The Night (3 page)

She folded the piece of paper up, stabbed her finger on a pin and drew a symbol on the square of parchment. She brought it to her lips and whispered to it. Her fingers hummed and she went to the window and opened it. Throwing the paper out into the evening air, she watched as it instantly turned into a white dove and flew into the distance.

“Hurry,” she said.

When it was out of view, she waited, unmoving, willing it to return to her before Zane awoke.

There was a noise behind her and she froze, kept her eyes fixed on the horizon and knew without a doubt that he would soon find that she had taken the piece of paper.

“You’ve read a lot today,” she said, hoping it would distract him.

“I was trying to find a way to control it.” He stood and yawned.

She could almost hear him stretching. She stared dreamily out of the window and wondered if there was a way for him to control his change. She doubted it. If there were, they would have found it by now. But then, they hadn’t been looking for that kind of spell.

“It is always night somewhere,” she said and turned to him, “and day somewhere else.”

He frowned and ran his fingers through his hair. His rich brown eyes reflected his fatigue. She smiled at him and he returned it, his bowed lips curving with it in a graceful way that didn’t suit the rest of his features. He wasn’t beautiful like some men she had met in her lifetime but there was an honest handsomeness to him and an underlying sense of masculinity. She had seen enough of his body to know what strength it held and that he could protect her physically as well as magically if he needed to.

He had proved that on enough occasions. So many people had begun to hunt her. Why? In a way, she didn’t mind, because they couldn’t harm her and the reason Zane had found her was because others were trying to. He had pieced together the information and beat them here.

“Did you have any luck?” he said, his voice echoing his weariness.

She shook her head and then hesitated.

“I have contacted someone who may be able to help,” she said in a quiet voice, part of her hoping that he wouldn’t hear her so he couldn’t be angry with her as she knew he would be.

He immediately looked at the table where the piece of parchment had been and his frown intensified.

“I told you not to do that!” His voice was almost deafening in the silent woods. “I told you not to contact anyone!”

Celene flinched away but then rallied as her own anger rose to the surface. Her fists clenched and she set her jaw, frowning at him as her lips compressed into a thin line of annoyance.

His eyes widened when a breeze entered through the open window. The paper on the desk began to flutter in it. It grew stronger, sweeping his hair around while leaving hers unaffected. Her jaw tightened and she narrowed her eyes on him, her breathing quickening and becoming heavier as she struggled to control her feelings.

“You won’t tell me why you’re cursed!” She stared hard at him, unleashing everything she had been holding inside. The breeze that swirled around them rapidly became a gale that pushed against Zane and toppled the stacks of books on the desk and sent them crashing into those piled on the floor. Papers flew around the room in it, circling above her head. She had to get hold of herself before something bad happened, but all she could think about was how he was holding them back and making it impossible for them to lift the curse he was under. “How am I supposed to stop this?”

Celene stormed out of the room.

Zane kept perfectly still as everything suddenly dropped back into place, the wind disappearing in the blink of an eye. Papers drifted down, spinning and twirling. He knew that she was right. He had to tell her.

He had to go after her and explain.

He went to follow her and then growled in frustration as his body twisted and distorted. The growl ended in a meow.

Slinking to the door, he went out onto the porch and sat down beside her.

Celene kept her eyes fixed on the distant rising moon. It was slowly appearing behind Syrinia, silhouetting the towers and domes.

“We must go and see what Elektra has to tell us. She sees all. She will know your curse and may be able to help if you will only tell us more about it. It isn’t far.” She looked down at him and saw he was staring into the distance. “Are you not going out tonight?”

No response. She looked at the point his yellow eyes were fixed on and sighed at the approaching thunder clouds.

“They will be gone soon. Go out.”

He still didn’t move.

Celene stood, smoothed down her dress and walked inside, leaving him on the porch. The tappity-tap of claws on wood made her look over her shoulder and she was surprised to see him following her. She picked up his clothes off the floor and smiled at him when he curled up on the armchair. Placing his clothes over the back of it, she rubbed him affectionately behind the ear and listened to him purr. She knew that his staying in was a way of apologising to her when he couldn’t say the words.

Sitting at the desk, she opened her book and her smile widened.

“It’s nice to see you tonight.”

The quiet purring slowly drifted away and silence descended on the room as Zane fell asleep. She looked at the open window, hoping her sister would give her an answer soon. She had known long before Zane had dared to mention it that he was beginning to lose himself. With each change, he was one step closer to changing into something else, something not quite a cat and not quite human. She couldn’t let that happen to him. Maybe back when he had first come to her, but not now that they had grown so close to each other.

Compassion wasn’t driving her to help him break the curse.

It was love.

A soft cooing and flutter of wings at the window made her turn sharply. She stared at the bird as it preened itself and struggled to compose herself. There was a chance that Elektra didn’t know anything about the curse, but there was also a chance that she did, and she couldn’t stop herself from hoping that inside the note would be the answer she had been searching for all this time.

She rose from her seat and crossed the room to the bird. It stepped onto her outstretched hand and with a small puff of smoke became a note again. She unfolded it carefully, slowly, her fingers trembling with anticipation so much that she couldn’t move any faster.

When it finally opened, she held her breath and steadied herself before reading it.

Erikka, Witch of the South Star.

She let her breath go and smiled as her whole body felt light. Now she knew who had cursed him, but she had no clue as to the witch’s whereabouts. She glanced at Zane where he lay curled up and sleeping on the seat of the armchair.

She crumpled the note in her hand and it disintegrated.

Discovering whose spell he was under seemed easy compared to the task that lay ahead of her.

He hadn’t wanted her to contact anyone about the curse, so he certainly wasn’t going to want to confront this Witch of the South Star.

