Raze the Night (Nightstar Book 2)

Ainreth woke up with a groan. For a moment, he couldn’t remember where he was or how he’d gotten here, but the searing pain radiating from his back reminded him very quickly.

He’d gotten a public lashing for attacking Varilik. By Varilik. And Fenn…. Oh, sun, this was such a mess.

Ainreth hisses as he pulled himself to sit on the bed he’d passed out on. Petre and the other war protestors had brought him here afterward. He remembered as much. He remembered turning himself invisible just to escape the eyes of the crowd that had come to watch him get his punishment, but Petre had easily found him and dragged him away anyway.

And he’d blacked out afterward. Or at least he didn’t really remember anything.

“Hey, easy. Don’t move so much.”

Ainreth blinked, focusing on the person standing by the bed, only to lock eyes with Petre. Of course it was Petre.

“Hey.”

Petre sighed, very gingerly hugging him. “We cleaned and bandaged the wounds, but it will take a while for them to heal, even with my tonics.”

Petre then proceeded to push a vial of said tonic into Ainreth’s hands.

“Speaking of.”

Ainreth sighed and obediently drank it, grimacing at how sour it was. “Why are these always disgusting? Can’t you put some sugar in it, or something?”

Petre sighed, but Ainreth wasn’t fooled. They were relieved that he was well enough to complain like this. He could see it in their shoulders, now much less tense than before.

“No, actually. If you want to heal faster, you have to suffer.”

Ainreth huffed a laugh. “Typical.”

Petre hugged him again, Ainreth embracing them right back. He took a deep breath. He was sure that Petre would soon berate him for his foolish action that had put him in that situation to begin with, but for now it was nice.

“Sun, that was awful,” said Petre after a while, letting go and sitting down next to Ain. They ran a hand over their eyes.

“Sorry you had to see that, little guy.”

Petre shook their head. Ainreth attempted a comforting smile. “I’ll be good as new soon, don’t you worry.”

“Ain,” Petre started but immediately stopped and shook their head. “Why did you do it?”

Ainreth sighed then, rubbing his eyes. “I just…I saw them. Together. And then that misborn started apologizing about giving Fenn bruises. I just…I lost it. I couldn’t handle hearing about him hurting Fenn like that.”

Petre nodded as they listened, putting a hand on Ainreth’s shoulder.

Ain groaned, running his hands through his hair. “I’m an idiot. Sorry about that. But I guess you knew that already.”

Petre shook their head. “No, I understand. You’re hurting. I’m just glad the Herald didn’t have you executed.”

Ainreth grinned at them, though there wasn’t anything that funny about this. “Yeah, I don’t think he could get away with that.”

Petre smiled grimly. “This has been too much as well.”

Ain frowned. “What, did I miss something?”

Petre nodded. “People started rioting. What the Herald did to you was too much even for a lot of the people supporting the war.”

“Rioting?” Ainreth repeating, pulling himself to his feet, groaning in pain. Stupid thorns. He could still feel them ripping into his flesh.

Petre got up too, watching him in disapproval. “Yes. People threw things as some of the guards that brought you to the square. And it just continued from there. A few people were arrested, which only fueled it.”

“Then we need to get out there,” Ainreth immediately said, walking to the door where his jacket was hanging from a hook, very gingerly pulling it on. Every movement of his back was agony. “How long was I out for?”

“It’s morning,” Petre said, making Ainreth’s eye bulge out. There was light coming in from the window by his bed, but it hadn’t clicked at all that he’d been out for nearly a full day.

“Sunder.” Ainreth rubbed his eyes, so very tired of this. He did feel vindicated by the fact that apparently the people of this town did still care about his heroics enough to rise up. But this would just make things worse, wouldn’t it? The tension had already been awful.

“You shouldn’t be going anywhere,” Petre said firmly. “You need to heal. You’ll just open your wounds again.”

“If people are getting into fights with guards because of me, then I’m going to put a stop to it. Now come on.” Ainreth swung the door open but then he hesitated. “I mean, if you don’t want to—”

“Of course I’m going with you.” Petre rolled their eyes, as if the implication was incredibly ridiculous and offensive. Then they sighed. “I simply didn’t want you to hurt yourself. But you are as stubborn as always. I am with you.”

Ainreth smiled at them, his heart melting a little in fondness. “Thanks, little sibling.”

Before he could walk out of the room, though, Petre pushed the door shut again.

