Page 22 of House of Darkness (The Fallen Star #1)

ESTRELLA

“Estrella,” a voice breathed into my ear, sweet and thick as honey. My name curled off his tongue like a caress down my spine, the ‘s’ drawn out, the ‘a’ exhaled like the very breath from his lungs.

I opened my eyes to find Roman lying beside me, his wings wrapped around us like a shroud of darkness.

My bare arm pressed against his chest, each inch of contact igniting a sharp awareness of how inappropriately close we were.

After all his talk of choice and not taking advantage of me, he did this at the first opportunity.

I sat up with a jolt, my mouth forming words before I could think better of it.

The sheer audacity of this man. Then I noticed our position, and heat flooded my face.

We were on his side of the bed, his feathers trailing over the edge.

The bedding clung to me, evidence of my desperate attempt to get as close to him as possible during my long, restless journey across the entire expanse of the bed.

He smirked. “If you wanted to cuddle, you could’ve just said so.”

I scrambled backward. “I did not mean to do that.”

“Hurtful. I’m a good cuddler.” He winked and rolled onto his back, stretching out now that I was out of his way. Utterly humiliating.

“Why did you wake me up?” I grumbled, rushing to cover myself with the bedsheet.

“You mean besides saving myself from being thrown off by a bed hog?” he purred. “I thought we could sneak away to the city. There’s much I want to show you. We’d have to escape my generals, though.”

“Dodging responsibilities? That’s not very mature of you.

” I chastised, but I was already crawling out of bed.

No way was I going to miss the chance to see the city.

Its looming monolithic buildings had taunted me every day for the past twenty-one years.

The prospect of escaping those stuffy walls, even if just for a little while and even if chaperoned. .. well, I’d take it.

Roman jumped to his feet. “There are perks to being tsar, namely, I can do whatever I want.”

“You mean as long as your generals don’t catch you.” I shot him a glance over my shoulder as I opened my suitcase.

A grin spread across his face. “Exactly. You have five minutes.”

“That hat is ridiculous, by the way.”

Roman recoiled as if I’d spat on him. His hand touched the top hat resting beside him. “I like this hat.”

I rolled my eyes but smiled. I would never admit it to him, but he looked handsome.

He wore a deep gray vest and trousers paired with a red dress shirt and a black trench coat.

An ornate watch adorned his left wrist, and a large silver ring shaped like a raven’s head curled down his right middle finger.

When he wore the hat, his curls spilled out in adorable puffs.

A clean, normal look I hadn’t expected from the tsar.

We had scurried to the stables like my sister and I sneaking seconds from the kitchen.

There was something thrilling about the secrecy, a giddy feeling spreading through me when Roman pressed a finger to his lips as we hid around a corner, waiting for a member of Levis to pass.

Breaking the rules felt exciting when there wasn’t the risk of punishment, especially with a partner in crime like Roman.

I dipped my head out the window anxiously until I caught sight of the city skyline ahead.

The silhouettes of buildings stood out like monoliths against the smog.

I had spent countless hours staring out the academy windows, dreaming of the day I could visit the city—freedom at last. Now I was entering with the very man who owned me. Funny how life worked like that.

The streets reminded me of the academy cafeteria—crowded, bustling with people, and loud.

But the people surrounding me weren’t other young, blonde girls with similar faces and tight expressions.

Here, there were all kinds of individuals, a stark contrast to the slumbering backdrop of the buildings.

Carved from stone, each structure blended seamlessly into the next, creating neat, uniform rows.

“It’s quite something, isn’t it?” Roman said, his face close to mine as he looked out the window.

“It’s beautiful,” I breathed.

Roman chuckled. “That’s one word for it.”

“You don’t like the city?” I raised my eyebrows.

“There’s a reason I live in the country, doll.”

The carriage turned down a side street, weaving through narrow alleys of cobblestone and brick.

The farther we got from the city center, the quieter it became.

It felt as though the city’s heart was beating, yet it hadn’t fully awakened from its slumber.

Humans and vampires alike hunched in the crevices of buildings, streetlamps casting a harsh yellow glow across their dilapidated forms. The city smelled worse out here, like urine and alcohol, making my nose crinkle in distaste.

A knock sounded on the hood. The carriage driver leaned over the side and smiled at us. “We’re nearly there now, Roman.”

“Thanks, Avram,” Roman called back.

“Do all your servants call you by your first name?”

