Page 2 of When Day Breaks

"Rivian!" Amy's weakened tone reaches me once more, knocking me out of my own head.

I appear at Troian's side in no less than a blink of an eye and pull her limp body into mine, reaching for her heart and tempting tomanifestout of the castle where the flames are likely not burning. But I look over at Amy. Would it be better or worse for Lucynda if I save her? I know Troy would appreciate it. But she's not the one who is waging war because of the fact.

I rush back over to the chains and use most of my energy to yank them free, opting to let my enemy fight her way out of the flames herself. At least I can say I gave her a chance which is less than what she gave me.

With Troy still in my arms, Imanifestourselves outside into the forest where smoke billows out of the castle. Nocturnes in apanic around us running through the night while my kingdom burns down before my eyes.

I lay my sister down on the gravel and dirt below me, the creek running nearby. I curse myself for allowing this to go as far as it did, seeing my sister lifeless before me puts it into perspective. I take her heart, nearly dried out completely, and shove it back into her chest as the crackle of the fire snaps in the echoes of the horizon.

"Hey!" I holler at one of the nearby Nocturnes running from the flames engulfing my compound. He rushes to me.

I grab him roughly by his shoulders and force his eyes to mine in an act of compulsion. "You are to stay here until she wakes. Keep her from the fire. Feed her your blood when she wakes up." My Nocturne nods his head in obedience at me.

I give one last look to my sister knowing that when she wakes up she is going to hate me for what I've done. But all I can do is try to figure out how to make it right again.

I run up to the edge of the building where the fire threatens the foyer, smoke exuding from every window in sight. It's spreading fast and soon the castle will burn down. The ashes of my failures will be all that's left.

"Sir, what can we do?" A group of Nocturnes approach me as I assess the damage being done.

I don't have time to mend this, I have to find Lucynda before she creates even more chaos than any one of us can handle. I know the fire in her heart, she has it in her to save the world or burn it down and the latter is what she's promised to do.

There is only one person that I know can fix this in a matter of minutes. Likely the one person I shouldn't bring back to the compound for any reason given the history between her people and our own. But I have to find a way to lessen the blow and leaving hundreds of Nocturnes out of a home, loose in the townand victims to the daylight that will rise in mere hours is not how villainous I plan to be portrayed.

"We need Nathairia," I state matter-of-factly, knowing that my decision isn't one that will be taken lightly.

I might be just as crazy for the demand as I am to think that she'd actually help us. It's ironic to think that her actions were petty, seeing as mine have led to me needing her to reverse my own. But I'm hopeful she still has some semblance of sympathy for Hollows Trace.

"But, sir-"

"Do it!" They scurry off to summon the one person I should avoid letting in, but I can't be too stubborn to admit that I need her more than I don't.

The sky is magnificently charged with a blanket of fog that creeps from the flames, lighting up the sky against the trees and made luminescent by the moonlight and stars. Fire spits into the forest as I watch the product of my creation's actions swallow the grounds. Oranges and reds mix against the grays and blacks of the smoke that wraps around the structure of my home. Folds of heated tendrils suffocating the bricks as terror courses through my Nocturnes.

The idea that something can start off so infinitesimal and ungraspable is able to then take away so much of what one loves in a matter of seconds as oxygen feeds its anger, is a fear for most. Being captured in the wisps of an inferno and swallowed whole is the determination of life for vampires.

It was how I imagined I would end it all. But now as I watch the fear rattle the bones of my Nocturnes, the memories of my mother and I out by the gazebo fading away in the flames—the same gazebo I met Lucynda under when I allowed her to enter my mind while I told her more about my world—and the fear of losing my wife in the midst of this mess I've created is what changes my mind on ever wanting this in the first place.

I have to fight for her. For us. For the kingdom.

"Rivian!" A familiar voice echoes from beside me and I turn to see Zharus rushing over to me, seemingly unscathed from any evidence of being caught in the castle when the fire started. "What happened?"

I think to tell him the truth, there's very few things I haven't trusted Zharus with. But on top of the chaos that's ensuing, there is more to unfold within this kingdom and at this point I can't afford to trust anybody, including my Factotum. I don't want anyone knowing that my wife caused this destruction or that I enabled her to. I don't need anyone knowing why. I had asked Zharus to chain up Ameliana in the dungeon, he did it with no questions asked and I didn't plan on telling him what the reason was. But I had to come up with some kind of excuse as to why I needed her down there to begin with because soon, he'll ask.

I think about how much I want to say, not wanting to give every detail away but I need to clear my wife's name of this or else the Faction could call forretexere—an unraveling of our tether and possibly the erasure of her—and I can't have that.

"I don't know what happened, but I think someone took Lucynda." It's not a lie, someone did take her . . . it was me. I took who she was and turned her into something that she might not be able to come back from.

"What? Does this have anything to do with the former queen? What do you need from me?" He sounds confused and panicked. Rightfully so.

"Find Kacian. I need you to keep him busy by gathering the Nocturnes somewhere where the fire isn't burning and get them to calm the fuck down." I take a deep breath and prepare myself for the reaction of my next words. "Nathairia is coming."

"Nathairia? Rivian." His tone changes to a sterner tone, concern now leaking darkly from his voice. "You're joking."

"Does it look like I'm joking?" I stare blankly ahead, trying not to let my thoughts slip.

"Do you really think she's going to help?"

"If she knows what’s best for her, she will." My threat sounds like I have something to offer Nathairia for her cooperation, but the truth is. I have nothing. I just hope she feels inclined, which is laughable to be honest, but I have no choice.

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