by Rye Brewer
Jonah,
I need to get away for a while. I hope you understand.
No worries, I’ll be fine. You know I always am.
I signed my name with a flourish then added a postscript. I love you.
After all, I would never get another chance.
5
Anissa
“Thank you for making it here on short notice.” Jonah gazed out over the room, standing at the very center of the long table at the head of the main meeting area in League Headquarters.
Where Lucian had once stood during League meetings. I could not help making comparisons, in the back of my mind. Genevieve was missing, too, locked away. And Marcus, who normally would have jockeyed his way to a place near the head table, was with her.
So many changes made so quickly. Jonah was alone at the table, none of the former clan heads surrounding him. He looked lonely up there. I wished I could stand beside him.
The even longer table, which spanned the length of the cavernous room, held the heads of the other clans and their closest advisors. None of them appeared particularly thrilled to be here, though their curiosity was evident in their whispers, the way their eyes cut back and forth, up and down the table. Wondering if anyone else was any more in the know as to why they were there.
I didn’t dare sit near Jonah. I wasn’t stupid. No one at that main table considered me worthy of their time, being a half-breed and everything. Seating myself at the head table would’ve been tantamount to an act of war.
There was already more than enough that might go wrong during this meeting.
I watched from the sidelines, then, my back against the wall. I kept my eyes moving at all times, sweeping up and down the room in case anyone decided to act up.
“I brought you together today to report a development which I believe will have a profound effect on not only the realms of those involved, but ours as well. I believe we ought to be aware and prepared for what is coming.”
“What is coming, then?” one of the vampires called out, roughly halfway down the table. I vaguely recognized him as being from somewhere in the mid-Atlantic region, someone who had visited Marcus in times past. An ignorant, loud-spoken type.
Even so, I couldn’t blame him for being curious.
“A war between the fae and the shades,” Jonah announced. His voice carried down the length of the hall, mingling with the gasps and mutters of those in attendance.
“What business is that of ours?” a female vampire cried out, rising from her chair. “Let them fight their war. They cared little when we were the ones fighting our battles.”
“Indeed, yet I fear this war may blow back on us,” Jonah argued. “The door to Avellane is just beyond this very structure, in case any of you have forgotten. The shades may very well use it as a way in and out of the realm, as the fae may use it to escape during battle. They will literally be on our doorstep, and we must be prepared with a plan of action for when that time inevitably arrives. Let us not talk ourselves into believing they won’t turn to us for help.”
The woman sat, arms folded but unwilling to be silent. “You only want to protect your girlfriend.” Disgust all but dripped from her voice.
The mention of me made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and I was suddenly very glad I hadn’t taken a seat at the table. Few of them had noticed me, half-hidden in shadow.
Jonah seemed unsurprised by this. “Allow me to correct you: my wife, or soon-to-be.” His gaze hardened as though he dared any of them to challenge him. He knew what they were thinking and didn’t care.
“Therefore,” he continued once it was clear none of them would dare respond, “I move that we take the side of the fae.”
More grumbling, louder this time. I snarled, though I held my tongue. It wasn’t easy. Who did they think they were? What made them so superior? Had they ever even known the fae? Had they ever seen Avellane, seen the way they lived there? How beautiful and peaceful that realm was?
“They are under attack by a greedy, selfish so-called leader,” Jonah explained, raising his voice until it towered over the rest. “He wishes to strip Avellane of its resources and slaughter its people. I’ve seen what has already been done, the lives which have been lost. He merely wanted an excuse to start a war and has found one.”
“Is there any way war might be avoided?” One of the older vampires, clearly wiser than most of the others. “Can Garan be reasoned with?”
“Any of you familiar with Garan know that there is no reasoning with him,” Jonah said. “Only a more suitable ruler would avoid war at this point. He has no desire to be talked out of it. He wants this. Badly.”
“We get rid of him, then,” another suggested.
I looked to Jonah. This was unexpected. And we thought the biggest challenge would be convincing them to choose a side.
Jonah cleared his throat, glancing at me for the briefest moment before replying. “I agree that taking Garan out of power would be a positive development, and the only way to avoid war would be to replace him with someone who’d be willing to maintain the peace. But I think we can all see that the only way to remove him from the picture would be by killing him. I will not go on record at this meeting as having sanctioned his murder—after all, that would be the equivalent to declaring war on the shades.”
“If it is in the best interest of both ourselves and the fae, why shouldn’t we do what has to be done?” Arguing broke out, and Jonah threw a despairing look my way.
“All right, all right,” he called, throwing his arms into the air. “We’re in agreement on this. I wish to avoid a war as much as any of you. But I do not wish to place our species in peril by going off half-cocked. All I ask is that I be consulted before any of you get any ideas in your heads as to how this should be done. All action must come through me first.”
I doubted any of them would come up with a legitimate plan, as they more than likely had no idea how to even access ShadesRealm. They would huff and puff and argue amongst themselves and tire of the topic before long, as most people with loud opinions inevitably did.
