Page 9 of Song of Night

Ellielle sits directly across from me at the other end of the long table. Her advisors sit on each side of her. Lord Octavius of the Syreni is there as well, with his own advisors. Malara and Helios sit at my right.

We’ve been gathered here in Ellielle’s tower for over an hour. We were on our way to the meeting when wild magic ripped through Night. An angel just feet away from me was eviscerated on the spot. We’d passed buildings toppled by the quake and places where the earth had been cracked open like a ripe melon, strange mist rising from below. Upon reaching the tower, I’d been told Kieran was missing. Ellielle sent several warriors to try to find him, and since then we’ve been waiting.

All the while, my hunger grows, seemingly by the minute.

“We’ll just have to get started without him,” Ellielle finally says, narrowing her eyes and glancing over her shoulder out into the hall one last time. “If he survived the surge, the Lord of the Animus will have to join us later.”

It would be the utmost of irony if after all these years battling with my brother, it was the wild magic that finally claimed him. And of course, I wonder about Zara, in a cell beneath the earth during an earthquake. Not that her fate means anything to me. But just the thought of her makes my hunger increase.

I’m gripping the edge of the table so tightly that the white of my bones shows through my skin. A small rumble moves through me.

Ellielle levels her gaze to mine. “Asher, are you alright?”

“Never better,” I growl.

Next to me, Malara’s attempt to not make eye contact is painfully obvious.

“Okay then, let’s begin…”

We make it through a half hour of battle strategy before footsteps are heard coming down the hall. I look past Ellielle, expecting to see Kieran approaching at last, but it’s not my brother. It’s an angel.

An angel carrying a very angry Incantrix.

The angel’s wings flare out as he enters the room and deposits Zara on the stone floor with a bone-crunching thud. As she climbs slowly to her feet, her tunic slides down and I can see she’s got a purple bruise across one shoulder. Was that from the earthquake or did someone hurt her? I forget for a moment that she betrayed me as rage burns through my blood. But another sensation races right alongside that emotion…

Hunger.

A growl escapes me and I stand abruptly, shoving my chair back as I push off from the table. It’s a combination of fury at the idea of her being mistreated, and also the deepest, darkest of cravings. I realize all eyes are pinned to me rather than Zara.

“What is she doing here?” I snarl, trying to cover my reaction with something more appropriate.

“I caught her escaping the Animus prison,” the angelic warrior says, crossing his arms over his chest.

Zara glowers at the winged creature, her fingers twitching at her sides as if wishing they held a weapon.

Ellielle makes a sound of disappointment, something between a groan and a tsk. “It seems the Lord of the Animus has a problem containing completely unmagicked and defenseless prisoners.”

“Ask the guards how defenseless I was,” Zara says in a low, deadly voice.

“And about Lord Kieran…” the angelic warrior begins.

I slam my hands down on the table. “But my question remains—why is she here?”

Malara and Helios both stare at me, barely contained shock on their faces. I’m losing this battle of wills with myself, the hunger all-consuming, blinding…

“I asked Yadriel to bring her here when the others went to look for Kieran,” Ellielle says. She locks eyes with me. “I think we may have a use for our little Incantrix. Perhaps we can discuss it privately?”

Ellielle stands and walks from the room. I suppress another growl. She’s enjoying these little humiliations in front of the other heads of house, that much is clear.

“Bring the girl,” she calls over her shoulder, to me or to Yadriel, I’m not sure.

Zara saves us the trouble of figuring it out, striding after Ellielle without a glance at either of us. I follow the two women down the corridor outside the meeting hall. Ellielle steps off into a side room which appears to be a small library. When I enter, she closes the door behind us and I stalk past her and Zara and begin pacing on the far side of the room, as far away from them both as I can be.

“Explain this,” I snap.

“Call it a woman’s intuition,” Ellielle begins, a smirk on her face as she sweeps her gaze between me and Zara. “But you didn’t seem satisfied with the blood I provided you earlier. And being as how you have no magic to claim souls, I thought I would test a theory.”

“What theory?”

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