47. Astraea
47
A straea
I found Nyte in the middle of a wide and empty expanse of land.
He stood in the center where it looked like a meteor had pummeled the ground and torched the surrounding radius.
I approached slowly. Something felt so ominous and tragic about this place. Nyte was the most unkempt I’d seen him—wearing his usual black pants and boots but only a tucked in shirt with rolled up sleeves. No jacket. No cloak. He had to feel the icy air billowing around. Closer, and I noticed his hair was disheveled like he’d run his hands through it many times.
“What are you doing here?” I asked gently.
He had to have sensed I was near but he didn’t look at me. I stood right in front of him now and he only stared at the ground.
“I wanted to know if I could survive losing you again,” he said at last. “If you never came back, or if you chose him.”
Then it hit me. My vision swayed and I stumbled a step. Then I couldn’t stop the anchor that sank me to my knees as my hand touched the ground.
The image that flooded my mind was the most haunting and dire scene but I closed my eyes and reached for more. I had to see it.
Nyte on his knees. Hugging my body like he could return the life to it. His tears… the absolute suffering pouring over his face broke a dry sob from me. Then his cry—like an agonizing call to the gods—cleaved through my soul. It blasted through the battlefield. Incinerating every body that had fallen and those who still stood fighting. The sound of his heart breaking and his soul shredding stole every breath from me.
I wanted to tell him it would be okay. That no matter what it took, I would find a way to come back to him.
Just wait for me.
Nyte’s hands on my arms dragged me back to the present and I found his golden irises through blurry vision.
“I died here,” I croaked.
Misery overcame his expression.
“I can’t do it,” he said, barely there. “It’s you and me. Or you have to find a way to end me if you don’t want that. Promise me.”
“I want you,” I said. It tightened in my chest like desperation. “I’ll always want you.”
Shuffling forward, I straddled his knees and locked my fingers in his hair.
“Through every realm. To the collapse of the stars in every one,” I promised.
“You didn’t come back. For a whole week. I was close to—shit, I don’t know.”
“As it turns out, the festivities in Althenia are far more elaborate than here. One event led to another and I couldn’t let those hopeful people down. I wanted to come back every day but I was exhausted by the end of each one and they convinced me to rest the night. I have to keep my promise to go back for Star-Maiden Day. But until then, I’m yours. Only yours. Take me home, Nyte.”
He slipped a hand over my jaw to kiss me fiercely and it erupted in my chest. The defiance of us poured out in passion as he crushed my body to his and took us through the void.
Next thing I knew my back was against the wall of the bell tower. Our place.
“There’s just one thing,” I rasped with his hungry mouth descending down my neck.
“You can tell me anything.”
“I can’t bond with you. Not until we find your father and kill him.”
Nyte drew back, searching my face with confusion.
“When he got into the temple the gods told him how to kill you. Once we complete the bond, we become one, then my blood can do it. And he has it.”
“Shit, of course,” he said vacantly. “I don’t know how I never considered it before. It’s humorous, really. I’ve always thought you’d be the death of me.”
I pushed him lightly but his smile was such a joy to see.
“This is serious.”
Nyte merely leaned in again, kissing softly over my collar.
“We’ll find him soon enough.”
“You’re not worried?”
“I promised you eternity. I can wait a little longer to reclaim our bond. For now, this is enough for me.”
He kissed me hard, and I wanted to warm his body still chilled from outside; I didn’t know how long he’d stood there before I arrived.
I reached down to untuck his shirt; shadow circled around me in place of his arm, holding me against him and the wall while he took off his shirt.
“Can you feel me through your magick?” I asked.
That arm of smoke wound around me again then up and around my throat. I gasped at the light pressure.
“Yes,” he said, watching me wrapped in his darkness with a wild lust in his eyes.
Heat gathered between my legs with the sinful thoughts.
“Then I want you to feel all of me through it.”
A primal growl rumbled in his throat as he leaned in to kiss me, planting his hands by my head while his shadows pulled me to his body. It was overwhelming in the most delightful way. As if there was more than one set of hands upon me but all I could feel was him. So much of him yet somehow still not enough.
