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“You don’t agree with them? That we have to fight back?”

Ragnar laughed and shook his head. “If the mortals have nukes, they will put up a good fight, that may not go in our favor.”

I called the young Seer.

“Tell me what you see,” I said, leaning back and closing my eyes.

He was quiet for a while. Then he said, “There is a horse in a clearing. It is big and black and very strong. Clouds fill the sky and there is lightning which comes and strikes a tree nearby, there is a fire and the whole tree is in flames. The fire spreads to other trees and the grass, it becomes a bush fire and it is coming towards the horse. But it just stands there,” he says.

“The horse does not run away?” I ask him.

The boy shakes his head. “I don’t know what it means,” he says.

“I do,” I say, quietly.

Chapter 21

Izzy

We stay in the shelter for a few days.

One morning, the news of the military strikes reach us and there is victorious cheering and clapping throughout the caves. We have been asked to remain here for a while longer, to ensure that it is entirely safe for us to go back out. Apparently, some rogue forces need to be subdued and this is taking time.

I focus on my own recovery and try not to think of anything else.

On the fourth morning, my mother does not wake up. She had been quiet, not getting out of bed the day before. When I asked her if she was not feeling well, she’d said she wanted to sleep, closing her eyes and not opening them the rest of the day. At night, I had tried to feed her some broth and she had looked at me with tired eyes, saying,

“It’s time, Iz.”

I hugged her and told her I loved her and she said she loved me too. I lay with her a while, checking her pulse and it was there, though faint.

But in the morning, I could see she had gone.

Her loss affected me profoundly. Everyone was gone now. My entire family, even Costello. I had not realized how much my mother had rooted me to the world and without her, I felt completely lost.

I asked some men to carry my mother’s body down to our house, I wanted to bury her there. She was so light, one man was able to do it on his own. A few of our friends came to help medig the grave. I chose a spot in the greenhouse, thinking that she could rest among the orchids. I was pleased to see that they had managed to survive without my mother’s care and thought of what she always liked to say, that we are hardier than we know.

After the burial, some of her friends stayed around, but I kept to myself. I couldn’t interact with anyone. I stayed in the greenhouse and didn’t go back to the shelter, even though a few people tried to convince me to go back.

The next morning, I went back to the house, swept out the dust and made a fire for coffee. There was a knock on the door and when I opened it, it was Joe.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” he said.

I offered to make him some coffee too and we went outside, to sit on the bench. It was still early and not that hot. He filled me in on news from the capital and the Citadel.

“What do you hear from the West?” I asked.

He smiled. “You mean the Fallon D’Valleira family?”

I nodded.

“They are safe. For now.”

“What does that mean?”

Joe looked at me. “I don’t know how much you know…” he seemed to consider what to tell me and then with a sigh, decided it didn’t matter.

“There has been a vampire uprising in the east. Some families upset by the action taken against Tempesto. They refuse to accept that he had become corrupt and had become a threat to peace. The capital is deploying force to bring it under control.”