Burn the Night (3 page)

The lightning slammed down twice, pounding both of the earth clan members. The scent of burned flesh drifted toward my nose.

This wasn’t what I wanted. I was the protector of our people, a title given to me by my father, the king of the naturi. He had commanded that with every breath in my body I protect the people and carry out the orders of my king or queen no matter what. I was to be their great defender. I was to be the sword and shield my people hid behind in times of darkness. Now I had become the sword that cut them down.

Something sharp prodded my neck, compelling me to open my eyes. Rowe stood before me with my knife point digging into my throat and a stern look on his face. “You’ve gotten sloppy.”

“Not at all.”

“Four naturi were allowed to sneak up on you. Two earth weavers captured you with roots, rendering you nearly helpless. I know that I taught you better than that.”

“You taught me to fight nightwalkers and bori. Not our own kind.” I pushed back the memories that threatened to intrude. Rowe and I had trained together many years before our people were banished to their cage. We knew each other’s fighting styles. We knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses—or at least we had before we were separated by centuries of captivity.

“All the more reason you should know your enemy, far better than any nightwalker or bori,” Rowe criticized. “You should never have been trapped so easily.”

“I never was,” I said with a slight smile. Lowering my eyelids, I stared past him, concentrating on the flow of the earth around me. I murmured a couple words I had been given by our strongest magic weavers, and the roots quickly unwound themselves from around my body and shrank back into the earth.

The moment his gaze shifted to the roots. I landed two quick hits to his wounded arm and another to the wrist holding the knife, popping it loose. The blade still sliced through my skin, but it was only a minor flesh wound that would heal in time. The important thing was that Rowe was no longer holding a weapon. He was dangerous enough without one.

As the hilt of the blade landed in the palm of my hand again, he ducked and rolled away from me. Coming back up on his feet, he was holding the short sword of one of the fallen naturi. We were once again at a stalemate.

“I guess I was wrong,” Rowe said, smirking.

“It seems we frequently underestimate each other. It’s been too many years. I guess I assumed you grew soft in your years away from the rest of your people.”

“Hardly the case, as I have proven. Now give me the key so I can remove the collar.”

“You’re going with me to speak to Cynnia.”

“Even if I wanted to see your traitorous sister, I wouldn’t do it as a dog on a leash. Free me now!”

“And risk you killing her at first sight, because she is my ‘traitorous’ sister? No, I will have you brought before her with your powers held in check. I am more than willing to give my life protecting her, but I prefer to have the odds in my favor where you are concerned. I am no longer sure of what you are capable.”

“Anything,” he whispered, a dark smile gracing his grim features. He leaned in close to me, the edge of his blade scraping against mine. “I am capable of anything if it means my survival on this rotting wasteland.”

“Then come with me, because right now I am the only one who is willing to protect your traitorous hide.”

“I’ll go, but first give me the key,” he said, taking a step backward.

I smiled at him and bravely shoved my sword back into the sheath at my side. “I don’t have it.”

“What?”

“I don’t have it. Never did. It’s at our final destination.”

“Damn it, Nyx!” Rowe stomped away from me, tightly gripping the sword in one hand while still keeping his sore arm close to his body.

“It was the only way we could be sure you would seek out Cynnia whether I survived the journey or not.”

“So I should just kill you now and go alone to Cynnia’s location?”

“No, because you’ll never be able to defeat the one that captured you in the first place.” Rowe stopped pacing the forest and looked at me, lowering his sword. “What are you talking about?”

“I find it impossible to believe that Claudia and her little band succeeded in capturing you and wounding you so thoroughly on their own. They were just the delivery. Someone else attacked you, and once it is known that you’ve escaped again, that person or persons will be on your trail. You need me to keep you alive.”

“Bitch,” he snarled.

“Can you fly?” I asked, ignoring his comment.

