by Eden Fierce
“Fire!” Father said.
The cousins let their arrows fly, hitting several nightwalkers at a time. They all fell, writhing and convulsing.
One of the nightwalkers screeched, “The arrows are laced with Eitr!”
“Eitr!” another cried out.
They stopped just a few hundred yards from the wall. “Retreat!” another yelled.
I took a bow from one of my cousins and targeted Evander. He took one look at me and withdrew. I let my arrow loose, but not in time. The arrow penetrated the soil. He was gone.
Clemens, Lukas, and Mother ran from the house into the courtyard and looked up at us. Clemens began to speak, but one of the cousins cried out.
“Nightwalker!”
I looked down to see Ilana standing at the gate.
“Wait!” I cried. I climbed down and cranked the gate just enough for her to step through. “What are you doing here?” I asked.
Ilana smiled. “I already told you, fool. I’m on your side.”
My family stared at my friend just as Father and Daniel climbed down from the stone.
“This…is Ilana,” I said.
They stared at the nightwalker in their midst. They had barely accepted Daniel and me.
“Eris saved my life,” she said. “So now I fight for hers.”
Father held out his hand. “Welcome, nightwalker.”
“It’s just Ilana,” she said with a smirk, shaking Father’s hand.
Clemens shook his head. “Incredible.”
“Be on your guard!” Father called. The cousins confirmed their orders. “Come. Let’s get inside. We have much to discuss before sunrise.”
WE SAT IN THE GREAT CHAMBER, the shadows from the fire flicking across our faces. Clemens sat on the floor, below Emelen. She was leaned forward, with both arms wrapped around his shoulders. Daniel kept close to me, pausing every time Father took a breath to listen outside. They were planning an attack, and we all knew it.
The way Evander spoke of Kyah, we could only hope she knew nothing of Heinrich’s plan. The stone walls didn’t make me feel as safe as they once did. We were a band of humans and a few immortals. A pathetic army against Evander’s nightwalkers.
“Are you saying we should appeal to the nightwalkers who still follow Kyah?” Clemens asked.
Daniel shifted, restless. “We have to contact Kyah somehow. Warn her, if she isn’t already faced with a decision. Evander said that she essentially has to commit to the cause, or they’ll kill her.”
“If she’s unaware, she would be in the Skoran territory this time of year,” Ilana said. “If she’s heard, she could be in hiding. Where would Kyah hide from Heinrich?”
Daniel looked up. “Evander would anticipate us warning her. He’s probably already on his way to confront her. We’d never make it to her in time.”
The cousins yelled from their post, and Father tore out of the house. I beat him to the courtyard and then jumped to the top of the stone wall near the front gate.
“I don’t believe it,” Daniel said quietly.
“Believe it!” Kyah commanded. “Open the gate!”
“What assurances do we have that you won’t attack?” Father said.
“We could be over the wall by now, Prior,” Kyah answered. “Call it a show of good faith. I’m being polite.”
Father grumbled and then called to the cousins, “Open the gates!”
The cousins hesitated, but did what Father instructed. Nearly fifty nightwalkers loyal to Kyah followed her in. Some I recognized from our coven, some I’d never seen before. Women were carrying their young. She didn’t bring us warriors. They were refugees, fleeing from Heinrich and Evander.
Daniel jumped down from the wall and hugged her, their embrace highlighted by the torches. I felt a twinge in my throat, but I swallowed it down. Daniel had said before he didn’t feel a certain way for anyone but me. It was the jealousy from the first love of a seventeen-year-old girl trying to claw out, but we didn’t have time for such things.
I decided to take the ladder. The leaping around seemed to unsettle Father, as if my red eyes weren’t hard enough for him to get used to.
“Then you know,” Daniel said.
“Contrary to what Evander would like to believe, I’m not so wrapped up in politics that I couldn’t see what Heinrich was up to. I just thought I had more time.” Kyah glanced over at me. “I should have known when he allowed a Prior to be claimed and live among us that the plan had been put into motion. He hoped Eris would draw out the Priory. That’s what he did with the other four leaders. He targeted their children. Smoked them out with what was most dear to them. I’m surprised they didn’t think of it sooner, but of course, the old Priory didn’t have children. They were recruited.”
