I was at training with Freya behind the Seilers’ house when we heard the cry—one quick shout from Anathalie, quickly stifled. But it was enough. I burst into flight, and instantly I felt Orison at my left and Salathiel at my right, with Ruhamah and Ero’an flanking us. We have been waiting for this moment for some time.
“We have the heading,” Orison assured me, nudging his wing underneath mine to guide me. “Find the thread, Asa’el.”
I closed my eyes, and almost immediately the thread sparkled to life in my heart. One side of it was all but lifeless now, although I felt a jolt of panic as Asoharith realized what we were doing. I ignored that in favor of the other side, which showed me Freya calling out to George and Kara. We would soon have all of their support.
And then we were at the location where Anathalie’s call had originated. The others stopped to hover, and I knew that they could feel the frantic battle that was happening in the night, but none of them could see our sister or her attacker.
But I could.
I believe it was a perverse gift of Neige’s, that the marks of her fingers on my eyes have strengthened them to see in the dark. I could see the tangle of shadows that Pelaios wore like a cloak, and through them I could see the figure of Anathalie, with her fingers locked around Pelaios’ throat.
Winging upward, I drew an arrow, sighted, and loosed directly into the shadows. They burst into flames as the arrow passed through them, and Pelaios howled as the arrow struck his shoulder.
An instant of hesitation was all Anathalie needed. She snatched the arrow and drove its point so savagely into Pelaios’ throat that her fist knocked against his skin.
We all went still, even Pelaios, his wings falling limp. Anathalie disengaged from him, and together we all watched him begin to fall. Before he could pick up speed, he vanished into nothing, fading into the shadows he had used all his life.
Orison told me later that he, too, saw Pelaios smiling at the end, and it worried him, too.
Anathalie shook herself and turned to face us. “You underestimate me if you think that I needed so much help,” she said, surveying all of us.
“We were not going to take the slightest chance that we might lose you,” Ero’an answered.
She ducked her head, deflecting the show of affection. Her gaze landed on me. “Can you find the other?”
I took a breath and sought out the darker side of the thread. Evidently, though, Asoharith has learned how to block me, for while I felt her anger and fear, it was dim, as if heard through a wall.
“I will keep trying,” I said.
“It matters little,” Salathiel assured me. “Now that she is exposed, the Readers should be able to locate her within a few days. When they do, we will be ready.”
I hope she is right. I feel ready, and I know from the wall of power that rose behind me from my human friends that they are ready, as well. Though Kara was none too pleased to have no part in tonight’s victory.
I told her that soon there will be a victory in which all of us can share. I hope that I am right.