“Nyte’s father?” My focus latched onto that one detail that cut me with new shock.
I’d always assumed Auster had found out through a rogue vampire from the resistance or some other slip of intel.
Auster straightened, realizing he hadn’t meant to give that up.
“I never would have thought I’d have to ally with his despicable, powerless father just to stop my own mate from ruining this realm.”
A wave of nausea threatened my balance, and I had to step away, mulling over the events of the past to figure out how I could have missed it, Auster’s shameful alliance, but there was too much. Too much blood and disorder and arguing during that last year of my past life. Everything felt fragile, and I knew in my soul something terrible was coming.
Auster had allied with Nyte’s father before… it made far more sense that their recent collusion wasn’t new. Just rekindled.
“Where is his father now?” I forced the question through my tight throat.
“He has a plan that will help stop you once and for all, should I fail in reforming you. Our Gods will walk among us.”
Stars above.Nyte’s father was already working to bringing the God of Dusk and Goddess of Dawn to our realm, and my parents would be coming for me. The race had begun, and we hadn’t even started looking for the key pieces. I needed to kill them before they killed me.
I breathed steadily so as not to give away my sinking confidence and rising trepidation.
“The most terrifying villains are those with friendly faces,” I said absentmindedly, staring at the snowstorm outside the window. Then I locked onto Auster’s deep brown eyes. “The worst monster is the one standing in plain sight preaching as a saint.”
“Unlike you, I have never lost sight of my faith in Dusk and Dawn. It is our gods’ grace that blessed us celestials with the power and privilege to protect the people.”
“Religion has formed firm roots of arrogance in the celestials. I won’t bow to gods who demand I bend for them.”
Auster’s huff mocked me. “Then you are the arrogant one, to believe yourself above them and beyond facing judgment.”
“I’m not arrogant. I’m free.”
To my creators, and to Auster, it seemed, I was nothing more than a failed experiment of Dusk and Dawn.
Auster sat on his bed, which I noticed was completely undisturbed despite his prior company. I couldn’t stand still, walking around and taking in new trinkets and old, discovering what had changed and what remained from centuries ago.
I said, “All that time I was gone, how could you rest easy with such delusions while the rest of the continent lived through blood and terror.”
“I am a High Celestial. My highest duty is to the celestials, and they were protected and thriving.”
“Because ofNyte,” I snapped. “He created your precious veil of protection around Althenia before the key broke after my death.”
“Don’t expect my appreciation for it when he’s the reason our realm collapsed into ruin,” he said icily, cutting me a look over his shoulder when I lingered by the nightstand. “Even before he corrupted you, he was a parasite in our realm, and you know that is fact. He doesn’t belong here. I might have killed you, and I will admit it was the hardest thing I had to do, but you two left meno choice.You fell in love with a creature that damned us all. You abandoned your one sole purpose of creation to love a monster.”
Nothing I could say would pierce through his unyielding hatred. I decided he didn’t deserve to know how protective, and kind, and resilient Nyte was for those he cared about.
“Is that all I am—a creation and a duty without a heart of my own to follow?”
“Not all, but first and foremost. You forgot yourself, Astraea, and I pity you. You’re not born like the rest of us, you were given to us for one role, raised by six carefully chosen guardians for that role, and you threw it all away forlove.”
My lip wobbled but I turned enough that he wouldn’t get to feed on my vulnerability. I found a small bottle on his nightstand, which distracted my broken heart. Lifting it, I discovered it was a sleeping tonic.
“You loved me once. Are you haunted by what you did to me?”
“Yes,” he said easily.
“Every night?” I asked, flicking my gaze from the nearly empty bottle to him.
“Most.”
“Do you want to know what I think?” I asked, setting the tonic back down. “I think everyone harbors a monster at their core. Restless nights are a warning; that monster claws in the most silent hours because it has your full attention. It’s the people who are most composed in the daylight, too perfectly so, that have caged their beast too long and will break from the madness in one way or another.”
