I resented Auster most of all for what he’d made me become.
He had killed me over three hundred years ago, but I could still feel thetwist of the phantom key as it lodged in my chest by his cold hand like it was mere weeks ago.
Well, it was—when he’d repeated history to force Nyte to forge our bond. Now Nyte’s blood could heal me if I drank it. Or kill me if a weapon coated in it was plunged into my heart. It was a sick, twisted irony.
I fucking despised Auster.
And I mourned for him.
I despise that I mourn for him.
My mental tug-of-war became exhausting and deeply unfair. I could almost feel Auster watching, smirking as if aware of the control he still held, a shadow looming over my every thought. I was furious with him, yes, but I loathed myself even more for letting him linger. For replaying conversations that trickled back from lost memories, as if trying to discover the moment he decided I was his enemy. The moment he knew that he would kill me; all the while I had been oblivious.
When I turned, I was met with the concerned face of Davina.
We were at the edge of Vesitire’s central city. We came here often to track and take note of their defenses. I couldn’t be idle for a moment. If I wasn’t arguing with Drystan over every slight theory that could bring Nyte back, I was focused on a rescue plan.
Auster had Eltanin.Mydragon.
The audacity of Auster to capture Eltanin filled my body with fury, but above that, I feared what he might do to the young dragon getting closer to his second moon cycle that would see him grow again.
All that kept me from recklessly charging through the city and challenging him now was that Auster had the city completely under his fist. Celestial patrols were everywhere. Most commoners who caught a glimpse of me would want to capture me for the large bounty he promised. The city would become blood, rubble, and ash if I were to unleash Lightsdeath to get what I wanted with no consideration for others.
I couldn’t let myself become that even if I was powerful enough to do it. Though I couldn’t deny that all my recent failures made the thought of getting a taste of triumph tempting.
Lightsdeath lay dormant within me—a deadly gift of primordial power that could devastate the world if unleashed without my complete control. In an exchange to bring Drystan back, Death itself had done exactly what we hoped and given me this advantage—a power that could kill gods.
He wanted the end of Dusk and Dawn, my creators. After all they’d done, and for taking Nyte from me, it became my dark desire to end them myself.
I feared Lightsdeath could make me forget myself and lose the ability totell friend from foe. I remembered Nyte’s struggles with Nightsdeath long ago, and now more than ever Ineededhis help to learn to harness this new gift.
“Have you noticed there’s a gap in the west wall? The guards are spaced enough apart that it could be a blind spot for us to slip inside,” Davina said thoughtfully.
I tracked where she’d indicated. The gap was small, but we could make it through. Auster had a veil set by a mage around the wall to prevent me from stepping through the void and easily evading his soldiers’ efforts to keep me out.
“Then what?” Nadia countered. She folded her arms, always wearing a calculating scowl as if she hated herself forwantingto be a part of this. “We’d be fresh bait on the other side of that wall.”
“All we have to do is make it to Eltanin; then we’ll have a fast escape with him.” Davina replied. “Is he big enough to carry three yet?”
“Barely,” I said.
What I learned from Drystan, who remained a prickly ally for finding a cure for his brother, was that Eltanin hadn’t forged a dragon bond to me as a rider. Not like Drystan had with his great red dragon, Athebyne, freed from the Guardian Temple we visited months ago. Past their second moon cycle was when dragons were mature enough to consider a bonded rider, and so the urgency to get Eltanin back was amplified since Auster might manage to break him into submission and bond with him. It was rare and barbaric, but possible. Outlawed, of course, during the time of the dragons, but I didn’t think Auster was bound by any moral or lawful code in his determination to triumph over me.
“Let’s go,” I said. “There’s been enough blood spilled today.”
I’d gained what I needed as my objective wasn’t to find where to infiltrate, butwhen.Those who scrambled out to find me worked to my advantage as I squeezed information out of their last breaths before I killed them. Which led me to know Auster called for the citizens of Vesitire to gather at the castle in a few days.
I glanced at the tips of my black feathers brushing the snow as I unglamoured my wings. The stark color of them was a brand from Death—a dark omen to my kind, the celestials, whose wings were tones of silver. Despite this, I’d never felt more confident with my new touch of darkness.
Taking to the skies, I returned to Nadir’s home where we’d been taking refuge the last few weeks. The mage lived in a precariously tall wooden structure hidden and protected by a veil of magick. They’d graciously offered to hide our band of the continent’s most wanted.
Passing through the shield tingled my skin and flared my silver tattoos. Nadia and Davina would take longer to make it back on foot.
Inside the home, I barely acknowledged Nadir, who was sitting in the main room smoking something in their pipe as usual. A plant, which I’d come torealize had to be some kind of relaxant. I think they tried to pretend we weren’t intruding on their peace.
Two levels up, I slowed by the room Zathrian was in. The door was slightly ajar, and no matter how many times I saw him lying in that bed, with Rose by his side, my heart sank with despair. The revelation of Zath being Nephilim—half celestial, half mortal—had come as a shock, but I was glad for it because the sword through his gut would have been fatal otherwise. Instead, he’d been unconscious since Auster’s ambush. While Zath’s heartbeat was a strong promise of recovery, Nyte’s was as distant and shallow as a fleeting drum.
I passed Zath’s room and headed up another two levels.