Roman scowled at me, his tone sharper than I’d ever heard it. “I don’t have servants. I have employees.”

I raised my eyebrows. “There’s a difference?”

“Yes. They are my equals. I pay them to do tasks they’re better at than I am. Some choose to live in the castle because it’s easier, but they aren’t required to.”

“They don’t live with their own Houses?”

Roman shifted in his seat, crossing his arms over his broad chest. “Most of my employees are banished vampires. They have no House to return to. Many of them actually live in Solime.”

The bloodthirsty gaze of the banished vampire who had attacked me in Solime surged in my thoughts. His tongue against my flesh, the weight of his body pinning mine. Vampires just like him always surrounded me. I shuddered involuntarily but said nothing.

“I know what you’re thinking, and they aren’t like that. Most of their counts held personal vendettas against them, leading to their banishment for petty reasons. Just because I fail them and they’re starving and desperate doesn’t mean they’re evil, Estrella.”

“What about the vampire who attacked me?” I snapped back.

His jaw flexed, and a tense silence enveloped us as we stared each other down. Finally, he spoke, “was he evil, or just driven to evil by my failures as his tsar?”

My voice dropped, whether in disbelief or something else, I wasn’t sure. “You didn’t think he was evil, yet you killed him to protect me?”

“I did. And I’d do it again.”

The rest of the ride passed in silence, Roman’s gaze fixed on the window as if he stared at them hard enough, he could fix everything swirling around between those curls. Then he spoke, cutting through the thick silence like a blade. “We’re here.”

The carriage came to a stop. We had arrived on the outskirts of town, in front of a standalone building overgrown with ivy. Its low-lying roof was adorned with dilapidated gargoyles, and the front was composed entirely of windows. I stared in mute wonder.

Roman exited the carriage first, reaching up to help me down the iron steps.

He linked his arm with mine and guided me around the front.

We passed Avram, who tipped his hat politely, then the horses.

I couldn’t resist patting each on their silken black noses, earning a whinny and a chuff.

We stopped in front of the glass doors, and I froze.

The interior was a vibrant green, as if a jungle had burst from the floors.

Leaves of every shape pressed against the glass, serving as a backdrop for the gilded lettering spelling out “The Greenery.”

My hand tightened around Roman’s as I nearly skipped through the front doors, welcoming the warm, humid air.

Plants of every color and shape spilled from every corner.

I dropped his hand and approached a bushy plant with spade-shaped leaves that were.

.. well, they were pink. Mixed with green, but definitely pink.

Razvan would lose his mind over those bright colors.

The shopkeeper called out, “That’s known as the pink princess philodendron, sweetie. It’s one of our rarer specimens.”

I had no idea what those words meant, but I nodded appreciatively. A hand appeared beside me.

“I’ll hold them so you can keep looking,” Roman offered.

His face wore an expression I didn’t quite understand.

There was a softness in those ruby eyes, a joy in the curve of his lips that I hadn’t seen before.

It was like his usual smirk but... softer.

I didn’t know how to feel about it, but it made my stomach twist into knots. I nodded and passed the plant to him.

I could have stayed in this shop for hours, indeed, I was pretty sure I had.

Whenever I thought I had seen enough, my eye caught something new, and I was off again.

Eventually, the shop owner wandered over and offered me a leather-bound book on basic houseplant care.

I accepted it gratefully—maybe with this and a bit of luck, I wouldn’t kill them by accident.

All the while, Roman followed quietly behind me. He only spoke to murmur words of approval at every plant I showed him, that strange expression never leaving his face. I caught him watching me from the corner of my eye, his gaze piercing with a soft intensity I didn’t want to admit I enjoyed.

I had grown enamored with a shelf of spiky plants labeled as cactuses when he appeared by my side, holding a small pot in his hand.

I turned to him just as he presented it to me.

Inside was a small yet striking plant, with deep satiny black leaves that felt as soft as velvet, smooth and gentle to the touch.

“I like this one. What do you think?”

His tendrils crawled over his hand, wrapping around the stem and leaves, their edges evaporating like smoke in the air.

They blended perfectly with the black leaves, as though they were one.

Though intimidating, they were gentle as they moved around the plant—just as they had always been with me.

I took the plant from him, cradling it against my chest.

“It’s my favorite so far,” I murmured. His cheeks flushed, and he dipped his head. The tendrils that had wound their way around my limbs warmed, and my cheeks heated to match.