“No.”
She thought as much. With Ilith as her backup, there weren’t many things out there that qualified as a threat. Blade was an exception, as were the two Lucius’s. She had a feeling there were other sleeping giants in the various courts, but as long as she kept her distance and didn’t go out of her way to offend them, they wouldn’t bother with her.
“What’s your reason, then?”
The wisest choice would be to listen to Blade and walk away, but Tate couldn’t help feeling that would be a mistake.
Blade had gone out of his way to deliver this cryptic warning. It deserved to be taken seriously. To do that, she had to understand.
“The atmosphere in the city is strange right now. Any strain could be the match that ignites a riot.”
Translation—Blade feared Tate waltzing into their territory and doing what she did best. Stomping on any toes in the vicinity and becoming that match he was talking about.
The worst part was, she couldn’t exactly blame him or the Lucius’s for having that opinion of her. She did have a history, after all.
“Do you know what is causing it?” Tate asked.
Blade’s gaze turned inward. “There has been an increase in the number of sleepers moving through our territory. Normally, we get about a dozen a year between all the courts. We’ve had twice that in the last month alone. Almost all of them have been extremely aggressive and needed to be put down.”
“Jaxon was right,” Tate murmured to herself.
The sleepers were waking. If true, it was happening sooner than she’d thought.
Blade gave her a sharp look. “You know something?”
Tate pressed her lips together. Jaxon’s message had been clear. The containment used to keep the sleepers in their sleep was due to fail eventually. It could happen tomorrow or a century from now. The only thing that was clear was that itwouldhappen.
She’d kept news of this to herself for fear of how people would react. Already, half the city feared and despised the sleepers, who were the last remnants of the Creators’ desire for power. More than human, their skills and attributes varied.
Some were like Night who appeared animal but had a human’s intelligence and reason. Others were like Dewdrop and could blend in with humans more easily while still carrying the genetic traits that caused them to be sleepers in the first place.
People like the Black Order wanted to vilify sleepers as hyper-aggressive monsters that needed to be eliminated. Only they weren’t all monsters. They were like humans in that respect. A few bad apples spoiling the whole bunch.
Tate could see why people were tempted to fall into that trap. It was more complicated having to judge each one based on the merits of their own behavior. Much easier to see a monster and stab it rather than try to have a conversation and understand.
Right now, the Night Courts had the highest population of sleepers with the exception of the Avertine, a traveling group of performers comprised almost entirely of sleepers and their descendants.
If Blade and the Night Court realized they were about to be invaded, would they still allow those sleepers who weren’t a threat into their ranks?
“If you know something, you need to tell me,” Blade pressed.
Very well. This problem was bigger than Tate could solve on her own. Maybe warning people was necessary.
“There is a possibility the sleepers are waking,” Tate said.
“That’s not new. It’s been going on for centuries.”
Tate found herself avoiding eye contact with Blade. “I mean all of them. Every sleeper that remains.”
An awkward silence, at least on Tate’s side, fell. She chanced a glance up at Blade only to find him staring at her with an intent gaze.
“How long have you known about this?”
Tate became very interested in the building walls that made up the alley’s boundaries. What was the material they used to build this? It certainly wasn’t stone. A plaster of some type?
“Tate.”
Wow. Tate was impressed. It was only a single word, not a particularly interesting one either, yet it contained enough threat to make Tate, who absolutely hated people telling her what to do, consider answering.
