“Then I don’t want to know. Don’t tell me how outnumbered we are until I ask.”
With a nod and half smile, he headed back toward Hostal Loreto to find Eduardo. I trudged back to the hotel, my hands in my pockets and my head down against the wind. I didn’t want to tell him that fear twisted in my stomach whenever I heard the word “Ollantaytambo.” There was something I was supposed to remember about that place. As best as I could recall, I had woken up one night on Machu Picchu after being in Spain the night before. I don’t know how I had gotten to Machu Picchu and I never asked. Pain quickly accompanied consciousness during those long nights, and petty thoughts about how I’d traveled a long distance were unimportant.
Had the naturi spoken of Ollantaytambo during my imprisonment? Or worse? Had I been there but couldn’t remember? I had to know. It probably had nothing to do with the sacrifice and the opening of the door, but I knew I would never have another chance to find out. If we were lucky, we’d zip in and out of Ollantaytambo without being noticed and then be flown to the lodge. Of course, Lady Fortune had given me the cold shoulder for much of the past few months. Why change now?
Twenty
Shelly and Cynnia were seated cross-legged on the bed with playing cards when I entered the room using the key I had gotten off of Danaus. Judging by the way Shelly was continuously looking over at Cynnia’s cards, it appeared that she was attempting to teach the naturi how to play gin with mixed results.
“We need to change rooms,” I said, slamming the door shut behind me. Both women looked at me a little strangely, each tensely clutching their individual hand of cards.
“Come on! Let’s move! They could be in the hotel already,” I snapped when they didn’t move. Taking the cards out of Cynnia’s hands, I dropped them on the bed and grabbed the chain linking her wrist irons. She stumbled behind me as I pulled her to her feet, with Shelly following.
“I don’t understand,” Shelly said. “Who’s here?”
“The naturi,” Cynnia answered before I could.
“Where’s Danaus?”
“On an errand.” I halted when we reached the door and looked down at her. “Do you sense them? Are they here?”
“Mira, with the manacles, I can’t clearly sense much of anything,” Cynnia explained. “I can feel the power in the air, but I can’t use it to clearly sense my own kind while I’m in the hotel.”
“But earlier you said that you had sensed them.”
“It was when I was standing on the ground outside, while we were traveling,” she argued. “When I’m in this hotel with concrete separating me from the earth, I can’t feel anything but the energy in the air.”
“Grand,” I snarled, my gaze sweeping around the room to snag on the one window against the far wall. “Shelly, I want to you keep an eye on that window until I say to follow me.” The witch nodded, and I moved back to the door with Cynnia in tow.
I opened the door and quickly palmed my knife with my right hand. Peering down the hall to the left and then to the right, I saw that it was empty and felt some of the tension in my chest uncoil.
“Is someone coming after us?” Cynnia asked
“Possibly.” I jerked the door open wider and pulled her into the hallway with me and down to the next door, where Danaus and I shared the windowless room. “Shelly, come on!”
“Is that why you’re wounded? You were attacked by a naturi,” Cynnia said, trying to take a step back from me, but her manacles were tightly held in my grip. Unfortunately, I was out of hands to set the key into the lock. I wasn’t willing to let go of the knife either, as I felt safer with it close at hand. Frustrated, I buried the tip of the knife into the wooden doorjamb, earning a gasp from both Shelly and Cynnia as I fished the room key out of my pocket.
Once the door was open, I grabbed the knife and ushered both women quickly into the room. Shelly and Cynnia huddled together against the far wall after I locked the door and conducted a thorough search of the room to ensure that we were truly alone. I liked this room better—there was no window, and only one entrance, only one door to defend if someone had followed me to Cynnia’s location.
“What happened?” Shelly inquired when I finally seemed satisfied that we had the room to ourselves. “Your arm is covered in dried blood.”
