Chapter 8 Astraea
Astraea
Agony seared through every muscle, each sharp pulse a brutal reminder of the moments before I’d woken here, sprawled in a twisted heap, wedged deep within a narrow crevice.
The memory clawed its way back—the catastrophic descent of the falling star, the raw surge of power as I tried to halt it, and then the crushing impact as it slammed into me, driving me down into the earth.
I could still feel the heat radiating from the ground around me, faint traces of the star’s energy echoing through the broken rock and debris.
My limbs were leaden, pain lancing through every inch of my body as I tried to move, each sensation telling me just how close I’d come to being completely destroyed.
My vision blurred and I stopped trying to move.
Wiggling fingers gave me a small sense of control. I had to get up. Yet for a moment, I found serenity in the tinted red sky blinking with stars. I searched the constellations for Cassia and Calix—my two dear lost friends whose souls I’d sent to the stars when they died—to not be alone in my agony.
Shadows crept in the corners of my vision. My lids weighed so heavy that I couldn’t be sure if the darkness was my falling consciousness. I hoped it was, eager to welcome sleep to numb the pain. But through the ringing in my ears I heard footsteps crunching through the stone debris toward me.
If it was Auster, I lay here completely at his mercy. I began to fight within myself, grappling for clearer awareness of my senses and scrambling to find any inkling of magick.
My body was too weak to reach for the sparks that tried to ignite within me.
The shadows grew closer, and a familiar sense of dread and utter disbelief slithered through me. My horror was confirmed when the figure knelt, and my head lolled to find such deadly beauty staring down at me.
“Thank you for releasing me, Maiden,” Nightsdeath said. “Truthfully, I didn’t think it was possible but you were almost mine in that rift, and you brought me here with you instead of being kept there with me.”
How was this possible? Did this mean Nyte had awoken?
That flare of hope was quickly doused under a wave of absolute terror because Nightsdeath was in this realm, separated from Nyte’s body.
Oh stars, what have I done?
Unable to fight or protest, I let Nightsdeath lifted me into his arms and I cried out in pain with every movement of my broken body. Next thing I knew we were out of the deep crevice in the courtyard.
“You show yourself too late, Rainyte,” Auster called over.
I stiffened as Nightsdeath stopped walking and turned to where Auster, Zephyr, and Notus stood on a flat piece of the courtyard close to the castle.
“Rainyte isn’t here,” he said, a chilling calm in his tone.
Nightsdeath didn’t have a body like a mortal; he was crafted to appear as something between flesh and pure shadow, with amber eyes that glowed permanently, swirling with molten ore.
Auster chuckled menacingly, ignoring that statement. “You will not make it far with her.”
“I don’t plan to. In fact, I’m about to walk right up those stairs into the castle and take her to rest.” His head angled down, caressing me with his ethereal golden eyes. His voice lowered to a whisper of shadow. “We have much to do together before I kill you, my star.”
I shivered at the jarring tenderness in his tone coupled with the ominous promise in those words. As I pushed at his chest, he didn’t put up any resistance and let me fall clumsily to the ground. I yelped at the sharp pain that shot through every inch of me like the vibrations of a struck gong.
Steps shuffled to me but hesitated; I cast my sight up to find Auster and Zephyr had come forward, but the darkly radiating challenge of Nightsdeath halted them from coming any closer to me. His aura spilled around us like death lingered one touch, one breath, away.
“What are you doing?” Auster spat.
“He has no regard for her in this state,” Zephyr deduced.
A muscle in Auster’s jaw twitched scanning from me to Nightsdeath.
Despite Auster’s words and resentment toward me, he was showing his care for me wasn’t completely gone.
He didn’t truly want me dead; he wanted to fix me.
Reform me. He wanted our friendship back, maybe even more, but only on his terms, as the person he wanted me to be.
“He’s always been a great danger to you, and this is who you chose to bond with,” Auster said with venom. “I suppose you deserve such treatment.”
My teeth gritted, and I mustered all the strength I had to lift myself from the ground, swaying to my feet. What stood behind me was not a true portrayal of Nyte. Even when Nightsdeath fought viciously to take over his thoughts and actions, there was always the good in him to reach for.
We would all be condemned if we had to let our suffering stand to represent us.
“I will let you live, Auster Nova, as I think we have a common goal for now.” Nightsdeath brushed my tangled silver hair over my shoulder. “And we have this one in our possession to help us gain it faster.”
