Dawnbreaker (16 page)

“True, but this might,” Shelly said between clenched teeth. She moved her left hand in another sweeping motion, but no fire appeared. I prepared to pitch my own ball of fire at the little witch when vines broke out of the ground and wrapped around my ankles. The plant quickly thickened so they were like ropes snaking up my legs to my knees, holding me trapped to the spot on the stone patio.

“It’s a nice start, but it still won’t hold me for long,” I said with a smirk. Fire ate at the vines, and with a little tug, I pulled free again.

Shelly gave out a little grunt of frustration and took a step back for every step I took toward her into the yard. When the fight started, I had cloaked the yard from the view of any neighbors that might decide to look out their windows. I didn’t want to waste my evening wiping the memories of my darling neighbors because they saw fireballs, or plant life, crawling across my back lawn.

“It’s a nice effort, but you don’t have it in you to attack a person with the skills you have,” I commented, stopping when we were both in the center of the yard. “You have to be willing to kill the creature that is trying to kill you. Not everyone has that instinct.”

“You’re wrong,” she sneered.

I hadn’t a chance to react. Vines burst out of the ground, wrapping around both my arms and legs in the blink of an eye. My entire body was lifted up and my back was slammed into the trunk of the nearest tree. Stars exploded before my eyes and my vision briefly swam, destroying my ability to concentrate. Before I could conjure the thought to burn the vines, I felt a sharp point pressing against my chest just over my heart. I looked down to find a fifth vine shaped like a sharpened staff and pointed directly at my heart. A wrong word from me, a flinch, and Shelly would have me staked.

“Admit it,” she shouted in an angry voice. “I’ve got you.”

Instead of conceding like a sane person would, I started to laugh. My head fell back and hit the trunk of the tree behind me as laughter poured from my throat. “Yes, you’ve got me! Why couldn’t you have done this sooner?”

“They attacked with animals! Helpless animals. It wasn’t their fault they were attacking us.”

“So your answer is to let them kill us?”

“I believe that you should find another way besides killing when it comes to fighting your enemy. Isn’t there another way?”

“No, there isn’t,” said a sad voice from the house. We both looked up to find Cynnia standing in the open doorway and Danaus on the patio with a long knife in his hand. “Mira is right in that there is no other way to deal with my kind. Aurora believes that the only way to save the earth is through the total extermination of all nightwalkers and humans,” she continued, closing the door behind her as she came to stand on the patio beside Danaus.

“What are you doing out here?” I snapped, ignoring the fact that I was still held completely defenseless and in absolutely no shape to start shouting orders.

“She said that she felt someone using a great deal of earth magic out here,” Danaus replied before Cynnia could speak up. “I thought it might be a good idea to check it out.”

“Shelly, put me down.”

“Can I stay?”

Instead of answering, I closed my eyes and concentrated on the vines wrapped around my arms and legs as well as the one that still pressed against my chest. I didn’t like being in this position. I wasn’t sure what Cynnia was capable of, but there was the potential that a single thought from her and I was dead. The vines immediately went up in flames around me, but neither my clothes nor my skin were singed.

Dusting off the last of the debris, I looked over at the earth witch who stood clasping both of her hands before her. She had the power I needed in someone who could handle themselves with the naturi, but she seemed to lack the killer instinct of Danaus or the nightwalkers that surrounded me. There was a time in my life when I wouldn’t have seen that as a bad thing, but in my world as it stood now, it was positively fatal. If she wasn’t willing to kill a creature whose only goal was to kill her, she was undoubtedly going to end up dead, and it would be on my shoulders.

Yet, if she knew what was at a stake and still wanted to stay, I could only hope that she would learn to take care of herself before it was too late. There was only so much protection I could offer her.

“Mira?” Shelly pressed softly.

“You protect when I tell you to protect and kill when I tell you to kill. Endanger another one of my people and I’ll kill you myself,” I threatened. It was the closest she was going to get to an acquiescence out of me.

Walking back toward the house, I paused at the edge of the patio and stared at the naturi.

