Blood Calls to Blood
NOX
Nox stepped in front of Teorin.
A second ago she had barely noticed he was there. Then she caught him from the corner of her eye, arm around an old man, leaning in. Feeding.
He was weak.
Teorin was many things but weak was not one of them.
Asharin had been frighteningly strong, Nox had to admit. But Asharin possessed no power that could drain Teorin that way.
Another jolt of power threw her to the ground.
Between Asharin and this bitch I am going to wake up with bruises tomorrow, she thought, annoyed. She wished she had been able to get to the Bloodhaven. Strength would be useful right now.
"You bitch," Nox said. "What have you been doing to him? He did nothing.”
“You are right," Dali answered calmly. "He did nothing. That was exactly the problem."
“Iavis wanted to escape my father. To escape you. He thought he was in love and found instead that he was imprisoned by a sociopathic ruler and a sick, twisted Siren.”
“Teorin did not know who you were,” Nox shouted. “He only knew that Iavis wished us to help him convince both of you that he was dead.”
“You lie,” Dali spat. “Iavis loved me. He still does. We will have—”
She threw open her arms. “I wouldn’t waste the effort. But it is me you expected to save your precious love. Not Teorin.”
Nox turned and glared at him. “He is worthless in many ways but if anyone should kill him it should be me.”
“Defending him?" Dali smirked. "You would be humiliated to know that I do not think you have crossed his mind even once since he arrived in Morrath those weeks ago."
Weeks.
He had been here weeks. Why?
The truth arrived instantly.
Asharin. Something must have happened. He brought her here to save her.
Hurt. Devastation. Humiliation. Anger. All of it moving through her at once as she thought of their years together and how easily he had discarded her.
Then confusion. Teorin was Thren. How the fuck was he even in Morrath?
She almost laughed. More lies, of course. Of course he had not even been what he said he was in the end. Teorin Rathmor was only capable of lies.
She moved her attention to Dali.
"What do you want, Dali? When will it stop?"
Dali smiled. "Revenge. When you and every Yorali-blooded Orsin descendant are dead. That is when it will stop."
Nox lifted her hand, determined to deliver a killing blow.
For Aviaryn.
Before she could, a sharp pain hit her chest. She sank to her knees and looked down.
A knife. Through her chest.
Nox almost laughed. She was a feeder. This was weeks of pain, possibly weeks at Kelsey House like Sevrin. Not death.
"You are dead, Nox. I hope you rot."
Nox coughed. She felt herself fade.
You are simply going to faint, she told herself. The world was closing in slowly.
"It is old magic," Dali said gleefully. "Meant to destroy. Meant to kill even those feeders stupid enough to think they are strong enough to beat me." She paused. "Within minutes it will begin to destroy your insides until there is nothing left."
Minutes.
That meant there was still time.
"You will not have min—"
Nox gave it everything. With the last of her strength she hurled her power at Dali and watched her fall into a heap.
I hope this bitch is dead, she thought.
She could feel warmth seeping beneath her. Blood everywhere. The pain inside was not improving. It was getting worse.
Flareboyn, Nox realized. A terrible way to die, because of the paralysis that came before it. You would be unable to move your arms to save yourself. Unable even to end your own misery.
From the corner of her eye she saw Teorin begin to stir.
They were many things. But they had history. He would pull the knife. Of that she was certain.
With what felt like the last of her strength she croaked, "Teorin."
He turned and looked at her. Took her in. He would not walk away. She knew he would not walk away.
“Teorin.
“My daught—"
"Yes. I am coming. I will not disappoint you.”
He was coming. Something in her chest eased.
Then he turned around.
"Teor—" she attempted. Too late. She watched him walk away and understood with sinking clarity that Dali was not dead.
Fuck.
Minutes or hours or perhaps seconds later Nox opened her eyes again.
This was a horrible way to die, Nox had to commend Dali for her technique. This was indeed a slow and painful death.
And thus far, a death that was full of betrayal, she thought bitterly. Thinking of Teorin.
If my brother were here to see me like this, if he even finds me dead, he will likely turn me into a deathmage just so I could kill all of them. He was obsessed with that weak woman Maridale. But if he were here to see what had been done to his twin, he would not let it stand.
As if on cue, a familiar smell cut through the haze.
Tamal.
He glanced at the damage around him and immediately ran toward Dali. Or perhaps it was that pathetic other half of herself.
The world began to fade. Seconds, maybe minutes passed.
"Sister," a voice rasped above her.
Tamal. Her Tamal. The brother she had shared a womb with. He crouched over her and smiled down.
"Tamal, you must—"
A pain she had never experienced arose. She looked up to find his face above hers. Everything was blurry, but his voice was clear.
"Sister," he rasped again.
"Tamal—"
The pain that came next was unbearable. Both physically and in every other way that mattered.
Tamal above her. A cruel look on his face. Twisting the knife.
“For killing my child. Our child would be alive now, had you stopped being selfish and helped Maridale that day.”
“Child?”
Nox almost laughed. Tamal was truly lost, and whatever remained of him was delusional beyond measure.
“It was your Maridale who—”
She could not finish the thought let alone the sentence. She felt him get up and walk away.
If she could have spoken, she would have told him that at the time she herself was pregnant and could not risk her father’s wrath any more than she had already risked for Iavis.
She still did not know why she helped him, other than that Teorin had called him a friend and asked her to.
She had never thought to ask why or how Teorin could be friends with Iavis, a man whom everyone knew to be Colsar’s right hand man.
None of it mattered now anyway.
She felt the world go quiet and almost laughed at the irony.
Blood calls to blood, Asharin had said.
Dali thinks she has won.
Nox thinks of Aviaryn. Safe. Protected. Nowhere in Morrath.
She thinks of the day they arrived. The army. The little shitspawns in baskets. The birds in the sky.
She thinks of the determination in Asharin's eyes when she fought her. She thinks of her daughter who had asked about bedtime stories and who had recently had a look of longing Nox could not quite place.
More memories start to come. The Bloodhaven those years ago. The plans made with Sevrin Rathmor, who had proven to be more interesting than she had ever given him credit for.
But she has learned in life that men cannot be relied upon, so she decides her final thoughts will not be about any man or any throne.
She thinks of Ryaran, who had briefly been the only thing like a mother to her.
Darkness breeds darkness. Blood calls to blood.
Asharin. Who had saved her daughter and even fought her, Aviaryn's own mother, to protect her. Who had not died no matter how many times others had tried. The object of everyone's obsession. And yet none of them could have her.
None except the dog. The dog who was supposed to be cold and without a kingdom. Yet had returned to Veynar with golden cheeks and ancient magic and two armies.
Dogs are loyal.
Nox thought of Asharin's eyes when she had said it.
I am Ryaran's daughter.
Nox began to fade. But she did not feel anger. She did not care about the betrayal anymore.
None of it matters, she thought.
Because Aviaryn is safe.
“She will be treated like my own child whenever she is in our care. Even if that care never ends.”
She had meant it, that is why Nox had not killed her.
And not only that.
Dali. Orsin. Tamal. Teorin. Do not get too comfortable.
My sister will come for you all.