XVIII

Beams of the setting sun leaked through the leaves of a blooming lemon tree, casting prismatic patterns against the edge of Elina’s crystal glass. She sipped the rum and coconut water tentatively and let the alcohol intermingle with the sensual rhythms of Malakian music playing in their yard. Its continuous ebb and flow coerced her hips into moving in fluid sync with its rumbling bassline and mellow guitar, and soon she was dancing, with the grass like warm silk beneath the lively pad of her bare feet.

She could hear Maithra’s cheer as she danced, and that drew a smile from her. For though she was a Thal by her mother, there were parts of her that only came alive in the presence of this music with the taste of the rum on her tongue, causing her father’s dormant Malakian blood to awaken.

“You’re in a good mood,” Maithra said as she came to join her sister in dancing.

But why wouldn’t she be? This was her mother’s land and her mother’s before her. With the sunflower fields and the fruit trees she had climbed for years until her feet were sore and aching. This was a land of mango and lemon fruit, with the little creek downstream that she would sneak away to at night to swim nude beneath the moonlight.

Elina slung her arm around her sister’s neck as they danced, her tongue tripping clumsily over the Malakian lyrics before stumbling into a giggle. Eventually, they stopped dancing and moved to sit on the wooden bench shaded beneath the leaves of the lemon tree.

Maithra picked up a glass of coconut rum and downed it. “We should take a trip down south one day. Reconnect with our roots.”

“That sounds like a lovely idea,” Elina said, warming herself beneath the sun.

In the corner of her eye, she saw their mother arrive with a white dish holding carved slices of banana, mango, and pineapple, all cut in whimsical shapes. Vidya set it down on the table before them.

“Thank you, Mama,” they chorused in appreciation.

Their mother smiled enough to show the age lines and crow’s feet that would form the template for what Elina would become in the coming decades. She had always taken after her mother not only in looks, but in spirit. They had the same instinct to invent, the same need to infuse creativity into the most mundane of habits.

Vidya wiped her hands on the edge of her apron and sat down on the bench. “So, tell me, what have my girls been up to as of late?”

“Honestly, not much,” Maithra declared with a shrug.

“Really, Maithra?” Elina nudged her teasingly. “No new lover on the horizon?”

“If it happens it happens, but I’m certainly not on the lookout for it.” Maithra took a star-shaped piece of pineapple. “I’m only twenty-one. I’m far too young to settle.”

“I met Sadik when I was your age,” Elina pointed out. “And him eighteen.”

“You know I’m not like you, Elina. I’m a sailor at heart. Settling down in a nice house with children, it’s not for me. Perhaps when I’m old and dusty I’ll consider settling down by the seaside, but not before.”

“Whatever makes you happy, Maithra. You have always pursued your joy.” Vidya helped herself to a glass of rum and water. “How about you, Elina?”

“I’m worried about Sadik.” Elina sighed. “He has become obsessed with dabbling in illegal magic, and I fear he may come to harm.”

“Oh, love.” Vidya drank from her glass in thought. “Truth be told, I am not sure what to tell you. I’ve encountered this from time to time with your father. Men can be delicate creatures, emotionally. They crave purpose, to feel useful. Siring children can often give them that use, but once they grow up…”

“I see.” Elina’s lips sagged in disappointment. “He has gotten it into his mind that being mundane makes him lesser.”

“Now, that’s just silly.” Vidya rolled her eyes. “The part men have to play in society is essential. Supporting their lovers and children, nurturing them, caring for them… it’s an entirely respectable role. One their mundanity designates them perfectly for. Would you still have been a healer of your calibre without your connection to the earth? Or Maithra a sailor without her connection to water? I cannot deny that my ability to meld wood has benefited me greatly when building houses. It’s just as nature designed.”

“Then how do we stop him?” Elina asked. “All of this is why I stopped associating with him in the first place. I keep thinking perhaps I should call the clan…”

“If you do that, how would you ever explain it to Yasmin?” Vidya put her hand over hers. “And you need to think about what’s best for her, after all.”

“Yasmin is all I think about.”

