The Midnight Watch

Chapter 11

"Remind me again why I'm shivering out in the cold while everyone else is sleeping?" My question was rhetorical and not directed to anyone in particular. Talking to myself was a habit that I often fell into when I was alone.

"I don't know, Sav. Maybe you're just suicidal," I replied to myself, pacing around the trunk of the giant silver birch tree. It hadn't been hard to work out which one the note meant. The birch I was standing under towered over most of the forest and was at least a hundred years old.

As I was cold and tired, the reckless, sassier version of me was the one standing under the tree that night. Just like when I had first met Nate, oddly enough. Because that had ended so well...

A woman stepped out from the shadows. "Good evening."

I was starting to get used to that. It seemed to be the Shadowcats' favourite way of making an entrance. And there was no doubt that this woman was a Shadowcat — I recognised her as the last of the trio by her scent. Although she looked remarkably more placid than Brylan and Nate, there was a hard edge hidden underneath.

Her chosen attire was plain, practical clothes. Shoulder-length brown hair framed her sharp features. Her eyes were a lighter shade than Nate's, but they were still startlingly green. There was a look in them that made me feel like she would talk to me as easily as kill me.

"Hi," I said. "I'm Sav."

"I know who you are, Savannah," she replied harshly. "My name is Niamh, although I would thank you not to repeat it."

It took me a while to translate posh-speak into regular English. She was telling me that I shouldn't tell anyone I knew her, just like Nate had. Although we all knew how that had worked out.

"So, Niamh, can I help you?" I made sure to keep my tone even and my eyes downcast, remembering what Kai had said about Shadowcats being obliged to start fights if you so much as looked at them wrong. Because let's be honest, my track record with their species wasn't great.

"No. But you can help Nathan, and I am here on his behalf." Niamh sounded like she was grinding her teeth. It must be so far beneath her to even speak to a lowly werewolf like me.

"Isn't Nate supposed to be the one helping me?" I asked.

"What are you talking about?" She ran a thumb over the hilt of a gilded knife that hung from her belt. I would have felt threatened, but it felt like the action was subconscious. I realised she didn't know about the blood debt and decided to keep a lid on it.

"He owed me a favour, that's all. Why didn't he just come himself?" Kai wasn't the only one good at changing the subject. I drew my jacket closer around myself as a chilly wind blew in from the east.

"It was too dangerous. There are people watching him," Niamh said.

"Well, that's a load of bullshit. If Nate wants help so much, he can damn well ask me himself. Are you seriously telling me that someone would object to him taking a walk in the forest, or Goddess forbid, visiting the dorm?"

Especially when he owed me — that was the part I left out.

"Yes. It was all I could do to get out without being followed myself," she said. She had hardly reacted to my outburst at all. Good, at least one Shadowcat who wouldn't bite my head off every time I spoke my mind.

I rolled my eyes and let out a hefty sigh. "Fine. Tell me what he wants and I'll consider it."

"I do not understand the message, and you would be wise not to explain it to me," Niamh warned.

"Wasn't going to anyway," I muttered dryly.

"He needs to know what Sebastian discovered."

"Discovered? What do you mean?" My heart was in my throat. Seb was coming up more and more often, and I didn't understand why. What on earth could Nate possibly want with Seb?