayed the darkness would settle his spinning stomach. It didn’t work. “I couldn’t agree more.” Even his whisper trembled.
She set him down in front of the command console. He slumped to the floor and raised his head wearily. His body ached. His vision blurred as much from his dizzying, un-winged flights as from exhaustion. The bodies of the five daevas Ashra had killed sprawled over the gla
ss life pods.
Ashra’s fingers flicked over the console, tapping in the commands to reverse the damage the daeva had done.
“Are the children all right?” Jaden asked. He dragged himself to his feet. Khiarra. He had to find Khiarra.
Ashra nodded. “They’re fine, for now. We have to secure the ark.” She spun around at the sound of running feet. Tera burst into the room, followed closely by armed humans.
Tera scanned the room, her gaze drifting over the corpses of the six daevas. “Is this all of them?”
Jaden shook his head. “There are more daevas sealed between fire doors on the lowest level. There could be others in the tower.”
She looked aghast. “We’ve killed them by the hundreds. Yuri and Talon are still clearing the city. How many more are there?”
“Jaden warned you that they existed in the thousands.”
“What do we do with the daevas trapped on the lowest level?”
“Kill them all.” Ashra’s tone left no room for debate. She held Tera’s gaze. “If you see Elsker, kill him.”
Jaden’s green eyes flashed to her. “Elsker?”
Ashra nodded, her jaw tense.
The room shook, vibrating like a loose tooth. The concussive boom knocked them off their feet. She looked up, her pale golden eyes wide with alarm. “The engines!” Her wings flared, carrying her from the ark.
Jaden gritted his teeth. Khiarra had to wait. He paused long enough to glance at the armed humans. “Stay here. Seal the doors. Defend the ark.”
He raced from the room and onto the elevator. He arrived at the engine room minutes later. The massive steel doors protecting the engine rooms had been forced open, and the engines were engulfed in flame. The shredded capacitors bore testament to the daevas’ destructive fury.
Ashra stood, her white gown blood-streaked, over a score of daeva corpses.
The low hum, the steady white noise of the city’s engines, gave way to silence.
Tera came in behind him. Her eyes widened, but she too said nothing.
“How close are we to dawn?” Jaden asked.
Tera shook her head. “A half hour, no more.”
Ashra’s voice was a stricken whisper. “And we’re trapped.”
Jaden grasped her arm. “What happens when the sun rises?”
“The city burns.”
“Has it burned before?”
“No. We’ve never been trapped in the sun. Until now.”
“What about the tower itself?” Jaden demanded. “Will it survive the sun?”
Her eyes widened. Hope flickered. “Perhaps. More than likely.”
“We have to evacuate the city. Bring all the people into the tower.”
Ashra’s lips pressed into a thin line. She hesitated only for a moment before nodding. “Do it.”
Chapter Eighteen
In her one thousand-year reign over Aeternae Noctis, Ashra had never imagined that she would usher humans into Malum Turris.
The pale glow of the dawn seeped into the city, casting a surreal light over the sturdy stone buildings. Bodies of daevas, vampires, and humans lay crumpled in the city square, but the skies were once again clear.
Like a living river, a panicked mass of humanity flowed along the city streets. People carried their most precious belongings and scurried for the protection of Malum Turris. They dashed across the drawbridge and stumbled up the narrow granite steps through the double doors.
A child paused at the entrance of the tower and stared up at Ashra. “Are you an angel?”
The furthest thing from it. She smiled at the child. “Sometimes.”
The brightening horizon told her they were almost out of time. Her wings beat down, and she circled the city. “Get back to the tower now!”
Tera, who had been soaring overhead in search of Elsker, landed in front of the tower. As she stepped within its protective walls, she shot Ashra a grim look and shook her head. They would have to keep searching for the traitor.
The stragglers, vampires and humans alike, scrambled toward Malum Turris. Ashra landed in front of the great doors and cast a glance over her shoulder. Jaden was the last to race up the steep steps. He had searched each house to confirm that the city was empty of human life. The sun exploded over the mountains. The first rays of sunlight burst through the curve of the dome.
Jaden raced through the massive carbon steel doors that they hoped and prayed would stand against the sun. Ashra slipped in behind him.
A flurry of motion brushed against her. Alarmed, she stepped back. A small figure darted through the closing doors. Khiarra dashed out of the tower and into the city, her delighted laughter chiming against the outer walls of Malum Turris.
“Come back!” Jaden surged after her and squeezed through the narrow opening.
The door slammed shut, locking them out.
