Night Myst Part 26

And we went inside and shut the night and the snow and the demons out.

Chapter 27.

I plugged in an e-mail to Lannan, demanding to see Regina, Geoffrey, and him the next night. There was too much I needed to report for me to type it all out. I also told him in no uncertain terms that Lainule should be present, and that I'd be bringing my friends. We were all in this together now.

Peyton was downstairs, reunited with her mother, and we left them alone for a bit to enjoy their homecoming. We still didn't know what the Indigo Court had done to Peyton, but she'd tell us when she was ready. She seemed okay, and I hoped they'd just roughed her up a little.

Rhiannon and Leo were cooking dinner. Kaylin was working on some magical charm-I didn't know what. A knock at my door sounded and I pushed myself away from the desk and called, "Come in."

Chatter entered the room. He joined me on the bed, crossing one leg over the other. "Thank you, for letting me stay here."

"You're on our side now, like it or not. At least they won't beat you anymore. Grieve never . . . he didn't . . ." I wasn't sure I wanted to know, but he shook his head.

"Grieve never laid a hand on me. I told you before, he did what he could to fight his nature. Now though, who knows what's going to happen? And with Myst claiming him, how long can he hold out against his Shadow Hunter side?"

I winced. "She can't have him. He's mine. And I'll do everything in my power to stop her. To free him." A sob choked up in my throat and Chatter pulled me into his arms, holding me softly as I wept. After a few minutes, I sat back and rubbed the tears from my eyes. "Crying won't help."

"What did Myst show you that made you so angry?" He gently tipped my chin up, his eyes soft and doelike in the dim light of the candles I'd lit.

I bit my lip. How could I tell him what I suspected? How could I admit that once, I'd been on the other side, as vicious as she was? Grieve and I had switched sides this life, but a gulf a mile wide still divided us. I only knew that I loved him, and I'd do whatever it took to kill Myst and free the Golden Wood. Even if it meant trucking with vampires, aligning myself with Lainule, slicing throats . . . whatever we needed, I'd do it.

Anything to keep Myst from winning. to keep Myst from winning.

I shook my head. "Never mind that. Leave it for tomorrow. For when it's light again and the Indigo Court hides in pain."

He nodded, standing to go. I watched him silently leave the room.

After I'd logged off my computer, I patted the pendant around my neck. The rea.s.suring pulse of magic beat through my body. Beyond vampires and Fae and Vampiric Fae and magic, there was this-my legacy. My father was Uwilahsidhe, and I had his blood in my veins. And perhaps someday, I would meet him. and I had his blood in my veins. And perhaps someday, I would meet him.

I stripped off my clothes and opened the window. A swirl of flakes flew in from the snow-covered night. It was beautiful, a blanket of sparkling white. I stared down, eager to let go of the day's events. My fan hanging around my wrist, I leapt lightly to crouch on the sill. I let out a smile as a fierce, feral pride rose up.

Lannan could suck me dry. The Vampiric Fae could enslave my family. The vampires could start their war. We'd won our battle today: We'd rescued Peyton and Chatter. It was time to celebrate. Small victories were important now.

Tomorrow, I'd have to face the stark reality of what had happened, but tonight-tonight I could escape.

And nothing they could do would change who I was-or what I'd discovered about myself. I stared up at the swirling storm. Winter had moved in with Myst, a vengeful winter out to blanket us all with the chill of the Indigo Court, but we weren't done yet. We had lived and would fight another day.

The owl tattoo on my arm let out a piercing screech as I let go and fell toward the ground. In the blink of an eye, I twisted, s.h.i.+fting, and went gliding up into the night sky, free from everything and everyone.

The great horned owl met me, gliding in from the oak. Silent shadows, we flew over the house, riding on the currents provided by Ulean, who chased by our side, laughing. And her breath gave us a tailwind that propelled us onward as I left war and blood and death behind.

Play List for Night Myst I write to music a good share of the time and have been sharing my playlists on my website. I finally decided to add them to the backs of the books for my readers who aren't online.

