A wave of nausea overtakes me and I sit forward, my head pulsing with heat and pain. A flash hits me but I can't quite grasp it. I'm too overwhelmed by grief for the karmic pain I've wrought.
Liam puts a hand on my back. "Are you sick?"
I look up at him, my eyes filled with tears. "I am so sorry for what we did to you back then."
He frowns. "That wasn't you. Not really." He looks over to Matilda. "But it was you. You are still the same person you were. You didn't stop the Mother Fate when she cursed us. You didn't stop the Maiden when she made us punish our own brother. You knew us. And you didn't protect us."
The other three brothers are silent, letting Liam speak their rage for them.
Tears fill the old woman's eyes. "I should have done more. I did what I could behind the scenes. It wasn't enough, but I tried. I was one voice amongst three and towards the end we didn't agree on a lot. Landal—the Mother—she wanted to kill Cole for what he did. And she wanted to kill all of you when you rebelled. When you stopped doing what you were told."
"Death would have been a kindness compared to what was done to us," he says, the fire leaving him as sadness takes its place. "We destroyed so many lives because of that curse."
"I know, my boy," Matilda says. "I know. And I cannot be more sorry for my role in all of it. But I couldn’t let any of you die. I loved you all too much."
I glance at Racul and his face is impassive. Hard. I wonder what he knew about Landal's role in all of this. Or if he even cares about any of this.
I take Liam's hand in mine, holding it tight, letting him know he's not alone. Not anymore. Not ever again.
As reluctant as I am to change the focus of this conversation, I know I must. We haven't a lot of time. "Matilda, I had a vision when I was at the library. The three Fates were together after a confrontation with the Mother of Dragons. It seemed we all regretted something we'd done. What did we do?"
Matilda gasps and puts her hand to her mouth. "We can never speak of that. It doesn't matter. It was destroyed."
"What was?" I ask.
"The abomination we helped create."
A sinking feeling fills my gut and I pull the Memory Catcher out of my pocket and play the memory for Matilda. When it comes to the creature that killed Lyx, I pause it. "Was that what we made?"
Matilda's eyes widen. "It's not possible. It was destroyed. The Mother of Dragons knew what she'd done was wrong. She…"
"This is what killed Lyx." I say. "You must tell me the truth. What is this creature?"
Gods, if only I could remember myself.
"It's time you knew everything," she says. "The Mother of Dragons was in love with the Queen of the Unicorns. They wanted a child together, but their races could not mate, nor could two females. So, they petitioned the Fates to help them merge their magic into a child."
I could see my own emotions reflected on the faces of the others. None of them knew about this, though Racul certainly suspected his mother had been up to shady shit. But this? Gods be damned, how stupid could they all be? That was clearly a recipe for poison cookies right there. And I was a part of this? I was a moron.
"So that clearly didn't go well," I say.
"No, it didn't." She rubs her eyes. "What we made… well, you've seen. It was… monstrous."
"And my mother killed it?" Racul asks.
"Yes," Matilda says. "Or so we thought."
Pain lances through my brain and I grip Liam's hand tighter as a Flash rushes through me. "Something is coming," I whisper through gritted teeth, but before anyone can do anything about it, the door to our room explodes in shards of splintered wood and the most hideous creature I've ever seen bursts in, sharp teeth dripping with saliva, yellow eyes crazed.
It's so much worse in person than in the memory, I realize.
Matilda stands and pulls out a wand from her robes, channeling her magic through it to blast the monster with an electric bolt.
It absorbs the impact of the attack and seems to grow stronger from it. The horn on the side of its head spins like a drill, and its wings extend, propelling it through the room. I'm still too sick to be of much help, my brain feeling as if it will explode.
Liam hits it with a blaze of fire, but once again, the attack has no impact other than seeming to make it stronger and faster. It now crackles with lightning and burns with the fire of the Druid.
Derek tries to drive it away with wind, but it uses its wings to push through.
