Page 25 of Cloak of Night
But at the moment Daemon was about to give up, some of the stars directly above him seemed to wink out, as if a giant cloud had blown in to cover that portion of the sky.
He didn’t move.
Did I imagine that?
Daemon looked again at the spot in the sky. Where a constellation had twinkled earlier, now there was a distinct splotch of black sky.
“I think something’s happening... ,” he said.
Someone in the thicket of trees cleared his throat.
Daemon, Sora, Fairy, and Broomstick were supposed to be the only ones in the chestnut grove.
They turned toward the noise, half-hopeful their pleas had been answered but half-afraid they’d find a squadron of ryuu standing there. Everyone drew their weapons.
A young man stood in the shadows on the other side of the grove. He was so still he could have been mistaken for a tree. He stepped forward into the moonlight, revealing thathe wore nothing but a loincloth made of alligator hide.
It wasn’t the ryuu. But it wasn’t Vespre either.
“Greetings,” said the boy in an oddly formal way. He looked only a little older than Daemon. “I apologize for my appearance. Is this what a proper human looks like?” He gestured over the length of his body.
“Hi there....” Sora’s jaw dropped.
Jealousy made Daemon clench his. But why was he feeling that way at all? Daemon was together with Fairy, and Sora was free to ogle whoever she wanted. Still, he couldn’t shake the tightness in his chest, even though he wanted to.
“What do you mean, a ‘proper human’?” Broomstick asked.
“I have never set foot outside Celestae,” the boy said as if that explained everything.
“You’re a god?” Daemon asked. The boy didn’t look like any of the major ones, at least not from the descriptions they’d read all their lives.
“I’m Liga,” he said. “I heard your prayers about an oncoming war, and I smelled the night bloomers, two things that don’t usually go together. I was curious, so I came.”
Sora frowned. “That doesn’t explain much.”
“It doesn’t?” Liga scratched his head, as if confused why this, too, wasn’t a sufficient answer.
It was then that Daemon noticed Liga’s reptilian claws—at least three inches each and not “proper human” by a long shot—tucking his long hair behind his ear.
Dark blue hair, just like Daemon’s. Faint sparks off his skin lit Liga like a distant halo.
Daemon swallowed and took a couple deep breaths. “Is Liga short for ‘alligator’?” he asked in a whisper, because theidea seemed both inane and full of hope all at once.
Liga nodded.
“I don’t understand,” Sora said.
But Daemon did. “You’re the alligator constellation from the night sky.”
Liga smiled. “Yes, brother. I am.”
Chapter Fifteen
That means Daemon reallyisthe wolf constellation,” Sora said. “But... how?”
Liga wrinkled his forehead. “What do you mean?”
Now it was her turn to be perplexed. She tried to think through what he might be confused about. The best way, she decided, was to explain specifically what she was asking. “How did Daemon go from being a demigod in Celestae, like you, to being a taiga apprentice on earth?”