-Yasmine Galenorn 3 Doors Down: "Loser"

Alice in Chains: "Man in the Box"

Beck: "Scarecrow," "Dark Star"

The Bravery: "Believe"

CC Adc.o.c.k: "Bleed 2 Feed"

Chester Bennington: "System"

Chris Isaak: "Wicked Game"

Cobra Verde: "Play with Fire"

David Bowie: "China Girl"

Dead Can Dance: "Yulunga," "Indus"

Death Cab For Cutie: "I Will Possess Your Heart"

Depeche Mode: "Personal Jesus," "Dream On"

Everlast: "One, Two"

Gabrielle Roth: "The Calling," "Dolphin," "Raven,"

"Mother Night," "Luna," "Seducing Hades,"

"Black Mesa," "Stone Circle," "Rest Your Tears Here," "Totem," "Night Whisper," "Zone Unknown," "Avenue A"

Gary Numan: "Innocence Bleeding," "Prophecy,"

"Crazier," "My Breathing," "Before You Hate It," "Dead Heaven," "The Angel Wars," "Noise Noise," "Stories," "Telekon," "My Brother's Time," "Hunger," "Devious"

Gorillaz: "Clint Eastwood"

Jace Everett: "Bad Things"

Jay Gordon: "Slept So Long"

King Black Acid: "Great s.p.a.ces," "Rolling Under"

Ladytron: "Black Cat," "Ghosts," "I'm Not Scared,"

"Burning Up," "They Gave You a Heart," "Predict the Day," "Versus"

Led Zeppelin: "When the Levee Breaks"

Lenny Kravitz: "Fly Away"

Little Big Town: "Bones"

Live: "TBD"

Low with Tomandandy: "Half Light"

Metallica: "Enter Sandman"

Nine Inch Nails: "I Do Not Want This," "Sin" [long], "Get Down, Make Love"

Nirvana: "Heart-shaped Box," "You Know You're Right"

Oingo Boingo: "Dead Man's Party"

Orgy: "Blue Monday," "Social Enemies"

PJ Harvey: "This is Love"

Puddle of Mudd: "Psycho"

Red Hot Chili Peppers: "Blood Sugar s.e.x Magik"

Saliva: "Ladies and Gentlemen"

Seether: "Remedy"

Steppenwolf: "Jupiter's Child"

Tangerine Dream: "Dr. Destructo"

Thompson Twins: "The Gap," "All Fall Out"

Toadies: "Possum Kingdom"

Tori Amos: "Little Amsterdam," "Professional Widow"

Wayne Static: "Not Meant For Me"

Ween: "Mutilated Lips"

Zero 7: "In the Waiting Line"

Dear Reader: .

I hope you enjoyed Night Myst Night Myst, the first book in my new Indigo Court series, and I hope you're looking forward to reading Night Veil Night Veil, the next book in the series, available summer 2011. For those of you new to my books, I wanted to take this chance to welcome you into my worlds. For those of you who've been reading my books for a while, I wanted to thank you for taking a chance on Cicely's adventure. I loved writing Night Myst Night Myst, but I also love writing my other series-The Otherworld series (aka Sisters of the Moon)-and want to a.s.sure my longtime readers that, yes, there are more books coming in that series.

And that's why we're including the first chapter of Harvest Hunting Harvest Hunting-book eight of The Otherworld series-in the back of Night Myst Night Myst.

If you're a new reader, you'll get a taste for what my trio of half-Fae, half-human demon-hunting sisters are like. And if you've been reading The Otherworld series for a while, I wanted to give you a sneak peek at the first chapter of Harvest Hunting Harvest Hunting, available in November 2010.

So without taking more of your time, I'd like to present the beginning of Harvest Hunting Harvest Hunting, and I hope it whets your appet.i.te for the next book!

Bright Blessings, Yasmine Galenorn My nose quivered. Something smelled wonderful. I followed the scent through the crowded hall until I found myself standing next to the buffet table.

My sister Menolly and I had just stood beside our sister Camille and witnessed her marriage to her third husband. Three-count 'em-three husbands. Simultaneously. Trillian had been decked out as the best goth groom ever, wearing black leather pants that matched the obsidian gleam of his skin, a black mesh tank, and a velvet cloak the color of blood.

