Page 15 of The Night Is Defying (Nytefall Trilogy #2)

15

A straea

Twilight was falling as I stood in the bell tower. The last time I was here I’d felt the same wrap of comfort. Home. Only now I knew why and I wanted to spend days here, the only place on the land that felt out of the reach of any burden.

“How are you feeling?” Nyte asked gently from behind.

He’d been gone when I woke this morning and I lay recalling the memory he’d given me while we slept.

“Good,” I said, barely a whisper when I was so calm and lost in thought with the view of Vesitire.

It looked much the same as it had back then, except the view far beyond. The veil that became a separation between the world and the celestials.

I ran my hand along the metal of the telescope while my skin prickled at the awareness of Nyte’s slow approach.

“This wasn’t here before,” I said.

“I had it made after you left. To see you.”

My heart clenched. Looking up at a sky diffused with hues of navy welcoming the early nightfall, it was hard to imagine myself up there. Though maybe some part of me yearned for it again—to be with Cassia.

“You still came here often?” I asked, though I knew the answer.

This place had been kept up well, not left to become dusty and neglected.

“You showed me what true peace felt like in this place. It became agonizing in your absence, but the strongest, most authentic pieces of you remained right here.”

“Why couldn’t you let me go?” I whispered, finally turning to him. My chest was swelling too much. “Everything would be so much easier if we both just let go then… and now.”

Getting pieces of our past… it was both exciting and gut-wrenching. I watched myself through his memory and wanted to tell that version of me not to fall, knowing the catastrophic events that were about to unfold.

It should have been enough to repel me from him now, but those golden eyes stole me every time I found them and I didn’t think I would ever stop bleeding inside if they were lost forever.

“Is that what you want?” he asked.

“No.”

“Then I don’t choose easy. Nothing I’ve faced has ever been granted easily, and you… you’re something I’d trek through hell and back to have.”

My forehead had fallen to his chest when he’d come close enough. It was an entirely selfish way of thinking but Nyte didn’t care. I knew he would condemn the world for this but I couldn’t.

“You said we tried… that you were leaving to go back to your realm because it’s hopeless. As hopeless as it was back then.”

I wanted more of our story but I didn’t know if my heart was going to survive it when I was still denying that it was either him or me in this world… not both.

“It was never going to be forever,” he confessed. “I’m incapable of letting you go.”

“But you said—”

“When I said I had to leave this realm it wasn’t me giving up. I’m determined to find another way to rewrite our ending. Over and over. Through time and space, finding you in every story and living the agony until I find the one where we were triumphant. I refuse to give up on us. I refuse to accept that there is no having you. You’re mine, Astraea.”

I didn’t realize it was something I’d been waiting to hear. An insecurity that had been festering inside me since he said he was leaving. I should have been horrified to hear it—his leaving would have been heroic for our world, selfless, and I don’t know what it made me to be glad he was no hero.

“Maybe we could go together,” I said, looking up at his face, the beautiful streaks of fleeting sunlight glowing in his amber eyes. “If we can stop the vampire war, then we’ll deal with our curse. Together.”

Nyte’s palm cupped my cheek as he kissed my forehead.

“I want that more than anything.”

Peace soothed the anxiety that had been building in me. I wanted more of our memories together, and now they might be bearable despite the end to our story back then. No—it was just a pause before a new parting. I didn’t know how many of them we would need to write before we reached the true end, but there was hope threading around us as we stood there, defiant against the fate that tried to write it for us.

“What’s on the agenda for today’s training?” I asked, with my spirit lifted.

“Since you’ve seen a glimpse of the fae resistance, how would you feel about seeing another side to it?”

A thrill broke out in me. I was more than ready to act rather than just learning idly and remotely.

“Will Davina be there?”

“Of course. She’s hosting a smaller meeting in the woodland with a certain group of vampire hunters.”

“Hunters?”

There were so many stems of this war. Subtle roots and rebellion I was engrossed to learn about when all I’d known was submission. Believing the humans were silent and compliant, and the fae had long ago been sent into hiding or wiped out.

Nyte’s arm circled me and I braced for the pull of the void he took us through.

“Davina might argue she deserves the credit for recruiting fae and humans as hunters for the resistance, but it was my suggestion, even if she was the one to implement it. People wouldn’t trust it coming from me—likely believing that I’d set it up as some gain or control for my father.”

My heart felt for Nyte, how everything he did was in his father’s evil shadow. He spoke of it like he didn’t mind, like he didn’t do it for credit. Then why did he?

When we stilled and my boots met ground, I looked down to find sticks and moss beneath my feet. The thick tree canopies snuffed out the last of the daylight.

I thought back to what I knew of my short, sheltered existence. The few things I’d heard about Nightsdeath. He took my hand to walk through the woodland, and the simple gesture warmed in my chest.

“Cassia told me Nightsdeath was the one that kept the vampires under control and prevented them from savaging the lands and wiping out the humans,” I recalled. “Is this how? You would hunt them?”

“In some ways, yes. Even my father was struggling to hold the vampires in check. He was slipping his authority over them when they started to grow restless. He promised them a vampire reign but so far it reaped little reward for them.”

“The vampires are wealthy and known as the elite. What else were they hoping for?”

“In Vesitire, perhaps. But they were promised all the reigning lords would be replaced with vampires. That the humans would lose their rights and become servants to the vampires. My father liked the control he had over the reigning lords; if he’d let the vampire reign happen, they could easily band together and overthrow him as the king.”

“So you kept them afraid. Instead of removing him from power and taking over all the kingdoms anyway,” I concluded.

Nyte drew a long inhale. “It was rather taxing, but yes.”

