Page 1 of The Night Is Defying (Nytefall Trilogy #2)

1

N yte— P ast

He watched the darkness tipping his fingers fade back to a warm tan, but what lay in his heart would never retract so easily. Nightsdeath settled like a sleeping monster within him once again, proud of the bloodshed that surrounded him.

The scent of vampire blood would always reek of decay. Especially the nightcrawlers. Plucking a cloth from his jacket pocket, Nyte wiped his face as he stepped over the bodies. He felt nothing and hardly remembered tearing through the dozen of them he’d come across in Alisus.

“Your father won’t be pleased,” a vampire called Ripley said from behind.

He was a soulless—the kind of vampire that consumed souls instead of blood. From Nyte’s understanding, they could glimpse everything of a person through their souls and once held a close alliance with the celestials to keep peace and rid the land and stars of those who’d committed sins unworthy of redemption.

“He’s never pleased,” Nyte said. It would be his punishment to face, but he didn’t really care.

He approached the wagon of captured fae. They all cowered, thinking they’d been saved from one fate only to be staring at something far worse. It wasn’t far from the truth, if his intentions for them were anything like the slaughter they’d just witnessed.

With ease he broke the lock, tossing it away before the iron door swung open.

The fae didn’t move.

This was the soul tarnishing part he had to turn off every emotion to face. They couldn’t all live. For it to be a believable ambush in that most escaped, there had to be casualties on both sides. Yet, looking at every frightened life before him, it was never a choice he could make.

“Not all of you can be saved, but you get to choose who walks away,” Nyte said.

It didn’t matter what he did or who he saved; there would always be a villainous taint to it. Lives had to be sacrificed, and those who got to walk away were not his redemption.

Salvation didn’t exist for a servant of Death.

The fae looked over each other, forming guards, protecting themselves and their young. Nyte stepped away from the carriage and watched them exit. Five males, three females, four young.

“Decide now which of you will die. Better yet, kill them yourselves, and you can walk away with a lifetime of wealth.”

Nyte stood calm and still. His mind reached into each of theirs. Waiting.

They’d made their choice before they got the chance to act on it.

Nyte reacted to their unspoken intentions, snapping the neck of one male who planned to lunge for the female next to him to save himself. Then Nyte twisted, reaching a hand into the chest of another who was about to turn on his friend. Finally, the last male succumbed to the hand Nyte wrapped around his throat, for the target he’d made of the young in his company. Nyte tossed him aside, not looking as Ripley caught the fae, and his silent cries didn’t last long as his soul was devoured.

The blood on Nyte’s hand disappeared in wisps of smoke as he turned to the remaining fae.

“Run south and don’t look back,” he said to them, devoid of any emotion.

It took them a moment to decide Nyte wasn’t going to turn on them as they tried to escape. They were right to be cautious, and he could only hope their fear of him, and other vampires that could come after them again, would keep their wits sharp.

The females guided the young, but one male turned back. One with short deep green hair and small horns that curved away from themselves.

“W-why did you help us?” he asked.

Nyte didn’t know what to do with such a question. It wasn’t one he’d faced before, and this group was particularly slow at retreating from him when the door of opportunity opened.

He didn’t have an answer to give. Instead, Nyte said, “Your hair could pass as a Starlight Matter enhancement. Your horns and ears will always single you out to them as fae.” He cringed at the implication. “If you want a chance at a normal life, or to stay alive and fight back…”

“I understand,” the male said. “Thank you.”

The gratitude didn’t sit right.

“There’s a human called Lucinda Havesten. Go to Delven Inn at the edge of Alisus. She’ll help you.”

The fae male nodded. “I won’t forget the debt we owe you.”

Before Nyte could say that he didn’t want any favors, the fae took off after his group.

“My lord,” a new vampire interrupted. A young shadowless named Lionel.

“You shouldn’t be here—”

“They have the star-maiden.”

Nyte’s eyes targeted the guard at once, causing him to stiffen.

“If that’s true—”

“It is. They have her captive in the tower back in Astrinus.”

Cold, cruel laughter erupted inside him, but he didn’t release it.

“They don’t have the star-maiden,” Nyte said with mocking calm, but a thrill began to rise in his chest. “She has them.”

She had her back to him. Lengths of unique silver hair spilled behind her with strands catching an iridescent sheen from the moonlight she stared at.

Nyte dismissed all the guards before entering the cell.

This moment was his. To face her once and for all. He wanted to relish it all to himself.

He kept back, cloaked in shadow, and her lack of reaction had him questioning her highly admired senses and wit.

Until she began to turn.

Only a flicker of silver-blue caught his sight before he was slammed by a force as shackling as death and as condemning as hell.