But they had to.

She would find a way to convince him to come with her to see Elektra.

She would find a way to save him.

CHAPTER 3

Z
ane woke slowly to find himself curled up on the tattered couch at the back of the room. He smiled sleepily when he realised that Celene had placed a blanket over him and then his eyes darted to the window and he was wide awake when he saw that the sun was already beginning to rise. In precious little time, she would disappear again and leave him for another day. He hated that they had such fleeting moments together when he wanted so much more, too much to ask of her. She wanted to help him and he wasn’t about to fool himself into the believing that the kindness and compassion she had shown him was anything more than friendship. His heart ached, whispering words to his soul that stirred it into life and spoke to him. She cried for him, and cared for him, and sometimes when she looked at him he felt as though he could see right down into her heart and clearly read the feelings she hid there.

But he was in no fit state to be with her, no matter how much he wanted it, and he wanted it more than anything. He couldn’t burden her and cause her pain for the rest of her life. She would continue to battle with the books, pushing what skills she had to the limit and draining herself of life in order to try and lift his curse. She would never stop. He saw that every evening, every time she gave him another potion to drink.

He had taught her so much, but it wasn’t enough. Not even his knowledge of the lost dark arts could rescue him from becoming a strange hybrid being.

Celene drifted into the room and he lay still, watching her through half-closed eyelids in the hope that she wouldn’t notice that he was awake. He loved these stolen moments when she didn’t realise he was watching. She was a wholly different person then—not focused on him but gliding along on air and humming sweet melodies to herself.

He frowned.

It had been so long since he had seen her like this though. The past few months she had been heavy footed with no real smile to be seen. Now she was drifting around the room, quietly singing some melodious song to him whose language he didn’t recognise. She was so graceful that she reminded him of how she used to be. A stab of guilt in his heart pained him as he realised that she was happy again. Had he made her sad these past months?

He sighed quietly to himself. He didn’t need to ask in order to know why she was like this.

She was happy because she had heard from the woman she had mentioned last night and she believed that she had the knowledge she needed to lift the curse. His eyes followed her, watching her stack the books and tidy the room. She was beautiful today, her pale skin flushed with a little colour and her smile curving her heart shaped lips in a way that he realised he had missed. He had fallen for her like this, drawn to her mystery and her beauty. She had captured him the moment he had laid eyes on her.

He couldn’t disappoint her and steal away her happiness.

He had to go with her as he knew she would ask him to, but he didn’t know if he could face Erikka.

Pushing the blanket aside, he sat up and drew it across his lap. He took his clothes down from the back of the nearby armchair, rose from the seat and began to dress. He could sense when she turned to watch him but kept his back to her. Although she had grown used to seeing him naked, he wasn’t sure that he had. She seemed so innocent and young sometimes that he didn’t want to taint her, not after the things he had done in the name of the kingdom of Valunthier.

It struck him that he had been wrong to try to push her into going to Syrinia. She was safer out here, in the woods with only Gaia and the elves for company. If she travelled into one of the Tri-Kingdoms, she would lose something of herself to them. The cities had a tendency to take a part of you, chip away a piece of your soul and steal it for themselves. He wanted to keep her whole and pure. He wanted to protect the mystery that was Celene.

He wanted to keep her to himself.

“Will you ever wear anything but that?” she said, almost singing the words to him.

She certainly was happy today but he could sense the underlying current of nerves and tension in her and when he turned to face her, he could see the question rising in her eyes.

He looked down at the white shirt as he finished buttoning it, wrapping the neck cloth around his throat and tying it off. He tugged the cuffs over his hands and frowned. What was wrong with what he wore? He looked at his reflection in the long ornate gilt mirror that hung on the wall. Pushing his dark hair out of his face, he tied it back at the nape of his neck and raised an eyebrow at his appearance. It was what he had always worn since becoming a wizard. A white tall-collared shirt with cuffs that covered his hands to his knuckles, black trousers and black boots. The only thing he was missing was his frock coat. He glanced across at Celene and thought about turning her question against her and asking whether she would ever wear anything but her black dress. He hoped she wouldn’t. She was beautiful in the dress that reached her ankles, its long sleeves fitted snug to her upper arms but flaring out over her forearms and covering her hands. The neckline scooped low enough to reveal a modest amount of bosom and his gaze lingered there, watching the steady rise and fall of her chest. He frowned something flickered there. It must have been a reflection of the rising sun off the mirror. There were no marks on her. There never had been.

Walking towards her, he summoned a delicate white flower from the air. He pushed her hair behind her ear and tucked the flower there with it. The silvery petals shone beautifully against their backdrop of blue-black hair.

“What is it?” she said.

He smiled. “An apology... and a moonflower.”

She smiled and he was happy to see it, glad that he could cause such a beautiful sight.

“I will go with you. You do not need to ask,” he said and her eyes widened as though she was surprised by how easily he had read in her what she wanted to say.

She nodded. “I will need your power.”

He moved aside to let her pass and his gaze followed her as she ascended the stairs. She touched the flower behind her ear and he smiled again. It faded from his face when he heard the door lock and saw that the sun had broken the horizon. Where did she go? She didn’t go there to sleep. Did she sleep? He had never once seen her do so.

He went to the window and closed it. Staring at the sun as it crept over the trees, he pondered what she had said to him. She would need his power. Where were they going? It would have to be somewhere far if she needed his assistance to bring them there. She should have enough magic to take them both to most places in the Tri-Kingdom area, possibly even as far as the rogue kingdoms in the south.

The only time he had heard of people needing to borrow power from others in order to reach a distant place was when they had been travelling somewhere outside this land, cities and places that were beyond normal human reach and impossible to travel to without using an incredible amount of magic.