by Tessa Dawn
Nachari laughed out loud then. “So that’s what’s going on? That’s what’s clouding your judgment?” He slowly shook his head. “Spoken like a male so caught up in his own infatuation that he can’t see the forest for the trees.” He eyed the woodland terrain all around them and snickered. “No pun intended. The female is more tied up in knots than you are, Kagen. Trust me, she’s drawn to you, so strongly she’s about to throw herself off a cliff to get away from it. And as for your other points, just hear me out, okay?”
Kagen waited in silence, listening intently. If Nachari was nothing else, he was incredibly intuitive and wise. He had earned his wisdom through blood and fire and loss; and if he could shed some light on the infuriating situation, then far be it from Kagen to stop him. “Go on.”
“It’s hard to explain—some of what I learned in the Abyss—but whether or not our powers remain intact is more of a function of density, the dominant vibration of a particular realm, than it is proximity to earth. I was much weaker in the Abyss, but the vibration there was dark, sluggish, and stilted. It’s actually lighter here, higher, despite the fact that the lycans are evil.” He gestured toward their vibrant surroundings. “That’s why the trees are greener and the skies are bluer; it’s why all the colors are richer.” He clasped his hands together and held them to his forehead as if trying to physically retrieve clearer thoughts. “As for the Blood Moon and the markings on Arielle’s wrist—or the lack thereof—I’m not so sure they would show up in this realm. Kagen, I’m not so sure they could show up in this realm.”
“Why not?” Kagen asked, deeply curious now.
Nachari’s speech quickened. “Again, when I was in the Abyss, the gods knew I was there—they hadn’t forgotten me or abandoned me—yet they couldn’t interfere. They didn’t interfere. That world, it wasn’t their domain. It was under the authority of the dark lords and the demons. What if Mhier is under the authority of a different set of deities? What if the lycans have their own, evil gods?” He tilted his head to the side. “What if the celestial gods know you’re here? What if they know Arielle belongs to you, and they’re doing all they can to steer you both in the right direction, but they can’t directly interfere? This realm is ruled by lycans. Hell, it’s their universe of origin, much like the earth and its heavens are ours. Why would beings that hate and hunt vampires as a primary way of life come from a world that was hospitable to our kind? The moon is theirs. The sun is theirs. Hell, wolfsbane grows like dandelions here, and the timber wolf moon never goes away. What if there are no constellations in this galaxy? No way for them to appear? Or maybe they have ’em, but they’re just different.” He held up both hands. “My point is: This is their realm, not ours, and there’s just no way for us to know for sure.”
Kagen nodded, acknowledging all of Nachari’s salient points, and then he continued to argue. “But Arielle is from here—this world—not ours. Why would my destiny come from a realm other than ours?”
Nachari shook his head vehemently. “No, on that point, we have to disagree. Humans are not native to this land, Kagen. They did not originate here any more than the Vampyr originated in North America. According to Mhieridian history—what we learned from Arielle and the other rebels—they were originally brought to this land by the lycans, stolen from earth by their captors. Perhaps they have procreated over many centuries and have no memory of any other realm, any other life, but this is not their native land.”
Kagen considered his brother’s words carefully, very carefully. “There is still the matter of Napolean’s law, the covenants that bind us to the house of Jadon, that dictate our interactions with humans.”
Nachari practically snorted then, which was so unlike the placid wizard. “Once again, we are at odds in our interpretation of facts, or perhaps we’re at odds regarding matters of nuance: It’s true, we are not to interfere with free will, the religious or spiritual practices of humans, and we are not to play gods in their world—we must let their choices stand, and we must allow them to direct their own futures, without interference—unless it directly pertains to us. But I don’t see how this applies to the former.”
Kagen’s mouth fell open in astonishment. “You don’t see how taking Arielle out of the only world she’s ever known, against her will, without any proof that she belongs in our realm is in violation of the law?”
“No,” Nachari answered empathically. “We’re not talking about human matters now—we’re talking about vampiric matters. We’re talking about our family. The same way you saved Kristina from a Dark One so many years ago—the same way you, Marquis, and Nathaniel took Deanna and kept her at the clinic, once you realized she might have something to do with my fate, with my eventual return. The same way Marquis eliminated the biker gang when they threatened the female he believed to be his destiny.” His voice grew heavy with conviction. “Once our worlds collide, and the human’s outcome becomes inexorably linked to our own, all bets are off.” He raised his brows. “I have already lost one brother, Kagen. Do you think I give a celestial damn whether or not Arielle belongs on earth or in Mhier?” He shook his head sadly. “And as for Nathaniel, he has no idea what it is like to live, to try and breathe, without one’s twin. I do. And for that reason alone, I would interfere with Arielle’s free will.”
Kagen stared intently at his little brother, understanding that there was a wealth of emotion beneath his words. He measured his own words more carefully. “Her life is not less important than mine, Nachari. You have to remember that. And if she isn’t my destiny—”
“She’s human, with a mortality of what? Perhaps ninety years? You are immortal, with a lifespan that spans thousands of years.”
“And that makes my life more important?”
“You are my brother.”
“And she is the daughter of our father’s heart!”
