Across the beach—some three thousand yards in the distance—stood the assembled Midnights. Their battle lines were a fair mirror image of the Daylights’ own. In a crescent-shaped line stood five different divisions of Midnights. From left to right, the first two consisted of daemons, the third and fourth of faeries in the shape of big cats and large vultures, and in the fifth stood magiks. Behind that line was another crescent made up of four more divisions. Behind the daemons stood more faeries (all big cats), and guarding Orina Beketov and the Council, who led from the very back, were two blocks of magiks. The fourth block of magiks guarded at the back of the faeries and magiks in front.
The Daylights stood in the same crescent formation. Up front from the left in the first two divisions stood faeries in the shape of big cats (when Caia had asked about the choice, Saffron said that faeries had an affinity for them and felt stronger as felines)—panthers, leopards, tigers, you name it—purring and growling and bussing up against one another with affection and encouragement. Vampyres made up the third division center in line, and the last two were all lykans. Guarding the lykans from behind were magiks.
The second division of the second line was made up of more vampyres who, along with the third branch of magiks, stood to defend the Council, leading from the back. The fourth on the far left was comprised of magiks who waited behind the faeries in front.
Yeah, they were ready to go, all right. Caia exhaled slowly.
“Caia.” Alfred’s voice echoed through the lines by the use of a spell. “It’s time.”
Everyone had attempted to talk her out of speaking with the Midnights, warning that it would make her a target. But the Midnights would recognize her as soon as she got close enough, thanks to the earlier message from the gods. As such, Caia decided to go ahead.
Trying to ignore her trembling nerves, she looked to Lucien. Even in wolf form, he managed to throw her a bolstering look. She stepped forward from the front line among the lykans. Caia strode with determination, her shoulders back, head held high, her face devoid of expression.
Standing at the halfway point between the two covens, using the speaker spell Penelope had taught her, Caia addressed the Midnights, surprising herself with the maturity and authority in her words. “I am Caia Ribeiro. The gods have seen fit to tell you who I am and what I have done. I have given the trace magik back to the gods, freeing us all from Galen’s revenge. Without the trace, I believe we can build a road to peace.”
She heard the snickers and roars of outrage and denial among the Midnights. She hadn’t expected anything else. They hated her and her kind.
“You don’t believe me but it’s already begun. I am half Midnight and yet I stand and fight with Daylights. I stand and fight with two other Midnights who are willing to die for us.”
“And they will!” someone screamed in the distance.
Ignoring the sickness that roar encouraged, Caia forced herself on. “You don’t believe our world can exist in peace, but the trace that bound us to the war is gone. And after today … so will the war itself be!”
Cries of support and growls of anticipation battled against roars of hate and disdain. Caia turned her back on the Midnights, showing them she was unafraid, and walked calmly back to her spot on the front line. Her insides felt as if they’d snapped apart.
Lucien nudged her leg, and she ran her hands through his pelt in thanks.
A rumbling sounded in the distance as a first wave of daemons moved as one toward the Daylights.
“Faeries!” Alfred cried from the back. “Take out those daemons!”
A thundering exploded in Caia’s ears as the faeries leapt forward as one. Their large paws pounded into the ground, propelling them forward at awesome speed, their muzzles drawn back, their eyes focused on their enemy. Caia’s heart raced knowing Saffron was among them.
“Magiks on the left flank, move forward!”
The beauty of the faeries’ race across the beach, the blur of colors, momentarily made Caia forget what their goal was. And then, as she had known they would, three hundred yards from their target, the leading faeries, many of whom were leopards, shifted as smoothly and wondrously as a waterfall. The ground shook under their feet and what sounded like trumpeters deafened Caia as they turned from graceful feline into oversized elephants and massive rhinoceroses with lethal tusks.
A cry rose among the Midnights, but they weren’t quick enough to defend the daemons crushed beneath the faeries’ massive feet. Some managed to scamper out of the way and attempted to clamber onto the shapeshifters to pierce them with their weapons. They were merely shaken off and trampled underfoot. Behind those faeries leapt those still in cat form. They launched around the mass of bodies and huge mammals to attack the Midnight faeries behind the daemons.