Jocelynn Drake - Dawnbreaker

“The queen will see you and the nightwalkers now,” said the lead naturi, pointing his short sword at the group of us.

“You and the nightwalkers,” I chuckled under my breath around a grunt of pain as I pushed to my feet. “How does it feel to be included among the rabble?” I taunted Rowe.

The naturi said nothing as he tightened his grip on his sword and walked slowly over to the brightly lit area where Aurora had elected to hold court, at least for now.

The ruins of Machu Picchu now crawled with naturi, their crossbows and swords all held at the ready. They stood on walls and leaned against buildings, their eyes constantly watching the few nightwalkers still trapped within the city. I had no chance to take them all out, but then I didn’t need to. I just needed to kill Aurora.

Behind me, I could hear Danaus slowly rising to his feet, a grunt of pain escaping him. We were all in extremely rough shape after expending so much energy to close the doors. I wasn’t exactly sure how we were going to launch an attack against the queen of the naturi.

Danaus! I called, mentally reaching out to him as we marched across the field toward Aurora. Do you have any energy left you can push into me?

Some, maybe. But not enough to kill them all, he replied. Even his thoughts were coming through ragged and weary to me.

I turned my thoughts to Jabari and reached out to the Ancient. Do you have any energy left?

Enough to stage one last strike at Aurora, he admitted. We will get only one shot—do you have a plan?

Not yet, I regretfully admitted. I wished I had. Some great scheme that would not only wipe out Aurora, but all the naturi that were standing around us with their weapons ready to end our lives. I didn’t want to just kill the leader of the naturi, I wanted to end this war for all time so I could go back to my domain and not have to look over my shoulder in search of a naturi waiting to kill me.

We finally reached Aurora, who was seated on a low wall at the edge of the Main Plaza. The remains of the humans who had been used for the sacrifice were now a massive, massacre bonfire lighting the ancient city. The flames danced in the winds, sending shadows swirling and stretching over the area like old ghosts woken from their centuries of rest.

The queen of the naturi glowed like a white beacon of energy in the night. A part of me wondered how I had ever thought I could defeat something obviously so powerful, but I crushed the thought before it could fully form within my head. I had taken on the Coven, tried to destroy three of the most powerful nightwalkers in all of existence. I could take on the queen of the naturi, especially with the help of Danaus and Jabari. I could finish this. I had to.

Before me, Cynnia, Rowe, and Nyx all bent to one knee before their queen, while I simply smirked. Not surprisingly, one of the armed naturi hit me in the back of the head with the flat of his sword and then in the back, knocking me to my knees. He then kept the edge of the sword pressed to my neck, holding me down in a kneeling position. I wasn’t about to willingly kneel before Aurora, not when I wouldn’t even do so before the rulers of my own kind.

“Where is Rowe?” Aurora immediately demanded. Her voice was soft and yet firm, the voice of a creature long used to getting her way.

Next to me, Rowe sheathed his sword and smoothly rose to his feet. “Here my lady,” he said. He opened his arms to her and took a step forward, awaiting his hero’s welcome.

“No!” Aurora cried, recoiling where she sat. She held up one hand as if to hold him away if he tried to take another step toward her. “It can’t be. My love is a handsome man of blond hair and clear green eyes.”

“I am Rowe,” he firmly said. His open hands curled into fists and fell stiffly to his sides. “I am the one who has dedicated the past five centuries to securing your freedom.”

“What has happened to you? Did the nightwalkers destroy you?” she demanded. Her face was still turned to the side as if she could barely stand to look at him. Something twisted in my gut for the naturi that stood there under the horrified gaze of his wife-queen. He had dedicated his whole existence to her one wish of freedom and this was the welcome he received?

“Blood magic made me the way that I am.” The words slipped out through gritted teeth. I looked up to find the muscles in his forearms tensed in his rage. “Blood magic has scarred me and darkened my hair so it is the color of the night. It has stolen my green eyes and replaced them with black. Blood magic made me the creature that stands humbly before you, because mastering blood magic was the only way to set you free.”

“You’ve tainted yourself!” she cried, pointing one trembling finger at him. “You have turned from our ways and the embrace of the earth to learn the magic that has sustained the bori and the nightwalkers through the years. You have turned your back on our ways—”

“Never!” he shouted, taking a step toward her. At the same time, the guards on either side of Aurora took a step forward, their swords now pointed at Rowe’s chest. “Earth magic would never have been able to break the seal and open the door. The original spell was woven with blood magic, and it had to be unwoven with blood magic. I had no choice.”

“There is always a choice, and you made a poor one by aligning yourself with those that are our enemies.”

“I sacrificed all that I am for you!” he shouted, his hard voice ringing through the mountains until it reverberated in my hollow chest.

“We thank you for our freedom, but you are no longer one of us.” There was a cold chill to Aurora’s voice, an implacable tone that said nothing would move her from the course she had now set upon. “Because of your ‘sacrifice,’ I will let you live, but you are to leave here. Leave us. You are forever banished from our kind.”

Banished. Banished from his kind forever. Rowe stood, unable to move, barely breathing as he listened to this sentence imposed upon him after everything he had done for her.

“Guards, get him out of my sight this instant,” Aurora said with a wave of her hand as she moved to sit straight ahead on the wall again.

Rowe said nothing as several guards stepped forward and led him away. I watched him over my shoulder as he was led back across the plaza and toward the main entrance into Machu Picchu. I had a feeling they would lead him off the mountain itself.

A great bubble of laughter rose up inside of me and it was all I could do to swallow it back. Aurora had turned aside her greatest champion because of his scarred and dark appearance. She had turned him away because he had stepped too deeply in the dark side of magic for her. And in doing so, she had lost her staunchest defender. My main concern at killing Aurora had not been the horde of naturi that surrounded her, but getting past Rowe. She had completed that task for me in one quick swoop, and I was eager to see what else she would accomplish for me.

Maintaining the same cold voice, Aurora shifted her gaze to Cynnia and Nyx. Apparently, we poor nightwalkers were beneath her notice at the moment, and for now, I was content to keep it that way. The longer she took berating her own people, the more time I had to recover.

“Rowe is not the only one to disappoint me, from what I understand,” she slowly drawled. “Defender of our people.” Aurora pushed to her feet and took a couple steps toward where Nyx remained kneeling. “You were sent to secure our beloved sister and protect her from the nightwalkers, and yet I hear that she has spent her entire time here on earth as a prisoner of the Fire Starter.”

“I tried to find her, but I could not,” the dark-haired naturi said. “The Fire Starter must have found a way to keep her cloaked from me. I couldn’t find her as you wished,” she admitted, then reached across and took Cynnia’s hand in her own, a fragile smile teasing the corners of her red lips. “But she’s safe now. She is back home safe with us.”