Mother pulled in a sharp breath and pulled Lukas closer to her.
Emelen went to the kitchen and brought back a tray of goblets full of cold water. Daniel and I both noticed looks from my family when we turned Emelen away.
The energy inside the Helgren home was different than it had ever been before. The humans were near panic, the immortals were restless. Ilana stood in a dark corner, watching, seeming to be the most calm out of all of us.
“Dyre,” Kyah said, raising an eyebrow. “I don’t believe we’ve met.”
Father looked to me. “You said the nightwalkers aren’t what we thought. How so?”
“Do you remember the boy you buried?” I asked. Father nodded. “He was just a boy, Father. The first year after a nightwalker is turned, male or female, they can conceive. They have real children who grow up just like we do. Remember the girl the Trou poacher spoke of?”
Father waited.
“I saw her in our coven. She was happy. Some of the nightwalkers took her away from her family because she was being beaten and starved.”
Mother’s mouth fell open.
“Maybe it was because of Evander and Heinrich’s plan that they accepted me, but they accept humans who are turned. They give them a home, and acceptance. I haven’t fed once on a human. The thirst is a myth, Father. We’re not savages. We’re not animals who kill on instinct alone. We have a choice, and most of us choose not to feed on humans.”
“Humans do taste better,” Kyah added.
Daniel and I craned our necks in Kyah’s direction.
“What?” she asked, surprised at our reaction.
I explained the last night of my life, how William ran, how Ayana chased me, and how Daniel saved me. I recalled my experiences and how I saw the nightwalkers live.
Father collapsed in his large chair and pulled at his full, red beard with his fingers. “I don’t want to believe it. I can’t. Only because accepting it would mean I’ve murdered defenseless children.”
“Not defenseless,” Ilana said. “An immortal child is twice as strong as you. They’re taught not to harm humans.”
Father covered his eyes. “Then they were defenseless.” He looked to me. “I have so much to atone for, Eris. Please tell me it’s not true.”
“I don’t wish to cause you pain, Father, but we have to keep our thoughts in the present. The choices we make now with the knowledge we currently possess will determine who we are. We are not monsters, Father. We must do what’s right.”
Clemens stood. “If their children are stronger than us, the only chance we have is arrows and Eitr.”
“I have a small number of loyalists in the woods.”
“Then who are the nightwalkers with you?”
“I am the queen mother,” Kyah said, lifting her chin. “They are my entourage, of course.”
“Entourage,” I said, dubious. “Those children out there are your entourage?”
Kyah’s confidence crumbled. “They’re loyal to me, and they’re vulnerable. I can’t protect them all in the woods.”
“Then we’ll protect them here. But we need the nightwalkers who are loyal to you.”
“Write a letter,” Lukas said. “Tell me the vicinity of where they are. I’ll
find them.”
“No!” Mother said, grabbing him.
“He’s Priory,” Ilana said. “He’s trained. He knows how to spot signs of a nightwalker, he can defend himself, and he’s fit to run, which we’ll be doing a lot of.”
“You’ll go with him?” I asked.
Ilana nodded.
Lukas pulled away from Mother and ran over to the desk, pulling out a squeaky drawer. He hurried back, handing Kyah the quill and parchment without fear, as if he weren’t a foot away from an elder.
“Write a letter. Sign it. I’ll make sure it gets to your loyalists.”
“Excuse me?” Kyah said, clearly offended.
“I’m the fastest of all of us,” Lukas said.
“He’s right,” I said. “He is.”
Lukas held out the quill again, and Kyah narrowed her red eyes. She was just a tiny thing, not more than five feet tall, but when she was angry—and even when she wasn’t—she was frightening.
“He’s just in a hurry, Kyah,” Daniel said. “Please, do as he asks.”