“Yes!” Nachari retorted. “But ask yourself this: When I was in the Valley of Death and Shadows, all those months when I remained in a comatose state in the clinic, what would you have done to save me, Kagen? What would you have traded to bring me back? What would you have sacrificed?”
Kagen averted his eyes. The answer was already known…
Anything.
“Everything.”
“Then how can you expect less from your own brothers, healer? It just doesn’t work that way.”
Kagen frowned, realizing for the first time that his siblings had already given the matter a great deal of thought. “What have the three of you discussed?”
Nachari smiled sheepishly then, his deep green eyes alighting with mischief. “Well, we started out with three possibilities: The first, and least intrusive, you already know: I tried to use the body of the raven to travel to Dark Moon Vale—I had hoped we could just come up with a definitive answer.” He shook his head with regret. “As you already know, that didn’t work. The second idea was Marquis’s, so you already know it was unreasonable…and extreme.”
“What was it?” Kagen asked, cringing.
Nachari waved his hand through the air and drew in a deep breath of air. “Doesn’t matter.”
Kagen glanced at him sideways. “What was it, Nachari?”
Nachari shrank back, and then he shrugged his shoulders apologetically. “From Marquis’s point of view, there was one other way to answer the question, once and for all, to know without doubt whether Arielle was indeed your destiny.”
“And that was?” Kagen repeated.
“Conversion.”
Kagen literally jolted. He stared at Nachari with what he knew had to be a blank look of stupefaction on his face, but he just didn’t care. “Are you insane?”
The wizard shrugged. “To Marquis’s way of thinking, it was logical: There are only two ways to successfully convert a human female to our kind. The first way, she has to be your chosen destiny. The second, she has to agree to the change and relinquish her eternal soul in exchange for immortality. The way Marquis looked at it, Arielle would never relinquish her soul,
nor would you ask, or allow, such a thing. Therefore, if you tried to convert her as she is, she would either live…or die. Either way, you would know for sure.”
Kagen shook his head in horror. “So Marquis wanted me to play Russian roulette with Arielle’s life, to flip a coin with her suffering? Heads, she’s your destiny. Tails, she suffers a prolonged, hideous, and painful death. Is that about right?”
Nachari wrinkled up his nose. “Nathaniel and I talked him out of it. Does that count for anything?”
Kagen pinched the bridge of his nose and tried not to think too hard about his barbaric older brother. The male meant well, and that’s what he had to remember. “That’s immoral, not to mention savage and inhumane.” He had a suddenly bitter taste in his mouth. “Shit, that’s unconscionable, Nachari.”
To Kagen’s surprise, Nachari defended the Ancient Master Warrior. “No,” he said in a matter-of-fact voice. “That’s a brother’s love for his sibling.”
Kagen couldn’t get his arms around it. “Would he really have tried to order me to do such a thing?”
Nachari held a single hand up in the air. “Kagen, would you not trade your very soul for Nathaniel, for Marquis, or for me?”
Kagen didn’t answer the question. After all, what could he say? “Gods, we live in a world of insanity.”
“We live in a world of nuance and degrees.” Nachari spoke softly. “Of celestial gods, dark lords, and lycans. We live in an immortal world of Vampyr—not a human world of frailty—and our code, our honor, and even our choices are sometimes larger than life. Yet we make them without apology because we must.”
Kagen sighed. “Yeah, well, that last choice absolutely sucked.”
Nachari chuckled softly then. “Agreed.”
Kagen crossed his arms over his chest and braced himself for what was to come. “So, tell me then, little brother: What choices have you, Marquis, and Nathaniel already made on my behalf?”
Nachari smiled ruefully, his smooth, sculpted cheeks nearly notching with dimples from the mirth, and then his countenance became all at once serious. “If we survive to return home from this place; if we are blessed to find and free our father; and if through it all, you are still breathing as well”—he averted his eyes, either unwilling or unable to face the gravity of his words—“then Arielle Nightsong will return with us to Dark Moon Vale. If you are willing to take her, then of course, we will defer to your lead in the matter; but if you are not willing to act in this way, then Marquis, Nathaniel, or I will do it on your behalf. There is no room for debate on this subject, Kagen. Our minds are made up.”
“And who is going to tell her this? My brothers…or me?”
“Before we rescue Keitaro?” Nachari shook his head. “Neither.” Kagen opened his mouth to object, and Nachari cut him off. “Marquis’s final word, Kagen.”
Kagen tried not to bristle. “Can I ask why?”
Nachari nodded. “Of course. Marquis thinks it’s a wildcard, and Nathaniel and I agree. Her emotions. Yours. The danger Keitaro is facing. The whole unfortunate situation is just too volatile already, and Marquis doesn’t want any distractions, any side drama.” He shrugged his shoulders apologetically. “Look, we understand how sensitive this is—we really do—but you have to put each item on a scale and weigh it objectively: Arielle’s emotional comfort or our father’s life.” He toggled both hands up and down in the air to demonstrate his point. “Both matter to each of us, but the former can be healed, repaired over time. The latter, if it’s lost, it’s gone for good.”
