Nocturne

by Natalya Capello

  No. That wouldn’t happen. He had to get to a healer. She knelt and lay a hand on Arryn’s shoulder.

  He glanced up at her. “Is it over?”

  “She’s dead,” Lorelei said.

  He lay his head back and closed his eyes. “Good.”

  Lorelei’s heart skipped a beat and her breath caught in her throat until his chest rose and fell.

  “Lorelei,” Dae called. “Ilia’s not looking good.”

  Lorelei pushed to her feet and rushed towards the two of them. Ilia lay on her back with one arm flung to the side. A deep gash ran along her stomach, leaking blue blood. She was unconscious and her skin had taken a grayish color similar to Arryn’s. Lorelei wasn’t sure if it was from blood loss or some effect of the iron. She’d never seen someone struck by iron before. Either way, Ilia was dying and Lorelei didn’t have a song to save her.

  She turned to Dae. “Do you have enough Aether to open a portal?”

  “Yes,” Dae said in a squeaky voice infused with worry

  “Open it and take them through. Get Ilia and Arryn to a healer.”

  “What about you?”

  Lorelei swallowed. “Once they are seen to, send people back for me. I have to finish this.”

  “Why?” Dae said. “Why do you have to?”

  She tightened her fists as her gaze traveled from Ilia and Arryn. “If I don’t people will die.”

  Dae’s bottom lip trembled and she landed next to Ilia. “Can you bring Arryn here? I can’t carry him.”

  Lorelei nodded. She walked to Arryn and touched his arm gently. He woke with a start and looked up at her.

  “It’s time to go,” she said, her voice tight as she fought the tears from falling.

  He groaned in pain as she helped him stand. She put one of his arms over her shoulders. They hobbled to where Dae waited with Ilia.

  Lorelei eased him to the ground and guided him to lie back.

  “Where are we going?” he asked in a tired voice.

  “Home,” Lorelei murmured. “Now rest.”

  She pressed her lips to his and tears slipped from the corners of her eyes, sliding down her cheeks to fall onto his face. He tried to grab her arm, but she pulled away. She stood and stepped back.

  He reached out towards her. “Wait.”

  “Do it,” she said to Dae.

  Dae flew up and began her chant as she flew circles around Arryn and Ilia. Arryn reached toward Lorelei with his fingers outstretched. His movement must have caused a shift against his wound because he winced and fell back on the ground.

  Dae’s chants grew louder as she flew faster. They hit a crescendo and all three disappeared in a bright blue light. It faded, leaving Lorelei alone in the forsaken Citadel of Night.

  9

  Lorelei’s lantern still radiated light. A door stood in the far-left corner of the room. It was not the only exit, but the way she had to go. She wiped the tainted blood from her sword and stepped over the debris to the door. Sucking in a deep breath, she gripped the handle. This was the final hour.

  The door swung inward, revealing a room lit in a greenish light. A guitar stood upright on an obsidian altar over an open sarcophagus and strummed chords of a lullaby that wafted from the room. The back of a sidhe male in black robes with ash blond hair stood before a semi-circle of candles that stretched in a semicircle around the sarcophagus. The lid of the sarcophagus lay near the right wall outside of the candles. The likeness of a sidhe male in armor was embossed on the top. Bones lay strewn across the rest of the room.

  “Is it done?” the sidhe in robes asked without turning around.

  “Is what done?” Lorelei asked. “If you mean your minions…and by done, you mean dead, then yes.”

  The man slowly turned around and stared at her with raised eyebrows. He studied her for several moments before bursting into a deep laugh.

  “You? A wisp of a girl killing both Ebony and Silhouette? I don’t believe it,” he said.

  Lorelei tapped the edge of her sword against the side of her boot. “Well, believe what you want, but I’m here and they’re not.”

  “Indeed.” His gaze traveled down the length of her. “Forgive me. I have not introduced myself. I am known as Commander Jett. It seems fitting you know the name of the one who will end you.”

  Lorelei lifted her chin and stood tall. “I wouldn’t bet on you ending me. You’ll lose.”

  He chuckled. “How I have not missed the incessant chatter of females.”

  Lorelei’s gaze darted behind him to the open sarcophagus. She could almost make out the form of someone lying there. That had to be the vampire. General Itham.

  She glanced back at Jett. “Why do this?”

  “What? Raise one of the greatest generals in history?” he asked. “Why not?”

  “He corrupted his House and killed thousands of Faeries! He is a monster!” Lorelei’s hand tightened around her sword.

