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“Will be completely fine,” Lucius said gruffly. “I’ve combed every ship and evacuated anyone who isn’t supposed to be there. We’ve chosen a target that no one will object to destroying.”
I let a silent breath of relief. Of course, Maximillian would have asked Lucius to take precautions. He wasn’t a cruel person. Still, I found myself gripping the pommel tighter, a sense of urgency coming over me. The aethersteed seemed to sense my emotion—it sped up into a gallop, and Lucius cursed under his breath as it swerved, narrowly missing a cart that someone had left parked in the middle of the street.
We arrived at the airshipyard, and Lucius pulled his steed to a halt just inside the gates, where a pair of guards waited. “Take her,” he ordered, handing me down like I was a toddler. “She may watch, but do not let her out of your sight, and do not allow her to come within one hundred yards of the cannon.”
“Yes, sir,” the guards said. I gritted my teeth as Lucius trotted off without a backward glance, heading toward the middle of the yard where a small group of vampires waited. I could just make out the storm grey shine of Maximillian’s hair, and Eliza’s curly blonde mop as she fiddled with a large dial.
“Come this way, Miss,” one of the guards said. They led me to one of the skeletal aetherships to the left of the gathering, far enough away that I wouldn’t be recognized by anyone—especially with the hood of my cloak up—but close enough I had a clear view of the unfolding spectacle.
And what a spectacle it was.
“Order!” Eliza called, her voice magnified by some kind of aetheric device glowing at her throat. She stood in the center of the airshipyard next to a monstrous amalgamation of sunsteeland glowing aether and moonstone crystals that had to be the cannon. It was twice as big as Lucius, its barrel large enough for an ordinary-sized man to walk through, and it emitted a faint aura I could sense even from this distance. A semi-circle of vampires clustered around it—Maximillian, Vinicius, Lucius, Nyra, and Sparrow, along with a few others who looked to be the commandant’s aides.
But the real audience lay outside the airship, just beyond the chain-link fences. Vampire citizens pressed up along one end of the fence, humans on another, the two races segregated by the pole placed at the corner of the perimeter. The vampires were clearly excited, almost restless, while the humans looked on with faces drawn with apprehension. My stomach tightened as I noticed more than a few faces fixed on the hidden temple, and I wondered if Hannah and her friends were in the crowd. I sent a silent prayer to Hecate that the three of them were safe.
Eliza waited until the crowd fell silent before speaking again. “Ladies and gentlemen,” she called, addressing the crowd with a professional demeanor that showed nothing of her spunky personality, "Today we are demonstrating a significant advancement in our defense capabilities," she stated, indicating the aether cannon beside her. "This new iteration of the aether cannon that we have been working on for the past year harnesses both lunar and aetheric energy, a combination that yields greater efficiency and a more powerful output than earlier models."
Vinicius seemed pleased as he listened to Eliza’s speech, and the vampires crowded against the fence to get a better look at the cannon. But though Eliza remained coolly professional, I could have sworn there was an undercurrent of apprehension in her voice as she pointed toward a rickety airship roughly fourhundred yards away. "The target for today's test," she said, then stepped aside.
A sense of expectation hung in the air as all eyes focused on the cannon and its target. Maximillian turned to Vinicius, extending an arm in invitation. “Would you like to do the honors, Commandant?” he asked politely.
“I would,” the commandant said. The relish in his tone was unmistakable, and I gripped the deck railing as I watched him approach the cannon. Stepping onto the platform, he adjusted the control panel with a deftness that told me he was already familiar with the device’s workings. The air thickened with anticipation as his hand hovered over the glowing launch button, and we all waited for him to discharge the cannon.
Without warning, the vampire gripped the steering handles of the platform and swung it around, aiming it directly at the hidden temple. Lucius and Maximillian startled, but before they could do anything to stop him, the commandant slapped his hand against the button.
