Chapter 34 Nyte
Nyte
It was strange to see right through the borders of Althenia.
The Sterling Mountains had always acted as a sentry before one would cross the border at the other side onto the celestial territory.
Not so long ago we wouldn’t have been able to see Althenia even from high atop these mountains, but the tall veil of starlight that kept the celestials protected from outsiders for centuries had shattered when I walked through it in my rage of vengeance after the Golden Guard were killed.
Standing here, I felt more connected to the heavens than the land, watching the pockets of life stretch vastly and endlessly while the rivers wove like threads of silver silk.
Althenia was nothing short of a breathtaking masterpiece, with the water breaking the land like a six-pointed star.
Yet even the most ethereal and peaceful part of Solanis was tainted by war now.
The bloodshed had been blanketed by snow and the ruins of the Nova province were unseen from here.
“This is going to be difficult,” Drystan called over.
We’d been scouring the mountain fringes for hours, trying to pinpoint the exact location of the next temple, when Drystan’s map indicated it should be right here.
I found him and Astraea by the edge of a large body of water. They were staring down into it, and then I understood.
“How deep?” I asked.
“Far too deep for any of us to go that long without air,” Astraea said, crossing her arms and calculating.
“It might even be a fake piece. We should collect the ones we can, then meet back up with the others to see if we’re still missing one,” Drystan suggested.
I stared into the faintly rippling water …
“I might have a way to get to it,” I said. Both turned to me. “It would require a temporary diversion.”
Drystan said, “How long? We only have one more week until we have to meet up with the others, and there are still six temples left in Althenia.”
“I can’t be sure. I know I said no one goes alone, but I could meet up with you two when I have this one—”
“No,” Astraea cut in firmly. “You said no more separation.”
My heart fucking ached at her note of panic.
“Then we could all go—” I tried, but Drystan spoke over me this time.
“I’ll get started on the other temples in Althenia alone while you two go on this diversion. I’ll be just fine.”
Astraea agreed with him. “I’ll send word to Zephyr; he should be able to help keep you hidden.”
“You two are beginning to feel like the parents I never wanted,” he said, reaching Athebyne and climbing up expertly.
“Just don’t get yourself killed or trapped in a trial,” I said flatly.
“What a poor ending that would be,” he replied, bracing himself on Athebyne for flight.
Astraea and I shielded our eyes from the blast of the dragon’s wings. Eltanin rattled, watching the red dragon fly away. I believed they were beginning to form something of a friendship bond.
I took Astraea’s hand, pulling her through the void to mount Eltanin.
“So where are we going?” Astraea asked, more chipper than she had been in the last few days.
“Volanis.”
Her body tensed, seated in front of me, and I got a bad fucking feeling, stalling my command for Eltanin to take flight.
“Is there something wrong with that destination?” I didn’t know why, but her reaction alone started prickling my wrath.
“It’s … I don’t know the lord there,” she prefaced.
“But he … he wanted to buy me from Goldfell before I escaped. Goldfell was going to let the lord—Vermont, I think his name is—have me and the manor, and, in exchange, Goldfell would have reign over Volanis. But it was a trap, and Goldfell planned to kill the lord and his men, then have me join him in Volanis after the sale.”
My hands tightened on her with the absolute rage that surged through me upon hearing those words.
Sale. Buy. Exchange.
I wished that bastard would stop crawling from the grave I’d put him in.
“So we’re greeting Vermont with more violence; good to know,” I muttered with an edge.
Before we took off, I angled her head back to me, holding her chin.
“I hope you know there’s nothing of equal value to you, not even close, in any realm or galaxy.” I kissed her hard, and the soft moan in the back of her throat had me aching for her.
“I never met him; I don’t know what he’s like,” she said.
Her hair was mostly loose and I kissed her neck, breathing in the delicious scent of her wild silver tresses.
“He intended to buy you. That’s enough for me to know his time is running very short.”
I reached into my bond with Eltanin, and he heard my command to leave.
When we crossed over the sea toward the volcanic island, Astraea leaned over to watch the water expand below us.
She let herself fall, and I didn’t take my eyes off her to watch her magnificent raven black wings come out and catch her.