His magick slipped under my layers and I moaned into his mouth with the featherlight caress of it over my skin. The clasp of my cloak came undone first, falling to the floor. He undressed me so slowly it was torture while our kiss turned deep and desperate. The contrast was driving me to madness.
I tried to reach between us but shadow wrapped my wrist, pinning it to the wall, and his real hand slipped over mine, interlocking our fingers.
“I need you,” I said, pained with the desire rushing between my legs.
“For how long?”
“Forever.”
“Good.”
I clamped around him tighter with the pull of the void and my back met soft sheets.
Nyte gripped my waist as he straddled me on his knees and my back curved to his touch, wanting our bodies pressed together, but he kissed down my chest instead.
“Black suits you better,” he said huskily, tearing the white corset at my bust.
He tore right through my chemise too; his teeth nipped at my peaked nipple that pushed into his assault for more. Giving the other the same attention, flicking with his tongue before sucking, his hands continued to tear down my skirt, exposing me to him swiftly and fully.
Nyte shifted and my legs fell open for him, knees bending. The air breezed across my center, slick with my heated arousal. I gasped when it felt like rope lassoed around my ankles. Then my wrists, pulling them together above my head before all the bonds tightened.
Nyte’s lips had barely left my flesh; his hands explored every dip and curve of my body like he planned to leave no inch of me untouched by him tonight.
“I can’t get enough of you,” he growled. “I can feel every part of you with my own skin and my magick and still I’m starved for you.”
My hips lifted, desperate for attention between my thighs.
Nyte’s eyes flicked up to mine and he leaned down, circling a hand around my throat and barely grazing my lips with his.
“Please,” I whispered, partially a whimper.
I drew a sharp breath with the sensation of a light touch crawling my thigh. Nyte’s hands remained, one by my head propping him above me, and the other caressing sensually along my throat.
Shadow touched my core and my brow pinched tightly with a silent moan. Nyte’s gold eyes turned molten, watching my ever flicker of reaction while he planned to feel me through his magick first.
“So ready for me,” he said in a husky taunt, planting soft kisses along my face.
Then that shadow dipped into me, and I did cry out then to the pleasantly strange sensation of it. He began thrusting into me, slow at first, and our eyes locked with a wild, daring passion.
“Fuck, you feel incredible this way.”
The shadow expanded like adding a second finger and I strained with a moan against the shadow bonds that held me at his mercy.
“A little more?”
I felt so full but at the same time I wanted more. Every time he asked I thought I would always want more.
“Yes.”
“Such a good girl,” he said, devouring my next cry in a kiss as his shadow expanded inside me again. He fucked me slow and deep, drinking in my every moan and expression. The intensity in his eyes crept over my skin like a shallow rippling of flame.
Even restrained in submission to him he made me feel powerful. Worshipped. His acute attention to my desire gave me a euphoric sense of confidence.
Being fucked by his shadows was unlike anything I’d felt before. Like his fingers but with a new humming vibration that was tingling through me and racing me toward a climax faster. When another tendril snaked across my abdomen and targeted my sensitive apex my head threw back to the added burst of pleasure.
“Oh gods,” I cried.
“Just me, starlight. I’m your god.”
In this moment every part of me agreed.
“Deeper,” I rasped, feeling so close my ankles pulled against the restraints and my thighs began to shake. “Please.”
Nyte groaned, pushing his magick into me deeper than I’d ever felt anything before and when it curved, hitting a certain spot I didn’t know existed to explode pleasure with every thrust—I couldn’t tell when my orgasm began. Only that I was trembling with the utter ecstasy rocking through every internal piece of me. I cried his name and this euphoria stretched endlessly. His shadows kept fucking me through it so that I became dizzy, seeing stars, becoming stars. Pieces of me scattered far and fast only to snap back together as I came around in a gasping, trembling mess.
Shit. I didn’t think there would be an end of new explorations and world-rocking orgasms with Nyte.
