Raze the Night (Nightstar Book 2)

The next few weeks were a blur. And Ainreth was very grateful for that—it stopped him from overthinking, and kept him focused on what was really important.

The Lys-Akkarian army had returned. Not all of it, of course, but enough to pose a problem given that they’d started bothering the citizens of Lys-Akkaria all over the country, specifically looking for Ainreth and people allied with him.

On the plus side, though, with the proof of Varilik’s lies in hand, it had been relatively easy to gain support in smaller towns.

Going around from town to town to gain support for their cause was annoyingly reminiscent of when he’d done a similar thing with Fenn just months ago, but Ainreth refused to let that distract him.

There was a noticeable tension between the locals even outside Kyr-Toryl, though, and so when they’d at first started doing this, announcing what had happened, showing proof, and asking for people to join their cause in fighting Varilik’s oppression, Ainreth had expected the people to be hesitant. Or perhaps outright not wanting to have anything to do with this.

But surprisingly, they’d gained new people for their cause fairly easily. Especially from people with Orinovan heritage. Ainreth had heard from many of them about being forced to sign that document about not being traitors, how it had made them feel as though they were second-class citizens.

And Ainreth agreed completely. It was why he, Petre, and a couple more of their fellow rebels—as Varilik insisted on calling them—were on their way to Tenremi to see his parents.

Well, the actual point of the trip was to garner more support, but Ainreth had been anxious to check on them. He needed to know if they were okay since one of his mom’s was from Orinovo. Even though the thought of her being forced to sign made him boil inside, he hoped she had. He wanted them all to be safe much more than he wanted them to uphold things like pride and honor.

The only reason he’d told Petre not to do it if they didn’t want to because he could be around to protect them. But he couldn’t do the same for his parents unless he brought them to the battlefield, which was about the last thing he wanted to do. They weren’t soldiers or even fighters.

Since he couldn’t be seen anywhere publicly without risking Fennrin showing up and stopping him, Ainreth entered the town invisible, with the rest of his group separating from him.

Ainreth knew they’d handle this perfectly well on their own. Petre had been taking initiative lately, and it was quite endearing. Ainreth was so proud of them.

He sighed when he reached his parents’ house. At least on the outside, the place looked the same as before.

Ainreth approached the door, knocking before looking around and dropping his invisibility. There was no one around, at least.

“Who is it?” asked the guarded voice of his father. It tended to be guarded on the best of days, but this was a different level of it. He almost sounded like he was ready to fight whoever was at the door.

“Ain.”

The door flew open immediately, his father pulling him into a tight hug and inside the house, closing the door behind him.

“Son. We heard what happened. We…I….” His voice broke a bit as he pulled away, blinking away his tears. It was almost shocking to see. His father had always kept his emotions close to his chest.

“I’m fine,” Ainreth said, waving it away. His back was mostly okay now, even if his scars burned sometimes still. “Is mayichka?”

His father sighed but nodded, pulling Ainreth toward the kitchen where the rest of his parents waited.

They were all sitting at the table, leaning close to each other and tense, but once they saw it was him visiting everyone rushed to him, hugging him from all sides, talking over each other, expressing their worries and relief at seeing him.

Ainreth couldn’t stop his eyes filling with tears. It was such a relief to see that they were alive and seemed unharmed if nothing else. He’d truly been worried, especially since his parents would be an easy target due to their connection to him.

They kept holding him as he struggled to hug them all back, shedding tears until everyone calmed down a little and they all sat down in the kitchen again. His parents were smiling now at least, even if their eyes were still worried.

“Have you signed the document?” Ain asked his Orinovan mother once he felt the time was right.

His mother shook her head, sighing. “I wanted to. To protect all of us. But your moms and dads wouldn’t let me.”

“That’s right,” said Ainreth’s father firmly, eye narrowed, face serious, while his other father nodded with sad eyes. “No one here is a traitor. We’ve done nothing. We have no reason to sign that thing.”

Ainreth nodded along, agreeing completely. “But you’re in danger because of that. Because of what I’ve been doing too.”

“Sun, you’re only doing what you know is right,” his other mother told him, petting his head. “And we are so proud of you for standing up to the Herald himself.”

Ainreth couldn’t help but sniffle a bit as he wiped his eyes. He was too emotional right now to handle things like this, it seemed.

