Cynnia twisted around in her chair so she could look over her shoulder at her older sister. “Are you sure?”
“I spent more time around Aurora than you ever did. We’re closer in age. I know when she’s close. She’s currently attempting to cloak herself so I can’t pinpoint her exact location, but I can sense that she is just beyond the reach of the city. She is hovering close, waiting.”
“Were you able to kill any of the naturi that were setting the fires around the city?” I demanded.
Nyx shook her head. “Rowe and I were outside the city during the day, meeting with the head of the animal clan. He and his people have just arrived, but are unwilling to actually enter the city until they meet with the Fire Starter. Kane is not exactly convinced this isn’t a trap.”
“I don’t blame him,” I muttered, crossing my arms over my chest. “Was there no one else available to stop the light clan from their attack?”
“The only naturi in the area are those acting as my personal bodyguards,” Cynnia said. “The rest were outside of the city.”
“And they didn’t see fit to stop Aurora from entering the city?” I cried, raising my voice.
“They have been instructed not to directly engage Aurora,” Nyx interjected, drawing my attention away from her younger sister, as if to protect her from my wrath. “We’re not going to be the ones that start this war.”
“Unless you haven’t noticed, the war has been started,” Danaus commented in a low growl. “Last night when she tried to burn the city down.”
“How many were killed?” I inquired, turning to look at Danaus, who was standing near me at the entrance to the room.
“The news says the body count is still rising, but the last figure released was forty-three human lives have been lost.”
The front door swung open then and Knox entered the town house, followed by a couple dozen nightwalkers. I directed the other nightwalkers to the upper floors so the naturi wouldn’t feel more threatened than necessary—I still needed them to stay focused on the problem at hand. To my surprise, Knox was accompanied by Matsui and the four Soga nightwalkers.
Knox sidled into the room and stood in front of the fireplace, while Danaus and I also moved to the side of the room opposite Rowe and Cynnia. The Japanese nightwalkers remained in the entrance. It was getting more than a little crowded, but it gave me a feeling of security against Aurora.
Knox sighed heavily as he pushed one hand through his hair. His clothes were still stained with dirt and soot from digging me out of my basement. He was also starting to look a little weary as the weight of the world pressed on his broad shoulders. “Word is still spreading, but it appears that at least ten nightwalkers were killed, including Amanda.”
“Gabriel?” I asked before I could stop myself. Now was not the time to worry about my broken bodyguard, but I knew my mind would not be at ease until I finally knew what was happening. I tried to take Shelly’s absence as a positive sign.
“Hanging on,” Knox replied. “Shelly is with him now, doing everything she can to speed along his healing, but she doesn’t seem too hopeful that she will be of much help. Gregor and two other nightwalkers have been stationed at the hospital to watch over both of them.”
“Thank you,” I whispered. Knox always knew exactly the right course to take. He had just reassured both me and Cynnia that our friends were being watched over in the event that Aurora tried to strike again at those that meant the most to us.
Looking around the room, my gaze finally fell on the four Japanese nightwalkers. I had assumed they would immediately leave town, considering our disagreement regarding the naturi alliance and their attempt to kidnap me.
“Forgive me, but I’m surprised to find that you are still here,” I said to my foreign companions. “You know the course of action I plan to take, and I am not changing that course, particularly now that Aurora has openly attacked the people of my city. I have also been in contact with Our Liege, who knows of my plans. There is nothing you can say that will sway me from my decision. I am also not willing to leave here to help you.”
Tetsuya bowed his head to me before finally speaking. “In truth, we had thought to come to your aid after what happened during the daylight hours. We had assumed that the queen of the naturi would pursue a quiet war among the other races and not seek to expose us all. However, it seems she has chosen to show the humans that they are not alone in this world.”
“ ‘Had thought’?” I asked. “You’ve changed your mind already?”
“Your choice of who you have decided to work with does not sit well with us,” said the one nightwalker I had yet to be introduced to. He was smaller than the others and looked considerably younger as well. However, I had no doubt that he was not only the oldest of the quartet, but was truly the leader of the group.
I opened my mouth to ask what he was talking about, but Rowe beat me to the punch by speaking up first. “Nomura happens to be talking about me,” the naturi announced, meeting my gaze for a second. The one-eyed naturi then turned his narrowed stare on the Japanese nightwalkers and forced a thin-lipped smile to his face. “It’s been a long time. I didn’t expect to ever see you again, let alone in Mira’s home.”
“We are very surprised to see you as well,” Nomura replied as he shoved his hands into his pockets. “We never expected you to survive as long as you have.” By the slump of his shoulders and the frown teasing at the corners of his mouth, I could tell there was a great deal of animosity between these two creatures, and I was afraid it would explode all over my living room. Unfortunately, curiosity was winning out over common sense.
“How do you know each other?”
“I’ve been on this earth for several centuries, Mira,” Rowe drawled, hatred glinting in his one good eye. “I’ve traveled far and wide in search of ways to free my people. It stands to reason that I slipped far beyond the reach of the West. It was then that I ran across the nightwalkers inhabiting the islands of Japan. I thought we could come to some sort of arrangement. The naturi had been no threat to them in the past, and I assumed our futures would remain on separate courses. As a result, I sought an exchange of knowledge with them.”
“I am afraid to ask what happened.”
“Take a good look at me, Mira, and you will easily see the result of my so-called alliance with the Soga clan,” Rowe bit out.
I stared at the naturi for nearly a minute, trying to see what he was talking about before it suddenly dawned on me. The Soga clan was responsible for his changed appearance, which resulted in him being banished from his people by Aurora. I had met Rowe when I was human, when he was a golden-skinned creature with pale blond hair and sparkling green eyes.
Now, scars stretched across one side of Rowe’s face, half hidden behind an eye patch that covered his right eye. His hair was black as night and the color of his one remaining eye seemed to match it. His skin had taken on a swarthy complexion and was streaked with more scars. Like nightwalkers, naturi healed from nearly everything. And yet it appeared that the members of the Soga clan had found a way to mark him permanently.
“It is not as if you walked away empty-handed from our time together,” Nomura stated.
“Oh, you’re correct. I gained more than my fair share of blood magic—”
“You taught him how to use blood magic?” I demanded, raising my voice for the first time. “Do you know what trouble that has caused for all nightwalkers during the past year? Do you know that knowledge enabled him to open the doorway between the worlds in the first place? You are the reason Aurora is here now.”
“Don’t lay too much blame at their doorstep, Mira,” Rowe noted, earning a growl from me as I looked over at him. “They tried very hard to kill me over a five-year period. I’m sure while they were teaching me the magic, they never expected me to survive the lessons.”
“I don’t understand,” Danaus spoke up. The hunter laid a hand on my shoulder and squeezed, subtly hinting that I needed to calm down. There was no need to start a fight with four very powerful nightwalkers when I still had a fight with Aurora ahead of me. “Why bother teaching him in the first place if you only planned to kill him?”
“It was a form of torture,” Nomura replied in a nonchalant voice. “The learning process was extremely painful for the naturi since the style of magic went against his very essence. We were curious if it could even be done. Unfortunately, Rowe escaped us before we were able to complete our process.”
“You mean, the process of slowly trying to destroy him,” I said in a cold voice. “Leave.”
“I beg your pardon,” Nomura said softly, cocking his head to the side. “I don’t believe I understood you