“I need you to promise me something, Ain,” they said, staring him right into his eyes with such searing intensity.

Ainreth nodded, blinking in surprise at the sudden change of mood. “Yeah?”

“You need to accept that Fennrin is no longer your anything,” Petre said, their voice even firmer than before. Ainreth frowned, but before he could question them, they continued, gripping Ain’s shoulder. “He already said he doesn’t want to talk to you again, and you should do him the same favor.”

Ainreth sighed, giving Petre a pleading look. “But he’s getting manipulated by blighted Varilik. It’s not his fault.”

Petre grabbed Ain’s other shoulder as well, pulling him down a bit so they were eye to eye. “Fennrin is an adult. He made his own choices. You need to stop making excuses for him.”

Ainreth’s heart hurt. He knew Petre was right. It was just so hard to accept that the love of his life was now with Varilik, who was doing bad things, and Fenn must have known that, surely. Fennrin had a good sense of wrong and right. He must have known Varilik wasn’t good for him or anyone.

And yet he was still on his side, even after what the Herald had just done. He’d seen Fenn’s face when he’d been ordered to raise Ainreth into the air. He’d clearly not known that would be expected of him. He’d looked horrified.

But Fennrin had done as he’d been told anyway.

Ainreth swallowed thickly. He knew Petre was right. He should move on. It was too late for anything, and all he could do was make things worse. He had tried to fix them several times, each time to awful results. He just didn’t want to admit it to himself.

“I don’t know how to give up on him,” Ainreth finally said, his shoulders sinking. “Varilik will just use him like a weapon. He only got with him because Fenn is a shadowforger.”

Petre grimaced, their eyes full of sympathy as they let go of Ainreth. “Yes. Maybe. But if you tell Fennrin this, will he listen?”

Ainreth shook his head. “No. I already tried.”

Petre nodded, patting his arm. “Exactly. And the more you push the more he will push against you. He has to realize it himself or not at all.”

Ainreth sighed, rubbing his eyes. But then he nodded, even though it broke his heart. He didn’t want to equate Fenn to a lost cause, but if he didn’t want to see the truth, there was nothing Ainreth could do to help him.

Petre was right.

“Yeah. I know.”

Petre nodded, their gaze softening further. “I know it’s difficult. But you’ll probably just get yourself killed if you keep doing this.”

Ain nodded again and swallowed thickly. “Yeah. I just…. Yeah.” Ainreth turned to the door, laying his forehead against it. “Feel free to call me an idiot when it’s necessary.”

Petre sighed. “You are being an idiot right now. You should be resting.”

Ainreth shook his head, not willing to even discuss this. “No, those people out there are protesting because of what happened to me. So I should be able to calm them down. Before someone gets hurt.”

He opened the door again, grimacing as his back lit up with searing pain. He just had to walk it off.

Petre stopped him again by grabbing his shoulder, giving him another tonic, a displeased frown on their face. “Just drink this. For the pain.”

Ainreth smiled at them, gratefully downing the vial and handing the empty glass to them. “When will this start working?”

Petre smiled sadly. “A moment. Hopefully it’s strong enough.”

“I’m sure it is,” Ainreth said, nodding. “Thanks. Now let’s do this.”

He grimaces as he walked out of the room and then soon out of the building. He’d been brought back to the warehouse. And no one was here aside from him and Petre.

When they stepped outside, the city was deathly quiet. Ain didn’t like this one bit, but he didn’t let that stop him as he started heading up the street.

There was no one anywhere near them, which meant that everyone must have congregated somewhere. And even if people were hiding inside of their homes, there had to be evidence of the rioting.

As they went farther, some evidence of that did appear, namely a few broken window and some overturned crates blocking their way, things like that. And he could smell smoke, even if none was visible to him. But there were still no people.

Only once they got close to the main square did they start seeing them. By then, the burning pain of his wounds had dulled considerably, almost to a point of being tolerable. Ainreth could feel a trickle of blood that had made its way down his back, but he chose to ignore that.

Finally, they reached a part of the city that wasn’t silent. But the alternative wasn’t really better because now it was too loud, too many people talking over each other.

Ainreth pushed past the crowd, avoiding all the glass and splintered wood and any other kind of debris that was laying on the usually pristine square. The place truly was a mess, worst of all was what used to be the markets, now just a sad pile of wood and fabric, organized in a way to serve as a barricade.

