43. Astraea
43
A straea
If I opened my eyes, all I would see was darkness.
An irritating kind caused by the strip of black fabric Nyte tied around my head. He’d truly lost his mind with the training measure.
“The idea is to hone your senses more acutely. Reach a deeper connection to your magick.”
“I’ve been reaching it just fine,” I grumbled.
“You’ve been excelling impressively, but you’re capable of more.”
That was somewhat frightening. Nyte spoke of the well inside me like it was catastrophic, but even I had limits.
I clutched the key as a blade, readying for combat on a high mountain fringe at the edge of Alisus. We were heading back to Vesitire on foot with Zathrian, Rose, Davina, Lilith, and Nadia.
“On your mark,” he called to me.
Pinning the direction of his voice, I took a long breath and braced my stance. My magick awakened and I listened to it, seeking out his energy through it like threads of power that touched him.
Then I attacked.
My first few attempts sliced nothing but air. The cuts of my light magick whistled through the wind. Then when my key finally chimed off his obsidian blade, I dove deeper into a well of concentration to keep track of him. Without my sight to lock his golden eyes for target, I became magnetized to his gravity.
Where he moved, I followed. Our dance became a breathtaking push and pull that stunned me with exhilaration every time our weapons sang together.
Lost in only him, I neglected to account for my surroundings. My heels slipped off the high ledge and I gasped. Nyte caught me from the fall with an arm around my waist.
Instead of pulling me away from the edge he leaned in until his warm breath tricked across my cold face.
“Fly, Starlight.”
He barely grazed my lips with those words before he let me go.
I pushed the key into the void and extended my arms, enjoying the free fall in complete darkness and the prickling sensation of my wings slowly weighing on my shoulders.
Somehow I could sense the ground was near and I twisted, reaching my hand down to feel the snow before I shot high again.
When I felt the mist of breaking through the clouds, I removed my blindfold, and was swept away by the most breathtaking sight.
The sun was setting at this hour.
It was a picture of tranquilly and new beginnings with the glow of the sun spilling over the clouds, which gave an illusion of an endless expanse of tree canopies ablaze.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Nyte said, hovering close.
I thought that word wasn’t enough for the painting of a burning sky above us in streaks of amber.
Nyte flew in front and pulled me close. He kissed me and I soared. Then he let me go and I fell.
We raced gravity heading down. Wings splayed, my gentle landing made me beam in exhilaration. I didn’t voice my arrogance, but I considered flying a conquered skill.
Except when I straightened and found Elliot, Zeik, Kerrah, Sorleen, and Nadia, I turned stiff. Nyte landed behind me.
“I thought we’d play a game to put your skills to the test,” he said, his tone haunting and daring.
From the way they stood in a half circle, waiting with predatory amusement, I had a bad feeling about what this game of his would entail.
Nyte’s hand snaked around my waist; his breath caressed my ear. “We’re going to play Catch the Maiden.”
I swallowed hard. “It’s dark now.”
We were in the Undying Forest North, a place that was known to be lurking with nightcrawlers.
“Exactly.”
Nyte held the key out in front of me.
“We have bets to catch you and I’m planning on it being me. Strike them in any way and they’ll stop chasing. Strike us all and you win.”
My chest began to pound hard and fast, priming for this deadly race.
He was wicked in his methods. Completely mad. Yet I was growing hot with an adrenaline that was exciting.
“I don’t want to hurt any of you,” I said.
Zeik said playfully, “We don’t want to hurt you. ”
“Speak for yourself,” Nadia said with a gleam in her eye.
I shivered.
“We won’t go easy on you,” Kerrah added. “So don’t hold back on us.”
My wariness dissipated and I smiled, thrilled for the challenge.
Nyte’s voice vibrated darkly below my ear. “Run, Starlight.”
I took off in a sprint past the Guard in that second. Feeling for my magick, my skin came alive with it for the moment any of them found me. Or a nightcrawler attacked me.
That added real danger that kept me sharper than if it’d only been a sport. I honed my senses, reaching further with my magick to detect energies around me.
The first to try me was Kerrah.
She raced beside me thinking I didn’t know she was about to lunge. They said they wouldn’t go easy, but this felt like it.
Deciding on arrows for this one, the key shifted to a bow. Crafting a light arrow, I stopped abruptly right before she could pounce. I knelt on one knee to angle my aim, tracking her high jump, and let my arrow soar.
It hit her leg, passing right through as the magick faded.
“Shit. Nyte downplayed how far you’ve come in combat so he could win. Bastard.”
