Dawnbreaker

Thirty

Jabari slowly turned to face me, a grim look on his handsome face. I forced a weak laugh up past my parted lips as he approached me. I couldn’t imagine what he was thinking at that moment but I was about to find out. The wound in my back was beginning to slowly heal and the blood flood was ebbing. I’d survive the stabbing as long as I didn’t sustain any more injuries from my beloved Jabari during the next few minutes. But I had my doubts.

“Protector of the earth,” he murmured thoughtfully, scratching his chin as he looked down at me.

“Fanciful thoughts of a desperate naturi,” I said, trying to easily shrug off the title. It had been something that Cynnia made up in order to strike fear into her sister. It also gave me the confidence to pull as much energy as I could from the earth to strike at Aurora and nearly win. “She needed someone to kill her sister. I was her best choice at the moment. Cynnia would have said anything to put some fear in her sister’s eyes.”

“Yes, but your display of power does raise some interesting questions,” Jabari said. “I’ve never seen you control so much fire at once, and so deftly. One would think that you’ve finally succeeded in mastering your skill. It’s even more interesting that you managed to incinerate those naturi that would have attacked you from above. Did you ever actually look up at them or could you sense them on your own?”

“Jabari, this is all new to me,” I quickly said. I pushed my free right hand through my hair, trying to move it from in front of my eyes, but pain sliced through my body at the movement. My body was still healing. “I’m not sure what I can do.”

The Elder raised his hand above my head and I jerked to my feet instantly, like a puppet on a set of marionette strings. I hung in the air, my body trembling with his power pumping through it. A new pain wracked my frame, and it was all I could do to swallow back a whimper. I was exhausted. With Jabari’s energy flowing through my body, there was no way I could call in the power of the earth to even defend myself. It was either one or the other. The two could not coexist within my system.

“What?” I snapped at him, lifting my head so I could finally look him in the eye. “Afraid that you had lost the ability to control me? No, I’m not that lucky! I’m still a puppet on a string for you.”

“And this power from the earth you can now wield?” he inquired, almost politely.

I shook my head. “Only under special circumstances, like when they perform a sacrifice. I need there to be a lot of energy in the ground for me to access it. I also can’t control it when a member of the triad is trying to control me. Blood magic and earth magic just don’t mix.”

“Hmmm…” he softly said, cocking his head to one side as he looked me over. I was ragged with my torn, bloodstained clothes. My skin was covered in blood and dirt, while my hair was wind-blown and matted. I didn’t look like someone who had defeated Aurora and the great naturi horde. Had I finally outlived my usefulness? Or could he still find some other dirty task for me to complete that put my life and the lives of those around me at risk?

“I guess it’s lucky for you that the triad is no more.” He lowered his hand and I collapsed to the ground like a heap of garbage. I watched him walk away a couple feet and then completely disappear. I noticed then that the sky had lightened to a pale shade of gray. The dawn was coming.

I lay on the cool grass, waiting for the sun to rise. I could feel no other nightwalkers in the region. But it didn’t matter. At that moment I was ready for death. I had done my great deed; closed the doors and, if I was extremely lucky, killed Aurora. Whether I had earned Heaven or Hell, if they even existed, no longer seemed important. I just wanted to sleep, preferably forever.

“Get up, Mira,” commanded an achingly familiar voice.

I tried to smile but it came off lopsided, as I could only muster the strength to lift one corner of my mouth. “Go away, Danaus. I’m not in the mood to kill you,” I murmured, giving up on trying to open my eyes. I could feel him near me, standing a few feet away.

“The sun is going to rise soon,” he reminded me, needlessly.

I ignored his statement. Why state the obvious? Jabari had left me to burn up in the sun. It wouldn’t be that bad. I’d be asleep before the sun rose. I wouldn’t feel a thing. There were worse ways to go. I should know—I’d inflicted a number of them on my own kind.

“I thought you were killed,” I said, when I could finally speak past the lump that had grown in the back of my throat. When his presence suddenly disappeared while I was fighting the naturi, I could only assume the worst—that he had been killed. There was no time to look around for him, no time to go back and check for a pulse.

“Knocked out,” he said. He shook his head as he came into view, standing over me as I lay in the grass. “I think Jabari actually protected me a couple times,” he admitted.

“I guess he still has a use for you,” I said ominously, cracking my eyes open so I could look up at the hunter.

“I’m sure he’ll have a use for us both until he has secured his total control of the Coven,” Danaus said with a frown. “Now, get up.”

My eyes fell shut as I thought about the world that still lay ahead of me. I was still the puppet of Jabari and Danaus. I was a member of the nightwalker Coven, upon which I had no doubt that both Macaire and Elizabeth wanted me dead. The naturi were running loose, regardless of whether they wanted us dead or not at this exact moment. Oh, and there was still Our Liege’s plan to speed up the Great Awakening to this upcoming year, revealing to all the world that nightwalkers and lycanthropes truly did exist, creating a great war among the various races.

I felt weighed down, as if all the world were resting on my chest. I had no desire to move, no great desire to keep moving and fighting and risking death. I was tired. I was done.

“Go away, Danaus, please,” I murmured with a soft sigh.

“You can’t give up. The naturi are loose,” he said. I heard him kneel beside me in the grass, his voice sounding closer.

Exhausted, I forced my eyes open to look at the hunter. His face was haggard and his eyes were tired, but somehow he found the energy to keep moving. “Go back to Themis. Tell Ryan. Tell him everything,” I said. The warlock had to know everything before it was too late. Ryan would be able to warn everyone about the escape of Aurora and the rest of the naturi. The warlock had to be told about Our Liege’s plans for the Great Awakening. I didn’t want a war, but the lycans and all the others couldn’t be blindsided when naturi finally stopped fighting among each other and decided that it was time to attack the other races once again.

With a soft grunt, Danaus lifted me into his strong arms and stood. I cried out softly at the sudden movement and clenched my eyes shut again. I don’t know how long he carried me; time seemed to slip away as I struggled to hang onto my conscious thought. The lodge was too far away to make it before the sun rose. It was only when the air suddenly became bitterly cold and it grew dark again that I realized he had taken me to the Temple of the Moon. It was on a cliff on the side of the mountain that rose up beside Machu Picchu, with caves reaching deep into its bowels. There, I would be safe from the far-reaching rays of the sun.

Danaus laid me on the ground and then sat down, heaving a heavy sigh. I opened my eyes but had trouble making out his face in the darkness. He slid his hand down my arm and took my hand in his, squeezing it lightly. There was no rush of power threatening to peel my flesh from my bone, just his warm skin pressed to mine.

“Our battles are not completed,” he murmured. “But you’ll have to take a rain check. I’m not up for killing you right now.”

I wanted to laugh. The bastard made one of his few jokes and I didn’t have the energy to laugh. The best I could do was pass out again, holding his hand.