A blinding beam of violet light erupted from the cannon, hurtling across the yard and striking the airship. The impact was immediate and explosive, the structure erupting into flames that sent a wave of shock and disbelief through the crowd. The vampires hissed, recoiling from the surge of heat and light, and the humans screamed in anguish.
I vaulted over the railing, my vision hazed red with rage as I zeroed in on the commandant. I didn’t care who he was—I was going to end him for what he had done. Memories of the inside of the temple tore at me—the mismatched furnishings, the lovingly hand-painted art and tapestries, all gathered painstakingly by humans who had nothing other than the faithburning in their hearts. But the guards caught up to me halfway, and they grabbed me by both arms, hauling me into the shadows behind a stack of crates.
“Miss, stop!” one of them said as I struggled to free myself. I slashed out at him with one of my stakes, and he knocked the weapon out of my hands. “It’s too late! There’s nothing you can do.”
The earnestness in the guard’s voice reached me through my fury, and I went still as I realized he was right. Acrid smoke billowed in the surrounding air, and the sound of the human slaves sobbing was muffled by the crackle of flames as they devoured what had once been a sacred place for them.
“You can let me go,” I muttered, my shoulders slumping. “I won’t fight.”
The guards reluctantly released me, and I peered around the crates to see Vinicius facing Maximillian, offering the vampire lord a bemused smile. “It seems my actions have caused some consternation amongst the slaves,” he said, speaking over the wails from the human crowd. “Was there something special about that airship?”
“Not at all.” Maximillian’s face was a cool, expressionless mask, but there was a dangerous glint in his eyes. “Though I would like to know why you chose to recklessly endanger everyone by changing the trajectory of the cannon at the last minute. We chose that airship because we knew there were no components inside that would react with the cannon’s energy discharge. The one you fired was not inspected.”
“My apologies,” Vinicius said, though he didn’t sound in the least bit sorry. There was a smug, almost triumphant look on hisface as he swept his red gaze across the humans. “Sometimes I forget how frail humans can be. It won’t happen again.”
A cry of rage rent the air, and the vampires turned to see a small group of humans charge through a hole in the fence. The firelight from the burning airship flickered across their tear-streaked faces, and horror rose in my chest as I saw the gruff, middle-aged man who’d scolded us outside the temple yesterday leading the charge, along with several others from the congregation.
“Phaeros smite you, vampire scum!” he screamed, raising a short sword high over his head. The others had various weapons as well, and I realized that they’d come armed, prepared for a confrontation. Had they known this was going to happen? Or was there some other reason they’d shown up armed? My heart surged in my throat, and I leaped over the crates before my guards could stop me, unable to stop myself from rushing to the humans’ aid.
The commandant let out a sinister chuckle, drawing a clawed finger across the center of his left palm. “Your sun god is dead, human,” he said, a ribbon of blood rippling from the center of his hand to form a crimson blade that acted an extension of his arm. “And so are you.”
He surged forward to meet the humans, and I let a stake fly from my hand—or at least, I tried to. A ripple of power cut through the air, and my stake flew sideways, then clattered to the ground. In the next second, I was frozen in mid-air—and so was everyone else.
“Stand down, Commandant,” Maximillian ordered, his voice vibrating with command. Like me, Vinicius was frozen in midair, his pose almost comical—legs stretched out at odd angles off theground, his sword arm flung wide in mid-swing. The humans were also caught in various action poses, their eyes bulging out of their skulls as they struggled against the invisible spider’s web they’d been caught in.
I gaped at Maximillian, too astonished to be angry. It was one thing to immobilize me, even at a distance like this. But to be able to hold a dozen or so people with only a thought… just how powerfulwasthis vampire lord?
Vinicius snarled, and the blood sword in his hand transformed into a long, snaking whip. “You dare come between me and my rightful prey?” he accused, his eyes blazing.
“This ismy territory,” Maximillian said, his voice icier than I’d ever heard it. “You donotget to decide which humans are prey and which aren’t. Not here.”
“They were about to attack me!”