No, if anything were to be done, it would be up to us. Me and Jonah. As ever.
He approached me afterward, once the vampires had dispersed in order to return home. He appeared tired, a little perturbed. I could understand why.
“At least they didn’t threaten to break off from the League.” I shrugged, hoping to lighten the mood a little.
“No. In fact, they did exactly what I expected.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Oh, yes? Is there something you’re not telling me?”
He slid an arm around my waist as we walked the length of the main hall. “An idea that occurred to me just before I brought the meeting to order. It’s true we could avoid war altogether, which would inevitably save a lot of lives on both sides. But the only way to go about avoiding war would be to remove Garan from the scenario. If I went ahead with a plan to kill him but didn’t consult them first, that would be their excuse to break away. I can’t risk that.”
“So, you pulled them in and let them think they came up with the idea themselves.”
“Exactly.”
“You ought to lead permanently,” I decided as we stepped outside together.
“I agree.”
We both froze at the sound of Allonic’s distinct voice. He stood at the foot of the stairs leading down from the double doors and lowered the hood of his robe to reveal himself to us.
Jonah looked around. “Do you know how dangerous it is to be here right now? I only just announced the war between shades and the fae.”
“I know,” Allonic nodded. “I was listening.”
“How?” I asked.
“It doesn’t matter how. I am aware of what you discussed and was careful to avoid being noticed. My sister isn’t the only one skilled at evasion.”
I could’ve been wrong, but it seemed there was a gleam in his eye. The closest he had probably ever come to making a joke.
Jona
h walked down the stairs, hands spread. “I hope you didn’t take offense at the discussion. The suggestion that we would eliminate your cousin.”
“Offense?” he asked. “Why would I take offense? I wish to help you.”
“Oh, Allonic,” I groaned.
“I want to. I need to do this. You know how much I do.” He stared at me. “You know.”
Of course, and so did Jonah. Allonic’s entire plan from the beginning had centered around removing Garan from power. The abduction of Valerius had been a misfire, to put it mildly. This was a second chance.
“The only means of avoiding a costly, destructive war would be to remove Garan from power. This is a fact,” he declared, turning to Jonah. “The only way for me to begin righting what I’ve done is to kill Garan and take my rightful place as ruler. He and Ressenden stole my reign. None of this would be happening if I’d been allowed to take my place.”
He glanced at me.
I could only imagine what I must look like, my mouth hanging open.
“I will convince the shades to back down before the war begins,” he vowed. “I will make this right.”
6
Anissa
I was alone in the penthouse living room, staring out the windows. Another night in New York City. Once again, for maybe the thousandth time, I wondered what the people far below would think if they knew how many worlds existed outside their own.
Humans had the luxury of believing they were all that mattered. Most were unaware of our existence. That we were real. The generations which had passed since the agreement was struck between humans and vampires had lessened awareness of separate races. Most humans never thought about us. We were a myth or something that had died out long ago.
Or so they wanted to believe, because it helped them sleep at night. Believing we were nothing more than a childish story, a fable, a legend which had faded away in the face of logic and science and technology.
Poor, deluded fools.
Jonah was downstairs, checking on Sirene and Elena. The devoted big brother. The sort of older sibling I’d always wanted to be for Sara. I hoped I had been, that she would remember me as such in her new life. Wherever and whatever that happened to be.
I was Allonic’s older sister, too. And he wanted to take a terrible chance.
I would be a fool to try to stop him. What he wanted was right; to take his place as ruler and to avoid Garan’s destructiveness. Allonic would be a strong ruler, a good and honest one.
Did that mean I had to help him?
If I didn’t help him and he was unsuccessful in his mission, would that mean I had failed him? Didn’t he deserve every bit of assistance I could offer, since I was his big sister and he was my younger brother, and he had already helped me out of so many difficult spots?
There was something I could do.
I looked down at the bone dagger in my hands, the one which had been used to kill Lucian. It brought to mind the memory of watching Lucian die, of how he had dissolved into nothing more than dust.
This dagger had easily and instantly killed someone as powerful as him. It could surely rid the world of Garan.
Was it my imagination running wild, or did it pulse with power? A subtle power, a warmth. It promised destruction and carried the memory of years, maybe centuries, of similar destruction.
It could be exactly what Allonic needed. It was all I could do for him.
I turned it over in my hands and hissed in pain and surprise as the razor-sharp blade slid against my fingertip. A thin line of blood appeared as if by magic. I hadn’t even needed to apply pressure, and the cut was no larger than what I would have gotten from a sheet of paper, but it felt…
Different.
Tingly.
And it didn’t stop at my finger, either. It flowed through my hand, then up my arm. Through my chest, down to my stomach.
It almost reminded me of the sensation of having a spiritwalker inside me. Granted, a lot of time had passed since then, but a spiritwalker was not exactly the sort of thing a person forgot.