Lovely.
Matilda shouts at the monster. "Be gone you beast, you abomination. Be gone!" Once again, she uses her wand to attack, but this time the bolt of lightning is directed back at her and she's hit in the chest and collapses to the floor.
Ignoring my pounding head, I run to her, nearly vomiting at the movement.
I can't tell if she's alive or not. "Liam! Help her!"
Despite his own anger, he comes to her and checks her pulse, but the monster descends on us, and I am in the direct line of its fire. I attempt to create a shield to protect us, but I'm not fast enough.
Just as the monster is about to impale me with its drill horn, Racul jumps in between us and the horn plunges into him instead. He's hit with such force that both he and the creature crash through the glass window, over the balcony and into the garden.
The light rain that had begun earlier is now a raging storm, darkening the Dragon's Breath in the sky and turning everything murky and wet.
With fear pulsing through my veins, I plunge into my power and pull on every strand I can find, then fly through the broken glass and down to where Racul and the monster are.
Racul lays unconscious in a bush as rain pelts him.
The monster turns to me, and using all the elements, I weave a cocoon trap that I throw on it. This seems to work for a moment, as a magical net wraps around the beast and slows its progression.
But it breaks free too soon and lunges at me.
In a blink, the four Night brothers jump off the balcony with ease and join me.
I grab the hands of the two nearest brothers while they form a circle around the monster, hands held. I channel the power they offer in addition to my own and cast another shield around the creature, this time creating a dome prison in which to trap it.
The monster screams and thrashes against the barrier but the power I’ve thrown into the barrier zaps it back each time it hits.
“I think it’s holding,” I say, my body buzzing and my head pounding.
I feel as if I’m about to vomit.
I sag into Sebastian’s arms and he catches me, holding me close.
“Matilda?” I ask.
“She’s alive,” Liam says.
“Racul!” I scream and pull out of Sebastian’s arms and run over to the Fire Dragon. His body is crumbled in a bush and I tug at him to turn him over. There’s a horn sized hole in his chest and he’s not breathing.
“Liam?” I ask, knowing he won’t love helping but he’s a healer before anything.
True to form he rushes over and examines the dragon. There’s no gloat in his face when he turns to me and frowns. “He’s dead.”
The Truth
“Look for the answer inside your question.”
~Rumi
The storm continues to rage around us and a deep dread builds within me. I stare at Racul's body and can't stop shaking. He died to save me, which goes against everything I thought I knew about the Fire Dragon.
His burnt red skin looks paler in death, as if the flames of his soul are being extinguished. I take his hand, but it is heavy and limp. A tear slides down my cheek. I didn't exactly like the man, but over the last few days I had developed a kind of bond with him, and this death hurts. They all hurt.
I turn to look at the creature in the makeshift cage we created. Its thrashing has calmed, and it seems to be tiring out.
In fact, it looks to be curling up to rest. The fight must have drained it.
As it falls asleep, we all watch in stunned silence as its
body begins to glow and its shape changes. Its legs lengthen, its body shortens, its head becomes smaller, until it's no longer a hideous monster at all.
It's a girl.
A girl we all know.
It's Ana.
I place Racul's hand on his chest and walk over to look more closely.
Ana sleeps fitfully, crying out until she wakes herself with her own terrors. When she sees where she is, she screams and cries. "Please let me out, I'm scared."
I kneel to speak to her. "Ana, do you know why you're here?" I ask.
She shakes her head. "I'm scared."
"You turned into something else," I say, unsure of how to phrase this. "Do you remember that?"
"No. I don't know what you mean?"
"You attacked us," I say softly. Nothing about this feels right, and I don't know how to process what's happening. My flash is buzzing madly.
Her eyes widen and she begins to cry. "I didn't. I promise. It wasn't me."
She's either the world's best actress or she really doesn't remember doing it.
"What's the last thing you remember?" I ask.
