| |
––––––––
XIARA EVORA HAD A HUNCH that the gorgeous blonde woman who had questioned her about Wrath was important. She patrolled Nox for a few hours before heading to the City Square. It was getting close to dawn and her bestie was closing shop for the night when the carriage pulled up in front of her boutique.
“Hey, Xiara,” Quilla said when she climbed inside next to her. Chesi leaned over and rubbed her cold, scaly face against the seer’s cheek. “Hey, girl,” the mystic said and scratched the air elemental’s head.
“Did a beautiful blonde woman come and visit you tonight?” Xiara asked as the carriage took off.
“You mean the one you told to come and see me?” Quilla asked, then nodded. “Yeah, she turned up.”
“Is she important?”
“You could say that,” the seer said with a sly smirk.
“She’s one of the women who will become linked to either Kade, or Raum, isn’t she?” the Guardian of Nox asked.
“Someone give the executioner a kewpie doll!” Quilla said.
“I knew it!” Xiara said in triumph. “I could tell she wasn’t just a normal witch. Do you know what she is?”
“She’s half sorceress and half something else that I’m not sure of,” her bestie replied.
“Who is she going to become bonded to?” Xiara asked, then held up her hand before the seer could reply. “It’s Kade, right? I can’t see her with Raum. He’s too...” Her words trailed off when she couldn’t think of an adequate description.
“Evil for someone as gorgeous as her?” Quilla suggested dryly.
“Yeah. She seems kind of innocent. He’d walk all over her.”
“I highly doubt it,” the gypsy refuted. “She’s one of Eden’s colleagues.”
“She’s an assassin?” Xiara asked in surprise. “So, is she going to become partnered with Raum, then?”
“Nope. You guessed right. Kade is definitely the man for her.”
“That’s a relief,” the huntress said as the carriage rattled over the bridge to the Night Cursed District. “It’ll take a woman with a lot of mental fortitude and a backbone of steel to tame a demon like Raum. Did you tell her to speak to Kade?”
Quilla shook her head and the discs on her headband chimed. She caught her shawl before it could slip off her shoulders and hiked it back into place. “I don’t want to make it too easy for them,” she explained. “They both need to go through more trials before they find each other.”
“It’s part of their destiny?” her bestie asked.
“Yep. They all need to fight their own personal battles and figure out what they really want before they can forge a bond with their partners.”
“There’s only seven months left until Halloween,” Xiara said in worry. “Will the rebels have enough time to find their matches and learn how to work together?”
“I hope so,” the fortune teller said as the carriage reached their warehouse. “Otherwise, Nox could be torn apart when war breaks out.”
“There’s going to be another war?” the Guardian of Nox asked in resignation as she followed her friend out of the carriage.
Quilla waited for the skeleton to drive away before she replied. “This will be the last war. It will decide the fate of Nox once and for all.” It went unspoken that either good would prevail, or evil would continue to reign supreme. If the Immortal Triumvirate were victorious, the city would eventually become a ruin. The only chance for the population to thrive would be for the rebels to succeed.
“I’m torn between wanting this all to be over and wishing this year could last for an eternity,” Xiara confessed. Rain poured down on them both, but they ignored it. Their friends and loved ones were either waiting for them inside, or they were on their way home. This wasn’t a conversation they wanted anyone else to listen to.
“I hear you, sister,” the gypsy said, then crossed to the door. Booming laughter from their friends echoed around them when they stepped into their warehouse. Their spirits were lifted just by being around their companions.
“Good will win,” Xiara murmured softly to her bestie. “It has to,” she added as Travis walked over to her to give her a kiss. She couldn’t lose her boyfriend, or the friends she now classed as her family. She would do whatever she had to in order to keep them all safe, no matter what the cost would be to her.
Quilla shot her a haunted look as Steve picked her up and hugged her tightly. The seer had read her mind again. They both knew what the price would be to prevent Nox and the Night Cursed from ceasing to exist.
