Chapter Twenty
The winter wind swept across the Margit Bridge, causing the waters of the Danube to whitecap. Snow swirled through the air in a lurid dance through the shafts of light thrown down by the iron lampposts. Danaus and I caught a cab from Gerbeaud Cukrászda to the Margit Bridge that led from Pest to Buda, connecting the two parts of the city with the island in the middle of the river. Margit Island was sparsely illuminated, and bare trees rose up from it like skeletal hands clawing at the night sky. A full moon drifted in and out from behind thick clouds that threatened to bring down a fresh blanket of snow.
“We shouldn’t have come directly here,” Danaus murmured. The hunter stood beside me on the bridge entrance the led to the island. He held one gun in his fist while his other hand gripped the metal railing. “We need weapons.”
“What do you have on you?” I asked, my gaze not wavering from the garden spread out before me. In the distance I could pick out the sidewalk walking trails around the edge of the island, while old monastic ruins rose up from the interior like cancerous growths.
“Two guns. A spare magazine for each. A few knives.”
I jerked my head to the side so that I could look at him. “And that’s not enough for us to handle this?”
“I’d prefer to have my sword, more ammo, and you armed with two guns as well,” Danaus snapped at me. He was right. I had only a couple knives on me. When it came to facing the naturi, I would have preferred to have a gun in my hand regardless of how bad my aim was.
“We’ll manage,” I grumbled, but I still couldn’t force myself to step forward onto the island. Upon reaching the bridge, Danaus had confirmed that Margit Island was where the bulk of the naturi horde was camping. We needed to clear them out of Budapest if we were to succeed in the mission that sent us to this city in the first place. More importantly, I needed to finally get rid of Rowe.
“How many are there?” I finally asked, when it was obvious I wasn’t ready to move. Thanks to Nick, I could sense the distinct signature of naturi magic, but it was just a large cloud of energy centered on the island. I didn’t have the skill Danaus did in being able to pick them out individually.
“You don’t want to know.”
I sighed, my head falling forward. I had heard those exact words before when we were faced with nearly insurmountable odds in England. Cornered at Themis, we were attacked by the naturi, who were intent on destroying both Jabari and me. Now I was walking willingly into the nest of naturi in hopes of finally destroying them. For some reason, I doubted they felt the same hesitance that I was feeling at that moment.
“What about Valerio? We could use the help,” Danaus reminded me.
I nodded, relieved by the idea of having someone else there to help us. Closing my eyes, I wrapped both hands around the railing and focused on locating my old friend. But something was wrong. I had known Valerio for centuries. I could have located him across any distance at any time as long as it was night where we were both located. Now, however, the feel of him was so faint. It was as if . . . he were dying. I could feel him on the island, but his energy was so weak.
“Something is wrong,” I gasped, starting to lurch forward. “The naturi have him.”
Danaus grabbed my elbow, stopping me from running headlong into the darkness. “They’re waiting for you to come to his rescue. Go running in there and they’ll cut you down in seconds.”
“They’re killing him,” I cried, jerking my arm out of his grasp.
“At least summon Stefan!” Danaus ordered before I could take another step closer to the island. “There are more than twenty naturi there, with that number potentially including Rowe. We’ve gone up against him a few times now and not had much luck killing him. With this many naturi, it’s not going to be any easier to get to him.”
Clenching my teeth, I forced myself to stop and focus on the Ancient nightwalker. Danaus was right. We would need Stefan’s assistance if we were going to have any hope of retrieving Valerio. No words were needed. Just the lightest brush of my presence against the ragged remains of his soul brought Stefan to our side with a sour expression. He was still upset about the death of his assistant, and I would have preferred to leave him to brood alone, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to free Valerio without his help.
“The naturi?” he asked.
“How did you know?” I said sarcastically, but needling Stefan still failed to bring a smile to my face.
“We slaughtered the lycans, I don’t sense any nightwalkers or warlocks, and this barren garden would be a refuge for only the naturi if they were determined to stay close to the city and cause mischief,” he said, ticking each item off on his long fingers.
“They have Valerio,” Danaus announced, causing Stefan’s expression to grow even darker. While I doubted that he felt any real concern for him, I suspected he was more upset about the fact that the naturi dare lay a hand on an old vampire such as Valerio. In his opinion, they were above such things as kidnapping and torture.
“I sent him to look into which island they were hiding on,” I said, then shook my head. “He wasn’t supposed to engage them. Just look around. I can only guess that they managed to sneak up on him.”
Stefan stepped around me and walked down the bridge to Margit Island. “Then we should get in there and kill them.”
Danaus and I followed close behind him, weapons drawn. As we came to stand at the southern tip of the island, I pulled one of my spare blades and offered it to Stefan. “Take it. I’ve got a little extra firepower.”
“Lame, Mira. Lame,” Stefan said, but he took the knife from me anyway. With his ability to appear and disappear, I thought about sending him for more weapons but decided against it. We couldn’t waste more time.
“There are three paths. Danaus, take the one to the left. I’ll take the center one up the middle of the island, while you take the one on the right,” I said, with a nod toward Stefan. “Kill anything that isn’t in our party.”
“The one that reaches the other end of the island first, wins?” Stefan challenged with an evil grin.
“I was thinking the one with the highest body count,” Danaus countered.
I growled, tightening my grip around the blade in my right hand. “How about the one that safely retrieves Valerio wins?”
Stefan rolled his eyes at me. “Not much of an objective.”
“Kill the naturi and free Valerio. Winner gets Ferko,” I sneered, finally putting the light back in Stefan’s eyes. Now he was interested in playing this game. The Ancient nightwalker floated off the ground, his long coat fluttering around him like a pair of wings. He gave me a small salute and then darted off into the darkness to locate some naturi.
“See you at the finish line,” Danaus said, then started down the path to my left, leaving me standing alone in the night with the naturi waiting for me.
I sucked in a deep breath and slowly expelled it, sending out a white fog in front of me. The air was bitter cold, tightening muscles and making my body resistant to movement, but it didn’t matter. Soon, I wouldn’t feel the cold or hear the splash of the waves as they crashed against the side of the island. I wouldn’t even notice the golden glow coming from Buda and Pest on either side of me. There would only be the naturi and my fight for survival. There would only be Rowe.
With a knife in one hand, I started off down the path, not bothering to try to mask my steps. Stefan was moving silently through the wind, and Danaus was a ghost on the ground. Let the naturi hear me coming so my companions would have a better chance of sneaking up on their enemies.
The first naturi attacked from my left, slicing his blade downward in an attempt to remove my head like a guillotine. I pulled up short, sliding a bit on the frozen sidewalk in my boots. I didn’t bother to raise my blade to slash at his exposed neck. Summoning up my powers, I encased the naturi in fire, almost instantly burning him to a crisp. He ran from me to a nearby snowbank, but it wasn’t enough to put out the flames. The bright light cast long, lunging shadows throughout the wooded island, revealing my enemies hiding around me in the darkest corners. They lurched forward as they tried to swarm me all at once. I extinguished the fire on the naturi that had attacked and created a wall of fire around me. The naturi was still breathing, but he wouldn’t be in any shape to attack me anytime soon if he did manage to survive the next few hours.