Page 6 of Song of Night

Ellielle stands in her stirrups and her wings flare out behind her.

“Warriors of Night!” she calls. Her voice, like the horn blast, is carried by magic. “Our great houses have called a truce! I am here, side by side with the Lord of Night, to announce a joining of our houses, to bring peace to this city at last.”

Ellielle looks to me expectantly. I wish nothing more than to tell my warriors to fight to their last breath, to take out as many enemies as they can before they fall, to end House Daemonium in a blaze of blood and glory. For a moment, my lips refuse to cooperate, rebelling against issuing the words I know I must.

But I want my people to survive. And I can only hope there are enough of us left to fight another day, a day I am better equipped to lead them.

Which is something that, without my magic, I cannot do.

“House Daemonium!” I call. “Lay down your weapons and join me in celebrating this union of houses! We have fought long and hard, and now we have earned peace, if for only a moment. Because we face a greater threat, a threat from across the Waste. Night is no longer cut off from the rest of Aureon—outsiders have breached our city.”

A clamor of shock and surprise moves across the crowd. I wonder now if any here would be alive had Zara and I not been standing near the site of the explosion. The wild magic seemed to bounce off of us and cut north through the Waste, when it should have cast a wider circle of destruction.

But did we save the city only for it now to be taken by Vyrin’s armies?

Shoving down my doubts, I call out again to the waiting warriors. “I travel at dawn to negotiate an agreement with these outsiders. Until I return, we call a cease-fire between the houses of Night. Rest and feast in honor of this victory!”

Across the battlefield, I see warriors from the different houses looking at each other in confusion, no doubt wondering if this is some sort of trick or trap. But they cease fighting as commanded. I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding, and some of the tension within my body releases. My eyes wander over the space between the cathedral and the bridge, trying to count the number of Daemonium still standing.

“I’ll need to meet with my generals,” I say quietly to Ellielle. “They won’t buy this otherwise.”

She looks as if she might argue with me, but after a moment, lips pressed in a thin line, she nods. “Do what you must, but be quick about it. And don’t even think about crossing me, Asher.”

“Why do you think I would I cross you? You only tried to kill me, ambushed my people, and detonated a deadly weapon.” I let every bit of acid and heat I feel burning in my stomach leak into my words. But then I shake my head. “No, some of us have honor. We have a deal. I won’t go back on it.”

I turn from her, ignoring the quiet string of curses she throws at my back. I squeeze my heels to my horse and move across the plaza, summoning my warriors as I go. Finally, near the bridge, I catch sight of Malara, and shortly after, Helios.

“My lord, what has happened?” Malara asks when I ride up.

“Not here,” I say. “We ride to the palace. Then we have much to discuss.”

An hour later we’ve gathered back at the Palace of Night. It seems an eternity since I left this place, my childhood home. We’d been sure Ellielle would detonate the weapon there, so we’d evacuated further from the river. Coming back to our home should feel like victory, but it tastes like ash and bone in my mouth. We’d far from won the battle. I’d made a deal with a devil to fight something even worse. I’d lost my magic and Zara both. And hunger is gnawing me from the inside out…

When I’d first tasted Zara, I thought she was sent by the goddess. Her blood quenched my never-ending hunger in a way nothing else ever had. Which must be the reason for what I’m feeling now, this desire that burns through me like a thousand endless infernos. A longing for something perfect that I can never have again. It would be so much better had I never given in to my lust for her in the first place.

The whole reason my hunger has been so intense these past two hundred years, why I needed souls in addition to blood, is because I was the conduit to Night. Always holding back an overwhelming stream of wild magic to keep it from annihilating the city, as it had when I’d first summoned and then lost control of it. Since I’ve lost my magic, I’m clearly no longer that conduit.

What will happen to the city now that I’m not anchoring the magic?

As I stand in the courtyard of the palace, a cold wind whipping down on me from above, I feel more defeated than I ever have. Worse even than that dark day over two hundred years ago when the wild magic ravaged the city.

I make my way to the Chamber of Souls where I meet with Helios, Malara, and Aya Olora, telling them all that transpired in the last few hours since the battle began. When I am finished, Malara pins me in her purple gaze.

“Where is the Incantrix Zara?”

“In the dungeons beneath the Animus compound,” I growl. “Where she belongs.”

Malara blinks, and Helios stiffens ever so slightly in surprise. They do not ask further questions.

“So, tomorrow you travel through the Waste to meet the king who battled your father hundreds of years ago,” Aya Olora says. “What if it’s a trap—an act of revenge against the son of his enemy?”

“Likely it is.” I cross my arms over my chest. “But what choice do I have? If I do not go, it means certain war.”

“It will mean war either way,” Helios intones flatly.

“I have no magic,” I growl. “No way to defend this city. If I can buy us time, be useful in any way by either my life or my death, I will do it.”

“It’s true it could buy us time,” Malara says. “Especially if we’re going to have to figure out a strategy with the other houses.”

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