Page 50 of Song of Night

“You’re not taking me anywhere,” Zara growls. “You are vastly outnumbered.”

The wolves step up beside us, crouched low, teeth gleaming in the night, breath flickering with flame.

Kieran lunges for Zara, shifting as he goes. Wings flare out, clawed hands dive for her shoulders. He spins and bowls me and the wolves over with one wing and we sprawl across the stone tiles beneath us. I summon my magic, but as I do so, the earth shudders violently beneath me.

And then it opens up and swallows me whole.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

ZARA

I watch in horror as I’m yanked backwards into the sky. Asher’s name pours from my lips, a scream that hangs in the air. Everything moves slowly as if time has paused.

The stone tiles of the courtyard crumble as an earthquake rips across Night.

A massive split opens in the earth.

Asher and the wolves tumble down into utter darkness, falling until I can’t see the glow of their flames anymore.

Then Kieran spins in the sky, his enormous wings beating the air as he carries us toward Ellielle’s tower.

It’s the one building not burning. As Kieran swoops down toward it, I catch a glimpse of the moon before we dive back down into the smoke. The top of the tower has been blown clean off, whether by magic or some explosion, I’m not sure. Kieran hovers over the center of it, where two figures stand below us. Then he drops me, and I land right at the feet of Vyrin and Ellielle. He shifts and drops to the floor in a crouch beside me.

“Well,” Vyrin says with a smile for Kieran. “That’s much better than fighting to an inevitable death, now isn’t it?”

I climb to my feet, my body protesting after being dropped on the hard stone floor. My heart climbs into my chest as I stare up at Vyrin. Because Vyrin is thrumming with magic. So much magic he burns brighter than the whole city aflame.

“How did you get so much magic?” I whisper, eyes widening with horror.

Vyrin’s sadistic smile widens. “Kieran wasn’t the first one here to strike a deal. Ellielle offered me a vast store of magic she’d trapped conveniently inside an orb, just waiting to be absorbed.”

I turn to the angel, my mouth dropping open. “You absolute fool. You had a second weapon?”

I see it now, off to the side of the room, a pile of shattered glass. That’s what caused the earthquake that cracked the earth. Vyrin breaking open an orb of trapped magic and siphoning it all. It hadn’t been a random surge of wild magic at all.

“Of course I had a backup,” Ellielle scoffs, though there’s a slight flicker of unease in her eyes as she stands beside Vyrin. “I will do anything to protect my people.”

“Including siding with the greatest enemy we’ve ever known.” I shake my head in disgust.

“There was no winning against him, Zara,” Kieran says. “Surely you can see that.”

“But together…” Ellielle’s eyes bore into me. “Together we can assure peace for our houses.”

“You are both insane if you think there will ever be peace,” I whisper.

“I confess, I’m surprised you survived,” Ellielle says, a soft hiss in her voice. “I figured it certain that Asher would kill you in his blood lust during the voyage across the Waste.” She shrugs and the smile she casts me glitters with malice. “Hopefully you enjoyed your time with my betrothed. Although I suppose now that Vyrin has spared House Angelus, I don’t need Asher anymore.”

“You needn’t concern yourself with either of them,” Vyrin says to Ellielle, his tone laced with warning. He swings his gaze to me. “I have great plans for the former Lord of Night. And for you, Zara. You especially. Plans that will take you far from this battle.”

A shiver of revulsion climbs my spine and I eye him warily. He has far too much magic for me to attack him, he would crush me in an instant. My hand goes to my dagger nonetheless. I only have one left, the other I’d dropped when Kieran yanked me from the courtyard. But though I’m in grave peril, what I keep thinking of, keep seeing in my mind’s eye, is Asher falling beneath the earth. Could he survive a fall like that? Could anyone? Panic crushes my heart in my chest.

Vyrin gestures for Kieran to take me, and Kieran grabs my shoulder and ushers me away from the center of the tower floor. I throw his hand off of me, but he just smiles. We step back against the wall opposite Vyrin.

“Does he know who you really are?” I whisper to Kieran. “Son of the enemy he hated so much?”

Kieran’s cheek twitches. “I guess that’s the benefit of being youngest, always playing second fiddle. No one ever noticed me, and so no one remembers me now.”

I let out a growl. “A lifetime of hatred, all because Asher was born first. Something he had no control over.”

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