“But you might pay the price. I think you should go to a safehouse. We have several of them nearby. Just until things calm down. If they try to use you against me, I can’t….” He cut himself off, horrified with all of this.

“We understand, Ainie,” said his third mother, kissing his temple. “We already thought and talked about this. We don’t want to endanger you or what you’re doing.”

Ainreth shook his head. “Mom, that isn’t why I brought this up. I—”

“I know. But it’s true regardless,” she interrupted him, looking at all of his other parents. “We’ve decided. If there is a place we can hide in, we will.”

“And, um,” one of Ainreth’s fathers spoke up, “perhaps we could help the rebels? In exchange? We don’t have to be a burden.”

“You wouldn’t be,” Ainreth argued and then sighed. “But sure. If you want to, we could use any help we can get.”

Before anyone could say anything more, though, there was a knock on the door. Ainreth immediately tensed up, thinking he truly related to how his parents must have felt just a moment ago.

“I’ll go,” Ainreth’s father immediately said, once again firm and serious as he got up.

“Dad, I can do it.”

But his father shook his head. “If things go wrong, reveal yourself. Only then.”

Ainreth didn’t like this, but he doubted that anything too bad would happen anyway. The situation wasn’t awful enough to threaten anyone’s lives just for being a bit uncooperative.

He still turned invisible and followed his father to the door though, ready to intervene whenever necessary. Sneaking around towns to avoid Fennrin managing to grab him had brought with it at least one upside—having to use his invisibility so much made him better at it.

He could do it with less concentration and for longer periods now, and he assumed it would only get better from here if he had to stay invisible so often.

Ainreth wished it wasn’t so difficult to get himself to learn things sometimes. It would have saved him a lot of trouble. But he would learn nothing from this, he was sure.

He watched his father open the door, wincing the moment he saw who was one the other side. One of his fellow generals, Fyr-Amar. Or, well, they weren’t fellow generals anymore, were they? But Ainreth still couldn’t help but think of every soldier as his peer, despite losing his title.

Fyr-Asari was certainly not one that he missed working with, though.

“Mr. Naralyn,” she said in a fake pleasant tone. “I hear one of your wives is causing trouble.”

Ainreth clenched his fists, forcing himself to relax them only so he could continue making himself invisible. How could she dare say things like this?

“Vanya has done nothing to you or the country. You would be wise to leave now,” his father replied, curt and hostile.

Gritting his teeth, Ainreth forced himself not to burn Fyr-Asari alive right here and now for even daring to harass his parents.

Instead, he looked over her shoulder, noting that there were three soldiers with her, most of who he didn’t recognize, which meant that they weren’t az-ari, and he could easily defeat them. He remembered the az-ari soldiers. Like Fyr-Amar.

She liked setting things on fire a bit too much. He remembered that well, and it was part of why he never worked with her if he could help it.

“Or perhaps you could get out of the way, and I can have a look at your perverse household,” Fyr-Amar said, pushing Ainreth’s father aside.

Ainreth felt himself lose his temper then, but before he could even do anything, his father’s fist was swinging into her face, connecting with a satisfying crack.

And as she stumbled back with a cry, Ainreth revealed himself, searing her with a cone of brilliant light, making her scream and try to get out of the way.

Ain used the opportunity to burn the alarmed soldiers behind her as well. He refused to gravely injure them, though, aiming for their eyes to temporary blind them. Unlike Fyr-Amar, he was certain they were just doing their jobs and weren’t exactly thrilled by the prospect of harassing anyone.

They cried out and ran away, stumbling as they did, some falling over and others running into things.

“I think we need to leave,” Ain told his father as he watched Fyr-Amar groaning on the ground, trying to scoot away blindly. There was a burn on her face, adding onto the broken nose.

“Bastard!” she hissed in the completely wrong direction, blinking, clearly trying to get her vision back. Ainreth was tempted to kill her, but he didn’t want to become that kind of person. So he would leave her be. For now.

“By the sundering sun, bother my parents again and I will kill you. Are we clear?” Ainreth snapped at her, clenching his fists. But feeling his father’s trembling hand on his shoulder did calm him down a little.

“It’s okay, son. Leave them be. We’ll pack our essentials and get ready to leave.”