"I was sleeping in Grandmother Matilda's room and I heard someone calling me. I opened my eyes, felt a pain, and then I was here."
"You remember nothing else? Nothing at all?" Sebastian asks, kneeling next to me.
"No. What happened? What do you think I did?"
Shit. How do you tell a small child she's a killer?
I look over at Sebastian, whose jaw is locked. He shrugs, but doesn't take his eyes off Ana.
Ana looks past us, her eyes widening when she sees Racul in the bushes. "Why is he like that?" she asks, breaking into sobs again.
I want to reach through the barrier and hold her. She's so small and scared and I just don't believe she's done this on purpose. But the fact is, she did do it, and I can't risk letting her free to do it again.
"Is he dead?" she asks. "Why is he like that?" She's screaming and shaking, and I can't leave her alone like this.
Against my better judgement, I move through the barrier and into the space with her. Sebastian shouts for me to stop, but I can't let this poor little girl suffer alone.
She clings to me, sobbing into my shoulder, her frail arms wrapped around me. "Tell me what's happening? Why do people keep dying?"
"I don't know what's going on, honey. But we're going to figure it out. Until then, you're going to have to stay in here. For your own safety."
She looks up, eyes wide. "No. You can't leave me in here alone. No! I'm scared."
It's a terrible place to leave a child, but she's not just a child. She's a creation gone wrong. And where has she been all this time? What brought her back if the Fate's were so certain she was killed?
"I'll make it nicer for you," I say. "Watch."
I don't need to be touching the Nights to do this anymore. Instead, I place my hand in the earth and request help from the flowers surrounding us. I telegraph the image of what I want to do, and they agree.
My magic is connected to the brothers through our new bond, and I tap into that to help. As my power flows, a small room forms around me and Ana, made of beautiful flowers and vines and leaves. It's tall enough for her to stand and walk around, and mounds of mossy grass make up a bed and small couch.
She looks around, her fear momentarily forgotten as she watches in awe at the earth reforming itself for her.
When I'm done, I feel exhausted, but she smiles. Then her mouth drops when she realizes she has to stay here. "Please don't leave me," she begs.
"I'm so sorry honey, I have to. But I'll send out your doll, and I'll come visit you often while we figure out what to do, okay?"
She sobs softly as I leave.
The other brothers have gone upstairs to check on Matilda, but Sebastian stayed behind to wait for me. He takes my hand as I leave the barrier. "That was risky," he says, as we walk back to the house.
"I know. But I couldn't just leave her."
"I know," he says softly, squeezing my hand.
I glance back at Racul 's body and my heart lurches. "What do we do about him?" I ask.
"We'll send for Ifi and Elal. But we will have to explain this somehow. We have to turn the girl over to the Mother of Dragons."
I pull back from him. "We can't. She didn't mean to do this. We have to figure out what's going on."
We enter the house and Elijah is coming downstairs, his face distraught. "What's wrong?" I ask, releasing Sebastian's hand to rush over to him.
"Matilda is unconscious and can't be woken. Liam doesn't know why. She's alive, but appears to be in a coma. We've put her in her room for now and Liam is working on potions. I'm heading to my office to look for a book that might help."
Oh gods, this is awful.
I want to check on Matilda, but I know my presence won't help anything, so instead I retrieve Ana's doll with some food and water and take it to her, then join Sebastian in the family library. He's staring into the fire as I take a seat next to him.
"How was she?" he asks.
"She'd already fallen back to sleep. Poor kid."
"You don't know for sure that she's innocent of intent," he says. "If she's doing this deliberately, then she could be very skilled at lying. She was created a long time ago. She's not an ordinary child. She might not be a child at all."
My stomach turns at that. I hadn't considered the possibility that her entire presentation was a lie. Still. "I felt something from her. A connection to her magic. It doesn't feel evil to me. With my darkness and light, I could suss out intention better than most, and hers feels pure. She's genuinely scared. Maybe she just needs to learn control."