She swept her flowing white dress behind her as she turned and walked toward the desk. Ilana pulled out her chair, and she sat. With perfect posture, she dipped the quill into the ink pot and began to scribble. She signed her name and drew a strange symbol at the bottom. She rolled up the parchment and handed it to Ilana.
Ilana tightened the rolled letter and held it in both of her hands.
Lukas stood at the front door and pulled it open, waiting for Ilana.
Mother’s bottom lip quivered, and she looked to me. “Tell me we can trust this woman with my son.”
“I trust her,” I said.
Kyah stood. “A little more than eight kilometers north of the falls in Ona’s woods.”
Ilana nodded. “We’ll bring the message to your loyalists, and then we’ll bring them back.”
Father stood as well. “Then we’ll keep their elders held off until then. We have enough Eitr to last us awhile, and I’m sure they know it.”
“They do,” Kyah said. She walked over to the window, to the stone wall. “Make sure they don’t use their bows unless they have to. Some of them may retreat if they see I’m here. It’s possible they may have been lied to.”
“Probable, I’d say,” Daniel said. He reached for my hand, and Kyah glared at our intertwined fingers as if they had insulted her.
“Stuck out here in the open with a handful of humans. I must have gone mad,” Kyah said. She sat down and touched her forehead.
Mother hugged Lukas and kissed his forehead. “Run fast, my sweet. Be vigilant.”
“I will, Mother.”
Ilana seemed bored with all the sentiment. She walked through the door, and Lukas followed. Daniel and I joined them at the gate, and I looked up to my cousin Sven.
“Open it!” I commanded.
Sven strained against the crank, huffing as the mechanism lurched and complained. The gates opened just enough for Lukas and Ilana to slip through.
“You’ll protect him?” I asked.
“No one will touch him. I swear it.”
“Go!” I whispered.
The two were a good team, with tall, lean Ilana, her long, dark hair trailing behind her, and Lukas, stout and confident. He was broad shouldered, but his legs were long and had plenty of muscle to propel him forward. Ilana was clearly holding back, running just fast enough to encourage Lukas along. Even if he were the fastest of Dyre’s children, he was significantly slower than an immortal.
The gate closed behind Daniel and me, the thick wood and metal grinding together as the two ends of the double doors kissed.
Daniel slipped his arms around my waist. “Go. Spend time with your family. I’ll keep an eye on the wall.”
I touched my forehead to his chin. “Call if you see anything.”
“They won’t attack yet. They’re gathering their numbers. Planning a strategy.”
“I feel better already,” I said with a smirk.
Father and Mother sat together on the settee in the great chamber, watching the fire. I startled them when I sat down, partly because they hadn’t heard me approach, but more likely because each time they saw me, it was like I had arisen from the dead all over again.
Mother relaxed and reached for me. I leaned against her side.
“You’re so cold,” she said. “You should sit closer to the fire.”
I chuckled. “It won’t help, Mother. It’s just the way I am now.”
She put another blanket around me anyway and hugged me tight. Clemens and Emelen kept their distance. By the apologetic look on Clemens’s face, I knew why. Emelen was frightened by me. She was one of the Onan children who had been raised to fear the woods and who was forbidden to play near the tree line. My red eyes had haunted her dreams as a child. A lady and now the wife of a Prior, she wouldn’t act on her fear, but it was likely that both her heart and mind were screaming at her to stand and flee.
Clemens covered her hand with his, and it was then I saw their matching gold bands.
“Was the wedding nice?” I asked.
Clemens nodded and then looked to Emelen. Her fingers twitched. She opened her mouth, nervous and hesitant.
“It was beautiful. We had all the best florists and seamstresses. The Lornan sisters played their harps. Father Joseph officiated.”
“Only one thing missing,” Clemens said. “I wish you could have been there, sister.”
“Me too.”
Mother continued on about the wedding, and I watched Father, Clemens, and Emelen watch her with the fondness of memories evident in their eyes. I had fantasized about this moment for months—about sitting on the floor near the hearth, listening to stories about what I had missed while I was gone. I was relieved that my family had accepted me, even with my new abilities and crimson eyes.