“You come so beautifully.” Nyte’s whispering breath caressed my ear. “You call for me so exquisitely.”
His magick released me and my fingers threaded through his hair. The gold in his irises marched like flames for me. I pushed up and kissed him with everything I was, high from the release and overwhelmed with the need for more. To give him it all back.
“My turn,” I said.
Hooking my leg around him, our gravity was flawless as our positions switched. I kissed down his neck, over his tattooed, scarred chest. My fingers undid the ties of his pants and he lifted his hips, helping me remove them.
Taking his hard cock in my hand, I flicked my sight up, relishing in his tight jaw and the way his fist clenched the sheets. Eyes locked on his, I slid my tongue along the thick vein of his shaft slowly before lapping over the tip.
“You’re killing me,” he rasped.
I smiled in satisfaction. “As I hear, it’s my sworn duty.”
Teasing him, I continued to flick my tongue over his head and lick down the length. There was a certain gratification when I didn’t need his ability—to hear his thoughts—to know his flexing grip on the bed was how he was refraining from holding my head in place and fucking my throat raw.
I knew I would let him, but this was more fun. There was power in the control he gave me over his pleasure.
My cheeks hollowed as I sucked, past the point of teasing. I hummed around him, working my hand in tandem.
“Tighter,” he ground out. “That’s it, fuck. ”
His hips started shallow thrusting into my mouth with my movements.
“If you don’t want me to spill down your throat you better stop,” he warned.
I only sucked harder, letting go with my hands to brace them on the bed and take him deeper.
“Fuuuck. Stay like that.”
I hummed in answer, letting him thread his fingers into my braids and use my throat. He wasn’t too rough, knowing the limit of how far I could take him. Then he came and I sucked again, pumping him until he was spent and his whole body tensed, fingers tightening to the sensitivity.
“I’m not done with you yet,” he panted, coming around.
Releasing him, I peered up at his toned, sweat-slicked torso. A godly sight with the sunset spilling over his tanned skin.
“Bring those pretty thighs to me,” he instructed.
I didn’t really understand what he wanted, shuffling until I straddled his middle, but that didn’t seem far enough for him. I squealed, reaching up to brace on the headboard when his hands curled my thighs and pulled me higher,
A blush fanned across my cheeks peering down at him under me.
“This is new,” I muttered.
“It’s not,” he said, kissing the inside of my thigh. “My memory serves perfectly; this is a particular favorite position of yours. I’m sure it will come back to you in a second.”
Nyte’s tongue on me threw my head back with a shuddering cry.
“Lower your hips for me,” he instructed. My thighs slipped further apart and he groaned in satisfaction, fingers digging into my flesh. “That’s better.”
Nyte unraveled me.
I couldn’t help myself, slipping a hand through his hair and rocking my hips. It felt both obscene and incredible, fucking his face like I would his cock. His encouragement in the way he sucked and licked without mercy only made me more desperate in my chase.
“Oh, fuck,” I rasped. The beginnings of an orgasm tingled my skin but I wanted his cock inside me before I came again.
Yet I couldn’t stop… I was starved for this release and the way his tongue teased my opening, pulling me down more to dip his tongue deeper, alternating between sucking the sensitive bud that shattered stars behind my closed lids. I came undone with a cry of muffled sounds and maybe some words under shocking waves of bliss.
I was utterly spent. Panting hard and clutching the headboard to gather myself back together. Nyte was so tender and patient, kissing my thighs and waiting for me to climb off him.
It took a moment for my thighs to stop quivering.
“You were right,” I panted. “Definitely a favorite.”
Nyte gave a satisfied smile as I shuffled down carefully with the ache of my muscles from that position, but it had been worth it.
When my legs straddled his hips, I leaned in to kiss him deeply, moaning when I shifted myself to feel the hardness of him against me despite that near painful shock of over sensitivity.
“Is this you telling me you haven’t had enough?” he murmured huskily.
“Better work harder,” I teased.