Morio and Smoky had worn what they had to their first wedding with Camille: Smoky wore his long white trench with a blue and gold vest, a pale blue b.u.t.ton-down s.h.i.+rt, tight white jeans, and his ankle-length silver hair coiling around him like dancing serpents. Morio wore a red and gold kimono, with a dress sword hanging from his side and his dark hair rippling down his back.

And of course my sister looked good enough to eat, her jet hair glistening against her gossamer priestess robes, so sheer I could see her bra and panties through them. Now that she was an official priestess of the Moon Mother, she was expected to don ceremonial garb for most important occasions.

The four of them had gathered before Iris, who again presided, and together they underwent a variant of the Soul Symbiont ritual designed to bring Trillian into their fold. Menolly and I had worn gowns-hers of black with s.h.i.+mmering crystals, mine of gold-and stood as witnesses again.

Now we were into the celebration part of the affair.

I glanced at the calendar on the wall. October twenty-second and we were well on our way to Samhain, the festival of the dead. It had been a month, almost to the day, since we'd unsuccessfully raided Stacia Bonecrusher's safe house.

Thinking about Stacia forced me to face another thought, one I'd been trying to avoid. I glanced across the room at Chase Johnson. The detective was sitting at a table by himself, watching the celebration with a quizzical look on his face. Unable to help myself, I headed in his direction. He watched me approach, his expression carefully sliding into neutral. I took the chair opposite him.

"It's a beautiful wedding." I nervously played with the napkin resting on the table next to me. "Don't you think?"

"Yes, lovely." He blinked, long and slow, and I wondered what he was really thinking. "Camille seemed a little stressed, though. What's up with that?" Even though his tone was normal, I knew there was nothing normal about Chase. Not anymore.

"Our father refused to attend the wedding. Not only does he disapprove of her marrying Trillian, but his official stance is that she's turned her back on her duties for the Otherworld Intelligence Agency by becoming a priestess and agreeing to enter Aeval's court. He refuses to condone her behavior by showing up, and the day she actually pledges under Aeval's rule . . . I'm afraid of what's going to happen."

"Turned her back on her duties? That doesn't seem fair, considering all she's done for the OIA. I know Sephreh's your father, but d.a.m.n, that's cold." He sipped his champagne, sounding more himself than he had the entire past month.

I glanced at the fading scars on his hands. His body had healed remarkably fast from the deep knife wounds that had laced his skin and punctured several of his organs. But it would take a long, long time for him to heal from the potion that had saved his life. The Nectar of Life had torn his entire world apart and put it back together in a crazy new patchwork. And our relations.h.i.+p appeared to be a major casualty-on rocky ground, at best.

"When she promised to train under Morgaine, and especially especially when she agreed to dedicate herself to Aeval's Dark Court, Father took it as a personal insult. But Camille doesn't have a choice; she's under direct order from the Moon Mother herself." when she agreed to dedicate herself to Aeval's Dark Court, Father took it as a personal insult. But Camille doesn't have a choice; she's under direct order from the Moon Mother herself."

"Yeah, I got that," he said, fiddling with his gla.s.s.

"She did everything for us when our mother died, and without her the family would have been ripped to shreds. Father was extremely cruel to her last time they spoke and I'm p.i.s.sed off that he didn't show today. Our cousin Shamas has been trying to fill the void, but it's just not the same."

"What did he say?" Chase played with his goblet. "By the way, will alcohol hurt me . . . now now? I haven't had a drink since before the accident."

"No, you'll be fine. You can still eat and drink anything you want. It's not like you were turned into a vampire." I stared at my hands. As loyal as I was to our father, I couldn't blind myself to the truth. "At his last visit, things went from bad to worse. By the time he left, Camille was on the sofa, curled up in a ball, sobbing. Smoky came in at the point when Sephreh threatened to disinherit her. In turn, Smoky threatened to s.h.i.+ft into his dragon self and crisp our father."

"c.r.a.p. The fallout from that can't be good."