Ain nodded at him, watching him leave. Unfortunately that was long enough for Fer-Aram to start a fire. He didn’t realize until the smoke hit his nose, but once he did he rushed out of the house, staring in horror at the roof, starting to be engulfed in flames.

And Fer-Aram was cackling at him for it, despite still looking in the wrong direction. Ainreth nearly snapped and killed her, then, burned her to death, but he managed to get a hold of himself enough to rush over and hit her in the temple hard, knocking her out.

He wanted to clamp her hands so she couldn’t do anything like this again, but there was no time. The fire was spreading.

Looking around frantically, he quickly found a barrel full drinking water with a bucket next to it. Ainreth had no idea if this would work given how high up that fire was, but he had to try, so he filled the bucket and rushed over to the roof, throwing the water on it.

It helped, but only slightly, forcing him to yell for help. He couldn’t do this on his own.

But just as he did, Petre and the others ran in. Petre raised their arms and clenched their fists while everyone else grabbed anything that could be used as a bucket around, throwing water on the roof.

Out of the house came rushing his father again, alarmed when he saw the fire, but it was noticeably waning now, making Ainreth let out a breath of relief. Petre must have been doing something to the wooden shingles to make them burn less easily.

Ainreth’s relief didn’t last long however when he felt himself freeze in place.

“Ainreth,” said Fennrin from behind him, sending shivers down his spine, swallowing thickly. He tried to get free, but he couldn’t move an inch.

“Fenn,” Ainreth said, much to his horror noticing that Fenn was also holding everyone putting out the fire in place. “Can we fight after my parents’ house stops burning?”

Fennrin said nothing, and Ainreth couldn’t exactly look back to check, but Fennrin’s grip on him seemed to ease just a little bit. Ainreth wondered if he was looking at the house now instead of all of them. But it seemed strange for Fenn to lose control like this.

Still, Ainreth didn’t spend much time thinking about this, instead using the moment to try to make the tiniest movements with his fingers, finding to his delight that he could move his fingers just a little.

And that was enough. Not enough to turn invisible, but enough to make himself glow bright enough to not cast a shadow. Ainreth hadn’t tried this against Fennrin before—it was more a theoretical way to defend himself, and they’d not crossed paths since escaping Kyr-Toryl—but it was all he had right now.

But thankfully it worked. The brighter his light shone, the more he felt Fenn’s hold on him weaken until he could turn around and face him.

Fennrin was standing there, squinting at him with his arm outstretched and fingers flexing as he no doubt tried to grab Ainreth again. There were also a couple of soldiers, all of them trying to shield their eyes from the intense glow.

“Doesn’t work, does it?” Ainreth said as he made himself glow even brighter. He briefly looked back, nodding at everyone looking at him through their fingers. He must have been very bright. That roof fire was mostly just smoke now, but he needed them to finish dousing it.

He wanted to tell them as much, adding that he would handle the soldiers and Fennrin in the meantime, but before he could, he yelped as he ducked to avoid something flying at him.

He blinked at the large plank of wood that was now flying through the fence that surrounded his parents’ house, breaking through it at a dangerous speed. That would have probably killed him if he’d not managed to get out of the way fast enough.

As Ainreth saw more wood from around the chopping block fly up, about to strike, he quickly turned invisible, running off in a random direction just to get away from Fenn’s line of fire.

He could hear him cursing, throwing things at every direction, but since Ainreth couldn’t seen, he wasn’t very successful at aiming for him.

Ainreth was just about to get far away enough to actually plan some kind of counter attack when he realized that Fennrin had stopped throwing things at him.

He turned around, staring in horror when he saw Fennrin grab Petre’s shadow and pull them into the air, hovering them a foot or two off the ground.

“Turn yourself in, Ainreth, or I hurt them,” Fennrin threatened in a voice that almost didn’t seem to be his own. He sounded so angry but also…shaky. As if he was afraid.

Ain shook his head. He wouldn’t waste time on this. He knew what he had to do.

Rushing forward, Ain shone light into the eyes of soldiers around Fenn, temporarily blinding them, and then also into Fennrin’s albeit less intense, making him stumble back and let go of Petre.

Then Ain grabbed Fennrin’s hands, squeezing them so that he couldn’t use his powers. He had to turn visible as a side effect of that, but that was fine as long as he didn’t let go of Fennrin.