And when he looked at the people around them, he couldn’t help but notice they too were not exactly unscathed, some with bandages, others with bruises. If they had gotten into a fight with the city guard, that made sense, but where were the guards now, if that was the case?

Perhaps the guards were holding another part of the city, the numbers of protesters too large to hold back entirely. But why was everyone at the city square specifically?

Ainreth immediately regretted even asking himself that question when his eyes came across something horrifying.

On the podium were several people, namely one that was bound and crying.

“I wonder what Varilik will think of this,” the man standing over the crying woman said loudly to the crowd. Ainreth had now recognized her as Mhalyn. And the misborn standing next to her was holding a whip.

He recognized him too—Azorel, an anti-war protester that Ainreth had barely talked to once before. But he had seen him around.

Ainreth didn’t even think before he was pushing through the crowd, ready to burn anyone who even dared complain at being pushed aside. He could hear Azorel continuing to talk, but he wasn’t taking in the words.

All he could focus on was getting to the podium, his fists balled up as he finally stepped up onto it, making everyone on it stop what they were doing.

“Ainreth! You’re awake,” said Azorel, grinning at him. “Look who we managed to capture while raiding the palace.”

He pointed at Mhalyn who was shaking where she was forcefully kneeling on the wooden floor. The poor girl’s tic was going so quickly. She looked terrified for her life, rightfully so, but she wasn’t saying anything.

“What in the sundering sun do you think you’re doing?!” Ainreth yelled at Azorel, absolutely horrified.

Azorel paused. “We’re avenging you. The Herald cares about her. So he’ll really feel this.”

Ainreth scowled at him harder. He yearned to burn the man to a crisp, but he held back. Because clearly Azorel wasn’t getting what was wrong here.

“How dare you make me part of this sadistic little display?” Ain spat at him, stabbing a finger at the man’s chest and pushing him with it, finding it really difficult to hold back his anger now. “Mhalyn did nothing. She’s completely uninvolved aside from being Varilik’s Apprentice. And you’d have no problem sinking to his level just to stick it to him.”

Azorel seemed hesitant now, frowning at Ainreth. “But…we couldn’t let what the Herald did be unpunished.”

“Yeah, great! Go punish him, then. Not her.”

Ainreth crouched down and burned the ropes binding her away, pulling her to her feet. Mhalyn buried her face in his chest, clinging to him, which immediately made Ainreth hug her protectively.

Maybe they didn’t know each other much, and technically they were on opposing sides, but he’d be damned if his side of thing was going to do something this monstrous.

“Varilik managed to lock down the palace before we could try to get him,” Azorel said, sighing. He seemed very disappointed, which Ainreth wanted to punch him for. “It’s too well guarded now.”

“So you kidnap his innocent assistant who makes none of the decisions so you can sundering whip her?!”

Mhalyn flinched in his arms then, and Ainreth sighed. He needed to get her out of here. He started to lead her off the podium and into the crowd. Thankfully, all he needed was to glare at people to get them to let them pass, and so Ain started leading Mhalyn away from prying eyes, toward the palace.

Mhalyn went with him without and argument, still shaking, but once they got far enough that Ainreth could make them both invisible and they reached an empty alley, she seemed to relax a little.

Ainreth put the invisibility away then, sighing.

“I am so sorry about that,” he said, feeling incredibly awkward because what could he possibly say to make this okay. “I can’t believe—”

He couldn’t even finish that sentence. He couldn’t believe any of this had happened. This was so far beyond what he’d ever want to do.

“It’s okay,” Mhalyn said, wiping her eyes. “What Daryan did to you was…regrettable.”

Ainreth blinked, surprised that Mhalyn actually didn’t agree with Varilik about something. She hadn’t used a very strong word, but it still meant something.

“Yeah, well, it doesn’t justify trying to do the same to you,” Ainreth grumbled. “Come on, let’s just get you back.”

Mhalyn nodded, keeping her gaze on the ground, clearly still shaken from what had happened. Ainreth wondered why Varilik hadn’t sent anyone to save her. Was he that much of a coward that he didn’t want withdraw some of his guards from the palace? Not even to save his Apprentice?

Maybe he just didn’t care. Varilik had never seemed like the type to genuinely care about other people.

But he said none of that because he didn’t need to upset Mhalyn further. He just led her toward the palace until they came across a few guards blocking the main street. They immediately readied their weapons, but Ain just scowled at them, nodding at Mhalyn who gratefully rushed over to them and to safety.

