Immortals After Dark 03 - No Rest for the Wicked

asked.
    “Cold Kaderin’s giving off lightning. Valkyrie produce it with strong emotion.”
    Was that true? He glanced up through the glass dome and saw bolts painting the sky. The morning at his castle, he’d been so absorbed with her, so focused on keeping her there, that he’d noticed little else. Now, thinking back, he recalled thunder had been rumbling on a crystal-clear morning. He stared in awe. Did he find the lightning more fascinating because it was hers?
    “She will be even more vicious than before,” the woman continued. “We’ll stay clear of her.”
    He dropped his gaze to Kaderin once more. He’d experienced her violence already, but vicious? She could not appear less so. Her blond hair curled gently over her slim shoulders. Her fingers were fragile-looking, deft. So fair and delicate, Sebastian thought.
    Yes. Fair and delicate. His eyes narrowed. Even as her file smoothed up and back over her weapon until the razor-sharp edges glinted.

    The key. To go back in time.
    Kaderin’s sword hand shook wildly. Keep it together! Yes, she’d just received life-changing news, but she could never let anyone know how dearly she needed to win this prize. She needed to be cold.
    She balled her hands into fists. Through the observatory skylight, lightning could be seen forking across the sky. Furtive glances were cast her way.
    Lightning? Again?
    Much was on the line. Everything was on the line. Her past and her future.
    Her sisters’ futures.
    She could bring them back. All she had to do was win this competition.
    As she had the last five. Most Lore beings hadn’t lived long enough even to conceive of a time when Kaderin didn’t win.
    The thought of Dasha and Rika back with her, back within the coven, made the corners of her lips awkwardly twitch again. It was as though her face were relearning how to smile, much as it had when she’d smiled at Sebastian.
    She could teach her sisters about this new age, show them the wonders of it. They could have her room at the manor—Kaderin had one of the best views of the murky bayou. She’d give them all of the few clothes and jewelry pieces she owned. Kaderin never shopped and had a habit of filching from the coven whatever clothes struck her fancy. Now she could use the money she’d saved all these years to spoil them.
    To atone. For causing their deaths.
    I have to stop shaking.
    All she would need was once with the key. She would give the second time to the Accord—and let them decide what to do with it.
    The last time she’d seen her sisters had been when she’d buried them. To have a vision to replace that horror, she would do anything, eliminate anything that got in her way.
    In the past, she’d been brutal to her fellow competitors.
    They’ve seen nothing.
    Her gaze flickered down over them, and she saw not living beings but obstacles to be removed. The vampire was an obstacle as well, confusing her and undermining her intimidation of these people, which she had always wielded like a weapon. She would strike out—but not with anger. She would unleash her chilling brand of menace.
    For her sisters... anything.
    She studied her reflection in her sword. If the vampire got in her way, she’d slice her blade through his neck. She wouldn’t even wait to see his body collapse before she turned and forgot him.

    I could enter.
    Sebastian could give her something she wanted badly. He could win this competition, and in doing so, he could garner her affection.
    In his mortal life, he’d been a knight but had no lady to offer his sword. Now he did.
    “Then let it be known who’s competing,” said the pale, waxy-skinned man beside Riora.
    All seemed to defer to Kaderin, and she stood, sheathing her sword behind her with one perfectly threaded stab. With her shoulders back and her voice ringing clearly, she said, “Kaderin the Cold of the Accord, competing for the Valkyrie and the Furiae.”
    Furies exist too? Is she part Fury?
    When she sat, a black-haired female stood. “Competing for all Sirenae, I am Lucindeya of the Oceania Sirens.”
    So, sirens exist outside of myth as well. He ran his hand over the back of his neck. Astonishing.
    From just to his right, the girl in the cloak announced, “Mariketa the Awaited, from the House of Witches.”
    Witches, too.
    It was one thing for Sebastian to encounter the clearly “mythical” beings. His eyes grew accustomed to them soon enough. But it was somehow stranger to hear beings who looked human stand