“Let go of me!” Fennrin yelled at him, trying to get free. Ain ignored him though, squeezing tighter as he turned to Petre and the others. And his parents, who were now watching the scene with concern. At least the house wasn’t on fire anymore.

“Bring my parents to a safehouse,” he told Petre, who nodded in agreement immediately and started ordering the people around them to deal with Ain’s parents.

Fennrin was meanwhile still struggling in his grip, forcing Ainreth to hold him tighter. “Take it easy, Fenn.”

“Take it easy?!” Fennrin yelled at him, attempting to slam the back of his head into Ainreth’s face. Then, when Ainreth dodges him, he tries to kick him. “You are a criminal I have to bring in or kill.”

Ainreth sighed. He knew that there was no talking Fenn into being reasonable anymore, and yet he still yearned to do it, some small part of him clinging onto hope.

“Fenn….” Ainreth trailed off when he noticed something wetting his hand. He looked down, shocked to find blood running down Fennrin’s wrist.

“What the…?” Ainreth couldn’t help but pull Fennrin’s sleeve up, only to find a bracelet on Fennrin’s wrist. With angry, purple bruising and puncture wounds all around, scabbed over but now bleeding from Fennrin’s struggling.

Ainreth grabbed his hands tighter. “Did he do this to you?!”

He couldn’t believe this. So this was why Fennrin’s control had slipped earlier, it must have been. If his wrist was this messed up, it would be difficult for him to easily move his fingers to the extent he needed to.

But surely Fenn wasn’t letting Varilik abuse him like this. Ainreth’s heart clenched. Surely. This was horrible and horrifying, and surely this was just…. Ainreth didn’t know what, but it had to have some kind of better explanation.

His thoughts of horror were interrupted though as Fennrin slammed his head into Ainreth’s forehead, escaping his hold. Ain stumbled back, but his instincts still made him turn invisible immediately before Fenn could do anything to his shadow.

Fennrin growled, giving the space Ainreth had been the most hateful look. But there was fear in his eyes too. Ainreth’s stomach twisted. He was fairly certain that he knew why Fennrin was afraid.

“Come with me,” he told him, unable to keep it in anymore. But Fennrin just raised his fists and started flinging things in his general direction at insane speeds. Ainreth had to throw intense light into Fennrin’s eyes just to get a moment to get out of there.

Fennrin cried out and put his hands over his eyes, stumbling into a shadow and disappearing into it.

Ainreth huffed in frustration, very worried for Fennrin, but he couldn’t waste time being concerned about him. His parents, Petre, and their allies needed backup. Fennrin’s obvious move would likely be attacking them to make Ainreth surrender, so he would be there to stop him.

At least it was daytime, and only partially cloudy, making Fennrin’s main advantage of being a fast, untraceable shadow not as useful since he would either have to switch between that form and his corporal one, or he would have to zip around to look for connecting shadows to slip into. Which meant that Ainreth would likely be able to run at a similar speed as Fennrin could move.

Sprinting down the street while keeping himself invisible, Ainreth quickly caught up with his parents, mercifully unharmed.

“Ain!” they all cried, looking relieved that he was unharmed, already advancing in for a hug, but Ainreth shook his head, holding up a finger.

“We’ll hug once we’re safe, all right?” he said, looking around, not that it would do him much good. He couldn’t see Fennrin.

“So the rumors are true,” his father said quietly, staying near Ain, while the rest of their group started moving again. Two of Ainreth’s mothers looked especially disappointed by the denial of hugs. “He betrayed you.”

“Not right now, dad,” Ainreth immediately said before his father could push more.

Ain remembered that he and one of his moms were the only ones who had been suspicious of Fenn, so this only confirmed that earlier suspicion. But not only did Ain not agree with this at all, he also never wanted to have this conversation ever.

“We will have to talk about this eventually,” his father said, sighing and scowling off into the distance as he went to join Ainreth’s other parents.

Ainreth shook his head, trying to ignore all the thoughts that came swirling in. Fennrin wasn’t a bad person. He was being manipulated.

And abused. Ainreth shuddered as his stomach twisted. The sun only knew what Varilik might have done to him beyond giving him that bracelet. What must he have told him to make Fenn think that this was okay?

Ain swallowed, making a bright, swirling circle of light around their group. It was the best he could do right now when he didn’t know where Fennrin could be.

