Chapter 8
Nocturnes

Fae’s eyes snapped open. It was dawn.
Time to get moving.
‘Conroth,’ she groaned, rolling over to face the snoring merchant, ‘Conroth, wake up. We have to go.’
The blonde man moaned and shifted himself upright.
‘My shoulder… I can’t go far,’ he sighed, rubbing his black eye with three fingers, ‘where are you going, anyway? Where’s the circus?’
Fae lowered her eyes and explained.
‘What?!’ Conroth cried, leaping to his feet, ‘and they took Ed… they want you, Fae. You’re running.’
‘I’m going to rescue Ed,’ Fae said, shaking her head, ‘I’m not running.’
‘You must, my child.’
Conroth turned round and yelped as his shoulder clicked back into place.
‘Now that’s better,’ the merchant whispered to Fae, glancing around for the source of the voice.
‘Why should I reveal myself to you?’ The velvety, handsome voice sighed, ‘I want nothing of you. Go.’
‘We should do as he says,’ Conroth breathed into Fae’s ear.
‘Now, is that necessary?’ The voice chuckled, ‘let my child choose. She is of course closer to my kind than you could ever be, Conroth Bardtongue.’
‘How do you…’ Conroth began but then gasped as the voice revealed itself.
Out of a huge pine tree a figure swooped down with paper white skin, long and layered blue-black hair, entirely silver eyes with narrow catlike pupils and a pair of huge, black, leathery bat wings that snapped shut as he landed. His ears were long and pointed. The creature tilted his head to one side, batting his long black eyelashes. He also had a pair of curved black horns erupting from the sides of his forehead. His hands were lined with white scars and talons sprouted from his fingertips. A long, thin, black leathery tail lashed the air behind him.
‘I know what you are thinking, my child,’ he laughed, ‘how are we alike, what are you? Do not fear, Fae, for I am like you. I will not harm you.’
The emphasis on the “you” was so obvious that Conroth flinched.
‘If you can read my mind, then answer what I ask of you,’ Fae whispered, stepping forwards until she was but a foot away from the creature. The winged creature grinned crookedly, revealing a set of yellowed fangs tipped with crimson blood.
‘I am one of many names. The Cast Down One, The Crestfallen One, Nocturnes, Rival of the Stars… Nocturnes will do nicely for now,’ the creature stepped forward, closing the distance between Fae and himself, ‘I am the Thirteenth Warrior of the Zodiac.’
Conroth gasped from behind them, but Fae didn’t notice. She was gazing at the pendant resting on Nocturnes’s bare, muscular white chest. It was two swans back to back, wings spread, one white and one black. The symbol of the warriors of the zodiac.
‘I had my own element that you also are one of, you and I.’
‘What was that?’ Fae whispered.
Nocturnes smiled again and like the Child of the First Sunrise tucked a loose strand of her hair behind one of her ears, but not in a menacing way like the warrior had done, but in a fatherly fashion.
‘Darkness, my child,’ he whispered back, ‘light does not always equate to good, as darkness does not always equate to evil.’
‘Fae,’ Conroth called nervously from behind them, ‘we should really get going now…’
‘Father,’ Fae whispered.
Nocturnes gave a bark of handsome laughter and crouched down so his handsome face was level with Fae’s.
‘Sadly not, my child, although I would wish it to be so if I were to have a child,’ the outcast warrior said, ‘I came to tell you that I am watching over you.’
‘But… isn’t that Aquarius’s job?’ Fae asked, her brow crumpling in confusion.
‘Indeed it is, my child, but he watches over you for another purpose,’ Nocturnes smiled to himself, ‘I was cast out a few hours after you were born, and you were born under both Aquarius’s and my stars.’
‘But…’
Nocturnes pressed a smooth claw to her lips.
‘I love you, for you are the last of my kind and my family. Darkness. Aquarius loves you because… well…’
‘I know, I saw it in a dream,’ Fae told him.
Nocturnes raised a slim black eyebrow.
‘You must have inherited some of my gifts.’
‘So… am I water or darkness?’
Conroth had sat down by now and was counting the silver coins in his wallet.
‘You are darkness,’ Nocturnes insisted, ‘but you have some water blood in you.’
‘Why were you cast down?’ Fae asked.
‘I have not the time to explain now,’ Nocturnes leaned forwards so his forehead pressed against hers, ‘but take this knowledge so you may discover after I depart.’
‘Where are you going?’ Fae asked, gazing into Nocturnes’s gorgeous silver eyes.     
‘Hunting,’ Nocturnes grunted, ‘you’d be surprised how quickly a god of the night can get hungry when he is cast down to the mortal realms.’
Fae laughed. Nocturnes smiled at her, a fatherly twinkle in his eyes.
‘I will watch over you,’ he murmured, moving away and brushing her forehead with his claws, ‘always.’