  “So is the Quorum.” Jett leveled a cold gaze at her. “They are corrupt and built on a throne of lies that began with the Empress.”

  “The Empress saved us,” Lorelei said.

  “She damned us. I serve someone greater…Together, we will tear down this foundation of lies and build a great…”

  Enough of that. Lorelei charged forward and swung her sword in an upward arc. The thin point dug into his chest and created a long, jagged slash. He let out a gasp, stepping back. His foot knocked over one of the candles. All at once, the rest of the candles snuffed out. Jett looked at the candles then glared at Lorelei.

  “I will have to begin over again. Once I have killed you that is.” A translucent, green sword appeared in his left hand. “I believe I will cut out your tongue and raise you as my servant for eternity.”

  With that, he jabbed his blade towards Lorelei. She hopped back. Jett raised his hand in a thin line and chanted three words in a strange, guttural language. Black-purple light covered the bones around the room. They shook and lifted in the air, snapping together to form three skeletons. They blocked the way between Lorelei and Jett. His low laugh filled the air as the skeletons converged on her.

  Damn, she needed something to take these things down fast. She stared down at her sword as an idea sprang to mind. The blade wouldn’t do much, but maybe fire could. She sang a quick verse. Orange-red flames shot down the blade of her sword and engulfed it.

  She pirouetted around the first skeleton and scraped her blade against its rib bones. The fire sparked off the bone and spread, consuming the black-purple energy in a flash. The skeleton collapsed in a pile of charred bones.

  Lorelei grinned. Apparently, fire was a weakness of these things.

  The second skeleton raked Lorelei in her side. Coldness swept through her, burning her insides. As she glanced at it, the third grabbed the wrist of her sword hand. Its fingers dug into the tender part of her arm. Her fingers convulsed and her sword slipped from her hand. It clattered to the ground and bounced away from her.

  She wrenched her arm, trying to break from the skeleton’s grip, but it had a strength she couldn’t match. The second grabbed her other arm, its touch spreading chill along her skin. Jett approached with a triumphant sneer as she continued to twist in the grip of the undead.

  “Hold her still while I cut out her tongue,” he said.

  Time seemed to slow to a crawl as he raised his sword. This was it—she was going to die.

  Not like this. On Gehenna, she wanted to choose her own death.

  The flames bursting from the candle during her trial of fire sprang to mind. Yes, she would choose her death and she would take everything in this room with her.

  Her song rang out in three simple notes. In her mind, she called the fire and then forced it to spin out of control, centered on Jett. It flared up, starting in his chest, and spiraled outward.

  A gout of it whipped out and slammed into her chest, flinging her from the hold of the skeletons. She slammed into a wall. White light flashed behind her eyes. Her flesh burned with hea
t instead of cold.

  As darkness enclosed around the edge of her vision, the firestorm grew. The candles went up in tiny flashes as they spiraled in the air on the force of the wind. It encompassed the sarcophagus. Something inside burst in a bright spark.

  Huh, she thought as the world became dimmer. Vampires are susceptible to flame as well.

  She was going to die, but at least she would be unconscious when the fire took her.

  With that last thought, she blacked out.

  She stands in nothingness with only Elys floating before her. A beautiful smile lights his face.

  “You’ve freed me,” he says. “And don’t worry. It’s the good way. Itham is dead as is that necromancer.”

  Lorelei bows her head. “I suppose I am as well.”

  “Not yet,” Elys says. “I have one last gift for you before I go to the Misty Realms. You may be a little burned, but you will recover. My story may be over, but yours has much to go.”

  He floats forward and places a kiss on her forehead. “Be well, Lorelei ap Moura.”

  He turns from her and grins at something Lorelei can’t see. He holds his hand out and fades away.

  10

  Lorelei woke in a bed of cotton sheets. She squinted at the bright overhead lights and winced at the pain that flared in her chest.

  “You are finally awake.” Camden’s voice floated over her. “Good.”

  He sat beside her bed with his hands over his lap and an implacable expression. She pulled herself into a sitting position with a pain-filled hiss. Everything ached. She probably had bruises all down her back.

  “You found me,” she said in a raspy voice.

  “Indeed. Miss Daeira summoned us with a wild story about an ancient citadel, the undead, and treason. At the sight of Lady Ilia and Lord Arryn, we feared the worst for you. Of course, when we arrived, we found you surrounded by ashes. Would you care to tell me what happened?”

  With a shaky breath, Lorelei related the events of the past few days. At the end, she laid her head back on the pillows and closed her eyes. “It’s over now. The vampire is dead. The conspiracy has been stopped.”