Ainreth sighed with relief when they made it outside the town, but that was all they could manage before their feet got stuck to the ground.

Ainreth gritted his teeth as his parents cried out in alarm, knowing the Fennrin must have been behind them, holding them in place, but he couldn’t move enough to confirm it. To see where he was.

“Surrender and I won’t harm anyone,” Fennrin said, his voice shaking from anger, but there was something else underneath. Desperation maybe?

Was Fennrin worried what Varilik might do to him if he fails to bring Ain in? The thought made guilt churn in his stomach, but Ainreth had no choice. He couldn’t give up because he was just that much of an asset.

With Ainreth out of the picture and Fennrin helping Varilik, there would be nothing stopping the Herald from completing whatever his ultimate goal was.

“I can’t, Fenn,” Ainreth said, having nothing else to say. He couldn’t free himself right now, so he was just hoping that Fennrin’s control would slip once again for a while.

He listened to Fennrin’s footsteps getting closer until the man himself appeared in front of Ainreth, his hands still clenched. And with him was a pair of hand clamps floating in the air.

Ainreth could see Fenn’s hands shaking, be it from pain or effort, more blood staining his fist. It was clear he wasn’t managing to control everything in this state, which must have been why he’d asked Ainreth to surrender.

Putting on those clamps would be very difficult for Fenn like this since he couldn’t use his hands to do it without releasing everyone in the process. And all Ainreth could do was try to free himself, to move his fingers enough to fight back.

But it wasn’t working. Fennrin started pulling Ain’s arms forward, hands flat so he could put the clamps on easier. And Ain was trying to yank his hands back with all the strength he had, to no avail.

Ainreth gritted his teeth as the metal of the clamps touched his fingers.

“This could have all been avoided,” Fennrin said, sounding out of breath, now his other hand also bleeding, fist so tightly clenched. His nails must have cut through his skin.

Ainreth wanted to look to the side at his parents, to tell them he loved them because he just couldn’t get out of this, no matter what he tried. He shivered as the metal of the clamps enveloped his hands nearly fully now.

But then, just as Fennrin was about lock them onto him and render him powerless, Fennrin was suddenly sent to the ground with a cry as a rock hit the back of his head.

Ainreth only allowed himself one single glance to see that it was a local farmer who had thrown it, giving her a nod. Then he was immediately turning invisible again, ready to strike.

Fennrin made a furious noise as he straightened up, holding his head where he was bleeding, grabbing the farmer’s shadow.

Ainreth didn’t want to think that Fenn would kill someone like this, but his eyes were so full of rage that for a moment, Ain didn’t doubt he would one bit.

And he acted out of instinct, wanting to protect this civilian who had risked her life to protect him. He poured blinding light into Fennrin’s eyes, temporarily blinding him just like he’d done to all the soldiers that had come here with him.

It tore his heart apart to see Fennrin cry out in pain and stumble back, running his hand over the wall of the house he was standing next to just to orient himself, his eyes full of tears, and the skin around them burnt and red.

But he’d had no choice. “I’m sorry, Fenn.”

Fennrin just glared in his direction and stumbled away blindly, disappearing into a shadow and melding with it. Ainreth wondered if he could see like that or not, but he certainly wasn’t foolish enough to stand around and gawk, thinking about that.

“Let’s go, come on. We need to leave before he recovers,” he said, his heart clenching at the reminder that he’d just hurt the love of his life like this.

He didn’t want to think of Fennrin that way anymore, but he couldn’t stop. It was simply what he was. They’d been perfect for each other, and Ainreth couldn’t have controlled his jealousy enough to not squander it.

And now he would go on with his life knowing what he lost.

He looked back at his parents and his friends, then, as he ran down the hill toward where the safehouse was, nodding to himself.

Ainreth had many regrets. But those were things he couldn’t take back. And focusing on helping and protecting people was what he could actually do, unlike change the past.

He nodded at the farmer when he passed her, and she nodded back, bowing her head to honor him. Ainreth didn’t think he deserved it, but he appreciated her bravery at standing up to someone as powerful as Fennrin.

The support their rebellion was garnering was inspiring as well. It gave people hope that things would get better and hopefully soon, and the more hope there was, the more people joined them.

They would win this. Ainreth just hoped that the casualties would be minimal.