Endless Knight (Darkling Mage 9)

Chapter 1

Lucero Beach was beautiful in the afternoon. Perfect weather for a strawberry daiquiri, with a balmy breeze that smelled of salt and waves. It was tough to beat such a glorious day, just a lazy time sitting on the pier with the boys of the Boneyard, our beers and cocktails dewy with condensation, sipping our drinks quickly because they warmed just as quickly in the sun. Nothing but the rush of water, and faint, distant strains of steel drums and steel guitars.

Hi. I’m Dustin Graves and I’m – well, I’m content. Or I was, rather. Content to be among friends, to be communing with nature, as close to nature as we could get in Valero. And content to be replacing my blood with alcohol, to just let go for the span of one blissful, carefree afternoon. Just the one.

It was just me and the boys – well, some of them, those of us who were built to hang out in the sun without bursting into flames. I sat with Herald at a wooden table over the same jetty where we once hung out as buddies, just friends enjoying a little bit of brunch. We were with Prudence back then, and we were with Prudence that day, too, but this time she had Gil along.

How things had changed, I thought, looking down the table to find Mason and Asher deep in conversation about something or another. Video games, I figured, some kind of heated, impassioned discussion between a nephilim and a necromancer. They really didn’t have very much in common apart from their age, those two, but they got along magically just the same.

Asher’s laughter cut across the table, easy and musical over the slow rush of wind and waves, the distant calls of seagulls. It was good to see him so happy, his eyes healed back to their former brightness and luster. The wound I cut into Mason’s cheek by accident had healed over, too, leaving his skin as unblemished as when he’d first joined the Boneyard. I smiled to myself. Some things changed, I thought, and some stayed the same.

The sound of waves rushing drew my attention out towards the ocean, towards the pristine blue of sky and sea. Crystalline water frothed into peaks of pure foam as it hit the sands. I watched the sea, and I remembered coming here as a kid with my dad and my mother. I watched the sea – and I remembered the Great Beasts.

Damn it. I shook my head vigorously. No. No, no. This was a day I was dedicating to myself and my family, one of those in-between periods when we were allowed to spend time being human, being boring and alive, seeking out slivers of normalcy in the spaces between now and the end of the world.

Yet a single thought about Tiamat and her brood brought everything crashing back, and instead of tumbling waves and a warm, salty breeze, my mind and my chest were filling with memories of terror instead – with Loki, with the Eldest, with Agatha Black.

I tossed back the last of my daiquiri and sighed. Herald frowned, then squeezed my hand with warm fingers.

“Problem? Everything okay?”

I forced a smile as I looked at him, my body already slipping back into learned and practiced responses. Herald’s frown deepened, and his grip on my hand went tighter.

“You really don’t need to lie to me, you know. Of all people.”

I sighed again. “I’m sorry. Just – I started thinking of stuff I shouldn’t be thinking about.”

He draped an arm across my shoulders, his body warm against mine. It was a hot day out in Valero, tank top weather, and I was grateful for the press of skin – Herald’s skin – against mine. It felt familiar, comforting, but most important of all, human.

“We talked about this,” Herald said, his fingers digging gently into my shoulders, reassuring. “We’ve only got so much time to breathe between the battles we need to fight. Let’s make the most of it, okay?”

I smiled at him, genuinely this time. There really wasn’t any reason to be so somber, at least not just yet. I curled my fingers around the stem of my cocktail glass, treating it like a delicate champagne flute the way that Sterling had taught me, then tossed back the rest of my daiquiri like the uncouth, uncultured barbarian I actually was. Pureed frozen strawberries and rum streaked the inside of my throat. I swallowed carefully to stave off a bout of brain freeze.

“That’s better,” Herald said, chuckling. “Though maybe ease up on the chugging, huh? We’ve still got business to attend to.”

He summoned a waiter to order me another drink – why yes, I loved being coddled by someone who met my needs before I even knew I needed them myself, thanks for asking – and I looked around the jetty, searching the beach for the second half of our party. Not quite the second half, really. We were only waiting for two more people. And, okay – they weren’t quite people, either. Not exactly.

Prudence frowned as she glanced down at her watch, tapping its face. “We got the time right, didn’t we? We were supposed to meet right here, weren’t we?”

Gil reached across her shoulder, squeezing as he chuckled. His fingers closed over the very same blue dragon tattoo I’d once noticed on her shoulder so long ago – the first hint, I should have known, of Prudence’s true nature.

“They’ll be here soon enough,” Gil said. “This is important, to them, and to Dustin.”

I nodded at them both, feeling around the inside of my pocket for the rolled-up scroll of parchment. Still there. Good. Prudence glanced between me and Gil impetuously, then turned to her beer, drinking it quietly, if a little grumpily.

Mason spoke up just then, his head whipping away from his conversation with Asher. He glanced around the jetty, his eyes scanning. “They’re here,” he said.

My eyes narrowed as I focused on him. “How the hell do you even know?”