  “If there was one,” Camden said.

  Lorelei’s eyes snapped open. “What do you mean?”

  “There was barely anything in the room, but charred bones and stone. No proof for your claims of some secret organization.”

  “But the other rooms.” Lorelei sat up straighter. “There were other members we defeated.”

  “Undead and Fomorians.” Camden raised his hand. “All likely to be found in such a place.”

  “We found swords with the symbol,” Lorelei said. “There was even an iron blade.”

  “There were swords found among your equipment. I cannot say they weren’t brought by you.”

  “Why would we bring iron? Three of us are sidhe. Its very presence makes us feel ill.”

  Camden glared down at her. “I’m very aware of the effects of iron. However, I cannot say whether that sword was there before you arrived.”

  Lorelei stared up at him with her cheeks burning. He was going to a lot of lengths to deny there had been a conspiracy. Why? Wouldn’t the Quorum want to know a threat to them?

  There had to be a way to prove what happened.

  “What do the others say? Ilia, Dae…and Arryn?” Lorelei asked, then paused with her heart fluttering. “How are they? They’re not…”

  “Lady Ilia and Lord Arryn are recovering,” he said. “We do not know the toll the iron will take on them, however. They were in no condition to be questioned about the events that happened. Miss Daeira was hysterical.”

  Lorelei let out a sigh of relief. They were both going to be all right. “When they recover, they will corroborate my story.”

  “Perhaps.” He leaned forward. “Whatever they say, a decision has been made.”

  Lorelei stiffened. “What do you mean?”

  He stared at her with narrowed eyes. “I believe you were the one to suggest the trip to this citadel. That was a reckless decision. You barely have any control over your magic. What made you think you could travel to such a dangerous place?”

  “But that was the point,” Lorelei said. “And I have control now.”

  “Do you?” He continued to glare at her. “From the looks of that room, you don’t. Your actions have nearly caused the deaths of a valued student and honored guest. They could be maimed for life, due to this.

  Lorelei hung her head, her chest tightening. “I’m sorry.”

  He took a deep breath and stood. “The Dean has made a decision to make an example of you. You are to be expelled immediately.”

  “What?” Lorelei shot forward and winced at the twinge in her chest. “But I have just learned how to control my magic. I can pass the Trials now.”

  “It matters not,” he said. “The Aimsir doesn’t wish to be associated with such a person.”

  Lorelei collapsed back on the pillows, staring up at the ceiling. All of it, the whole ordeal, had been for nothing. She had found a way to control her magic, even without the guitar, but she was getting kicked out of the Aimsir anyway.

  Camden walked to the door and paused. “You will have a few days to recover before you are to board a ship to take you home. You should get some rest then. I will alert your parents.”

  He shut the door with a soft click, leaving Lorelei alone with tears of frustration.

  Two days later, Lorelei watched the Aimsir grow farther way as she stood on the deck of a ship bound for her home city of Hy-Breasail. Her parents hadn’t come to get her. No, her mother wouldn’t have wanted to deal with the embarrassment of escorting her expelled daughter from the grounds of the university.

  Lorelei knew a lecture would be waiting for her when she reached home. How dare she bring shame to her family, especially when her sister would become Magus this year? Her father would shake his head in disappointment.

  She closed her eyes and breathed in the salty sea air.

  She didn’t care. She had traversed the depths of a forsaken place and stopped a monster from being awakened. She’d taken control of her magic. Now, she could focus on taking control of the rest of her life.

  She hadn’t been able to see Arryn before she left. He was still recovering and the magi of the university had wanted her out as soon as possible.

  It was all right. She would wait for him, like she’d told him she would. And he would tell them what she had said about the conspiracy was the truth. With his and Ilia’s help, the Quorum would know of the Black Heron’s failed attempt to raise a monster from an age past.

  She smiled as she stared up at the blue sky.

  The Aimsir was her past. It had taught her what it could. She had the future to look forward to.

  The End

  Thank you for reading Nocturne! If you enjoyed Lorelei’s first adventure, please consider leaving a review.

  Want more of Lorelei’s escapades? Book 1: Song of Shadow is available for preorder.

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  About the Author

  About Natalya:

  Natalya Capello lives in a world of oddballs, weather wizards, and big dreams. Really, it’s just Texas.

  She loves chocolate and spaghetti (but not together!) and writes about fantastical worlds with strong heroines and lots of magic. When she’s not writing she enjoys spending time with her cat and playing video games and tabletop RPGs.