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“It’s more than that,” Cynnia said, letting her voice fill the silence for the first time in a while. “Aurora launched an open attack on the city. I think she’s picked the place where she wants to have her final battle with you and her sisters.”

“You mean Savannah?” I asked. “She wants to fight out in the open?”

Nyx fell back into the shadows, but her voice crept forward to replace Cynnia’s soft soothing words. “What better way to strike fear in the hearts of men than for them to witness a battle of the magical arts they can’t hope to understand or win. She will intimidate them, subjugate them, and then finally destroy them all.”

“We need to give her a reason to draw away from the city,” I argued. “We need to give her a reason to pull back her forces to some of the open, uninhabited areas that surround Savannah. Get her out of the city.”

“How will we do that?” Knox asked.

I smiled at him for a second before turning my attention to Cynnia. “With bait. We make her come after Cynnia outside the city.”

“I’m not leaving my sister unguarded and vulnerable,” Nyx countered.

“Who said unguarded?” I shook my head at her, still smiling. “Didn’t you say the animal clan was waiting outside the city at a safe location? Stick Cynnia in the middle of the clan for a time. They’ll keep her safe, correct?”

“They would protect her,” Nyx reluctantly conceded.

“Hell, you and Rowe can go with her as added protection if that’s what you want.”

“And what if you’re her target?” Rowe inquired.

“Then we’re fucked,” I snapped. “I’m not leaving my city without some kind of protection. If it looks like Aurora is going to come after Cynnia outside the city, then Danaus, the nightwalkers, the lycans, and I will come riding to the rescue, attacking her from behind. But until I know that she has turned her sights elsewhere, I’m not budging from Savannah. She’s done enough damage here and destroyed enough lives.”

Rowe stared at me with a strange expression as he scratched his chin with his right hand. “You’re willing to take a lot of risk for a group of people that are going to come at you with a cross and wooden stake once they discover you exist.”

“This is my home and I will protect it,” I said. “I’ll worry about what they think about me later.”

Rowe gave a soft snort and shook his head. “I wish you luck.”

I remained silent, holding onto the luck bequeathed to me by my enemy. I knew I was going to need it. Aurora’s shocking daylight raid on the city proved to me that she was willing to take chances we weren’t willing to take, in an effort to not only protect the humans, but also protect our secret from the humans. I had a dark feeling this war was going to take a turn that I couldn’t protect my people from, and result in more deaths. And possibly even the truth.

Thirty

The wind threaded its fingers through the black feathers of my wings as I soared overhead toward a distant thicket of trees. The sun had just broken over the horizon and was glazing the earth in its golden glow. I could feel myself growing weaker the brighter the sky became. We had spent most of the night arguing tactics before we were all evicted from Mira’s town house in Savannah a couple hours before sunrise. The Fire Starter declared that she needed to have a private meeting with the other gathered nightwalkers before they sought a safe place to spend the daylight hours.

Cynnia, Rowe, and I retreated to the house Shelly was renting in another part of the city. The witch tripped into the house minutes after our arrival, looking exhausted and pale, but also relieved. The human called Gabriel would not only survive, but might also regain his ability to speak due to her diligent ministrations. I had a feeling the news would go a long way toward calming the Fire Starter’s frazzled nerves, but her temper would not be under tight rein again until we finally took care of Aurora.

With protective spells in place, we all settled into our respective sleeping spots an hour before dawn, but sleep would not come. I lay with Rowe’s arm possessively thrown across my stomach, his soft snoring rumbling in my ear. However, my own rush of thoughts kept me awake. I knew what we were planning would never be enough if we hoped to defeat Aurora. Something else needed to be done if Cynnia, Rowe, and so many others were going to survive the coming days and nights.

Using a spell to deepen Rowe’s sleep, I slipped away from him and out of the house without disturbing the protective spells or alerting anyone to my exodus. With a sigh on my lips, I took to the sky with my wings spread wide on the breeze I had conjured up. The feeling of flying free above the earth, even as the sun rose behind me, was exhilarating. For just a brief moment in time I felt free of the burdens that had been weighing on my shoulders during the past several months. There was only me and the soft caress of the wind blessed by the Great Mother.

Yet, as I drew closer to Aurora, I knew it all was an illusion. The weight was still there and growing heavier by the second as I approached her camp. I didn’t know her exact location, but then I only needed to step into the perimeter of her camp and her guards would pick me up and take me to the demented queen. I hated not telling Cynnia or Rowe about my plans, but I knew that neither would have let me out of the house if I’d revealed my intentions.

I circled the clearing once before bringing in my wings enough to glide down to the earth. My feet had barely sunk into the soft soil when a harsh voice ordered me to halt. I raised both of my hands, palms out, to show that I was unarmed. I extended my wings as far as they would reach on either side of me, keeping myself vulnerable. I was surrounded by six naturi, all of whom had weapons trained on me.

“I’ve come to speak with Aurora,” I announced in a loud voice, so it carried to the other guards, who were waiting in the shadows of the forest. A low murmur of conversation drifted through the trees like a breeze whispering through the leaves.

“Her Majesty has nothing to say to you, traitor,” barked one of the naturi. “She simply wants you dead along with your traitorous sister.”

“She’ll meet with me. Just ask her,” I said, my voice full of confidence.

The murmur of conversation resumed as they weighed my words. I’d been banking on their hesitance to kill the one person who had led them through the centuries. Once Rowe had been trapped outside the cage, I became the captain and commander of Aurora’s armed forces. They were accustomed to following my orders.

“Besides, wouldn’t she rather see me killed in person than hear about it later?” I asked. This new incentive was enough to get one naturi ordered back to Aurora’s camp for orders. I was a dangerous creature in my own right, and they were more than a little wary of bringing me within their safe haven.

Slowly lowering my hands while wrapping my wings around my shoulders, I sat on the ground and crossed my legs as we all waited to hear what Aurora wanted. The five naturi that stepped out of the woods upon my landing edged closer. Wrist crossbows, short swords, and bows and arrows were trained on me, ready to be loosed if I so much as breathed too deeply.

While I didn’t come to Aurora’s camp unarmed, I was careful to keep my weapons limited to a couple small daggers concealed on my person. I was secretly hoping they would forget to search me—I might need to fight my way out of Aurora’s camp before this meeting was over.

After several minutes, two naturi returned to the clearing, including one I’d rather not have seen.

Greenwood was tall and lanky, his long brown hair flecked with gray. His face was slashed with wrinkles, as if worn by exposure to the elements. The earth clan did not age gracefully, but remained long-lived and spry despite their appearance. Greenwood had always been upset that Rowe was chosen to be Aurora’s consort over him. He had both age and experience over the wind clan member. However, Rowe’s ruthless grace had appealed to Aurora at the time. Now it seemed that Greenwood was finally getting his shot.