“Protect your people better next time,” he grumbled at the guards.

The guards exchanged a look, one of them leading Mhalyn back toward the palace. The woman gave him one last, grateful look to which Ainreth nodded.

“Thank you, Daybreaker,” said one of the guards. “Given what happened I would have expected you to be the first in support of this monstrosity.”

Ainreth scowled at the man, so tired of people in general today. “Keep talking like that and I will show you monstrosity. Varilik started this and I will end it and him if I have to.”

Ainreth wasn’t sure where this was coming from. More violence was the exact opposite of what he’d originally wanted. That wasn’t why he’d been against the war. But clearly more violence would be involved because they were spiraling from bad to worse so quickly.

Before the guard could say something else, Ainreth turned around, walking back to the square. He had no idea what he was going to say to the people out there, but he had to say something. For better or for worse, they listened to him.

But before he could make it there, out of the shadows materialized none other than Fenn, glaring at him. Ainreth was so shocked that he stopped in his tracks immediately.

“Tell your people to back off. This cannot continue.”

Ainreth shook his head at him. He sounded so angry, a cold fire in his eyes. He barely looked like the Fenn he knew. “Even I’m not leading them, I was about to go do that. Maybe you should worry about your people.”

Fennrin winced but his glare stayed in place. “I was about to go rescue Mhalyn before you did it yourself.”

“Right.” Ainreth shrugged. “You’re welcome.”

Fennrin rubbed his eyes, his anger giving way to exhaustion. “If the rioting continues, people will die. It needs to stop.”

“Things seem fairly calm right now,” Ainreth pointed out, not feeling like not being difficult. “Where are all the guards, hm?”

Fennrin groaned, rubbing his eyes. “They had to be called to the palace to protect the Courtiers. The rioters would have either kidnapped or killed them otherwise.”

Ainreth didn’t like how Fennrin was talking about these people. They wouldn’t have killed them. Not on purpose, certainly. Sure, some of them weren’t great people, provably, but bad people were a part of every group. And mob mentality was also a factor. This proved nothing.

“Tell your boyfriend that if he apologizes, maybe things will calm down,” Ainreth snarked, unable to keep it back anymore. Fennrin glared right back.

“You attacked him. He has nothing to apologize for.”

“What about forcing you to take part in the lashing?” Ainreth challenged, making Fennrin pause. But he was glaring again soon enough. “I saw your face. You had no idea that would be part of it. You didn’t even know what Varilik was going to do, did you?”

A flash of pain ran over Fennrin’s face but he just glared harder. “I knew enough.”

“Oh really?” Ainreth’s heart hurt, but his hate for Varilik burned ever brighter. “You certainly didn’t look that way.”

“I don’t want to fight you, Ain,” Fennrin said, sighing. For a moment his eyes were so tired, so pained. It twisted Ain’s stomach to see it. “But I will if I have to. What Orinovo is doing needs to be stopped. You can try to stop us from stopping them if you wish, but it will end in more death.”

“Is that a threat?” Ainreth frowned, so torn about all of this. Because he felt the same way as Fennrin about this. If he had to fight him to stop this war then he would. Ainreth was the only one who could fight Fenn, his light being the only thing to stop his shadows.

“It’s just a fact,” Fennrin said, turning his head away. “Daryan didn’t want to involve me too much in stopping the rioters because I can easily hurt someone. But I will help the guards maintain order if I have to.”

Ainreth could feel the threat in his words. He didn’t believe that Fennrin wanted to do any of the things he was saying, but he also believed him when he said he would.

“And I won’t hesitate when it comes to protecting my people, as you called them,” Ainreth countered, feeling rather sad all of a sudden. “Even if I have to fight you.”

“Or you could just help us finish what we started and finally let there be peace,” Fennrin snarked, making Ainreth snort.

“Do you want to go to Diramisk on a covert mission to stop the queen’s experiments? Because I will join that.”

Fennrin clenched his jaw, staying silent for a moment before nodding, his eyes practically glowing with anger, the street around him getting dimmer as shadows spread out from him.

Ainreth wondered if Fenn was doing this as an intimidation tactic, or if it was simply something that happened when he was upset that he might not even be aware of.

“Very well. Then I’m sorry.”

And with that he dissolved into shadow once more, more than likely disappearing in the connect alleyway.

Ainreth sighed. He was so tired of fighting with him. But if there was a time to stand his ground, it was this. And he was determined to do what was right.