Chapter 10 #2
“Pah. We are nearly extinct, thanks to you and your ilk. But if you think I would have all of my warriors here, within earshot of your voice? You are a true fool.” Kassa waggled her finger at him again. “I know what you are, Serpent. I will not risk more than I need to.”
It was a smart move, keeping as few people around them as possible. It meant that… Nadi laughed. “Oh. It’s a trap, then.” She looked to Kalo. “Did you tell them we were coming?”
Kalo blinked. “I—n-no. I didn’t. How—”
Raziel was cackling. “Oh, how fantastic! Then what’s the plan to deal with us? Explosives? Like the last time?”
“No. Burning it all down.” Kassa grinned. “I am old, Nadi. I am ready to die. If this goes poorly? None of you leave this building alive. I am sorry, Kalo.”
The other fae shook his head and swore in their native tongue under his breath. “I should have known better than to follow you two anywhere!”
Nadi stared into the flames. “This isn’t the Iltani clan I knew.” It wasn’t judgmental. It was just the truth. “So much has happened since I’ve been gone.”
Kassa’s expression softened slightly, but it was the kind of softness that came from old wounds rather than kindness. “Time’s not been kind to us, Nadi. You are not the only one who had to grow cruel in the years that passed.”
“It seems so.” Nadi shut her eyes. “I’m sorry, Kassa. I’m so, so sorry.”
“You came here to get us to agree to your suicidal war. We have far more pressing problems, Nadi. When Raziel went missing, Mael and Lana decided they didn’t need to maintain the old agreements.
They came for the traders first.” Kassa shrugged, a gesture that contained decades of pain.
“Well. They sent their pets to explain the new arrangement.”
“Their pets?”
“Fae clans that decided collaboration with the vuampi was preferable to extermination.” Kassa spat the words like curses.
“The Morvani. The Lesti. Your old friends, the Thessal.” She smiled, and it was unpleasant enough to sour milk.
“Turns out some of our people were willing to hunt their own kind for the promise of scraps from the bloodsuckers’ tables. ”
Nadi winced. The fae had always been fractured, competitive, prone to feuds and territorial disputes. But this was different. This was the kind of systematic betrayal that left entire peoples scattered to the winds. “They’re moving fast.”
“They know they have to.” Kassa reached for the poker to jab at the coals in front of them. “If they don’t, we’ll scatter and they’ll never get us all.”
Nadi sighed. It was smart. “How many remain?”
“Of the Iltanis? Maybe fifty, sixty. Hard to know for sure.” Kassa’s gaze moved to Raziel again, and her hand drifted to the gun at her hip.
“After the attack where Luciento died, they ran in separate directions. Easier to blend in, harder to identify. Some of them are still operating in the upper city, feeding us information.”
Nadi felt something twist in her chest, a grief so old and familiar it was almost comforting. Finding out there were others should have been a gift. Instead, it felt like a burden. Because now she had people who could be lost.
“Tell me why I shouldn’t give the signal now, and have you both dead for what you’ve done?” Kassa sat back in her chair. “I could get revenge for the death of Luciento, for your family, for all Iltanis? You betrayed your own family, Nadi.”
There was an emptiness in Kassa’s voice. It was simply a statement. There was no anger there, no vitriol, no hate. Just an assessment like Nadi was meat at market, and Kassa was trying to evaluate how much she was worth.
This wasn’t the homecoming Nadi had dreamed of as a child—no tearful reunions, no family embraces.
Just the cold calculation of people who’d learned to survive by trusting no one completely.
“I had my reasons. I was infiltrating his family. I had given up my life to kill them all. I had a choice to make, and I made it.”
“And now you stand beside one of them.” Kalo kept his tone carefully neutral.
“And Volencia Nostrom is dead by my doing.” She lifted her chin in defiance. “The matriarch responsible for ordering my family’s death is dust because of my blades.”
Kassa’s eyebrows lifted slightly at that. She looked to Raziel. “Is this true?”
“It is.” Raziel kept the fact that his siblings were likely to do the deed the same night to himself. Which was kind of him.
“And tell me. Do you still desire the death of the Nostrom family?” Kassa narrowed her eyes.
“Most of them,” Nadi answered honestly. “In fact, all of them except this one.” She jerked her head at Raziel.
“And what does he want?” Kassa’s smile was as friendly as broken glass. “Because from where I sit, it looks like you’ve brought us the single most dangerous vampire in existence and expect us to welcome you with open arms.”
“To rule the world,” Raziel replied simply. “Starting with the destruction of my siblings and the conquest of the metropolis, then expanding outward from there.”
The brutal honesty of the statement created a moment of stunned silence. Even Nadi, who knew Raziel’s ambitions, was taken aback by how casually he’d laid them out. No pretense, no diplomacy, no attempt to make his goals sound noble or justified.
“At least he’s not lying,” Kassa said finally. “Which makes me wonder, why would we help someone whose ultimate goal is to rule over us?”