“Then you might have to prepare her for a very difficult conversation.”

Elina sighed before nodding. She picked up a slice of banana and tried to put the matter out of her mind.

Later that night, Elina prepared herself some chai before bed to dilute the effects of the alcohol. Her brewing was disturbed by a knock on the door, and Elina turned down the fire to answer it.

She was not prepared for who was on the other end.

“Naveen?” Her eyes widened in surprise at the sight of Sadik’s old mentee. She hadn’t seen him since he was at most fourteen, when he had been picked up by one of the many charitable programmes Sadik had run for troubled and deprived male youths. “My goodness, it’s been years! Come inside, I’ve just put on some tea.”

Naveen closed the door behind him, allowing Elina to lead him by the hand into the kitchen.

“It’s good to see you again, Elina.” Naveen said this bashfully, scratching behind his ear. “You’re looking lovely as ever.”

“Oh, stop.” She smiled and brought out her porcelain jar of cookies. “What brings you here tonight?”

“I’m looking for Sadik,” Naveen said, fidgeting absently with his fingers. “Have you seen him?”

“Not recently. He ain’t been here at least.”

“Are you certain?”

“’Fraid so.” Elina tilted her head to one side. “What’s this about?”

Naveen glanced out of the window at the growing moon with a gulp and began pacing. “I just… I need to see him, all right? Do you think you could contact him? Get him to come here?”

“Naveen, what is it? Talk to me.” Elina reached to touch his arm and discovered with alarm that he was searing hot even through his clothing. “Naveen, you’re boiling—”

He grunted, turning away from her. Rage flared in him, and he could feel it burning up his fingertips. He raised his hands and, in a panic, saw they were beginning to char.

“If you’re running a fever, I should have a remedy on hand. Let me examine you.” When he didn’t answer, she marched forward to grab his shoulder. “Naveen, please, I—”

She stifled a scream when she saw him.

His veins had blackened across his features, his eyes igniting with an orange fire.

“Your face…”

“Elina.” Naveen’s skin had hardened to coal. When he lifted a hand, it was long and gnarled with the length of claws. “You have to go.” Then he lost whatever increment of control he was maintaining over his body. “I’m so sorry…” he whispered. He seized her by the throat and drew her near, inhaling her aether through his mouth in a stream of gold dust.

Elina recoiled in horror as the energy slowly drained from her body. She tried to pull away as her muscles slackened, her pulse growing weak. With the last vestiges of her energy, she cast an enchantment to tear a hole in the ground and bury Naveen up to his neck.

The stream severed between them the moment he lost grip. Elina collapsed to the floor in a heap.

Lyra paced around the Iron Clan office.

She’d been tense and irritable ever since her argument with Laila. It had been her last intent to voice something so hurtful, but the mere image she had conjured of Laila in Darius’s arms again had caused rage to churn in the pit of her belly. She couldn’t keep herself from exhausting it as spite.

Rage prickled along every hair on her skin as her relative lack of success in her mission continued. Having Sadik Yilan followed garnered little progress, and the impératrice grew more impatient with her every day.

With a harrumph, she pulled up a chair and sat on it backwards. Strewn across the corkboard were all the dead ends she’d encountered thus far. Since then, all sightings of Dominus had ceased. He was almost too quiet.

Meanwhile, a crisis of a different sort had the clan knights in a stir. They’d been receiving reports of creatures with coal for skin leaving behind trails of corpses that had been completely fossilised—as though they had been forcibly drained of all life.

The case had perked Lyra’s interest as chaos magic was undoubtedly the cause, but she’d pilfered scant details of the creatures since she first heard of them. The attacks were mainly happening at night, with no trace of the creatures after dawn broke. The running theory was they were nocturnal, susceptible to harm during daylight.

Tonight had brought another case to their attention, for it seemed that a creature had struck inside a residence this time. A valiant witch had managed to trap it, and so, finally, the clan knights would see their elusive nighttime killer in the flesh.

When word reached Lyra’s ears, she was unable to resist the urge to pry. Stealthily, she made her way downstairs to the main lobby to catch a mere morsel of insight. She was surprised to be intercepted on the way there.

