“I know,” Nyte said. “This doesn’t bring them back.”
Nyte was so dark I could hardly stand it, yet part of mewantedhim. I tried to push him away, but he kept a tight hold of me.
“I’m not your enemy,” he whispered across my ear.
We stood in the eye of the light storm. My soul wept while my mind tore itself apart.
“Yes, you are,” I croaked. “Don’t you see? We’re always doomed to be right back here. Fighting each other. Everything we are repels each other. The saviorand the villain. The death cursed and the god blessed. Nightsdeath and Lightsdeath. It will never end.”
Nyte took my face in his hands, and I whimpered at the pain his shadowy aura invoked while Lightsdeath raged through me.
“In every beginning and until every end, I choose you. Say you want to keep fighting for this.”
I was torn by the hurt in his voice. It sliced deep, but Lightsdeath delighted in it, wanting to exploit it.
Scrunching my eyes, I pushed against the power more, sobbing with the pain.
“I’m so tired, Nyte,” I confessed. “So tired of being underestimated when I could make an example out of the Volanis empire, collapse it right now, so no one would think to doubt or challenge me again.”
“If that is your action call, then I am yours to command. But Astraea, look at me.”
I forced my eyes to open and held onto his bright gold irises.
“Focus on my eyes.”
Despite the shadows hissing and forming around him, his eyes would always shine so brightly. They were my peace, my anchor; they were the dawn that could never be stolen.
He said, “I don’t care for a single person in this room, not even those Vermont killed. They were innocents, yes, but they never meant anything to me. It’s not who I am, and you knew that when you fell in love with me. For your pain and suffering I would take your hand and burn this place to the ground with everyone it. But this is not who you are. Lightsdeath will let you go, the pain will subside, and you would never be able to live with yourself.”
Tears streamed down my face.
“Then I am weak,” I croaked.
“No. I am. Vermont is. Auster is. My father is. It’s weakness to respond with violence, inflicting pain on others to survive our own. It takes the strongest will tofightyour pain. To be in control of it before it controls you, and that is why you are so brave, so feared by those like me. You… Astraea Lightborne… are the fairest who has ever lived. That is why you are the star-maiden that will bring us all peace. And I’m going to be right here with you.”
“I want to keep fighting,” I said, gripping him back even though it was like he was made of starfire right now. “For us. I want us.”
Nyte smiled, and it brightened the darkness his aura was shrouded in. His thumb brushed the wetness on my cheeks.
“You are pure starlight right now,” he marveled. My tears were silver against his tanned skin. His other thumb touched my brow. “There’s a crescent moon, on its side pointing to the sky, that glows on your brow when you harnessLightsdeath.” Then his fingers combed through a silver tress. “Your hair shines as though the moon bathes within.” His golden irises fell to mine. “And your eyes have captured a thousand stars.”
Nyte kissed me suddenly and firmly, knowing the power in me would resist.
Lightsdeath hissed, lashing me within, but I gripped Nyte tighter, pressing my body to his, and he held me tight.
We’d been through this before, except Nyte had been the one in pain. He’d fought Nightsdeath for me and won time and time again. And I was going to do the same for him.
The pain began to lessen and relief started to cool my veins. The hurricane of light and wind tamed slowly around us.
“You two have to leavenowif you want a chance of escaping with your lives,” a voice hissed over the gentle storm.
We broke apart to find Vermont’s son, Kairos, his arm lifted above his head to protect his eyes as he stood a safe distance away.
“You expect us to trust and follow you?” Nyte snarled. “You tried to buy her.”
“That was my father’s plan, and right now it’s either trust me or risk capture for his death.”
I glanced at Vermont for the first time since Lightsdeath had taken over. He lay in a crumpled heap, and I felt nothing but satisfied that his soul faced judgment in Death’s realm now. Kairos spoke of his father’s death as if it were nothing.
