The Day Watch

Walking the streets of Moscow, indistinguishable from the rest of its population, are The Other. Possessors of supernatural powers and capable of entering the Twilight, a shadowy world that exists in parallel to our own, each owes allegiance either to The Dark or The Light. The Day Watch, second book in Sergei Lukyanenko's Night Watch Trilogy, shows the Dark perspective on the precarious balance between the two. Alice, a young but powerful Dark Other, leaves her house to attend a meeting with her comrades in the Day Watch. The team is going out on a mission in the outskirts of town to apprehend an uninitiated Other, a practicing Dark witch who has so far eluded the bureaux responsible for finding and initiating unlicensed practitioners. It seems a routine operation. But when they arrive, the Night Watch team has already made the arrest. A fierce battle for possession ensues, during which Alice is almost destroyed, suffering burnout. Drained of her powers, she is sent to recuperate at a youth camp near the Black Sea. There she meets Igor; the chemistry between them is instant and irresistible, as Alice finds herself falling in love with Igor for his innate goodness, optimism and love of life. But then comes the shattering realisation: Igor is a Light Mage. Suddenly Alice remembers him as one of those involved in the battle that left her crippled. Had they known each other for what they were, the idea of anything other than enmity would have seemed impossible, but here, blinded by the loss of their respective powers, they have fallen in love with each other. But now that they know, there is no choice but to duel, a fight that neither of them wants to win ...