“Ser Lyra?” A clan squire hurried up towards her. “You’re needed by the commander. It’s urgent.”

That certainly had her interest. She swiftly abandoned scavenging for irrelevant crumbs and pivoted towards Commander Clairmont, who was awaiting her outside.

“I believe I was summoned?” Lyra asked.

“Indeed,” Clairmont said. “It seems this is your lucky day, ser. We’ve caught Yilan red-handed. The unfortunate thing is that his beloved was caught in the crossfire.”

Lyra’s brow wrinkled in confusion. “How do you mean?”

“The call we’ve received is from the Panja Household. It seems that poor Elina Panja was attacked tonight by one of the nightwalkers.”

“By Asemani….” Lyra rubbed her temple.

“That’s not all,” Clairmont said. “They know where you can find Dominus Calantis.”

Sadik shoved open the door to his beach house so violently it nearly rattled off its hinges. “Monster? Where are you?!”

He barged through all the rooms of the lower floor before retreating back where he started.

Tatiana slinked in behind him, leaning against the foyer wall. She took out a cigarette from a pack in her pocket and pointedly did not offer him one. Igniting the stick on her lighter, she took a contemplative drag.

“I hear him upstairs.” She exhaled a current of smoke with each word.

Dominus came thudding down the steps not long after, pausing on the last one. “What’s the commotion?”

“Please.” Sadik rushed towards him to grab his shirt. Desperation had filled him to overflowing and pushed all sense of self-preservation to the fringes. “You have to help me. Whatever we did during that ritual it was—it was a mistake. We have to undo it.” He started to shake him, but Dominus didn’t budge an inch. “You have to help me undo it!”

Dominus glanced down upon him with the weariness of an ancient. “It cannot be undone. You knew the risks when you called upon my help.”

Sadik reared back at this. “So—so that’s it? You’re not going to do anything?” He gaped at the silent graveyard calm of this creature, regarding him with new eyes. “You really are an evil scrote, you know that?”

Dominus took the insult with the recoil of being slapped before stiffening back into indifference. “And you have outlived your usefulness to me.” He took a step down and loomed above the mogul. “So I would choose your next words carefully.”

Sadik’s throat bobbled but he kept his stance firm. “Was this your plan all along? To toy with me?”

“I kept my word to the very end.” Dominus’s voice was thunderous and booming, a natural calamity. “It is not my fault that you saw fit to trifle with forces beyond your comprehension. I needed two things from you. Money and connections.” He lifted up his pouch full of corona. The coins sounded plentiful and tinkled like music. “Here’s my money.” He nodded towards Tatiana. “There’s my connection.”

Tatiana took another long inhale from her cigarette.

Sadik swivelled round to her. “You made a deal with him?”

Tatiana exhaled a veil of smoke, tapping ashes onto the rug. “So long as he pays me and stays far out of my way, I couldn’t care less about your mortal concerns.”

“So, what now?” Sadik arched his neck towards Dominus in daring. “You about to kill me? Is that it? Am I your loose end?”

His accusation roused something feral in Dominus’s features before he relaxed into simple annoyance.

“I have no desire to kill you, Mr Yilan. Regardless of what you may think of me, your generosity has served me well. This is no personal slight. This is about my survival.” He held out his wrists to him. “You may remove these shackles, and I’ll be on my way.”

Sadik wanted nothing more than to refuse but thought better of it. He unfastened the cosmic metal cuffs from Dominus’s wrist and then the collar from his neck.

Dominus rubbed at his newly freed appendages. “Pleasure treating with you, mortal.”

“Where will you go?” Sadik demanded.

Dominus breezed past him, halting before the door. “I don’t believe that to be any of your concern.” He paused, turning on his heel. “For the sake of your beloved and daughter, I would suggest against trying to notify the authorities about me. There is no reason for them to suffer more for your errors of judgement.”

With that, Dominus stepped out into the night air and exhaled. His next agenda would be to reverse the damage made to his body by the solarites. Then he would deliver retaliation as he saw fit—and their much adored debutante season would provide the perfect moment to strike.