A bone dagger didn’t have the ability to carry a spiritwalker inside it, certainly. So clearly, that was just another flight of fancy on my part. I was tired; who wouldn’t be, after nonstop drama and danger? Not to mention the pressure of knowing Garan could slaughter my people—the fae half, anyway—at any moment.
Anyone would fall victim to their imagination if they were in my position.
Imagination or not, I had seen what this blade was capable of.
Which was why I had to get it to Allonic.
7
Cari
“You might want to decide now, since dawn is on its way.” Raze nodded toward the horizon, which would be lightening soon.
He was right. We had to decide what we were going to do, where we were going to go, now that Gage was free of the cell he’d been locked and left in to suffer for all eternity. But where to go wasn’t an answer I could come to easily. I was still new to the vampire way of life. The rules, laws, or whatever they called them. The alliances; who was an enemy and who wasn’t. I was way too new to this to be able to come to a decision I felt comfortable with. That would be a question he’d have to answer. A decision he’d have to make.
I glanced at Gage, walking next to me. We had been walking for quite a while, even with his weakness. I stared at him harder, hoping he’d say something. I didn’t know anything about the history between the vampire clans, so there was little for me to offer in the way of an educated opinion. It was up to him.
“You expect me to stay with members of Genevieve’s clan,” Gage muttered, shaking his head. He’d been shaking his head over Raze’s explanation ever since it had been offered. This Genevieve sounded like a real piece of work.
“Refugees from the clan,” Raze sighed. “How many times do I need to explain that part? Do you think they would accept me, a Carver, if they were still affiliated with her?”
“You said you weren’t affiliated with the Carvers anymore,” I pointed out, then wished I had never said a word when Raze shot me a dirty look. He wanted to get this over with just as much as I did. Neither of us much felt like being caught by the sun.
“I’m not,” he snapped. “But I would never take sides with Genevieve’s sycophants. A bunch of brainwashed, bloodthirsty vultures. And the group I’m staying with agree, which is why I know they’re trustworthy.”
Gage didn’t appear to agree. “What do you think?” he whispered, staring at me.
I glanced at the back of Raze’s head. “I don’t really know enough about any of this to think anything.”
“You must have an opinion. It would be impossible not to.”
I sighed. “What I think is, whether or not they’re affiliated with Genevieve, we don’t know that one of them won’t figure out who you are, and who I am, and that they won’t report us to the League.”
He grimaced but nodded. “Right. We still don’t know who to trust. But we have to take a chance, one way or another.”
Who to trust. Where to go. My father was somewhere in Europe, but it wasn’t as if we could go to him even if I knew where to find him. We hadn’t exactly enjoyed a healthy relationship.
The last I’d heard, he was in Italy. Lucky him, having the luxury of forgetting about his first family in favor of his second. At least he had pretended to care about me until I was around twelve years old, the last year I spent holidays and the summer with him. The last year I could stand breathing the same air as my stepmother.
A shame, too, since he’d only ended up divorcing her as he did my mother. By the time I got word of it, too much time had passed for us to ever be close again. Or even friendly. Or civil. We knew nothing about each other—well, he knew nothing about me. I knew he was doing work for the government, as he always had. Some sort of diplomatic stuff.
I wondered if he’d deserted my younger half-siblings the way he’d deserted me. I thought about them sometimes. At least, I had before my life had flipped on its he
ad. I used to wonder what they were into, what their favorite school subjects were. Sometimes, I would actually feel sorry for not being closer with them, or with the kids my mother had with her new husband. The age gap hadn’t helped matters.
And I was young when I had the chance to know them. Too young to know better.
I pushed my thoughts back to the present. Back to our current problem. Where to go. Maybe we could go to my father, if he and I had a relationship. And if Gage and I weren’t vampires.
Thinking about it was pointless, as there wouldn’t have been a way to take refuge with my father even if we were close. I wouldn’t want to bring him into my mess.
It was with this in mind that I said, “I don’t think we have any other choice, Gage. We need somewhere to hole up, even if it’s only for now. You have to regain your strength, and we need to actually think out our next steps instead of rushing into something out of sheer panic.”
He sighed like a man with the weight of the entire world on his shoulders, but he saw that I was right, too. I knew he did. “I wish I felt better about this.”
“I do, too,” I said, which was the truth.
“Raze,” he called out. “Lead the way.”
“Finally,” Raze muttered, walking with greater purpose as he led us deeper into Paris. I wished we were just about anywhere else, I had far too many unhappy memories associated with the city. Though Micah was no longer a threat, there were memories around every corner.
Unhappy ones. Bloody ones.
How had I ever allowed Micah to convince me that his way was the only way?
“It isn’t much farther,” Raze said, quickening his pace. “Good thing, because we don’t have much longer before dawn.” He was right, and there was no missing the little bit of irritation he threw Gage’s way for holding us up.
We cut through a park, and, once again, I couldn’t help wondering if I would be hunting in the very same park if I hadn’t been a part of Micah’s demise. Just the thought of his name made me ill.