Page 16 of The Night Prince 6

But they were too late.

Because this unnamed, unknown girl had time enough to scream.

Her scream was represented by the music wailing, rising up almost painfully, to the heavens. Vex leaned back to keep that note going and going and going just as her scream had done.

It woke the Kindreth to the doom that was coming on silent feet. It woke him. And his father. His mother. His brother. His sister. This was a fight to the end for the Kindreth then.

Iefyr.

It was a cry that he created after this battle. For all the battles after it. When he forged the Kindreth into the mighty empire it now was. But that night they truly were fighting for their lives. And it would have been their end, but for that unnamed girl’s scream.

And Lysanthir’s life according to my father.

He’d closed his eyes at some point. He wasn’t sure when. The note died away. He slowly opened his eyes to see the others staring at him wide-eyed. The pages of music in Cynda’s hand fluttered down to the ground as she blinked at him.

There were tears in Tish’s eyes. “Damn.”

“Wow,” Mike whispered.

“Holy fuck,” Hank laughed softly. “You really are a rock star.”

Cynda stepped up to him. Her eyes glowing with wonder. “Forget our music. Can you teach us that?”

The others were all nodding. Vex’s throat felt too tight to speak. His hands smoothed over the front of the electric guitar. This was a true instrument of the gods.

He nodded. He would teach them.

Lysanthir

“What do you mean this sword isn’t mine?” Darcassan snapped at Gemma. “It is mine! It is!”

His vehemence almost had Gemma stepping back, but she firmed her stance and held strong. Both her parents had taught her that showing fear in front of certain people only emboldened them and was, therefore, dangerous. While it was sometimes wise to retreat and live to fight another day, there were other times where one had to stand one’s ground. This was one of those latter times. So she schooled her face into a neutral expression and lifted an eyebrow to appear completely unconcerned by him.

“That’s not what the sword is saying,” Gemma pointed out dryly. “So maybe you ought to tell it that and not me?” Her left eyebrow lifted higher to accentuate that point.

“What are you talking about? The sword isn’t–doesn’t–speak!” Darcassan stared down at the glorious weapon that he was now holding in both hands as it appeared to be awfully heavy for him.

Gemma blinked. “What are you talking about? Can’t you hear it? It’s saying…” She tilted her head to the side and, once more, heard the haunting, soft voice say, “Lysanthir.” She blinked as it repeated the beautiful elven name. She was certain it was an elven name. “Lysanthir.” She nodded. That was definitely what it was saying.

“What? It’s saying nothing of the sort!” Darcassan glared down at the sword whose tip was now resting on the ground clearly having become much too heavy for him to lift fully. “It’s not speaking at all!”

“It is! I don’t know why you can’t hear it and I can!” Gemma’s eyes flashed anger at him.

Normally, she wasn’t so quick to lose her temper, but Rachel and Laura had been so awful to her and things were only going to get worse tomorrow when they started gossiping about her at school! Claiming that she wasn’t pretty enough for the unicorn to come! Claiming she wasn’t a virgin.

She remembered how Laura had leaned over, cupped a hand around Rachel’s ear and said in a whisper she knew that Gemma could hear, “The unicorn isn’t going to come with her here. She’s so ugly. Totally scaring it away.”

Rachel had snickered, but then guiltily looked down. Laura was very pretty. She had skin as pale as cream and curly blond hair that fell to her shoulders. She was slender with just a trace of development in her chest. Her fox-like face made her seem like some of the anime characters Gemma had always loved.

Rachel was very pretty, too. She was black like Gemma, though she was much lighter-skinned. Gemma knew that some people thought her dark chocolate complexion wasn’t as lovely as Rachel’s cafe au lait skin let alone Rachel’s fair complexion. But she was the same skin tone as her mother and everyone knew that Shonda Baston was beautiful. But, in that moment, Gemma found herself wanting to tug down the sleeves of her dress. She consciously stilled the movement, but both Rachel and Laura had seen. It was like announcing to the world that she knew they were right.

She was ugly.

No! No, I’m not!

“The unicorn isn’t coming,” Laura said, putting her hands on her hips and looking Gemma up and down. “I think we can all guess why.”

“Unicorns don’t care what you look like!” Gemma objected, but even saying that felt like, once more, admitting she was ugly just like Laura had said.