Raze the Night (Nightstar Book 2)

Yarima snuck around the Lys-Akkarian war camp, using the cover of night to get close.

It hadn’t taken long for her mother to give her a task, though it had taken longer than she’d thought. Yarima was certain someone had been sent to follow her, but she was doing her absolute best to shake them off. And given the fact that she’d seen no one for days, either they were insanely good or she had managed to lose them.

Yarima certainly hoped it was the latter. She didn’t need a babysitter, and she certainly didn’t need an entourage. She worked best alone.

Besides, she wanted to spy on the Lys-Akkarians just as much as her mother wanted her to. They had stopped their overwhelming progress, letting Orinovo try to gather its strength. And Yarima was supposed to find out why.

She scowled at the camp, listening for any sounds of footsteps around her, but most of the place was asleep.

Yarima doubted they could manage to capture her if she were discovered, but it would still be a major problem to set off an alarm. No only for her current mission, but for anyone else spying or sabotaging in the future.

Still, the Lys-Akkarians had grown careless and arrogant. That was clear from how they acted here. All they did was harass the locals and steal from them while pummeling the Orinovan army into the ground using their precious power couple.

Yarima shook her head as she crept behind the tents, trying to get to the command tent. Surely there would be some kind of evidence to find there, if only in letters. She just hoped she would be more successful than Oretski.

In fact, she hoped she didn’t even run into Fennrin at all. The shadowforger was definitely the one person she was sure could kill her. So the longer he stays asleep, the better.

She passed one tent after another, making good progress, until a voice behind her stopped her.

“Hey, stop!”

Normally, she wouldn’t wait around after that. In fact, she’d be running away immediately, not wanting to be recognized. But she froze instead. Because she recognized that voice.

“Who are you and what do you want?” said the cute Lys-Akkarian soldier Yarima had met back when she’d been arrested by the Daybreaker.

Yarima couldn’t help but smile as she turned around, taking in the familiar face and determined yet soft eyes. She was just a few feet away, pointing her sword at Yarima. It was difficult not to get lost in those brown eyes, even with the night obscuring Yarima’s view.

“We need to stop meeting like this, kresenko,” Yarima said, dramatically pulling down her hood. The other woman’s eyes went wide, much to Yarima’s amusement. “Didn’t expect to see me again?”

“No,” the smaller woman replied, frowning, looking worried now. “What do you want here?”

“What is your name?” Yarima asked, tilting her head because she still didn’t know.

“What?” The other woman was now frowning at her, looking oh so confused by it all. Yarima wanted to sigh, but she was sure it would come out as one of those wishful, swooned sighs.

She had no idea why she’d fixated on this soldier so much, but she had, and she had no interest trying to keep it locked away.

“I never caught your name,” Yarima said, taking a step closer. The soldier stayed where she stood, but Yarima had to frown when she noticed the awkward way she was holding her sword. She must have gotten hurt during all the battling that had been happening.

“That’s because there was no reason for it,” she replied, scowling in the most adorable way. She looked like an angry kitten.

“You know my name,” Yarima pointed out, smiling, which made the other woman huff. “I’ll tell you what I am doing here if you tell me your name.”

“Fine. I’m Enlin.”

Yarima grinned. Enlin. A beautiful name for a beautiful woman. It made perfect sense.

“Nice to meet you properly, kresenka.”

Enlin frowned some more, looking more than a little confused. “I know what that means. My friend is Orinovan. So why do you keep calling me that?”

Yarima couldn’t help but grin some more. She was so happy to get to talk to Enlin again, even if the little soldier was likely going to be unfriendly the whole time. “Well, you are very pretty. Obviously.”

Enlin blushed so hard it was visible even in the dark, her eyes wide and shocked. “W-what?”

Yarima closes the gap between them, smiling at her. “You must hear compliments every day surely.”

Enlin shook her head, frowning in more confusion. “Are you making fun of me? Is that it?”

Yarima’s smile disappeared, suddenly feeling both angry at apparently other people not recognizing Enlin’s beauty and also hurt that Enlin thought that Yarima would lie to her.

But then, they barely knew each other. And she’d not made a great first impression, to be fair.

“No, of course not. I would not lie to you like that,” Yarima said softly, her gaze softening, pouting a little despite knowing Enlin had reason to be suspicious.

“Why wouldn’t you? You tried to kill Ainreth multiple times. You clearly don’t like us.”

Yarima grimaced. She didn’t appreciate that, but again, she couldn’t say she was too surprised. “Well, that vo is not very likeable, but I only wanted to take his power, not kill him.”

Enlin narrowed her eyes at Yarima, clearly not interested in technicalities. Yarima raised her hands in surrender.

“Fine, fine. I like you, though.”

Enlin hesitated, but then she shook her head, making Yarima’s face fall a bit. “What do you want here, then? You said you’d tell me.”

Yarima nodded, turning around to start walking again. Standing around and talking wasn’t helping her chances, and she couldn’t assume that Enlin would tell her. “I’m here to spy on you.”

Enlin scrambled to run after her, much to Yarima’s amusement. “Hey, wait! Where are you going?”

Yarima walked to the center of the makeshift base, scowling at the empty circle of space in the middle, with the command tent right in the middle of it. “I need to find out why you stopped advancing. And you wouldn’t happen to know and want to tell me, would you?”

Yarima turned her head to look at an annoyed looking Enlin. “No.”

Yarima raised an eyebrow. “Which question is that an answer to?”

