“Nyte!” I yelled, a futile call of fear as he peeled himself up from the snow, which began to animate around him—another influence of the trident.
“You don’t want to do this,” Nyte growled; his breathlessness gave away how powerful the trident’s strike had been.
“But I’m having so much fun,” she sang.
The water holding me shifted, and I tried to reach for Lightsdeath, but I was drowning; the water compressed my body, growing over my neck, and I couldn’t reach for my magick.
I held Nyte’s look of fury and terror before it blurred, and my last breath held. My limbs thrashed as if I could swim out of the suspended ball of water I was submerged in, but it was all wasted energy. I thought I could hear distant voices yelling through the thrashing current. Then a bright blue flare, and I screamed, though it cost me more of the precious air my body held. I couldn’t see what was happening, but Nyte was in trouble. Maybe the tridentcould kill him. or maybe Fedora had my blood and knew how lethal it was to him.
Darkness peppered my vision. My breath choked, and I instinctively tried to draw another gasp, and my throat was set aflame. My lungs burned. Agony became me, and oblivion stole me.
43Nyte
I was born in the darkness. Crafted by it. So when it came for me, I didn’t submit; Iembraced the dark.
She took my Starlight, and my rage shattered the ice Fedora trapped me in. On one knee I took breaths to organize my fury, not tame it. The storm that was coming for my father was going to end him if it was the last thing I achieved on this fucking land.
Shadows leaked around me. I lifted one hand from the snow, testing if they were real. The familiar sense of animated darkness wove between my fingers like a greeting from an old friend.
Did I have the ability to use them again?
A loud roar dragged my sight up, and I found Eltanin circling like a spiral of smoke; it clicked in me then. Something I should have realized sooner.
Eltanin’s breath had always felt familiar, evenlookedfamiliar.
“Shit, I didn’t know if that would work,” Drystan said.
I jolted at his sudden company. He wasn’t alone, and I blinked my blurry vision before shooting up with lashing wrath to discover the redhead with him.
“When were you going to tell me you could use your dragon’s power?” Nadia folded her arms in accusation at Drystan.
My mind was already spinning to a violent storm with Fedora taking Astraea, now faced with the wrath and confusion of seeing Drystan and Nadia together, I was close to passing out.
“One of you better explain before I lose it on both of you,” I said in a deadly, controlled calm.
“A thank you for saving your ass would be appreciated,” Drystan grumbled.
His posture stiffened when my expression didn’t change slightly. I likely resembled a feral beast right now. Drystan shifted nervously before coming closer.
“Honestly, I’m kind of flattered you and Astraea believed I managed to tackle all those temples myself. In truth, our father has been just as busy as us, and Nadia was with him the entire time, ready to swap out any true key pieces if possible.”
Drystan’s scheming was going to be the damned death of me.
“You couldn’t have told us that?”
He shrugged. “The fewer people who knew, the better.”
Nadia explained, “Your father wanted me to kill Drystan from the start. It was him who told me about the blood bond that was created between Drystan and the vampires he transitioned; that was all true. I’ll admit I truly wanted to kill him for a while.”
“So what changed?” I asked bitterly.
“I simply switched my allegiance. You lot might be marginally better company.”
Drystan added, “So when she told me back when we were in Alisus, after freeing Athebyne, we decided to keep up the ruse and Nadia spied for us instead.”
“You couldn’t have warned us sooner about his plan to send a cunning nymph with a powerful trident after us?” I growled.
That shot his brow up in surprise.