“I heard stories about you,” she volunteered when she realized that I was staring expectantly at her, waiting to hear whatever thoughts were churning away in her brain. “I thought you were a myth, a scary tale my sister Nyx made up to frighten me. I never expected you to be real.”

“Nyx? How many sisters do you have?” I demanded, irritated. I wasn’t exactly pleased to discover that I was a bedtime story for the naturi.

“Two. Aurora and Nyx.”

“And Nerian was your brother,” I said in a low voice that seemed to crawl across the distance separating us.

“Yes,” she replied with a frown marring her young face. “Nerian was the one that hurt you. He’s the reason that you hate us all so much.” My gaze automatically swung up to Danaus, but Cynnia spoke before I could utter the accusation that rested on the tip of my tongue. “No one told me. I can hear it every time you say his name. I’ve only known one other person to speak with such hatred.”

“Who?”

“Aurora, when she’s talking about you.”

I smiled at the young naturi, my eyes undoubtedly bright with my contained laughter. The queen of the naturi not only knew who I was, but she hated me. It was a pleasantly uplifting thought.

“What am I to do with you?” I said aloud, though I was mostly talking to myself.

“Set me free,” Cynnia suggested, raising her chained wrists. The sight of the iron bindings reminded me that while she was a naturi, she had also been a prisoner of her own kind. While I wouldn’t call this an “enemy of my enemy is my friend” kind of situation, it did mean that she might be willing to provide me with some interesting information in an effort to prolong her own life.

“Why were you manacled and spellbound by your own kind?” I demanded.

“They called me a traitor. Said I wanted to betray our kind to the humans and the nightwalkers,” she reluctantly admitted. She dropped her gaze down to her hands, where her long fingers fiddled with the iron chain connecting the two wrist irons.

“Is it true?” Danaus asked before I could.

“No! It’s not like that!” she cried, her head snapping up again to look at him and me.

“What is it? How did you get here if you were trapped in the other world?”

“Aurora discovered during the past few years that the walls between our worlds were growing thin and weak. Some of our magic weavers could create a temporary hole in the barrier. We could send one or two people through, but we weren’t sure they were actually arriving here,” she explained.

“So you came alone?”

“No, there was another,” Cynnia said. She wandered over to a chair and plopped down into the thick cushion. “She was a spell weaver, a powerful one. I trusted her. I thought she was going to find a way to help me, but it was all a lie. She dumped me with those naturi you found me with. She told them to kill me.”

“But they didn’t,” Danaus prodded when she seemed to pause.

Cynnia shook her head slowly. “They were afraid to, I think. I am sister to the queen, after all.”

“So they decided to leave the job to me,” I said, folding my arms over my chest. “It’s an interesting theory, but it only explains how you got here. Now what about why you’re here?”

“I think Aurora is wrong,” she whispered, as if afraid one of her own kind was listening in.

“About what?”

“This war.”

“I don’t believe you,” I snarled, taking a step closer to her.

“Mira—” Shelly started, but I held up my hand, halting the comment in her throat.

“It’s too convenient. A naturi that wants to end this war winds up in the hands of the nightwalker that can potentially destroy their hopes of freedom,” I said. “It’s a trap.”

“Are you sure?” Danaus asked, surprising me.

“She gets close because I believe her tale of woe, and she kills me,” I argued, turning my attention to the hunter, who was now standing beside me.

“It can’t be a trap because their plan has already failed,” Cynnia said. “You were supposed to kill me back on the island when you rescued your friend.”

“There’s still time,” I reminded her, which only made her smile at me.

“Yes, but if you kill me, I can’t help you.”

“Why would you want to do that?”

“Other than the fact that I believe there is a better way to end this war than killing everyone?” she asked, arching one thin eyebrow at me. “I think that my sister is trying to kill me.”

“And I’m to be your protector?” I asked, my voice jumping in shock.

“Of course, you’re the Fire Starter. She can’t beat you.”

I looked over at Danaus, who seemed to be struggling to keep a straight face, not that I could blame him. It all sounded pretty ridiculous, but it was all I had to go on for now.