Rowe looked away from me as he placed the sword in his empty scabbard. He hunched forward and his brow furrowed in concentration. A low groan escaped his parted lips as a pair of leathery black wings sprang from his back. I bit my lower lip and blinked back unexpected tears at the sight of his wings. I remembered when they were white as newly fallen snow and soft as a kitten’s fur. I had been wrapped in those pearly white feathers once, felt their caress. But now they were gone, replaced by something dark and foreboding, as if they represented a stain against his soul.

“We will fly east for the next couple hours and then make camp just before sunrise,” I directed, lifting one hand to summon up the winds again.

“We should be moving by daylight. That’s when they will be searching for us. We need to gain as much ground as possible,” Rowe countered.

“True, but I am the one who is defending you, and I am at my peak strength at night.” He gave a little bow just before he threw out his wings, catching the growing wind. “As you wish, Dark One.”

May the earth mother forsake you.

The old naturi curse occurred to me after he used the nickname that had haunted me since my birth, but I regretted the thought as quickly as it appeared. Looking at Rowe now, I had to wonder if the great earth mother had forsaken him already.

Three

R
owe snapped awake with a single magic word. He blinked a couple times before glaring at me.

He had been in mid-rant when I laid a hand on his shoulder and cast the spell, sending him into a deep sleep. Of course, I had a feeling that it was effective only because the iron collar was keeping him weak and he was a member of my own clan. For some reason, the sleep spell I cast only worked on members of the wind clan.

“You put me under a spell, you evil witch!” Rowe snarled.

“It’s not as if I could trust you to sleep beside me peacefully,” I replied, edging toward the entrance of the cave we had found shelter in during the daylight hours. The sun was in the process of setting over in the west, casting the sky in vibrant shades of pink, purple, and orange. I was still waiting for the dark blues and murky blacks to move in before we set off once again.

I removed the barriers and protective shields I had put up as a warning system should anyone get too close to our hiding place. However, I didn’t step outside into the open forest. There was something approaching. In fact, I grabbed Rowe’s arm as he tried to walk past me into the forest, forcing him to stop.

“Something is coming,” I murmured, cocking my head to the side as I tried to listen to what the wind was whispering to me. The Great Mother was constantly talking, revealing her secrets, but only to those willing to listen.

“I sense nothing.” Rowe attempted to jerk his arm free from my grip, but I only tightened my fingers around his muscular forearm. Pulling him down to his hands and knees, I forced him to dig his fingers into some soft earth just at the entrance of the cave.

“You may be willing to take chances with your life, but I am not,” I said. “Now listen to what Mother has to say. Someone is coming.”

“I find it hard to believe that the Great Mother would have anything to say to you, Dark One,” Rowe scoffed.

My temper snapped once again, and I shoved him hard in the shoulder so that he landed on his butt. “Have my skills waned?”

“What?”

“Since we’ve been reacquainted during the past several months, do you believe that my skills have waned from my youth?”

“No,” he said, looking more than a little confused. “You’re stronger. You’re a better fighter, and I did not know you were capable of spell casting until now.”

“Then why do you persist in calling me ‘Dark One’? You gave up that name when we trained together as youths and I proved myself to you.”

“It bothers you?”

“Of course it bothers me!” I paced to the opposite side of the cave and laid my left hand against the wall. “I do not need the constant reminder that I am beneath the touch of the glorious light that comes from the earth and our people. I do not need to be reminded with every breath that my life is an abomination.”

I was an abomination. All naturi babies are born during the light of day so that they can be bathed in the glorious light of the sun and the radiant joy of the Earth. Those few born at night were killed immediately. But when I was born just past midnight with my tuft of black hair and wide silver eyes, my father could not bear to lose me. He fought the heads of the clans for months until he finally convinced them to allow me to live, so long as I devoted my life to the protection of my people. And yet, even with that promise, I was an outcast; never knowing the warmth of compassion or love. Only Cynnia saw me as more than the Dark One or the protector of our people. She saw me as sister and loved me.

Only Cynnia.

For a time I thought Rowe had been different. We trained together, fought side by side. He was the commander of the naturi armies and I was his second in command. I thought I had proven myself to him as a warrior.