“No!” Ashra could not lose Jaden, not the way she had lost Rohkeus. She had seen the fear and panic in Rohkeus’s green eyes when he realized he was dying and could not reach the safety of the city as it fled away from the sun. The terror in his eyes gave way to peace as his body began to burn. He had surrendered to death even before the human assassin executed him.
The same fear and panic marked Jaden’s eyes—not for himself but for his sister.
She clenched her fists. Her sharp fingernails cut into her skin. Khiarra would kill Jaden.
Again.
Ashra leaped into the air. Her wings spread to their full ten-foot span, and she soared over the heads of the humans, launching herself up the central shaft of the tower.
A flurry of wings raced behind her. “Ashra, no!”
She burst into her suite. In two quick motions, she tore down the carbon steel panels erected over the shattered glass doors leading out to her balcony. Her wings flared in preparation for flight.
Tera seized her and pulled her back. “No, you can’t. It’s too late.”
She twisted in Tera’s grip. “I can save him. Let me go!”
“We can’t lose you.”
On the ground, Jaden seized his still-laughing sister even though they had no way of returning to safety of the tower. As if he had sensed her presence, he looked up at Ashra. Their gazes met over Khiarra’s tousled head. In his green eyes, terror gave way to peace. A half smile, gentled by love, curved his mouth. His lips moved in farewell. I love you.
Sunlight poured through the glass dome. Sparkles glistened against Jaden’s tall frame. It took her a moment to realize that the apparent glitter came from seeing him through her tears. His body was bathed in sunlight.
He would burn.
She would have to watch her lover die all over again.
Khiarra reached up, her tiny fingers outstretched to the sun. “So pretty.”
The sun rose over Aeternae Noctis. Light spilled across the city of eternal night, tumbling over the buildings. The beam of light climbed up the walls of the cathedral in the city square. The exquisite stained-glass windows burst into color.
Not flame.
Ashra’s breath caught.
Jaden raised his hand and placed it directly in a patch of golden light. Sunlight reflected off his deep tan. He raised his gaze to the sun, shielding his eyes, and then turned to flash a dazzling smile at her. “It’s beautiful.”
As beautiful and as harmless as the night. She inhaled sharply; the motion shattered her unmoving state, but not the awe that had triggered it.
Tera’s grip on her arms relaxed.
Together, the two icrathari stepped out onto the balcony. Ashra unfurled her wings; the sunlight caused the dark leather of her wings to sparkle like black opals. Her pale skin shimmered in the harmless glow of the sun.
She gazed over a city transformed by light, brought alive with color, and looked up at the glass dome. The full light of the sun and a mere sliver of its warmth filtered through the glass.
The icrathari, vampires, and humans had lived a thousand years of darkness.
For nothing.
Rohkeus had never intended for Aeternae Noctis to race endlessly through the night. The palladium glass dome had always deflected the heat of the sun. Only, she had never known. No one had known.
A child’s innocent love for play, and a brother’s devotion to his sister, had forced the issue. Jaden and Khiarra had ended the eternal night.
She stared down at brother and sister. Through her blur of unshed tears, their familiar faces wavered, for a moment, into the face of Rohkeus and his assassin. Was this why the blessed Creator sent their souls back, to finish the work that Rohkeus had begun a thousand years prior?
She inhaled, drawing gently warmed air into her lungs, and closed her eyes.
When she opened them once again, she saw only Khiarra and Jaden. Her Jaden.
She glanced over her shoulder at Tera. “Open the doors. Let the people out.”
Ashra soared from the balcony to land soundlessly beside Jaden.
He shifted his sister into his left arm and drew Ashra to him with his other hand. “Shred the veil of deception to end the eternal dark.”
“A millennium of darkness…” She shook her head. “We never knew.”
Jaden smiled. “Perhaps you should have trusted Rohkeus’s design more.”
The front door of Malum Turris opened. Humans inched out, their cautious and awed gazes focused on the bright sky. She spared a glance at the people filing out of the tower. The low buzz of their excited chatter quickly became deafening, but not even their obvious delight could spike the undercurrent of tension that tightened her shoulder muscles. “Can you manage things down here? Tera and I have other business to handle.”
Jaden caught her wrist before she turned away. “Elsker?”
She nodded. “We’ll find him.”
“And where is Siri?”
“In the chamber. Elsker sabotaged some of our electronic systems, and Siri’s trying to figure out the extent of the damage. Stay with your people; this is icrathari business.”
His eyes narrowed.
She had seen that mutinous gleam in his eyes before, usually before he did something extraordinarily foolhardy to try to protect her.
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