“Killing. It would take killing.”
“Yes. But death is inevitable, and we are its servants.”
I started to fear my understanding of his words. Nightsdeath would eradicate entire species if he saw fit, and not feel a shred of remorse or guilt if the cause justified the means. That’s what he was, all he would ever be.
With light fingers under my chin, he guided my head around to peer up at him. Even as death incarnate, I thought him so beautiful it ached in me. So I reached up my joined hands, grazing my fingers over his scar.
“You don’t feel me at all? Physically?” I whispered.
“No.”
There was a strain in that single word, and maybe I was a desperate fool for any part of Nyte when I clung to it as a piece of the real him. Every flicker of emotion Nightsdeath showed had to be a kernel of the person I loved with all my heart.
Boldly, I leaned up and pressed my lips to his. It was a chaste kiss, and Nightsdeath didn’t really react, unmoving as if he didn’t know how to. Yet his brow twitched, a note of confusion over what I’d done and perhaps recalling what itshouldfeel like.
Then his jaw tightened. “Whatever you think you see or feel, it’s only echoes of him. His weak parts I have annoyingly imitated, but I will eradicate them piece by piece.”
My heart skipped a beat.
“I won’t let you kill every good piece of him.”
That removed any flicker of feeling to return the cold, emotionless expression that braced me for his cruelty.
Instead, he stood with me to head out of this underground cell together.
“Where are you taking me?” I said, hating the panic rising in my chest.
“Don’t worry, Maiden. I haven’t even begun with you yet.”
10Astraea
Nightsdeath had killed me three times now. Each awakening took longer, and the suffering when I returned became more punishing. A tear rolled down the side of my face, falling onto the cold marble I lay against.
My blurry sight could make out only his black boots, spilled with shadows that seemed to writhe and twist around them, alive with an eerie, unnatural motion.
Above me, he lounged upon my purple throne, its once-vivid fabric now dulled in his presence, as though it too had surrendered to his dominion. He leaned back with a casual ease, one hand resting on the arm of the chair, the other draped lazily across his lap. Yet there was nothing casual about the weight of his gaze—though I couldn’t lift my head to meet it, I felt its icy pull dragging me down.
And there I was, sprawled at his feet, helpless and humiliated. My chest burned, each breath shallow and painful, but it was nothing compared to the ache in my soul. This was my throne, my kingdom—yet I lay broken, a shattered remnant of the power I once held, as he sat above me like a conqueror surveying his spoils.
It wasn’t for my physical pain I cried soundlessly, but for the ache of how every time I awoke from death or sleep, I was being terrorized by every vicious part of Nyte. Worst of all, it hurt because I couldn’t even hate Nightsdeath, couldn’t fight him; my heart still reached to love him.
“I know you’re fighting to contain Lightsdeath. Let it free, Astraea. Let me see how bright you shine,” Nightsdeath said, soft as a lullaby.
He was right. That dangerous power rattled within me at the torture he inflicted, and I grappled to keep a tight hold on stopping it from rushing to the surface and taking control of my actions and feelings. The fact that Nightsdeath wanted me to become it gave me enough reason tokeep it smothered. If he could speak to Lightsdeath, and they couldallytogether… I could lose my right mind as Nyte had lost his battle with Nightsdeath sometimes.
“Why are you so afraid to play with your newfound power? You could turn this castle to stardust with a thought and kill your enemies—the High Celestials—within.”
I scrunched my eyes shut and my skin ran hotter to contain the beast inside me. He made it sound so tempting, so easy and without consequence. But there was always a consequence to violence so mindless.
“There are too many innocents. My war is not with them,” I rasped.
Nightsdeath groaned. “Your morals are what make you weak and keep you at Auster’s mercy. It’s a tragedy, to watch one so mighty lie so pitifully.”
An ashy taste filled my mouth, and I sucked my lip to keep from crying out at the ache of my dormant muscles trying to peel myself up off the floor. The awful sensations were becoming familiar but no less tolerable no matter how many times I faced this. Coming back from death was akin to, but far worse than, waking from a night of bottomless wine.
His method of torture was what left the burning sensation through my veins, and my cough felt like glass sliced in my throat as I rolled and propped myself up on a shaky elbow. The lingering feeling of his shadows flooding through my body like icy flame left me shivering, yet my skin was slicked with a sheen of sweat.
“I should like to avoid killing you again, I’m growing bored waiting for you to come around. So tell me,” he said, leaning his forearms on his thighs to peer down closer. “Where is Rainyte’s body?”