“Look at me, Nyx. Really look at me!” he said now, drawing my eyes back to where he sat on the ground. “Do you think someone who looks like me has a right to judge you?”

“When I see you, I see someone who made a choice, a great sacrifice for the people he was fighting for.”

Rowe gave a snort and shook his head. “Don’t make it sound so noble. It may have started that way, but my motives weren’t always quite so honorable. Sometimes it was just the fastest way to get the job done.”

I shook my head, but remained silent as I listened to the wind rush by the entrance of the cave.

Night was settling in the woods, filling the open areas between the trees with thick shadows, while the moon drifted in and out from behind the clouds.

“What happened to you after Machu Picchu?”

My gaze shifted back to the naturi sitting on the ground with his back to the cave wall. Rowe looked as if he was totally relaxed, but I knew he didn’t relax if he could help it. He was always ready for the next attack, ready to strike at the next enemy. But then, so was I. Too many years with the same training.

“Surprised we survived?” I asked.

He opened his mouth and then quickly shut it, shaking his head. “No, I’m not. You are a strong fighter. You would have defended Cynnia with everything that you are.”

“Thank you,” I murmured, surprised by his words. “We traveled northeast, hoping to head in the opposite direction of Aurora. We initially thought she would remain in South America near Machu Picchu. I thought she would remain there and use the strong power of the earth and the forests to rejuvenate, but I was wrong. Our intelligence indicated that she almost immediately headed northwest into a land called Canada. It was like she was mirroring us.”

“I’m sure she can sense you.”

“As Cynnia and I can sense her in a distant way. There’s no hiding. We just hoped to find a spot that she wouldn’t immediately attack so we could have a chance to build our army.”

“Where?”

I drew in a deep breath and frowned as I released it through my nose. “You’ll see soon enough, but we have another stop to make on the way. What have you done since Machu Picchu?”

“Hunted the Fire Starter,” he said with a shrug. Unexpectedly, a smirk grew on his lips and he softly chuckled to himself.

“What?”

“When Mira and I last parted, she said that I should seek out Cynnia. Live my life instead of chasing after death.”

I gave a little snort as I pushed away from the wall and walked back toward the entrance. “She’s smarter than I would have given her credit for.”

Rowe pushed to his feet and shook his head. “And devious. I would avoid her at all costs. She’s nothing but trouble.”

“Let’s get going. They are getting close,” I said, letting his comment pass as I stepped slowly out of the cave with one hand on the hilt of my sword. “By the way, who exactly was it that captured you in the first place?”

“Don’t worry. They’ll be here soon enough. When Claudia failed to report or hand me over to my next escort, they were undoubtedly dispatched to reclaim me.” Rowe looked a little too smug for my liking—he was a formidable warrior, and it didn’t look as if he had gone along willingly. What would we face?

Stepping clear of the cave, I stared up at the welcoming sky and the growing darkness. The wind was a light caress, carrying with it only a hint of a spring shower. Balanced on the balls of my feet, I inclined forward, allowing my wings to once again sprout from my back. I stretched them to their full length, enjoying the feel of having them free.

“You’ll want to put those away,” Rowe instructed, coming to stand beside me. “It will only make the fight more difficult.”

Looking over at him, I folded my wings so they hung gathered against my back, but didn’t make them completely dissipate. I was about to ask him again what I faced but the earth gave me my answer.

The ground gave a soft shudder beneath our feet, and the nearby trees creaked and groaned even though the wind had gone still. Around us I could hear the scurry of small animals fleeing the vicinity, running from their burrows while flocks of once sleeping birds took to the skies with loud, fearful cries.

Members of the earth clan were approaching, and I could now guess at who had been sent.

As if on command, three willowy women stepped out from behind the trees. They were dressed in tight-fitting buckskins and supple leather boots that allowed them to tread on the earth without making a sound or bending a single blade of grass. They could not be tracked for they were of the earth itself. And I knew they were skilled fighters, because I had been the one to train them for many years.