Page 61 of The Nightbound Soldier

“It’s not as if they have much of a choice. It’s death or undeath.”

Leroy sighs as if I’m annoying him. “In the modern world, we can’t simply create more notturnos out of fae without their agreement.”

“You sound like the Summer princess.”

“Really?” Leroy flips his hair over his shoulder and flutters his eyelashes.

Ledger kicks him in the shin and says, “General, you can’t secretly make three hundred fairies. It will look like you’re making a secret army.”

“I am!”

“But they can’t know that until after!”

I wince at his rising voice. “Stop screaming.“

“You screamed first,” Ledger points out.

“Did not.”

“Did too,” Leroy says. “Boys, listen, without the signatures, the houses will go to the fae kings, and the kings will follow the laws of the lands, which say these agreements must be made between vampires and fae. With signatures, the houses will come after us for not consulting them first.”

“The existing notturnos are governed by the living, and the living don’t rule us.” I push off the table. “We are the undead. We are our own people, and we shall rise again.”

“And exist alongside the living,” Ledger says. “This time around, we won’t be hunted, burned, or forced to endure sunlight or feed on corpses. This time, the undead will walk among the living for many turns to come.”

“Hear, hear,” his brother says.

I lean in. “The undead magic is inside a baby. A baby is weak. On the eve of her birth, the fates will go blind, and the magic of the living will grow angry. The clouds will block the moon and the sun for spans. The world will know she has arrived. The living will feel it, and they will want to hurt her, for they think she means them harm. During that time, they will come for her, and we must hold firm or die again, maybe never to return. So, fucking signatures or not, the fae walking through these doors tonight are all dead fae.”

“And what of the Summer princess?” Ledger asks.

“What of her?”

“She thinks it’s a masked ball,” Leroy says.

“It is.”

“What we’re trying to say,” Leroy says, “is that she wrote letters promising a ball and guaranteeing safety and asked us to distribute them to the traitor families that haven’t responded before. We used the letters to gather signatures.”

I clap Ledger on the shoulder. “Very clever.” I sense Leroy’s discomfort. “Is there a problem?”

“It will upset her greatly that I used her good name to recruit a secret army, an act that will provoke a war between the vampire houses.”

“I gather you’re more concerned about upsetting the Summer princess than you are afraid that the thousands of vampires of all seven houses will descend upon us. Is that right?”

“When you put it that way…” Leroy strokes his chin. “The answer is yes. There’s something…innocent and kind about her. I would hate to hurt her feelings.”

“You won’t.”

But I’m sure I will.

26

NOTTUZA

The best-laid battle plans are only as good as the ability to pivot with the enemy’s movements. I can plan the field of the battle, the possible advantages of our positions, and whatever else is within my control, but the opponent’s reactions to the applied force are my speculations, not certainties. Therefore, I must plan for several possible outcomes or pivot points during battles as I see them play out in my head.

My reactions to anything Fleur does are always shocking.

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