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Camille seldom used Menolly's nickname for me, and when she did, I knew she was worried.
"I just… I liked him, Camille. I liked him, and now I find out that all of his cronies think we're trash. It's just like home. Windwalkers, that's all we ever were and all we'll ever be." The words cut deep as they rolled off my tongue, leaving a bitter aftertaste.
"Remember what Venus told you? Don't be ashamed of being a Windwalker. We're daughters of destiny, babe, and that's not always an easy task. For some reason, we've been singled out to fight Shadow Wing. Yes, it's terrifying, but we wouldn't have the courage to face him if we'd had easy childhoods. We learned to stand up for ourselves because we had to. Now we're standing up to demons because that's what we're born to do."
She put her arm around my waist and gave me a squeeze. "Delilah, no matter what, you'll always have Menolly and me. We'll always be here for you, and we'll always love you. We are your family, no matter where we happen to live. Father loves you, too. And Aunt Rythwar. And Iris and Maggie."
I gazed into her upturned face. She could be self-centered at times, but when Camille spoke from the heart, her convictions bubbled up from a well of passion impossible to doubt. I leaned down and kissed her forehead.
"You have always been such a role model for me," I whispered. "You take things in stride, you laugh off the insults, and you have a fuck-you attitude that I wish to hell I could emulate."
"I heard what Zach said." Camille sighed. "If the demons weren't involved, I'd say screw it and let's go home. But they are, and so we are."
I tucked my arm through hers. "Damn it, why does everything have to be so complicated? At least Chase respects me. And that goes a long way in my book."
Camille nodded. "Chase washed up better than I thought he would. I still don't understand what you see in him, but hey, you wouldn't touch Trillian with a ten-foot pole," she added, laughing.
"Make that twenty," I muttered, grinning back at her. "Okay, let's just shove all this crap aside until we're done here, and then I'll figure out what I want to do about Zach. If anything."
With that, we came to the edge of the trail and found ourselves looking into the barren lea that held Smoky's barrow. The trees swayed, creaking as their boughs rubbed against one another, and the entire meadow glistened with hoarfrost, a tapestry of lacework so intricate I could barely follow the threads of ice crisscrossing the ground.
I looked for signs of Titania, but she was nowhere to be seen, and I decided not to bother Smoky by asking about her. I'd used up my quota of questions for one day, and while we assumed he didn't eat people, he'd never said so directly.
Smoky stopped atop the barrow mound and motioned for us to back off. "I'm going to part the veils between this world and the realm of the Autumn Lord and summon him. He'll come—or not—as he chooses, but if he does, remember this: I have no say over his actions. Don't get near the veil of flame; it will burn you to a crisp if you touch it."
And with that, Smoky gave us a wicked grin and then, even though he was still in human form, all sense of humanity drained away. Like a pillar of ice, he stood, glittering and cold and mesmerizing. I heard Camille gasp as her hand fluttered to her throat as she stood frozen, staring at her lover-to-be.
Smoky threw back his head and laughed, his voice rumbling across the forest. For a moment, I thought he'd been possessed, but then he gave us a piercing look, and his eyes—brilliant as diamonds in the velvet black of the night—flashed, mirroring the aurora that rippled across the midnight sky.
He lifted his left hand to the heavens, and a bolt of lightning flared down his arm, surrounding him with a blue white, blazing aura. Camille fell to her knees, her face a mask of awe and desire, but Smoky took no notice of her.
"Dracon, dracon, dracon … I call down the fire of the gods, I call down the flame of my fathers, I call down the frozen blade of Hel from the land of the dead. Burn wide the gate. Flame of my blood, open the barrier."
With his right hand, he began to inscribe a cobalt pentagram on top of the barrow. A veil of light began to shimmer in the center of the rune.
"Get ready," he said, and his voice thundered around us. As I gazed at him, his dragon self seemed to surround his body in a vaporous mist, as if he'd simultaneously taken on his natural shape yet remained in his human form.
We huddled together, waiting as Smoky chanted an incantation in an arcane language I couldn't understand. His voice caught hold of the cadence, and like a drummer gone wild, his words beat a staccato rhythm as the flames of the rune began to dance. Melding, blurring, forming a veil, the shimmers of azure and cobalt and sapphire swirled in the gloom-filled afternoon. And then his voice rose, and the curtain of flame parted.
"Lord of the Autumn, I call you forth to this place. Be here, now!"
And then, through the flames, came the flicker of a silhouette. It seemed the Autumn Lord had decided to answer our call.
* * *
CHAPTER 12
As he stepped through the veil of flame, first one and then a second stacked-heeled boot appeared. Lustrous, the boots were jet-black and scuff free. With every step, a dusting of frost fell from their heels.
The train of a cloak came into view, a swirl of autumn leaves billowing like a feathered cape. As the Autumn Lord crossed from his realm into our world, I found myself both terrified and transfixed. He stepped down from the barrow in a silence so palpable I could hear the breath of everyone in the meadow.
The Autumn Lord. There was no room for doubt. This was the lord of the flames, lord of the autumn winds that shook the windows, lord of pumpkins and tangy soil and decaying foliage. A silent figure, he drove before him the scent of distant fire borne on the northern winds.
He strode toward us, his hair as black as his boots, his face pale and translucent. Twin flames of supernatural fire pierced my shields as he stared at me, leaving me naked and vulnerable. I'd never felt so exposed in my life.
"Back away, dragon spawn." Brushing past Smoky, he held out his hands to me, ten diamond daggers of curving ice pointing in my direction. "You are the one who requires my presence. Come to me, girl, and tell me what you want."
Smoky took one look at the Autumn Lord and backed up. I swallowed whatever was left from my lunch. When a dragon obeyed without question, whoever was giving the orders had to be packing a butt load of power. I forced myself to step forward.