“What are you talking about?” It was Zephyr who snapped, his wariness growing as he kept careful track of me.
“We both want to find Rainyte.”
That only furrowed the confusion on the High Celestials’ brows deeper.
“It’s not him,” I said, barely a croak.
“You want me to believe you’re not Rainyte?” Auster said in disbelief. “Do you take me for a fool?”
“Yes. But for far more reasons than this, I assure you. Now get out of my way.”
Lightning flashed over Auster’s hands, and I tensed, in no fit state to defend myself if chaos broke out.
“You’re not stepping a foot inside that castle,” Auster snarled, standing between Nightsdeath and the way into Vesitire’s stronghold.
“I have very little restraint as it is not to kill you all where you stand and take over this pathetic city, but I would rather not have to spend my time forcing your armies to obey me before I get what I need.”
His words made me think that Nyte’s ability to manipulate minds had to be something he was born with, not a part of Nightsdeath. Otherwise it wouldn’t be difficult to bend the allegiance of the army generals to make the shift of authority believable.
“What is it that you want?” Notus spoke at last, his voice the most devoid of any emotion at all.
“To kill Rainyte.”
I thought my heart stopped beating. My breath certainly felt trapped in my lungs from that unthinkable outcome.
This time the High Celestials didn’t mock him right away. They kept their confusion but Auster’s intrigue was caught now. Why would Nyte himself say such a thing?
Nightsdeath trailed a hand over my nape; his fingers threaded through my hair before I cried out at his tightening grip.
“I will break you to find out where Rainyte is,” he said, so cold and promising.
Then he said to Auster, whose eyes twitched with conflict over his roughness with me, “isn’t that what you want as well? ”
Auster shifted his weight, considering, while Notus gave little away. Zephyr struggled to contain his anger, and I feared he would slip up and expose his deep care for me.
“It is,” Auster finally said, bemused over the situation and untrusting.
A roar broke their tense deliberation, and I gasped, casting my eyes up with a burst of hope. It was followed by a loud crashing of shattered glass and then …
Eltanin shot high, and on his back, he carried Drystan.
My eyes pricked with pure relief seeing them.
Until they began to head this way.
No. No, they can’t come for me.
Nightsdeath let go of my hair with a shove, and I bit my lip against the throbbing sting.
He tracked the black dragon that began to swoop lower, and I could hardly see, think, through the fear that drummed in my chest and swayed my vision.
Watching Nightsdeath walk so calmly, tracking them carefully, arose a sick, terrible dread over what he might do.
Leave! I yelled in my mind with everything I had. If there was some kind of bond between Eltanin and me, and I was sure I’d felt it before, I hoped he could feel my command. Go to Nyte; it’s the only way to help me. Leave, now!
The dragon roared again; this time I clutched my chest at his cry of anguish. Eltanin didn’t want to obey and leave me, but I kept chanting my urgency.
Darkness gathered toward Nightsdeath, and my pulse beat in my throat as I watched shadow form into a giant, long spear, which hovered the air above his raised palm.
A dry sob escaped me as Eltanin finally changed direction. I caught only a trace of Drystan’s pained expression before the duo started gaining distance again.
Nightsdeath gave barely a flick of his wrist, and that huge, lethal spear of dark magick projected toward the black dragon with the velocity of a crossbow.
“NO!” I yelled, throwing my own clumsy flare of light after it, but it wasn’t enough to stop the spear.
My hands covered my mouth.
It was going to strike them.
At the last possible second, Eltanin dipped sideways, almost clearing the path of it completely, but it tore the side of his wing. His roar of pain sliced within me, but he kept flying, fast and powerfully.
Nightsdeath didn’t try again. Instead he turned around, his expression half lost in the shadows he was partially made of, but it wore nothing but boredom.
In my unthinking rage over his attempt to harm or kill Eltanin and Drystan, I threw another weak attack of my magick at him.
He deflected it with a lazy wave of his hand while closing the distance between us in slow, unperturbed strides.
I tried again. Again. And again until he reached me, gripping my throat in a near choking grip.
“You can hardly contend with a squirrel right now, but you amuse me,” he said calmly, tilting his head while I pinned a hateful glare on him. It ached in me so badly, to look at him, seeing my Nyte even at his worst. My heart still reached to love him.