Page 7 of Song of Night

“I don’t trust Ellielle not to slaughter us the moment it’s convenient for her,” Aya says quietly.

“Nor do I, but for the time being, she needs us,” I respond. “She won’t do anything rash until she knows what lies on the other side of the Waste. How big Vyrin’s army is, what magic and weapons they possess.”

“And you intend to actually go through with this marriage when you return?” Helios asks, one brow raised.

“If I return.” I cast my gaze over the three of them. “That is further than my hope will stretch at the moment.”

“Who will lead in your stead should you not return?” Malara asks.

My gaze flicks around the table. “You and Helios should make all decisions jointly if I do not return. Keep each other’s wisdom. You’ll balance each other out.”

“And who will you take across the Waste?” Aya asks. “You should bring an advisor, as you were granted.”

I shake my head. “I do not wish to condemn anyone else to what is likely to be a grizzly fate.”

Silence falls between us for several long moments.

“You know that any of the three of us would travel with you to the end,” Malara says.

“I do. And for that loyalty, I am eternally grateful.” I stand up from the table. “I must return to the Angelus now. Aya, you will oversee the warriors while I convene with the other heads of house regarding defense of the city. Make sure they behave at the feast tonight. Malara and Helios will join me at Ellielle’s tower.”

I turn for the door and have taken two steps when a wave of hunger washes over me, so intense that I stumble into the wall, my fingers crushing the stone beneath my fingers. I shouldn’t need blood this badly after receiving some from Ellielle’s servant. My hunger shouldn’t be growing like this…

“My lord—are you ill?” Aya asks.

A growl rumbles through me. “I’m fine.”

I push myself upright and make my way from the room.

My vision pulses red with the intensity of my craving. Surely this is some aftereffect of the explosion and stripping of my magic. As much as I crave Zara’s blood, I can’t be craving it this intensely.

Can I?

Chapter Five

ZARA

I’m dozing in the corner of my cell when the earthquake begins. At first the faint rumble feels like part of my dream, a dream of battle and blood and wings and death. A repeat of the morning’s events running through my head. Angels hunting me. My horse flipping beneath me, a spear buried in her heart. The explosion of the magical weapon just feet away from us.

It's the last part I mistake the earthquake for.

But as the rumbling intensifies, it shakes me from my sleep. Bits of stone and plaster fall on my head from above, and the bars of my cell rattle and creak. I have only a moment to wonder what’s happening before wild magic pulses through the city.

Even though I don’t feel it within me anymore, I know instantly that’s what it is. A flash of heat and violet light, like ten thousand bolts of lightning striking all throughout Night. We’ve always had these fluxes of magic that would leave people dead in its wake each time. Everyone used to blame the Lord of Night, saying he let the wild magic loose on purpose to terrify the citizens, to keep everyone in check. But I’d come to know Asher’s secret, that he is the anchor of Night, the only thing standing between Night and its citizens, holding back the incredible well of wild magic trapped here.

Was the only thing standing between Night and its citizens.

I’d wondered fleetingly, after the explosion, if the magic had been freed. If maybe that’s why Asher and I lost our magic, since the two of us had the strongest connection to Night. It would solve one problem, even if it created many others—if the magic was no longer trapped, we wouldn’t have deadly power surges anymore.

But as the earthquake intensifies, it becomes clear that I was wrong. The wild magic is still very much trapped, and now it has no anchor, nothing to control the chaos. It’s the most powerful flare I’ve ever felt.

For a moment, I wonder if the magic will claim me, the magic I’ve had a strange connection to my whole life. A secret I’ve guarded so closely, how I can feel Night moving, breathing almost, as if she is a living thing. Asher is the only one who knows my secret, as I am the only one who knows his. I’d taken it for granted, not having to be afraid each day that wild magic could consume me. Now that I’m separated from Night, from my magic, will it end me as it’s ended so many countless others?

The earthquake grows in intensity as does the electric feeling in the air, the searing heat, the pressure, as if the magic is crushing me…

But then the surge passes, and I am still alive.

I can’t see anything in this lightless place, but after my heart stops racing, I can sense that something is different in my cell, a change in the airflow, perhaps. I get up and take a step closer to the bars of my cell. Another step. I stretch forward with my fingers, feeling along the cold metal with the tips of them. I’m so concentrated on what’s in front of my face that I trip over the rocks at my feet.

---