“Sorry.” I winced at the bleeding hole in her leg, but she would heal quickly.
I took off running again, darting through the trees and jumping over the obstacles of loose branches and forest debris.
My blood roared and I was so alive and free. I don’t know what it said about me to be enjoying this type of thrill. I didn’t really care.
Zeik was next. He didn’t hide, appearing in my path directly. Did he think he could grab me? Incapacitate me with the impact of slamming into him? That might work; he was built like stone.
Time for a new a test of my magick.
Pushing the key through the void, I cast my hands out flat in front with a movement that conjured a step made of light. Zeik blinked at it but I made another as I stepped on that one, then another, and another. Until I leaped off the top one, spinning in the air. As I landed behind him in a crouch, my palm cast out again with a flare of magick just as he turned around.
Zeik’s cry was loud as he plummeted to his knees.
“It was barely a warm touch,” I said to his overreaction.
“It nearly burned through my leathers,” he complained, examining his chest.
“But it didn’t. You’re welcome.”
I grinned at his grumbles then left him.
This was the most fun I’d had in a long time.
Sorleen was the most nimble. Quiet. I didn’t feel her approach before she leaped out of her tree cover. She almost landed on me but I pivoted in time, unsheathing my stormstone blade to pin her to a tree with the point of it at her throat.
To my surprise, she smiled cruelly. Triumphantly.
I realized why too late.
Nadia closed in at my back and if I turned to face her I would be vulnerable to Sorleen. They’d made a tag team. Shit.
I only had a few seconds to react, and this was a test of my magick, after all. I had to create an impairment.
With a deep breath I dropped my blade to conjure a sphere of light instead, back to the basics Nyte had made me do over and over. It did become as easy as breathing, and as that orb grew and disturbed the air to a swirling gale in a heartbeat. This trick became a force that made me realize… I am power.
Sorleen shielded her eyes and Nadia was lost in the hurricane of forest debris. I hoped this wouldn’t harm them too badly but the blast would be unpredictable. My legs braced, shifting to let go, then the light erupted in a shockwave that slammed into Sorleen and Nadia.
Panting, I swiped my dagger, sparing only a moment to find Nadia and Sorleen peeling themselves up with pained groans.
“Sorry!” I called as I ran away.
There weren’t limits to attack, were there?
I was enjoying the quick test of my mind and magick. How they came together in the face of obstacles to calculate the most effective way out. This game was like a riddle of survival and my soul was rejoicing.
Elliot was still left. Then it would be just me and Nyte. My skin pricked in delight at that thought. Him chasing me. Getting to face off with our magick against each other again. The feel of his darkness against my light was incomprehensible. Dangerous yet absolutely euphoric.
The next obstacle was neither of them.
I skidded to a halt in a small clearing at the sight of three sets of taloned wings easing out from behind trees.
“Well what do we have here?” one sang.
“A delectable snack,” another said, a woman this time.
“Oh I think she’s far more than a snack. Can’t you scent it?” the third said.
“A celestial.” Fuck, a forth came out of the shadows.
Okay, four untrained, but likely savage in attack, vampires. One star-maiden.
I am power.
My stormstone blade is what they feared as it could incapacitate them quickest, and kill them swiftest. But they hadn’t seen my light.
The late arrival was the first to lunge with a snarl like his restraint had snapped. I ducked under his arm, twisted around his body, and my dagger scored across his wing. His wail pierced my ears, distracting me for a cursed heartbeat that was enough for another nightcrawler to attack.
The woman pummeled into me, straddling me, and all I could do was brace myself against her shoulders as her teeth snapped at me. The nightcrawlers could appear civil and in control, but it was like the moment their bloodlust took over they became nothing more than creatures driven mad by it.
I had to let her go, and her teeth came shy of piercing my neck until my palm thrust to her chest and a flare of light scorched right through her heart. She died instantly, but I realized my error when she fell as dead weight over me and I was trapped.
Pushing her off took everything I had but I was soon dragged by one of the others by my collar. I tried to scramble for my magick but too much was happening at once. He hauled me up to my feet from behind and I reached through the void for the key.
Feeling it was a breath of relief. My hand gripped the hilt of the sword I’d made of it and I spun with a cry, surging a force of light through the blade that cast out in a beautiful but lethal expanding circle.
I thought I’d only cut through the body of the one that held me, but as I twisted to face the impending attack of the last two nightcrawlers, I met their wide eyes before their bodies fell. Cut in half.
I’d done that before, I remembered from the last nightcrawler attack at the fae resistance camp meeting.