But it didn’t feel like a return to my home. I was in their home, listening to their stories, and reliving their memories of a life where I no longer belonged.
My home, as it had always been, was the woods. Where Daniel had helped me build my nest. Where I learned the ways of the immortals. Where I fell in love with Daniel.
Suddenly the walls of the Helgren compound felt more like a prison than home, and it was then I realized I had always felt that way. I had never truly felt at home there, and I had never truly belonged. The paleness of my skin and the red of my irises had not felt foreign to me. Even Daniel had mentioned how quickly I’d taken to my new body. Before, I’d thought it was because I had been around nightwalkers dozens of times, but now I knew that I was wrong. It was because I was meant to be an immortal, living out my days in the trees, with the man I loved.
I turned to the dining room, in the direction I’d been avoiding since I had walked inside my former house. Jonathan lay there, still and surrounded by candles and covered in cheesecloth. Father had no doubt already harvested his blood for the Eitr, likely meaning to use Jonathan’s blood to kill the nightwalker responsible for his death. Maybe even me.
I walked over to my little brother, Mother’s voice murmuring in the background. Jonathan’s skin was as cold and pale as mine.
“I should have turned you,” I said. “I didn’t think about it. If I had turned you, you’d be here with me instead of lying on that table.”
Father’s heavy footsteps sounded, stopping right behind me. His large hands covered my shoulders. “His neck snapped the moment he hit the tree, Eris. You couldn’t have turned him. It was quick. He didn’t feel anything.”
I bowed my head and leaned forward, my fingers holding tight to the edge of the table. Jonathan looked so peaceful, just as he did in the mornings when I would wake him for breakfast.
I touched my cheek. I couldn’t cry, not even for my brother. I stormed out of the house and leaped to the top of the stone wall. My cousins slowly backed away, pretending to guard other positions. I crouched down and hugged my knees to my chest.
Daniel jumped over the gap in the wall where the front gate was and
walked over to me. “Jonathan?” he asked.
I nodded. “He shouldn’t have died, Daniel. What good is my new hearing if I couldn’t detect a threat approaching?”
“You were seeing and speaking to your parents for the first time since your fall. You were focused on them. We all were. I didn’t hear her either. Not until it was too late.”
I pressed my face into his chest, and he hugged me close. “I miss him,” I whispered.
“I know. Jonathan wanted to help us make peace. He wanted a truce.”
“He just wanted his sister back,” I cried. “And I failed him. I’ve failed all of them. Evander and his coven will take over this place before sunrise. You tried to tell me something was wrong, and I wouldn’t listen. I wouldn’t give you time to find out what it was. I’ve been so selfish, and now we’re all going to die.”
Daniel pulled my chin up just as one of the cousins called from the other side of the compound.
“Nightwalker!” the guard yelled.
“Nightwalker!” another reported from the opposite side of the wall. They were going to surround us.
Daniel didn’t take his eyes away from mine. “Use it, Eris. They took Jonathan from you. They want to take away everything. Use it when you fight them. You’re stronger than you know.”
The first arrow shot into the air, a faint whoosh sounding when it released from the bow. I zeroed in on the tip as it soared through the air. It glimmered with Eitr.
Father ran out, and Daniel and I jumped to the ground. Father tossed me two daggers, and Daniel a sword.
“Take care not to cut yourselves. They’re soaked in it.”
Daniel and I nodded and jumped over the wall to the ground on the other side.
I crouched, gritting my teeth, letting the anger sear through my body. Dozens of forms moved from the darkness to the wide halo of light cast from the compound. Some of the nightwalkers galloped toward us like animals, nothing like the frolicking coven I saw in the clear river near our nests.
Every one of them stopped abruptly, surrounded by the cloud of dust they had rustled up. They looked behind Daniel and I to the top of the stone wall.
I turned and looked up as well to see Kyah standing, her arms up, palms out.