I sat on the edge of the bed, while Shelly took the one good seat in the room, leaving Cynnia to once again curl up on the floor against the wall. “I met up with an old friend of mine named Rowe. He seemed really anxious to find you, Cynnia.”
“Does he mean to kill me?” Cynnia said, wrapping her arms around one of her bent legs while keeping the other out straight.
“I don’t know, but I gave him an ultimatum. If he walks away from the ceremony, I’ll set you free. If not, you’re dead. I thought it was what we both wanted.”
“Not the dead part!”
“He has to be given a reason to cooperate.”
“Couldn’t you think of something equally persuasive other than ending my life?”
“No, because I mean it. I have no use for you if I can’t use you to stop the sacrifice from being completed. You’re just another naturi that wants to kill nightwalkers and humans, then.”
“No, that’s not true! You know it’s not true,” she argued. She lurched forward so that she was on her hands and knees before me. “I can help you. I don’t want this war. I don’t want to fight with the nightwalkers and I’d be happy to find a way to live in peace with the humans.”
“Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like Rowe is willing to put aside his plans just for the sister of the queen. He plans to go forward with the sacrifice tomorrow night.”
“No! Mira, please, we can find another way. I can be useful to you,” Cynnia desperately argued.
“You are in luck, because someone else appeared before I had a chance to return here,” I said, causing her bent head to snap up. “It seems you’re rather important to your sister. Enough so that she may be willing to try to stop Rowe’s plans in an effort to save your life.”
“Nyx wants me alive?” Cynnia whispered. She sat back again, tears slipping down her pale cheeks. “I was afraid that if she was here, she had been sent to kill me as well. But Nyx wants me alive.”
“So it would seem,” I murmured.
“You have a plan?” Shelly asked, drawing my attention to her. She had been a quiet companion on this trip, seeing to Cynnia’s needs while Danaus and I made what plans we could for Machu Picchu. Hopefully, she could block the naturi earth magic.
“If our little Nia wants to stay alive, then it seems that she may have to provide some assistance to us, and by extension, to her sister Nyx.” I paused to be sure that I had Cynnia’s complete attention. Her wide, wet eyes were locked on my face as she used the sleeve of her shirt to wipe away her tears. “We have to keep the door closed.”
“I agree,” Cynnia said with a nod. “I don’t want to see Aurora hurt, but she can’t be allowed to return to earth.”
“Then I need you to teach Shelly and me how to use earth magic.”
“I already know how to use earth magic,” Shelly argued, moving to the edge of her chair.
“Maybe, but not to the powerful levels that are available to you right now,” I said with a shake of my head. “I need you to be able to wield this power. The Sacred Valley is flooded with energy, more so than what I experienced at Stonehenge or the Palace of Knossos. This place is different, and I need you prepared to take advantage of it.”
“Besides, nightwalkers can’t use earth magic,” Cynnia argued. “It’s against all the laws.”
I smiled and pushed off the bed to walk over to her. “All laws can be broken. Rowe has been using blood magic. I know a warlock that has been wielding both blood and earth magic. I can manipulate fire, which seems to have given me some kind of in when it comes to using earth magic. I need your help in learning to control it.”
“There is no controlling it.” Using the wall behind her, she pushed to her feet. “
It’s energy that is there for your use, but to actually control it and wield it is not something we believe in.”
“Look, Cynnia, I’m not in the mood to debate semantics with you. I want you to teach me to be able to use this power that is flowing about me. Teach me to be an earth witch, if you must.”
“It’s not that simple, Mira,” Shelly chimed in.
Turning back around, I flopped down on the edge of the bed and put my head between my hands in frustration. “It’s like we’re talking different languages—we don’t have time for this.”
To my surprise, Shelly stepped forward. She left the chair and came over to kneel before me, taking both of my hands in her warm hands. “We’re not trying to make this difficult, but it is a matter of semantics, in a way. I don’t know about blood magic, but earth magic comes from one single, living source. The power itself has its own consciousness and identity. You can’t control it because it doesn’t want to be controlled. You can’t wield it the same way that you wield a sword because it’s not a thing.”