"And yet she's only killed dragons," he says. "And not all dragons. She didn't harm Zara. That doesn't feel random or lacking control to me."
Liam, Elijah and Derek join us downstairs, Liam carrying Alina and Derek carrying the baby dragon.
They put the babies in the crib and take seats in front of the fire with us.
"Any news?" I ask Liam.
"It's a waiting game now," he says.
Derek stands and begins pacing, his trademark go to for stressful times and thinking. "At least now we can resolve these murders and save the Otherworld," he says. "When we turn over the monster, Amora should honor her word and leave us alone."
Oh boy. "We’re not turning over the child," I say.
They all look at me with unreadable expressions.
So I make the same argument I just made to Sebastian. "I felt it in her. She doesn't know what she's doing, but from what I've seen of the Mother of Dragons, she won't care. In fact, she's the reason we're in this mess to begin with. She created this child and tried to destroy her. Now the child is back."
And the timing is awfully… coincidental.
"Callia!" I shout. "Show yourself!"
The unicorn always turns up when she feels like it. I've never been able to summon her, but she has to know what's going on.
"Callia!"
Finally, the unicorn appears before me, her face grim. I glare at her. "Did you know all along?"
She shakes her head. "I didn't. Not at first."
"So it's true? This is the child which the Queen of the Unicorns and the Mother of Dragons created together?"
Her head drops. "It is. She is. And I loved her with all my heart. I did not want to destroy her, even though she wasn't what we expected."
"We?" I ask, the puzzle pieces in my mind suddenly rearranging themselves once again.
Her large silver eyes gloss over. "I am… was… the queen of my people. My relationship with Amora was… unexpected. We were enemies but we fell in love. We thought a child together could bridge the gap between our kind."
"Then why did you let Amora kill her?"
She looks up at me, her expression filled with complex emotion. "I didn't let her. I told her she would have to kill me first. So, she did."
I gasp and tell the brothers what Callia just told me. It would be a lot easi
er if everyone could see the damn unicorn.
"Do you know what happened after?" I ask. "To your child?"
I can tell she does. She sighs and gazes into the distance, into a past so far gone it's hard for me to imagine. "As I died, I used the last of my power to create a small slice of a new world, and I pulled my dying child into it and left her there. I thought it would be better, for her to live, but I was wrong."
And then it all clicks. "When Ava'Kara and I expanded the world, we pulled her into it, didn't we? That's why she's back?"
Callia nods. "I do believe that's what happened, yes."
My stomach sinks with the unintended consequences of my actions. "Why is she targeting and killing the dragons?" I ask.
"That I do not know. But she is innocent, you have seen that yourself. Please do not sacrifice her to Amora's ambitions."
A tear slides down Callia's cheek. "I'm going to see my daughter now," she says, and blinks out.
I face the Night brothers, prepared to fight for this girl's life. She's already been tormented too much.
"We cannot harbor a serial killer," Derek says. "She puts all of us—this entire world—at risk. She was never meant to exist at all," he argues. "We must let her go. It's the only way."
I expect Liam to side with Derek, but he surprises me. "No. I'm with Eve on this. If there's a chance she's innocent of intent, we must find another way. We have spent lifetimes defending the guilty, making sure they get a fair trial. We cannot turn this child over to someone we know will torture and destroy her. That's not who we are.”
Elijah cocks his head, taking in all the information. "I think we should hold off making any decisions until we know more. I can't deny turning her over would be the most expedient solution to our problems, but I also do not feel it wise to turn our back on our own values for sake of the convenient solution. That is not who we are, nor is it who we have ever been."
Sebastian shakes his head. "I'm sympathetic, I am. But… " he glances at me and I know what he's about to do.
"Don't," I say.
"I'm sorry," he says. "But they have to know. It's too important."
I close my eyes and know that in a moment, everything will shift, and it will be my fault.
I Am the Night (The Night Firm Book 3) Page 11