Courting Nightfall by Amanda Meuwissen

Author:Amanda Meuwissen [Meuwissen, Amanda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-06-08T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

“We’ll make this easy on you,” Xari continued. A mace and dagger were sheathed on her belt, though she hadn’t drawn them.

Her fellows had that covered.

“Who is your master?” Xari’s words were directed at all of them, but her eyes went first to Dante, as if seeing him and his axe as the greatest threat.

“I serve no one,” Dante growled. “The Lady of Chaos asks only for conviction, not worship.”

“You tout worship of the old gods?” Xari said in surprise, as some of the bows trained on Zen and the others wavered.

“Old?” Morty repeated. “They are very much still worshipped where we come from, dear woman.”

Xari grinned. “It has been a thousand years since the average citizen believed gods would save them here.”

“They won’t be saving you.” Dante readied his axe.

“No!” Zen cried, lurching out of the shadows. “Please.”

Xari seemed to notice Zen for the first time, and her grin wavered. “A darkling. But those robes…”

Hastily, Zen tried to hide his amulet, but Xari’s eyes went right to it.

“Show me that. Now.”

Dante growled, and Guardian echoed him with a low rumble, but there were too many people, too many bows. Zen didn’t want to see bloodshed he might have prevented.

Holding out his hands for his friends to remain calm, Zen took a cautious step forward. After putting his crossbow away, this time when he reached for his amulet, it was to hold it out.

“I am a priest of the Sun God, but I mean you no harm if you mean no harm to me or my friends.”

The dozen or so people surrounding them dropped their weapons in an instant, not even waiting for Xari to tell them to stand down.

“That’s all it takes for you to see sense?” Dante protested. “Because he’s like you?”

“Because he serves the Lord of Law,” Xari corrected. “The darkling part merely surprised me, since I know all my kin who venture from the villages. But if you have someone with you who is an agent of the Sun God, you can’t possibly work for Gaian.”

The ease with which she and her troupe believed that, believed in Zen, made his stomach drop.

“You don’t serve Gaian?” Morty questioned. “You openly admit you oppose him?”

“What does it matter?” Xari said, as those with her fell in step behind her rather than surrounding Zen and the others amidst the trees. “Serving Gaian isn’t a guarantee of life, so I choose to be me. We all do.” She nodded at her comrades, and then turned to Zen. “Go on. Cast Bless on your amulet. The holy light would make any creature created by Gaian turn away and recoil. You’ll see none of us do.”

“Created?” Zen asked. “Gaian created more than vampires? The werewolves? Beasts?”

“He would make monsters of us all if his horde didn’t need to feed. Go on.”

Zen worried for Guardian’s sake, though the wolf was behind him between Khel and Dante. He almost worried for himself, given he had ingested Gaian’s blood, but when he summoned the

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