Astraea twisted gracefully with a bright smile, and Eltanin dropped lower to follow her, as she wanted to fly closer over the water.
Her hand reached down until her fingers splashed across the tame surface and she laughed. The most magnificent sight and sound.
This perfect painting of her was shattered when a dark shadow grew in the waters beneath her. I shouted her name through the bond but not fast enough to alert her before a hand lunged up, wrapping around her forearm and pulling her fully underwater in the blink of an eye.
Eltanin roared in distress, darting sideways to turn around, but that would take too long. I used the void, appearing in the air where she’d gone under, and I dived in after her.
Astraea was fighting with all her might, but the creature was too strong.
I swam hard as it kept dragging her deeper, and I reached for her, but she was too far.
My golden tattoos glowed and her silver ones did too.
I felt a type of magick in me I’d never used before, but I didn’t think, only seized it at the same time Astraea sent a blast of light toward her assailant, freeing herself from their clutches, and I attacked in the same manner before the next darting up from the depths could reach her.
I could use Astraea’s light magick.
I didn’t know how; it wasn’t something I’d taken from her in the past, but I knew it was possible to share power between some Bonded pairs.
Astraea threw her head back, and her frantic eyes caught mine. She tried desperately to swim up, but she wasn’t getting far. Then to my horror I realized it was because she couldn’t swim.
The distance between us felt endless. Impossible. But I would never give up.
More bodies came up from below, and my rage was building, already gripping the loose power Astraea was expelling from her survival instinct; perhaps her magick reached for me when it knew she needed help the most.
Her hand strained for mine, and when I reached her, I pulled her to me, about to explode my wrath into these waters.
The creatures, nymphs from their human-like facial features, balked as light glowed from both of us, but it wasn’t our magick that frightened them off.
Another nymph hissed and clawed at the face of one.
A cloud of black blood made me lose track of them, and the rest stopped reaching for us to regard the interference.
I was already kicking away as the burn in my lungs grew. The darkness pressed in, the surface seemed impossibly far, and my vision blurred as clouds edged in. My limbs grew heavy, each movement sluggish, but still I swam with everything I had.
Then we were shooting for the surface faster than I could carry us.
I held Astraea tight as we gasped for air the second it surrounded us. Her head lost balance as she choked, coming in and out of consciousness. Her forehead rested on my shoulder, and all I could do was hold her, smoothing away her wet hair.
“So silly.” I knew that voice all too well, had recognized our savior the moment I saw her stark black tail.
Fedora swam around us, and Astraea tensed in fright. The nymph’s head canted with a smile of wicked amusement. She reached for Astraea, tucking a lock of her wet hair behind her ear.
She’d visited me more times than I cared for in the cave under the library, accessing it from the passage of water that filled a shallow pool.
I’d asked her to take Astraea’s dagger and leave it in a place she would find in Goldfell manor, and my end of the bargain, retrieving a powerful trident she was after that was on land, remained unfilled.
“We can scent celestial blood when it touches our waters, even from the depths,” she said in that melodic voice of hers.
“How did you scare them off?” I asked.
Eltanin roared above us, but he wouldn’t be able to get close enough to help us, and the void to pass through wouldn’t open in water.
“There are advantages to being dark and unknown, as you well know,” she said.
Her black tail kept them afraid, as her kind thought her a bad omen just like the celestials harbored disdain for black wings. However, fear was a power in itself.
“You have no magick though,” I pointed out.
“Yet.” She floated closer, resting her hand on my shoulder while the other idly played with Astraea’s hair. “I’m waiting for that to change with what you owe me.”
Astraea’s teeth bashed together, and her lips were turning faintly blue. We had to get out of the water before the icy cold killed us instead of the nymphs.
“As fate has it, that’s exactly what I was going to retrieve for you. But I need something more from you.”
Her black eyes flared with excitement but quickly narrowed with ire.
“I did my part in making sure your star found her stormstone dagger in Goldfell manor.”
“That’s hardly a fair trade for what you stand to gain in return.”
“It’s not my fault you chose such a pathetic request.”
Distant voices caught my attention, and I found a ship heading our way.
“After all we’ve been through, won’t you help me just this once to test the power you’ll have with the trident?”
That curved a wild smile on her face.
“What do you have in mind?”