53. Nyx
NYX
Ragged, painful breaths tore through me as my fangs pierced my gums, hungry for blood. No, it wasn’t just blood they wanted. It was Rae. Nothing else would do.
And that was a fucking problem.
A growl tore through my throat, and I sent the table flying. Plants shot into the air, all that work coaxing the seedlings to life wasted. The table hit the glass wall, the wood shattering. It was only thanks to the magically reinforced panes that the window didn’t explode, too.
I could still taste Rae on my tongue. It had been wildly reckless of me to even have that one tiny taste of her. And now, I knew it had ruined me.
Just one more way I’d be forever broken. It wasn’t as if I didn’t already know what that felt like, as if I wasn’t used to it. I could live with the pain. What I couldn’t live with was that Rae would now be my weakness if we couldn’t sever the bond.
Working my jaw back and forth, I stalked out of the conservatory and into the blistering cold.
Snow and ice crunched beneath my feet, but a walk wasn’t what I needed.
Not even a run. Calling on the magic deep inside me, I freed my wings.
They pierced the slits on my shirt and spread out around me, the crescent moon glinting on their silvery hue.
But they, too, were scarred. No part of me had come out of my past unscathed.
I shoved the memories down and pushed into the sky. A scattering of stars glimmered around the moon—the same stars that were forever present. The sky here never changed. There was no waxing or waning of the moon like what I knew of the human realm. But that didn’t mean the lands were predictable.
They were anything but. You always had to be prepared for surprises.
Betrayals. Anything could come at you from the shadows.
Which was why I knew that my second-in-command would have my head for flying alone.
Everyone was too on edge. Things were too unstable.
The future Luminary Queen was in our midst. The demons were growing in their boldness. There was a fated with four mates.
Any of it could blow this world sky-high.
The cold wind whipped against my face and body, bringing the worst of my beast under control. But I knew he was still hungry for Rae. Worse, I knew I was.
When my wings and back started to ache, I made the turn for home. As I approached, I saw Rayne standing in the clearing just beyond the conservatory, his arms crossed over his broad chest. A scowl twisted his lips, making his brow furrow.
I landed a little clumsily, struggling to stay on my feet.
Rayne’s blue eyes flashed, the dark hue of his skin making them burn even brighter. “You pushed yourself too far. Alone.”
I straightened, pulling my wings in. My back cried out in a fair bit of agony, but I needed the pain. It would keep me in check. “You know you’re the only one I’d let talk to me that way.”
He scoffed, knowing he had free rein with me because he’d proven I could trust him. The scar that ran the length of his face was physical proof of that.
“I’m the only one who cares about keeping your surly ass alive.”
I cracked my neck, trying to alleviate some of the pain there. “Alive might be overrated.” With the clusterfuck that was likely headed our way, dead might be the better alternative.
A muscle in Rayne’s cheek twitched. “You can’t let them win. Not the Luminaries. Not the demons. Not after all you’ve given.”
He didn’t just mean me. He, too, carried a weight—loved ones lost in that demon attack, the lack of care from the Luminaries when we’d asked for reinforcements.
“No,” I assured him, my voice quiet but vibrating with the fury that came from centuries of pain. “I will never bow to either.”
Rayne let out a grunt of approval. “You need blood. Would you like me to call for a feeder?”
Countless feeders lived on the Demilune grounds. Some simply liked the high of the feed; others liked the sexual component that accompanied it. For me, it was always clinical. I never deigned to sleep with my dinner.
“Animal,” I spat.
Rayne’s dark brows lifted. “Interesting.”
“Fuck off,” I muttered as we strode back toward the conservatory. “It’s biological. Nothing more.”
The idea of drinking anyone else’s blood now that I’d tasted Rae’s was abhorrent, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.
Rayne crossed to a small fridge in the corner of the conservatory, finally coming up with a blood bag. He tossed it to me.
I could smell the plastic and knew the taste would be nothing like what I truly wanted. Still, I forced my fangs to elongate and pierce the bag, then drank as quickly as possible. Deer blood. It tasted gamey and wrong, yet I knew I needed the nutrients if I was to face what was ahead.
When I finished, I tossed the bag into the trash and met Rayne’s assessing stare.
“Good,” he muttered. “Now, I need to show you something.”
The hard edge to his voice instantly put me on alert. “What?”
Rayne pulled a small device from his pocket. “The microphones you placed in the guest chambers are coming in handy.”
Many in Lumaria didn’t like the use of technology. I disagreed. It could be more than useful at times.
“Play it,” I growled.
Rayne hit a button, and Isadora’s voice filled the space. “I don’t want to stay here, Cal. What if they attack us? What if they never let us leave?”
“That’s not going to happen,” Calloway ground out. “I just need a few days to lull them into comfort. Then, we’ll get Kyrie and Rae out of here. Things will be how they were always meant to be.”
“Cal—” Isadora’s voice cut off as Rayne shut off the recorder.
“Always playing the hero.” My hands fisted at my sides. It was all I could do not to storm into Calloway’s chamber right then and take his head. “He’ll see what that gets him.”
Rayne stared at me for a long moment. “You’re already growing attached to her.”
I bristled. “I don’t do attachments.”
He shrugged as if it were nothing, though it was anything but. “It’s natural that you’d want to protect her, with her being your fated, that you’d grow fond of her.”
I let out a low, rumbling growl. “I’ll never allow myself to have another weakness. And if you don’t understand that I’ll do what I need to do, you don’t know me at all.”