“Both.” Enlin set her jaw. She was so cute when she was determined. Unfortunately for Yarima, though, because she was sure Enlin had to know something.

She decided to try to play dirty, giving Enlin puppy eyes. “Are you sure you won’t change your mind?”

Enlin puppy-eyed right back, which completely blindsided Yarima. And Enlin’s were so powerful, as well, much stronger than her own. Dammit.

“You’ll just use what I tell you against us. So no, I don’t think so,” Enlin said, her eyes sad and tired. She’d finally put her sword down, but now she was rolling her shoulder and wincing.

“What happened to you?” Yarima asked, scowling at Enlin clearly being in pain.

Enlin frowned at her for a moment, as if trying to figure out if this was a trick. Yarima pouted. She would just have to be patient, and she usually enjoyed a challenge, but Enlin being mad at her was very tough to deal with it seemed.

“I was shot,” Enlin answered, sighing. “I’m still healing. But I protected Fenn. That’s the important part.”

Yarima huffed. “What kind of a shadowforger needs protecting from a soldier with no priori powers?”

Enlin scowled at her, looking like a kicked puppy. Sun, Yarima had screwed up again, hadn’t she? She needed to watch what she said if she wanted Enlin to give her a chance.

“He’s not all powerful, you know.”

Yarima smiled, endeared by how huffy Enlin was being. “With how easily he’s killing our soldiers, I almost disagree with you.”

Enlin sighed. She looked very sad all of a sudden, but she wasn’t telling Yarima why.

“What? Is he dead?” That would be unfortunate, but it was unlikely to have happened without Orinovo already knowing. Though it would explain why Lys-Akkaria was staying in place.

“No, of course not,” Enlin said, shaking her head.

Yarima hummed, frowning in thought. “But he isn’t here, is he?”

Enlin blinked at her, her eyes wide. “Uh. How would you know that?”

She really was adorable. But Yarima decided not to say that. No doubt Enlin would assume she was being made fun of.

“Well, you, the soldiers, they are staying here,” Yarima said, humming in thought. There were several war camps all around the border of the newly stolen territory, plus many soldiers occupying the cities within it. But this camp was the westernmost. The biggest. The main one where the Daybreaker and his boyfriend were supposed to be.

“Why wouldn’t you keep going? Orinovo is preparing itself for complete destruction. You should see my mother throwing fits over it.”

Enlin’s shoulders sank, apparently giving in already as she chewed on her lip. She looked like a sad puppy. Yarima wanted to hug her. “Okay. Maybe he’s not in this camp right now.” She folded her arms over her chest, wincing, her sword still in her hand but pointed down. “But I’m not telling you anything else.”

“Oh, kresenka, do you really think Orinovo is in any shape to strike back?”

Enlin frowned to herself, staring off at the command tent, looking like she was trying to think about this really hard, as if Yarima’s question hadn’t been rhetorical. It was intensely endearing.

“I wouldn’t know,” she finally said, sighing. “I’m just a foot soldier. I do as I’m told.”

Yarima didn’t argue, but she knew for a fact that that wasn’t true. At least the fact that wasn’t what Enlin was like deep down. No, Yarima wouldn’t believe that for a second. Maybe she didn’t know Enlin well yet, but she could tell the little soldier cared and thought about things a whole lot.

“And right now you’re told to stay here?”

Enlin shrugged. “I’m still recovering.”

Smart answer. Yarima could likely trick her into telling her the truth, finding out what she’d come here to find, but Yarima didn’t really want to do that. She would feel bad, and also Enlin would no doubt be upset with her.

“I’m going to assume that the Daybreaker isn’t here either?”

Enlin sighed again, turning her tired eyes to the ground. “No. But I’m not telling you where either of them is. They could return any moment now.”

Yarima couldn’t help but chuckle at Enlin’s serious face. Everything she did was adorable, especially pretending she could lie. “Of course. I wouldn’t dare attack the camp. I might get captured. What then?”

Enlin studied her, frowning in confusion. “You don’t sound like it would bother you too much.”

Yarima grinned. “If I had a cutie like you be my jailer, I’d be fine.” She winked at her, making Enlin’s face go red.

“You—” She flushed harder and looked away. “You are so confusing.”

Yarima grinned some more. “I just like you, Enlinko, nothing confusing about that.”

Enlin blinked at her owlishly, looking baffled. “But why?”

Yarima chuckled, winking at her as she shrugged. “These things happen sometimes.” Then she frowned. “Unless you don’t like women, which would be really disappointing.”

Enlin was blushing once more. “I do. Like women.” Then she shook her head. “It makes no sense you like me, though. We don’t know each other.”

Yarima was intensely endeared by the that reaction as well, encouraged by the fact that Enlin wasn’t outright rejecting her. “Well, I would love to get to know you more. But not right now, I have to go back.”

She sighed, looking back at the command tent. She knew that the lightweaver and shadowforger weren’t here. That would have to be enough for her mother.

“I should arrest you,” Enlin said, not sounding at all happy about it. “You are dangerous. You could set the whole camp on fire if you wanted to.”

Yarima smirked. “As much as I’d like to be your prisoner, I don’t think you can manage to capture me, zlata.” She finally gave in, petting Enlin’s floofy hair, delighted that it’s just as soft as she’d been imagining. “See you around, Enlin.”

Enlin was too stunned to react before Yarima was already running off into the night yet again.

She already missed the little soldier. But Yarima was dead set on meeting with Enlin again at some point, her fascination with her only deepening now.

They would meet again, of that she was sure.