The Girl at Midnight Read Online Free PDF Page A

of us still breathe fire, Brother.”
    “You summon it,” Caius said. “A fine distinction. And even if that old tale were true, destroying the Avicen won’t bring back what we’ve lost.”
    Tanith clapped her hands, and the fire extinguished. “Believe what you want. I believe in what I can see and touch. Even if destroying the Avicen won’t restore our magic, it’ll make me feel better. I want justice for our people and an end to the Avicen threat. Those are the things that should concern you, Caius. Not a magical bird you read about in a book.”
    Caius rolled his neck and arched his back, stretching. He needed rest and soon. “I did not read about it in a book. I read about it in several books, thank you very much.”
    “Yes, and half of them were written by Avicen. Mind your sources, Brother. They aren’t to be trusted.”
    “I’m sick of fighting.” Caius’s voice was quiet, but he knew Tanith would hear him perfectly well, though whether or not she would listen was another matter entirely. “Aren’t you?” It was a foolish question, for he knew what her answer would be, but still, he had to ask.
    Tanith canted her head. Torchlight caught the delicate iridescence of the scales that trailed along her cheekbones.She blinked at him, red eyes gleaming in the firelight, and said, simply, “No.”
    The word hung in the air between them, a neat and tidy summation of the rift that had been growing for years. It hadn’t always been like this. Once, they’d been inseparable. They’d galloped around this very same fortress, carried aloft on invisible horses, clashing blunt wooden swords as they played at a war they hardly understood. But the girl with the unruly golden curls and chubby hands made sticky from sweets was a far cry from the woman who stood before him now, magnificent and terrible, proudly stained with the blood of her foes. His sister had grown into something beautiful and savage and absolutely foreign to him. He missed her sometimes, the girl she had been before years of battle and bloodshed had forged her into steel.
    Tanith’s eyes softened around the edges. For a moment, she was his sister again. Not his general, but his sister. “We need to act before the Avicen do. If we wait any longer, I fear what it would mean for the Drakharin. I want the best for our people, same as you.”
    With a heavy sigh, Caius stepped away from her. He’d had enough of her and her doubts. “Thank you, Tanith, that will be all.”
    Tanith studied him, her expression hard and unreadable. Caius waited for her to protest her dismissal. As the highest-ranking officer in the Drakharin army, Tanith was more accustomed to giving orders than taking them, but there was one person she did not outrank, and that was Caius. He was the Dragon Prince—the youngest ever elected to the position—and had been for a century. He’d proved himself worthy of the title through years of battle and politics. Hissister occasionally needed reminding that it was his head, not hers, upon which the crown of the Drakharin sat.
    After a full minute, Tanith extended her arms, sketching out a shallow bow. “As my prince commands.”
    If Tanith’s insincerity were gold
, Caius thought,
I’d be a rich man indeed
.

CHAPTER FOUR
     
    Echo was glad she’d skipped the burrito. As the dark of the in-between gave way to the soft, golden glow of the Ala’s chamber, the contents of her stomach roiled as if she were at sea, even though they hadn’t traveled far. The Nest lay right below the library on Fifth Avenue, but as far as Echo knew, she was the only human aware of its existence. It always felt this way, traveling with the Ala without a man-made threshold to anchor her passage. The Ala remained as unruffled as ever. Her black feathers were smooth and silky, as dark as the in-between itself. Maybe the Ala carried a little bit of it inside her. It would explain how she could wrap it around herself like a cloak and travel wherever she