Nyte slipped into her mind out of instinct, erasing the sight of him. The shadow cover was not enough to hide from it.

This impossibility.

It was fucking impossible.

A wicked trick, yet he couldn’t figure out how she was convincing a part of his being that they belonged together. That she was his to bond and protect and strengthen.

No. She was his to weaken, destroy, and eradicate.

She was a cunning yet absolutely stunning little thing.

Fury rose in him at her utter audacity in trying her celestial bewitchment on him. Her silver eyes searched the cell and Nyte eased a fraction knowing she wasn’t immune to his ability to bend minds.

Astraea.

The Daughter of Dusk and Dawn. The beloved ruler of all Solanis. The star-maiden.

A magnificent and undeniably powerful creature.

The pull to her became gravity-defying while he stood rooted.

He had to get out of here and took two steps before her voice did something no other had before: it silenced every beast of his mind.

“Why do you hide?”

Her voice.

He fought a strong urge to expel it from his mind, losing to the rapture of wanting to hear it again.

“Why do you pretend to be captured?” He couldn’t resist the answer he eased into her mind.

She heard it with a shallow gasp. Drawing his gaze to pink full lips now parted faintly and— fuck, he should kill her and be done with it.

Nyte hadn’t come armed when her death by his hands alone would be most gratifying. Now, there was a demon in his mind that would sooner tear at his own flesh than lay on her with malicious intent.

Astraea would die. He would make sure of it.

The heavy chains clanged as she examined her bonds.

“They certainly feel real,” she said. “Though I can’t say the same for you.”

He wanted to melt the iron circling her wrists and strangle the guard who was responsible for equipping them with the chain between them.

Stars above, he wanted to—

“You must be the one they call Nightsdeath,” she drawled.

The name wasn’t right. Not from her. Yet that evil within him peeked out with sinful glee toward his greatest enemy.

Starlight.

It marked her. The scent, like lavender and honey, pulled Nyte inches closer to take a full inhale. Intoxicating. Another step. She was a drug, and he was oh too curious to sample knowing he could cut out the affliction like any plague. Just indulge a little more.

“Where do you get that impression?” he sent back in answer.

He’d faced countless threats. Seen bloodshed of every color. Yet danger of the most lethal kind was always the most beautiful. And Astraea… she was such a mesmerizing, taunting, and beautiful thing that it didn’t seem fair to the rest of the world to compare her to anything else in it. In the shadow of what she was.

The brightest star.

“I’ve heard of your mind talents,” she said plainly, so unimpressed, unafraid. Her indifference toward him flared wildly in him.

When her face lifted fully, the impact of her eyes locking on his was like his next step slammed straight into the stone wall.

It was right then, against his will, he pledged to her: No one would harm her. No one would touch her. No one except him.

So when he found the mark scoring across her cheek, freshly scabbed and still flushing rose against her pale complexion, Nyte almost lost his whole fucking composure.

He wouldn’t ask her. No. Something about the hidden gleam in her eye told him she would use any words as a craft. The impression that he cared about a mark on her was sure to strike back like a blade in his chest.

Yet even more perplexing was how easily she found Nyte’s stare when he was sure his image was still blocked from her mind by his compulsion.

“I’ve faced monsters before,” she taunted, easing closer to the bars. He became fascinated with her. “You won’t scare me if you show yourself.”

For once he didn’t fight the curl of his mouth. Her daring nature was plucking long dormant threads within him, and he was thrilled to test how far this creature was able to bend before he broke her.

Nyte resisted the urge to join her boldness and erase more of the space between them. The scent of her blood still lingered from her wound and the sharp teeth appearing in his mouth snapped his awareness.

He slipped from her mind, releasing it fully.

Astraea blinked as if she knew. Felt it. She searched for him even though she’d already had him pinned.

It wasn’t in cowardice that he kept himself semi-hidden in the shadows of the room; he couldn’t be sure exactly what was truth or myth about the star-maiden. He had to be cautious.

“Trading one method of hiding for another doesn’t count,” she said.

“I’m right here,” he answered. “I’ve always been right here.”

Nyte didn’t know what to make of her reaction when she finally distinguished his form from the darkness. She stared and stared without a single word, and it was damn infuriating. Itching his skin so badly he wanted to snap her neck to be rid of the attention.

As quick as the thought came, he imagined holding her fragile lifeless body, wondering if she would wake again or if she wasn’t like him at all. Not a true immortal. It didn’t seem right that the daughter of two primordials would be anything less.

The movement in his chest was foreign, and he didn’t know what to make of it. A faster beat like the adrenaline of war, then a skip that felt like regret.