“Impressive.” That single word licked up my spine. It wasn’t spoken by just Nyte; I recognized the deep, sinister echo of Nightsdeath.
I thought I’d have Elliot to face before him, but he was alone, stalking toward me like a predator from the other side of the clearing.
“Did you just stand by and watch me?”
His small smile only curved one side of his mouth.
“It was entertaining.”
“Glad you enjoyed the show.” I was still gathering my breath. Debating if I should run.
“I’m going to enjoy this one a whole lot more.”
“No using the void,” I warned.
“Fine.”
That single word struck in me like a declaration. I got one glimpse of Nyte leaning to break into a run before I twisted, my sole digging into the wet grass and nearly slipping.
I ran faster than I thought I ever had before. I could stop and attack, but I was twisted to find pleasure with him chasing me. I focused on nothing but the obstacles of the forest to get away.
“You can’t outrun me,” he taunted in my mind.
“I can try.”
“You want me to catch you. I can taste it.”
I couldn’t even deny that.
A wall of dark smoke rolled in from both sides in front of me. I gasped, conjuring a gale of light just in time to break through it.
Movement caught in the side of my vision. Shadow wolves. They raced alongside me, crafted of Nyte’s magick.
They were fascinating but I couldn’t let them distract me. I tried to mimic his trick, breathing steadily without faltering my pace and crafting stags made of light that chased the wolves. When they caught them, Nyte’s magick that animated the shadows hissed under the trampling hooves of light.
Nyte’s darkly amused chuckle vibrated through my mind and body.
“You are cunning. And absolutely bewitching.”
I broke through the tree line into another clearing, intending to race right across, but I gasped, slowing only enough for it not to be painful, when I collided with the angel of death that dropped down in my path.
“You didn’t say no wings,” he said huskily, then his lips slammed to mine.
I was already so breathless and high on adrenaline that I became dizzy with the way he claimed me. Harsh and ravenous. His hand grabbed a fistful of my hair, angling my head back more to kiss me deeper. He devoured me. Stealing every breath from me and yet I couldn’t stop even if he claimed my last. When he broke away abruptly, my knees weakened and I was delighted prey in his hold.
“You have no idea how fucking magnificent you are. It’s my purpose to show you. I have to make you feel even a fraction what I do when I look at you. This deep, unending obsession.”
My skin tightened with desire for him, wild and feral right now.
“So the student becomes the master?” I said playfully.
Nyte’s smile caused a flutter of pride in me. “Almost.”
“I had fun. And I think that was a breakthrough to realizing what I can be capable of when I have no time to think or doubt. Thank you.”
“I am irretrievably yours. That means pushing you to be the best you can be. Don’t thank me for serving that.”
His grip on my hair loosened. Nightsdeath retreated in him to bring back the tan complexion of his ears and neck. Returning his golden tattoos and dulling the amber flare of his irises. He kissed me softer this time with the arm circling my waist pressing us tighter.
“Nyte,” Elliot’s voice broke us apart. “You’ll want to see this.”
Nyte’s brow furrowed but he nodded, taking my hand. Whatever Elliot had come across must be why he wasn’t party to chasing me down.
After following Elliot for a few minutes Nyte seemed to detect something that I couldn’t at this distance. He slowed our pace.
I found out what it was a few cautious strides later. Nyte pulled me carefully behind a tree far before the large clearing where a group gathered.
Not fae. Even though I could barely make out anyone else, I couldn’t mistake the red hair and swagger of Tarran.
This was a meeting of vampires. Dread rolled in my stomach over what they could be plotting for their war.
I used my thoughts to speak to Nyte.
“You didn’t know of this?”
“No.”
His reply was short as he seemed to be trying to figure out what they could be scheming behind his back. They were talking but we were too far away for me to hear. Not too far for Nyte, but his expression gave little away.
I didn’t need conversation when the next person to join them made me step back. My foot snapped a branch and every nerve in me stunned still as Nyte’s hand pressed me tightly to him with the error.
A few heads turned, then some of the group started heading our way and Nyte swore under his breath.
“Get out of here,” he hissed to Elliot, who nodded, taking off as starry shadow swept around Nyte and me and pulled us through the void.
My heart slammed when we stilled and I spun to Nyte back on the mountain fringe.
“Drystan has been meeting with Tarran?” I cried.
I knew he’d been involved with him before from seeing them together after the Libertatem, but for some reason I had naively thought his alliance had dropped Drystan now that Nyte was back.
“And a few more of the Elder Vampires.”
“What does that even mean?”