My slickness coated him with my movements and I squealed when he hooked an arm around me and flipped us.
“Don’t taunt me, Starlight; I’ll fuck you so hard you won’t be able to leave this tower for days.”
My knees tightened on his hips, pulling him down closer.
“I don’t plan to. So do your worst.”
Nyte kissed me slowly. Searching and passionate.
“I will. After I feel every perfect inch of you and worship your body like the goddess you are before I destroy you.”
His cock slid against me with his teasing thrusts, easing away the sensitivity to have me needy for him again. With his next draw back, he sank into me so slowly it was like he wanted me to feel how complete we were together.
He kissed me deeply, his hands explored me tenderly, he fucked me passionately.
“You’re the only thing that makes me want to live, Astraea. Beyond being a weapon for someone to use, a cause for someone to gain. I want to be everything you need me to be.”
“I don’t want you to change. Not a single thing,” I said, tracing the golden tattoos of his slick chest.
Nyte accepted that with the way he leaned in to kiss me, and the way we moved together was so tender and claiming. He made love to me now, like a promise, a defiance. It was us against the world.
I gasped when he moved us unexpectedly and my ass was set down upon something cold. Leaning back, my adrenaline surged peering over my shoulder at the expanse of the city behind me. My fingers curled over the ledge of the archway window and Nyte kneeled between my spread legs, his cock sliding across my core from the low perch.
“This is your world, love. I’m just your villain to take it back for you.”
His cock entered me again and I moaned, head tipping back to feel the cool air whip through my hair.
Nyte’s arm circled around my curved body, leaning in to press his lips to my chest. When I closed my eyes it was like we could be flying.
His pace picked up, and his magick snaked across me again before dipping between my thighs. My brow pinched tightly with the vibrations, and Nyte swore as I clenched around him, fucking me deeper with a precision that knew just how to send us both crashing to our finish together.
I turned utterly boneless, struggling to keep my elbows from buckling. Nyte thrust a few more times as he spilled himself, his whole body tensed, glorious with the growls of his release.
As we came down, neither of us could move. Nyte braced with one hand on the wall while the other held me around my back, as if he didn’t trust I’d keep the ability to hold myself up. I didn’t either, as tiredness swept me and my eyes fluttered.
Nyte lifted me, carrying me into the room before he laid me down on the bed.
“I got you something,” he said tenderly.
“You did?”
The smile that curved his mouth was giddy—so rare. He pulled back, and I watched him circle around the bed before opening a drawer and pulling out something wrapped in brown paper.
He lay down beside me and I took it from his hands when he offered. It was heavier than I expected.
“What is it?”
“I wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of concealing it just to tell you.”
The paper was awkwardly folded and wrinkled, like he’d tried many times to get it right and given up trying to make it pretty. I bit my lip imagining his struggle and warmth pooled in my stomach.
“I love it,” I said, admiring the misshapen package.
“You don’t know what it is yet.”
The effort of his humble wrapping felt like a gift itself. Anytime Goldfell had presented me with a wrapped present it was always perfect and proper, and what was underneath was always another measure of control. Something he could give me and inevitably take away.
I peeled the paper carefully and I knew what it was the moment I caught a glimpse. My eyes lit up at the globe I held. I shook it, and this one had to be enchanted as midnight flooded the glass inside for the stars to shine brighter as they danced around a small rendition of the bell tower from the outside.
“It’s beautiful,” I whispered. My throat tightened with emotion.
Nyte pressed his lips to my shoulder. “Happy birthday, love.”
My fingers traced the engraving. “The brightest star needs the darkest night.”
“You and I, we’re inevitable. The gods want us to believe we’re destruction, but I’ve come to think they fear what we could become if we defy.”
I dropped my arms, the globe hugged to my bare chest.
I reached a hand to his face and his enclosed on it, his lips pressed to my palm.
“I want to bond with you,” I said.
