The stars were causing more destruction than ever before. I’d seen the gaps between them stretch apart, but this was the first time they’d started plummeting to the land as catastrophic rocks ablaze.
“No. I don’t think the cosmic imbalance is affecting me like it has the other celestials.”
“Maybe when we get Eltanin back we should wait this out—let celestial magick weaken so we have an advantage,” Drystan pondered.
I shook my head. “My war is with Auster and your father, no one else. I want to spare as many of my people as I can, and waiting only gives them more time to turn innocents against me.”
“Besides,” Nadir interjected. “It would take decades for them to be substantially weakened, and it doesn’t affect their ability to fight with mortal weapons.”
Drystan hummed, taking another inhale of the pipe before passing it back to Nadir. Then he shifted to retrieve a small journal from his back pocket. I didn’t impose on his moment of thought as he flicked through his own writing.
“I’m going to get rest,” I announced.
Drystan didn’t look up from his pages. Nadir gave me a small smile with a dip of their head, an unspoken tender farewell in their bright green eyes.
Back in my room with Nyte, I found Nadir’s gift immediately. Combat leathers with a beauty like nothing I’d seen before hung beautifully on a wooden dress form in the corner. I floated toward it lost in awe, taking in the exquisite craft. It wasn’t just black; the shoulders gave the illusion of dark purple tipped feathers made of leather. When I moved around the garment, the candlelight caught on different surfaces, and I found the sleek bodice shifted from black to an iridescent purple hue depending on the light.
I bathed in a tub filled with steaming water I assumed Nadir had also used his magick to place in this room. With a sulking heart and a lost soul, I watched Nyte with my chin resting on my folded arms over the bath’s edge.
“If this plan doesn’t work…” I started, but my words cut off, as I needed to swallow the lump in my throat. “I haven’t posed the only other option we might have to try to save you. I think Drystan knows of it too, but he’s hoping it will be the last resort. I don’t think I could cross realms with you anymore. I have a debt to Death to pay here. But Drystan could take you back through the mirror to where you belong, and then the curse from this realm won’t hold you. Maybe there you won’t have to be the villain anymore. Maybe home is where you get to be… free.”
A tear slipped down my cheek at the thought. Was it selfish to even try to bring him back with Eltanin and the dragon bond? Nyte deserved so much better than the cruel hand life and death had dealt him. He’d become what he had to in order to survive and protect his brother. Now he had a chance for a new life and I couldn’t let him go.
He was so beautiful lying there that the pain in my soul swelled. I harbored so much love for him, and I didn’t want it to ever stop, but it was also killing me inside no matter what was to come.
I sighed, washing my hair with a honey shampoo before getting out and drying off. Wearing only a cotton robe, I crawled over the bed, hovering over Nyte and cupping his cheek. I pressed my lips to his, but they were cold and I held back my whimper.
“You waited centuries for me. There’s no measure of time I won’t wait for you. Forever, if need be. In every lifetime eternal until we are triumphant.”
4Astraea
If I had to guess, I’d say at least two hours had passed since I left Nadir’s home. It wasn’t without tethers of guilt making every step away difficult. Or it could just be the thick snow that made walking feel like climbing a mountain.
I would have flown but the sky was clear tonight, and with no cloud cover, I couldn’t risk being seen.
My plan was… well, I wouldn’t even call it such.
I knew I could be stealthy enough to infiltrate the city alone. Once within the walls, however, events could unfold a number of ways—my capture, having to wear more blood of my kin—but I hoped to free Eltanin without ensuing chaos while Auster was distracted by his address to the city.
Wishful thinking, most likely.
The only part I wasn’t confident of was my restraint not to let my emotions act out recklessly when I saw Auster within reach. When I would have to watch him claimmythrone, twisting the minds ofmypeople, and remember how he had harmedmyfriends with no consequence.
Yet.
Wrath was coming for him. Wrath was me.
I wondered if the patrolled borders between kingdoms no longer existed, as the measure had been implemented for control during his Libertatem game by Nyte’s father. Auster would have no reason for it. Perhaps he used the abolishment of the borders to appear even more heroic. He was the High Celestial who saved the continent first from a tyrannical king, then from its dark-hearted maiden and her villainous bond.
A breathy laugh escaped me at the thought. I found it both a humorous and delightful concept. It’s exactly what Nyte and I were, except we would aim all our villainy toward Auster Nova and Nyte’s father.
I kept aware and silent, watching the path ahead but focusing mostly on myhearing. After a stretch of time, I started to get a sense I was being followed. I hadn’t heard any sure footfall or crack of branches, but weariness unsettled in my gut and my skin pricked with awareness.
If I was being followed through this woodland, my stalker was beingverycareful.
I flexed my gloved fingers and slipped one off. My magick was far stronger without the leather barrier. With a snap of my fingers a light sparked between them, a small violet pulse. The warmth was glorious, but I wanted whoever the pursuant was to think twice at the sight of my unpredictable magick.
They gave themselves up with a step too fast through the crisp snow, or perhaps they wanted me aware now.