Frowning, I was suddenly unsure of what to do with the naturi. I didn’t believe her, but there was this nagging question in the back of my mind. What if? What if it was the truth, and I had the power to destroy the naturi nation with this young naturi and her idealistic hopes for something other than war?

“If I’m going to help you, I’m going to need your cooperation,” I said slowly.

“I’m not going to help you kill my kind. I’m not a traitor.”

I smiled and took a step toward her. “We can avoid killing them if we can avoid them completely. How many naturi are in my city?”

“I’m not sure,” she said, lifting her wrists. The iron manacles were blocking her ability to sense her own kind.

“They’re not coming off, and you’re becoming less valuable to me by the minute.”

Cynnia released a heavy sigh before she stepped around me and walked into the yard. Sitting on the ground, she pulled off her worn brown boots and placed her bare feet in the grass. Her green eyes fell shut as her smooth brow furrowed in concentration.

“There aren’t any close by,” she murmured after a minute. “Not for a great distance—in the west and to the deep, deep south, across an ocean.”

“Danaus?” I prompted, turning to the hunter in hopes of getting some confirmation.

“My reach isn’t as strong as hers,” he hedged, his deep voice close to a low growl.

Yet, before he finished talking, I felt him reach out with his powers, sending the warm wave of energy crashing through me. The touch was soothing, easing away some of the tension humming through my taut frame.

“There are no naturi within the immediate area,” he said at last.

“So what do you hope I will be able to do for you?” I asked Cynnia, standing over her as she continued to sit in the grass. “Let me guess. You want me to allow the door to open so I can kill your sister.” It was a story I had already heard before from another set of naturi, as well as from Macaire, one of the three Elders on the Coven.

“No! Absolutely not!” Cynnia awkwardly pushed back to her feet and took a step closer to me. “I want the door to stay shut. If she is forced to stay in her own realm, then she can’t wage a war here.”

“So Aurora will be stuck in her world and you’ll be stuck here,” I said, raising one eyebrow at her.

“Assuming that you let me live.”

“Not likely,” Danaus interjected before I could speak.

A smile haunted my lips as I wandered back into the yard and sat down in the grass not far from where Cynnia had sat only moments ago. I threaded my fingers through the cool grass, an interesting thought rolling around in my head. I could feel Danaus’s censure before I even spoke my first word. The plan definitely had a few flaws to it.

“You’ve charged me with a difficult task,” I drawled. “Not only must I stop Rowe and his plan to free your sister and the naturi horde, but I must also protect you from Rowe and Aurora because you have some grand idea of bringing a peaceful end to this fight. I’m the Fire Starter, not a god. You’re expecting the impossible.”

“Can’t you raise an army?”

“An army will be raised to defeat Rowe. They will not do anything to protect your hide.”

“Then what? What do you want from me?” she cried, extending both her hands to me, palms out and open. “I’m offering you a chance for peace. Why are you fighting me?”

“I’m not. I’m being realistic. I’ve fought Rowe twice now and barely survived both encounters. I need an edge.”

Cynnia took a step backward, the chains on her manacles jangling slightly as she raised one delicate hand to her throat. Her wide green eyes never wavered from my face. “What do you want?”

“Teach me how to use earth magic,” I said with a grin.

The naturi gave a soft little laugh and dropped her hands back down to dangle before her. “That’s impossible. Nightwalkers can’t use earth magic.”

I rose bonelessly to my feet, standing only a couple feet away from her. With a thought, a ball of fire blossomed between us. It slowly circled around Cynnia then came back to loop around me, forming a perfect figure eight—drawing us together. “I shouldn’t be able to manipulate fire, but I can. I can lock the naturi away in a separate world. And just a few weeks ago I discovered that the well of energy from the earth can push itself into me like lightning through a conduit.” I stepped closer, so the fireball now circled around us, keeping the others at a distance. “I heard the great earth mother roaring in my head, angry and powerful.”

Cynnia tried to step back, but the ball of flames circling around us kept her close. She stared up at me, her mouth forming a perfect O.

“I can access the power of the earth when I am at one of the swells, but I have no control over it. If I don’t learn to control this soon, I’m going to kill everyone around me, regardless of whether we are on the same side or not.”