“Then how do you use it?” I demanded, giving her hands a slight squeeze to emphasize my desperation as my gaze darted from her to Cynnia. “You cast spells. You make plants grow. You change the weather. You control animals. All of this is accomplished through earth magic. I need to be able to do these things, or at least understand how these things are done. In this fight, it’s not enough that I am an old nightwalker or even that I am the Fire Starter. When I am here at the place of the sacrifice, I am a danger to myself and those around me.”
Shelly’s hands slid from mine and she sat back on her heels before me, confusion filling her lovely face as her blond hair slipped down around her cheeks.
“I don’t understand,” Cynnia whispered.
“I can feel the earth’s power when I am here,” I said.
“Just here or when you’re near a swell?” Cynnia quickly inquired, causing my brow to furrow at her word choice.
“A swell?” Shelly asked, her gaze darting over to the naturi.
“It’s one of the places on the earth where the crust is the thinnest. It’s where the power flows up through the center of the earth to the surface. It’s likely these are the places that Rowe has been holding the sacrifices; they would provide him with the power he needs to break the seal and open the door.”
“Yes, when I’m near a swell, I can feel the power of the earth,” I said with a nod. I threaded my fingers together, twisting them tightly as I continued my story. This was information that I wasn’t sure was safe in the hands of the naturi, but at the moment I didn’t see that I had much choice. We had already gone over much of this the previous night in the woods, but I was forced to leave that place with only a weak barrier spell in my back pocket. After walking around Cuzco and feeling the power in the air, I knew I was going to need a stronger plan of attack to survive the encounter at Machu Picchu. “It’s more than that. I can feel the power from the earth pushing against my skin, trying to enter my body.”
“I’m assuming that you allow it to enter,” Shelly said, a frown pulling at the corners of her lips.
“No, not intentionally.”
“Mira, why not? That’s a wonderful gift that you’ve been given,” Shelly said, rising up on her knees with newfound energy. “It’s like the earth is reaching out to you. It’s not the same for earth witches. We have to reach out and tap the energy in the air that we can find. Being here, with the power so thick in the air, it’s easier for me now, but for it to come searching you out…it’s…it’s like an honor.”
“But I can’t feel it when I’m not at a swell,” I countered.
“You said that you didn’t intentionally allow the power to enter your body, but it has in the past?” Cynnia asked. She had crawled a little way from the wall and was now seated closer to me and Shelly.
“When I create fire at the swells, the earth power rushes into my body. I can’t stop it! It fills me, consumes me until there seems to be nothing left inside of me except for this power. The only way to get rid of it is to create more fire, but it never seems to be enough.”
“And it never will be,” Cynnia said with a sad shake of her head. “How do you finally get it to stop?”
“Blood magic. It pushes the earth magic back out of my body,” I carefully said, avoiding mentioning that Danaus served as my source of pure blood magic, given his bori nature. “I want control of this. I want to be able to use the earth magic that pours into my body, but I also need to be able to shut it off. Can either of you teach me that?”
Cynnia hesitated, but Shelly quickly spoke up, laying her hand on my knee. “I can.”
I looked over at Cynnia, who refused to meet my gaze. “Your usefulness is dwindling.”
“Please understand my point of view, Mira,” she said, slowly lifting her eyes to meet mine. “You’re already the stuff of legends among my people. Am I to be the one responsible for making you even stronger? More dangerous not only to my people, but to the entire world?”
“And what happens if we don’t?” Shelly snapped, raising her voice toward the young naturi for the first time. “Your sister Aurora will come through and kill us all. I don’t always agree with Mira’s methods, but at least in her version of the world, there’s a place for humans.”
“You’re food!” Cynnia snapped. She balled her hands into fists and tried to jerk her hands apart, but the chains kept her bound. “You’re cattle to them.”