Kagen tried to process all he was hearing—he really did—yet he couldn’t help but wonder: When had his brothers decided all this? “And if, in the end, she is not my destiny—which she most likely is not—then what?” He hated to be so recalcitrant, but he wanted to belabor the point one last time.
“Then we will care for her as if she were. She will want for nothing—not ever—and, in time, she may have a better, freer, life, just as Kristina has now.”
“And as for her world back here? Her friends, the cause she believes in and fights for, her rebel family”—he made the last word in air quotes for emphasis, knowing that they were truly not her blood—“as for all she has ever known?”
Nachari sighed. “Whether Arielle is your destiny or not, she will live, whether on earth or in Mhier. The same cannot be said for you.” He leaned in close and growled his next words. “You are not going to die like Shelby in the sacrificial chamber, Kagen. Not on my watch. Not when there is something we can all do to prevent it.” He stiffened and hardened his voice. “Your world is in Dark Moon Vale: your nephews, your duty, your family. My loyalty lies with my brother. My loyalty lies with my house.” He placed his clenched fist over the left side of his chest. “My loyalty lies with my heart—it lies with you, Kagen. And that is the only world I’ve ever known. You asked me to be honest: Well, there it is.”
Kagen placed his hand over Nachari’s clenched fist and tightened his fingers around it. “Be at ease, brother. I will not fight you on this.”
And then he stood, just like that, unwilling to move…
Until, at last, Nachari stopped trembling.
fifteen
Later that night, Kagen watched as Nathaniel and Nachari pitched two tents at the base of the Mystic Mountains in a shallow ravine, concealed by lush greenery, in the form of blackberry bushes and tall larch trees, their intermingled branches extended and interlocking with one another as if they were soldiers linking arms. The entire narrow gorge was a veritable sea of lavender as the poisonous perennial, the purple wolfsbane flower, carpeted the earthen floor like an absurd welcome mat, heralding the vampires’ arrival.
Tomorrow was Saturday.
One day away from the games in the arena.
And they were now less than twenty-file miles from the Royal District, the region where the games would be held.
Marquis believed they could traverse the space in about seven hours, that this would allow ample time for Arielle to rest, but if they had to fly, if they had to take turns carrying her through the air, then so be it. They might just have to take the risk.
They would do whatever it took.
The main thing was to get close enough to survey the layout, to go over their plan one last time in intricate detail, to take advantage of the cover of nightfall in order to cement their strategy, once and for all.
There could be no room for error.
Keitaro’s life depended upon the Silivasi brothers getting this right.
Kagen hung back by a large, leaning larch tree about thirty yards from the camp. Arielle had retreated inside of her tent to partake of a late afternoon meal of rabbit, nuts, and berries; and she was now getting some much needed rest.
Or so Kagen thought.
When she rounded the bend of the ravine, her thick, coppery locks blowing gently in the wind, her stark, luminous eyes searching the landscape—for him?—he stepped away from the tree and practically held his breath, instantly coming to attention.
“It’s only me,” Arielle called amiably. She emerged from the shadows like a wild goddess, both fiercely beautiful and adorably disheveled at the same time.
Kagen relaxed his posture and leaned back, once again, against the brittle bark of the tree, trying to appear nonchalant.
Only me.
Now that was the understatement of the century.
As she slowly approached him, her customary bow slung over her shoulder, the familiar quiver resting at her back, he couldn’t help but appraise her appreciatively: By all the gods, she was one of the most stunning women he had ever seen: so strong, so untamed, yet so clearly vulnerable, even as she tried to hide it. “Did you get enough to eat?” he called. It seemed like a safe enough question.
“I did.” She spoke kindly, and then she frowned. “But the rabbit was kind of tough.”
Kagen chuckled. “I could have gone hunting, brought you something else.”
Arielle flashed him a devilish grin. “We don’t sh
are the same diet, vampire.”
“Ha. Ha,” Kagen teased. “I would have found something appropriate for you.”
Arielle chuckled; apparently, she wasn’t feeling quite as apprehensive as earlier. “I know you would have—thank you—but I don’t want anyone else to do my hunting for me.” She tapped her bow and smiled. “It keeps me on my toes, sharpens my skills. I should really use my weapon every day.”
Kagen nodded with appreciation, wondering to himself just what her life had been like. Well, in a sense, he already knew, after all, he had viewed her memories, but that was not the same as knowing her intimately, sharing her feelings, or experiencing her life. He looked all around him at the looming night sky; the ever-present timber wolf moon; and the inexplicably vivid countryside. It was such a beautiful land, yet at the same time, it was so barren and harsh…so spiritually bereft. There was so little hope. So little freedom.
Arielle’s life had been one long exercise of stark endurance and desolate survival.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked, curiously. And then her eyes grew dim and her face grew impassive, as if she instantly regretted asking the question. Perhaps it was just too personal.
“Are we not even friends, that you can ask me my thoughts?” Kagen said. He wasn’t sure where the query had come from, but she was keeping such a safe distance between them, ever since he had kissed her on the mountain. She had walked for three straight hours beside Marquis—and that had to be one hell of a stilted conversation—and then she had chosen to follow Nathaniel, and then Nachari, anything, to avoid being close to Kagen.