His eyes flickered a brighter shade of gold and I loved the language they could speak to me. Nyte guarded himself from the world but at the same time his feelings were right there. In passion his irises were bright, in anger dark. In jealousy they could appear more brown and in lust they were molten ore. Right now… they were smiling. A rare tone that never lasted long because the world threw so many obstacles in the way of our pursuit of happiness.
“I want that more than anything,” he said, taking the globe from my hands and laying it on the large space beside him so he could hover over me.
“But we can’t,” I said.
“Why not?”
“You know why.”
Yet even with the reason of my blood being a weapon that could kill him, he was making it difficult to resist. Nyte shifted, cupping my jaw and leaning his mouth to my neck.
“Everyone can die. They survive through a thousand ways to die every day. I can live with having to avoid one.”
“No one has half a realm that actively wants them dead.”
“Probably more than half.”
“Nyte,” I all but moaned his name when he was planting kisses down my neck, his body pressing into me more.
“Fine,” he said and I shivered with the single note of it. “Though not because the strike of a weapon with your blood through my heart could kill me, but because one with mine is another thing that could kill you. And I’ll comb through the minds of everyone to kill anyone who knows that and would think of using it.”
I hadn’t even thought of myself but of course… in binding our souls as one, that possibility existed.
Nyte lay beside me again, idly playing with my hair.
“Can you enjoy Star-Maiden Day while I’m gone? With your friends—for me.”
“I don’t have friends.”
“Yes, you do. We do. Rose convinced Zath to come with us across the veil though I think he’d much rather stay here with you. But you have Elliot, Zeik, Sorleen, Kerrah, and Nadia. Pretending that you don’t care about them is getting old like you.”
“I’m old?”
“Ancient.”
“Technically, so are you.”
“Except I got three centuries of beauty slumber.”
“How beautiful you were,” he muttered bittersweetly. Tracing my silver markings, they glowed with a shimmer in reaction to him. “You shine as bright in the sky as you do right here.”
I reached for the golden constellation on his neck among his markings. “I think you would burn through the skies.”
Like a phoenix. It was the name of his constellation and I thought it fitting for his eyes of fire.
Pushing him, I hooked a leg over his waist as he lay back.
“I love you,” I said.
Three words that felt like freedom and security as one. I wasn’t afraid of it anymore and Cassia’s words came back to me with a phantom three pulses in my chest.
If there’s one thing you’re not allowed to give up on, it’s love, Astraea.
Nyte pushed up against the headboard, and to watch his surprise turn to rare joy was worth confessing those three words of delicate vulnerability.
I didn’t know when I’d begun to fall for Nyte. I learned love was silent. It wasn’t like being caught in a web, it was like we didn’t know we’d crafted one together. Slowly, because precious things took time. Until it became a home I wanted to protect with everything I was, and stay here with him for eternity.
“I love every version of the night you are,” I whispered when he didn’t speak, only marveled over my face as if he was repeating my words in his mind to believe them.
“Say that again,” he said, so softly it fluttered in my stomach.
“I love you.”
His head tipped back against the headboard and his eyes closed. Then I watched a peaceful smile break on him.
“One hundred and nine thousand, five hundred, and seventy-three days,” he said quietly. His eyes opened and fell to me; his hand cupped my cheek. “It was worth every second of misery in them to hear that again. I haven’t stopped being completely, madly, irretrievably in love with you. Whether you rule the sky or the land, I live for you, Astraea.”
His palm slipped around my nape, bringing my mouth to his and I kissed him with more need than ever before with my feelings fully free.
Nyte waited despite the fact that we were destruction and our love was chaos. That hadn’t changed.
It didn’t matter. I loved him. I couldn’t stop loving him any more than I could reverse the flow of water. I was his and he was mine eternally.
My darkness.
My nightmare.
My night.
He slowed our kiss until he pulled back enough to search my eyes. “But love also isn’t enough to describe it. Your heart, it beats in my chest, just as mine has beat in yours. I’m not capable of returning it, nor letting it go, even when your body was gone and I was forced to stay. Thank you, Astraea. For I don’t know what would have become of me in your absence if you hadn’t given me this part of you to keep safe.”