Nyte had taken a step out of his shadow cover without even realizing. Her chin tipped back a fraction to keep those cool eyes on his.

Fire against ice. What destruction they could commit. It hummed between them like a dare, just waiting for one side to announce war so the battle could begin.

“Astraea,” he said. Only to taste her name, and fuck, did it flare something possessive within him that took claim of it that instant.

“Nightsdeath.”

Again, he didn’t like the sound of it from her. Especially in the way she toyed with it. A name that brought vicious beings to their knees; she used it like she found a thrill in provoking a dangerous beast.

“Just Nyte,” he corrected her.

He wanted to retract the token he extended to her as soon as it left his lips. It was better to have her keep testing the name that was priming the monster inside him to devour her. Nightsdeath would want her to push and push until Nyte had no choice but to give over to it completely and there would be no hope for her then.

“You are not what I expected,” she observed.

The slow trail of her eyes over him grated on him like knives. Everything she did was so purposeful… attentive. Nyte had to figure her out before she could him and when their eyes met again it was like the race had begun.

She wasn’t captured. Of course not. Nyte had tried that himself, and if some other had managed what he couldn’t, he would damn well hand them a sword and lay his neck at their mercy. There was some foolish bastard, perhaps several, who were gloating about how they’d caught the star-maiden. And Nyte couldn’t wait to hunt them down.

He wondered, “Dare I ask what assumptions you had about me?”

Her mouth twitched as though the stories she’d been told amused her.

“Older, for one,” she started. Those silver eyes roved over him and stars; the disruption in him was unwelcome to their impression each time. “Like far older. With a beard and maybe carrying a scepter.”

“A scepter?”

She shrugged. “No one knows how your magick works. I figured the mind manipulation might be some kind of rare artifact.”

Nyte couldn’t fight the amusement curving his mouth. Such a strange feeling he wasn’t sure how to suppress it.

“Like your key?”

Astraea looked away. The legendary weapon of the star-maiden was feared by all, and he was fascinated to see it.

“It’s many things, but it cannot trick minds.”

“If it’s in the void, you know I could find it.”

“Which is why it isn’t. You think I don’t know of your capabilities, Nyte? ” She approached the bars again, slipping her pale hands around them and leaning her forehead to the cold metal. “I know how many times you’ve sought me out. I know that it’s been your father’s highest goal.”

“You’ve been watching me?”

“Of course.”

“I know a lot about you too, Astraea.” She liked hearing her name from him. He could tell by the way her eyes creased a near undetectable fraction each time he’d said it. “Do your guardians know you’re here?”

The fall of her face was all the answer he needed.

The star-maiden had been raised by six of them in mortal flesh, divinely chosen by the God of Dusk and Goddess of Dawn to raise the one true leader that would usher in the Golden Age. They were three Bonded pairs and a mix of all species to demonstrate and instill peace in the star-maiden. Once she came of mature age, they gave up their millennium-old mortal forms to rest, leaving their Bonded spirits, known now as the legendary Serpent, Panther, and Raven, to continue to guide her.

“They’ve long been of the opinion the best way to deal with you is to never acknowledge you.”

“I’m wounded.”

“I doubt that.”

“So why did you come?”

Astraea looked to be contemplating. Deciding if her guardians were right or if she should trust her own intuition.

“What do you know of the quakes?”

It wasn’t what he expected her to have risked her life to come here for.

“Now why would I give you any information?” Nyte decided to play with her. This was the most fun he’d had in decades.

“Because this affects you too.”

“Does it?”

Her eyes narrowed, trying to read him. It was adorable to watch her try.

“The stars are dying,” she said, giving away her first note of fear. “Plummeting this world into darkness would create a catastrophic imbalance.”

“I quite like the dark.”

“So I’ve gathered.”

A smile played on his lips. “Are you asking for my help?”

“You might think the disruption to solar magick only affects the celestials and humans, but you’re wrong. Vampires would become uncontrollable. Nightcrawlers would roam freely and ravage, this world is not ready. Your father is not prepared to handle something that will quickly spread beyond his control like a bloodthirsty plague.”

“If I’m not mistaken, one of your guardians was a nightcrawler.”

She pursed her lips, deliberating how much she was willing to share with him.

“He would not have wished their freedom in the daylight. It is the only way a lot of them keep their control. Them aside, the celestials would become powerless eventually, and before you think that triumphing over them would be enough reason to leave the quakes be, you should know that you don’t understand what that would truly mean. Souls would never cycle to the stars; the soulless would become another insatiable force and their greed would them instead. Starlight Matter would no longer be a trade substance. Without the sun, nothing would grow. The humans would die out too. Then, with them gone, the fae would be the last to come under attack in the vampires’ desperation. So yes, a vampire reign would be achieved, but it would be a world only of monsters. With this course, there would be no governing them, no order. Only pure chaos and bloodshed. If your father wants to overthrow me to rule a nation, whatever is shaking our balance must be stopped.”