“I’m not sure yet. I recognized a few, some of the oldest soulless, shadowless, and nightcrawlers. I believe they each have a leader like Tarran is for the soul vampires.”
“Is this bad?”
“Depends on what they’re up to. We might have had more time to catch a lead if you hadn’t called them over.”
I glowered at him. Then ran a hand down my face.
“How could we have missed this?” I said, mostly to myself. How could I have missed what Drystan had been up to? He was far more cunning than I’d given him credit for.
I paced. Back and forth. Back and forth.
There were so many sides that I didn’t even know where we stood.
The vampires wanted power.
The fae wanted retribution.
The celestials wanted peace.
Or did they?
All this time they had been living in perfect peace beyond the veil. Why would they want to come out at all?
“You’re going to wear steps down the mountain if you keep it up,” Nyte remarked.
I found him leaning against a large rock, arms folded, watching me.
“Why are you not more concerned?”
“Not all of us show it by mapping our tangled thoughts on the ground.”
I rubbed my temples instead. Continuing my train of thoughts on the war to figure out what the hell we were supposed to be doing other than waiting for someone to start the battle.
“Why haven’t the vampires attacked yet?” I wondered out loud.
“The celestials are still in hiding.”
“There’s an empty throne right now and the Elders haven’t moved in to claim it.”
“They know it’s not empty, it’s yours.”
That might have been true in theory, but right now I was barely an obstacle in their path to take it.
“Why did the vampires rise up against the celestials?”
“There had been unrest among them before my father started gathering an army of them. He saw a potential alliance with those who had a particular grudge against the celestials, and in turn many also resented the fae since they were close and respected by the celestials.”
My mind started to lay out a history puzzle that felt important. I had to know the very roots of the war.
“The Elders could have recruited their own and started an army.”
“My father was very… hungry to overthrow you and the celestials. He had me. He told them how we walked through worlds. He used me to demonstrate power. I can kill a room of men in a blink. I can force them to bow. Warp their minds to submit. For a while a lot of those who resisted his cause were brought to me and I bent their will and perspectives. There’s a reason I am the villain of this realm as he wouldn’t have grown his alliance with them without me. I did villainous things, Astraea. That will always be in my capabilities.”
He gave me a hard stare like I would condemn him here. No matter what he told me, I still couldn’t see what he wanted me to do. I saw a child that had his own will stripped away under the iron fist of a cruel parent. I saw a fae with nowhere else to go, who then gained a brother to protect. I saw someone who did what he thought he had to for survival.
“You aren’t your past,” I said.
“We are all ever changing products of our history.”
I wondered what that made me when my history was hidden in my mind.
I asked, “What about Tarran and the others back then?”
“I never saw them.”
“You don’t find that odd? That they wouldn’t make themselves known, ally with your father, to take power or even kill him to use you themselves?”
Nyte’s expression turned thoughtful, staring at nothing in particular.
“I’ve never really thought about it. My father’s army was growing rapidly. Word spread about what he wanted to achieve and with my help, it wasn’t long before he was a known force to reckon with. They thought of him like a god since he’d traveled through realms.”
It wasn’t making full sense to me either. Nyte’s father gathered an army of vampires but the Elders didn’t participate… like they were merely observing, waiting for something.
I knew Tarran wouldn’t trust me. I couldn’t approach him and merely ask what he was planning.
“We should try asking Drystan,” I said.
“He’d know we were here. If they’re up to something, it gives away our advantage of surprise.”
“We have no advantage if we don’t have the first clue to what we’re up to.”
I gave an exasperated sigh. Nyte appeared in front of me, pulling me into his arms, and it diffused a lot of my anxiety.
“Don’t worry too much. It’s nothing we can figure out right now. You have Star-Maiden Day to prepare for.”
“It seems ludicrous to be celebrating such a thing with the threat of war at their doorsteps.”
“Let people have their moment of joy, love. It may be all they get to make it through the long year ahead.”
“What will you be doing?” I asked quietly.
“Missing you, of course.” He smiled at my sad frown. “Don’t worry about me. Elliot and the others will drag me out to get recklessly drunk.”
At least he wouldn’t be alone. The thought of them enjoying the holiday together warmed me in my chest. Part of me was even envious of their humble plans compared to the extravagance of a ball that was rattling me with nerves.
Nyte pulled back, lifting something in his hand to me. My mood sulked at the black strip of fabric.
“You cut our session short with your uncoordinated footing,” he said, suppressing his amusement.
“It’s dark now anyway.”
“Not dark enough.”