Shelly jerked back, looking as if Cynnia had suddenly smacked her. Her mouth hung open but no words came out.
“It’s true, Shelly,” I gently said. This time I laid a hand on her shoulder. She flinched under my cool touch, but I refused to move my hand away. “Nightwalkers cannot exist without humans to feed upon, but that is not the only reason we seek to protect you. Humans are also our friends, our enemies, and our lovers. No matter how long a nightwalker exists in the shadows, at some time we always find ourselves establishing some sort of relationship with a human. It’s where we started as creatures and it’s something that we cannot completely escape.”
“They’ve hunted you,” Cynnia argued through clenched teeth.
“And we’ve protected you,” I calmly said. “We are neither villains nor saviors. We simply are a part of this world as much as humans are.”
Cynnia stood and took a couple steps toward me, her fists trembling in anger before her. “And we deserve a place in this world just as much as nightwalkers.”
“I’ll agree with that as long as you’re willing to share it with the rest of the races. Look me in the eye and tell me that is Aurora’s plan.”
Cynnia held my gaze for a second then blinked and turned away from me. “She doesn’t want to share,” she whispered, her slender shoulders slumping in defeat. “She never will share with the humans.”
“And because of that I will not stop fighting the naturi. Give me a naturi ruler that understands coexistence and I will consider putting down my sword.”
“Consider?” Cynnia asked, turning back to look at me, one eyebrow arched in question.
“Your brother and many others are responsible for much I will never be able to forgive. I cannot learn to forget so quickly,” I said in a cold voice.
“I thought the saying was ‘forgive and forget.’”
“I know my limitations. There will be no forgiveness.”
A sigh from Shelly drew my attention back to the earth witch. She was trapped between two warring races. Her only chance was to pick a race that would protect her survival, which meant siding with the nightwalkers. But Cynnia was right. Humans were little more than cattle to us. Cattle and a bit of violent, ugly amusement when the mood hit us. The lesser of the two evils was still evil.
“From what it sounds like, Mira,” Shelly slowly began, moving away from my touch as she kept her eyes on the worn and faded carpet beneath her knees. “You’re trying to act as a battery for the energy that is coming into you instead of a conduit.”
“I’m
not trying to do anything,” I admitted, struggling to keep from sounding defensive. “The first couple times it happened, I wasn’t trying for it. It just happens against my will.”
“Then the earth must recognize you as an outlet because of your ability to manipulate fire,” Cynnia volunteered sullenly. She returned to her place on the floor against the wall, her arms wrapped around her bent legs. “To stop this from happening, you can simply stop going to the various swells around the world.”
“Nia,” I murmured in the gentlest voice I could muster amidst my growing frustration. “I have to stop the door from opening.”
To my surprise, Cynnia closed her eyes and a single fat tear rolled down her cheek. “I know.” What she also knew was that many of her own kind were going to be killed in the ensuing battle for Machu Picchu tomorrow night.
“As I was saying,” Shelly continued, drawing my attention away from the lost and hurting naturi. “You’re acting as a battery. It sounds like the power is going into your body and your body is attempting to store the energy until you are ready to use it. Unfortunately, you can store only so much energy before it finally destroys you.”
“I’ll agree with that assessment,” I muttered. At least that explained the excruciating pain I felt whenever the power entered my body, and the relief I felt when I used my powers. It also made me wonder if that was why I felt the same pain when Danaus or Jabari attempted to manipulate me. Was I simply storing up their power within my body until I finally abided by their wishes?
“You need to become a conduit,” Shelly said. “You need to allow the energy to not only flow into you, but to also flow out again. When you use earth magic, you are simply tapping into the power that is naturally flowing through you.”
“So how do I do that?”
At that question, Shelly bit on her lower lip and looked over her shoulder at Cynnia, who shrugged.
“This is your one chance to prove your value to me, to save your own life, and you’re going to say no!” I shouted, pushing off the bed and walking toward her.
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