Nyte thought for a long moment. She came for an alliance. The idea was as fascinating as it was ludicrous. He wouldn’t expose his intrigue so easily. Wouldn’t tell her he believed she was right and had been unsettled by the discovery of the imbalance that had grown worse. The quakes were at least a century old. Nyte didn’t remember a time without them. But they were becoming more frequent in recent decades, and for the star-maiden to have come to him, the effect of them on the celestials must be edging on dire.

“Why did you not speak to my father?”

“Because I have been watching you,” she reminded. “And I think we both know who really has the power to do something here.”

Nyte wouldn’t admit the unexpected lift of relief that she hadn’t voiced any of this to his father. He wouldn’t see her reasoning. There was a delusion to his thoughts that would disregard any warning and use this knowledge to gain his advantage no matter the cost. As her enemy, Nyte couldn’t deny it would be smart if done right.

Yet how could she not see the betrayal in coming to him?

He could discover what was causing the quakes, end the star-maiden, and take reign over the celestials. Then stop whatever was causing the disruption himself.

“You’re cold,” he diverted. Deciding he needed time to calculate exactly what he would be getting himself into.

Nyte’s observation earned a shiver from her that seemed like she’d been stifling it the whole time. To not show weakness.

“You’ll have to tell your guards it’ll take more than a few freezing nights in here to kill me,” she said, pacing the cell now.

Her deep-purple gown had sheer sleeves to show off magnificent metallic-silver tattoos. The constellation over her chest was that of the star-maiden. An exquisite thing. Though for the dead of winter, her attire was not adequate.

“They took things from you,” he said, surprised by the darkness leaking into his tone.

He couldn’t help it. Imagining hands on her surged a need to rip them from the bodies of those who’d thought it appropriate to touch her without his knowledge.

“There’s a particular brute with a scar over his lip who was thorough in his search for weapons,” she said. Unfazed by the handling she’d been subjected to. “Make sure they don’t damage my dagger, will you? I’m rather fond of it.”

Seeing no place for her to equip herself with weapons, his sight targeted her thigh, catching the flicker of black leather when she stepped from the cut of her gown. Cold murderous rage overcame him quicker than he could suppress it.

“Are they supposed to scare me?” Her voice snapped him from a reel of deplorable thoughts.

Nyte followed her attention, examining the ripples of shadow that had spilled into her cell. They circled her, and he knew the nightmares they could inflict when they made a target out of someone. His allegiance with them was a match made in hell’s most sinister depths.

The beat in Nyte’s chest quickened, readying him to intervene, but the shadows weren’t interested in attacking. They reacted to his curiosity about her, and he had to wonder if it was misplaced courage or stupidity that had her reaching out a hand to touch the animated darkness.

Nyte’s fist clamped and whatever emotions expelled from him to give the shadows form dissipated, and it fell like black smoke, disappearing into nothing.

“If you’re serious, find me again,” he said, leaving without another word.

He marched down the dark halls of the keep they’d taken over a few years ago in Astrinus, not really knowing any direction, only driving against the force not to turn back.

“We have the elusive star-maiden?”

Drystan’s approach didn’t come as a surprise when he’d all but skipped up in his eagerness. Nyte’s younger half brother was starting to join in with their father’s never-ending plans and strategies in a war he often scaled higher than it was because of his own paranoia about the celestials. Overthrowing them was no easy feat, and while Nyte entertained his orders, nothing short of the maiden’s death would get him what he sought.

“She’ll be gone by morning,” Nyte said stiffly.

He could practically feel the frown Drystan wore.

“She’s in a cell, chained in steel laced with Nebulora.”

Nyte hadn’t failed to notice the burning around Astraea’s wrists from the cosmic plant harmful to her kind. It wasn’t enough to incapacitate her.

“She’ll figure it out.”

“Father has tripled the guard detail around the fortress.”

He stopped walking, turning to Drystan when he was certain no one lingered around to overhear.

“Never underestimate your enemy when they still have resources to best you. For Astraea, breathing is enough.”

Drystan quirked a brow as if waiting for a joke.

“You’ve never given an enemy that much credit,” he said, folding his arms.

His apprehension of Nyte’s judgment grated a nerve, but his younger brother had a lot to learn about how to rank his enemies.

“I’ve never met my match. But don’t be concerned for me, brother. A word of advice though—don’t be around when father hears of her escape.”