Book One – Chapter 13

Midnight reached out to the male nestled within the highest crevice, determined to touch his essence, to seize it, to consume it and make it her own. Her darkness surrounded him, occupying the same space, yet for all her reach, Midnight failed to gain a hold on him.

As she struggled to make her darkness denser, now repeatedly attempting to wrap it around different creatures, the winged beasts began to stir. Something primal within them sensed the predator in their midst. A tremor ran through the flock, a collective flutter of wings, sudden, frantic, flaring fear — the male far above her bolted, launching himself into the air with an impulsive burst of energy. Instantly, the others followed, their sleek forms desperately darting away from the darkness that had invaded their refuge.

The hunt was on. Midnight surged after the fiator who had first sensed her presence. He was fast, but Midnight, unbound by the constraints of a physical existence, moved with a speed that defied nature. She streaked through the night more elusive and swift than any pathera could ever hope to be. The bird’s panic was palpable, a sharp flare of fear mingled with the fierce determination to escape the unseen predator.

Despite his small size — barely four bites for a patherren — the fiator was a marvel of speed and skill. As a mountain glider, he was perfectly adapted to this harsh environment, racing through the treacherous terrain with a grace that belied the brutality of the elements. Darting through spontaneous and constantly shifting wind currents, weaving through fog, snow, hail, and rain, he navigated the jagged contours of the mountain with remarkable agility. The fiator’s evasive manoeuvres, his sudden dives and rapid ascents, were all observed, calculated, and countered. Repeatedly, he attempted to break away from the mountain face, to soar into the open sky, but the relentless winds and swirling snowstorms always forced him back, confining him to the narrow corridors of safety along the jagged cliffs. While he hugged the steep slopes and cliffs for fleeting moments of shelter, Midnight moved with an impossible speed, neither slowed or constrained by the forces that trapped him within her reach.