I shuddered at the ominous power he had. How frightening he was to keep an entire species afraid of his wrath if they went against him.

A glow broke the darkness ahead and through the timber bodies, smaller silhouettes moved faintly around the campfire in the clearing.

“We’re late,” I whispered.

They all bore attention on Davina who paced at one side, lost in whatever she was saying to them with a serious frown disturbing her expression.

“We’re just observing, not participating,” he answered.

We stopped at the tree line and Nyte leaned back against a tall trunk. I stood in awe of the many uniformed fae in attendance. Their wears were subtle enough. All black that blended them into the night like wraiths. On the back of their jackets, they all wore the resistance seal embroidered between their shoulders.

Nyte’s hands slipped over my waist, and in my trance I lost all sense of gravity as his gentle pull leaned me back against his front as we watched.

“The vampires are evil,” a fae male sitting on a log by the fire said. It attracted murmurs of agreement. “There have been two savage attacks in the last week between the outskirt towns. They killed a human child among others.”

Davina answered, “Then we need to form groups again and assign them to each town. They’re taking advantage while there’s been rumors the king is no longer in power.”

Nyte idly played with a strand of my hair. “How did you meet Davina?” I asked quietly. We were far enough away that I didn’t think they would hear me while their meeting seemed to be growing intense with the topics they discussed.

“She’s from Astrinus. I found her after stopping a vampire attack that wrecked her whole town. Her parents and sister were murdered. She was fairly young but old enough that I had to ask if she wanted to fight back one day. I planned to hand her over to the resistance in Astrinus, but she didn’t want to stay there.”

“You don’t seem the type to take on apprentices.”

“Davina was very spirited and made her case pretty convincingly.”

“You mean she was defiant and irritated you enough that you had no choice?”

He huffed a short laugh. “Something like that. I brought her back to Vesitire and she worked her way up in status with the resistance here all on her own. She was mentored by the previous leader, cropped her ears in full dedication to the cause, and when the last leader was killed over a hundred years ago, there was no one better to take their place.”

My heart broke for my friend. All the losses she’d suffered, and my pride in her resilience was immeasurable. I looked at her with awe, inspired by what she’d become for herself and her people. She hadn’t let the past break her, and I found a light in that.

Just then her brown eyes flicked up to us briefly, like she knew we’d been here all along.

“Drystan wants to meet with you,” Nyte said with a taste of bitterness.

That sparked my nerves and intrigue. “Did he say what for?”

“Of course not. And I’m not allowed to be there with you.”

My stomach knot tightened.

“Do you think he’d join our side again?” I asked.

“Truthfully, I don’t know. I thought I knew my brother as well as I know myself but so much has changed in him and I’ve neglected to keep up.”

I felt his sorrow and regret like a cold, haunting aura. It wasn’t just him who had failed Drystan. That burden had to be mine too.

“We should be glad he’s willing to hear either of us out.”

Nyte’s hand on my hip circled around me absentmindedly.

“I don’t know why yet, that’s the uncertain part. Before, it would have been out of the kindness of his heart but… I don’t think he harbors that anymore. I just can’t figure out what he’s trying to gain other than to overthrow me in the end. But even that seems too broad of an ambition for him.”

“I want to meet with him.”

Nyte sighed; his head leaning down as he breathed in the scent of my hair.

“I had a feeling you would be willing.”

“Look at them,” I said, observing the angry faces of the fae in conversation with Davina. “They think the only way to end this is to kill all the vampires. Drystan could be our only chance to start changing their minds.”

“I’m not hopeful he’ll be on our side, Starlight. You shouldn’t be either. No matter what you see from the past, he is not that person anymore.”

I didn’t believe that. I thought rights and wrongs could shape but never erase what lied in the heart before.

“Shit,” Nyte muttered. I turned utterly still. “I’m rather comfortable and hoped for a relaxing evening.”

He reached across my hip and pulled out my key. I took it at his prompting.

“I hope you won’t need it, but maybe a live threat will help trigger your memory with it. Hone your instincts, love.”

Nyte straightened with me and rolled back his shoulders. My heart raced, his words jarring against how lax he was. The fae started to become alert too, standing from the logs, and Davina retrieved her weaponized fan.

Then it all happened so fast.

Nightcrawlers came out of the darkness with snarls and vicious expressions. The key warmed in my hand and I flipped it, grabbing it again as it shifted to its stunning iridescent blade form.

Nyte watched me with a small smile of pride despite the fighting that erupted around us. Then his eyes darkened on something behind me, and it was the fastest I’d seen Nightsdeath change his appearance before he blinked out of my sight. I turned around in time to watch him rip the wing off a nightcrawler like it was made of paper. The shrill cry pierced my ears and I winced, but a hiss to my right drew my attention and I gasped, reacting out of instinct.

My blade swiped through air, not to make impact with the key. A slice of light projected from the angle I cut and for a second I thought I’d missed as the nightcrawler stopped running but stood in front of me, staring with wide eyes.

Then the top half of his body fell away from his lower half.

“You still have your touch,” Nyte admired.

I was still so stunned by what I’d done that I didn’t register the other attack that was just a few feet from reaching me before Nyte intercepted, stopping their advance with the hand he plunged through their chest. Retracting, he didn’t take his eyes from me as the heart slipped from his lazy fingers and the blood coating his hand wisped away in shadow.

“Your focus could use work. On your right.”

I gasped, whirling, and my palm cast out, fingers posed to the ground that cracked like lightning stroked beneath it, then I pushed that force of magick up, and the nightcrawler cried out as he was launched into the sky from the exploding path under his feet.

“I don’t think I’ve seen you do that before,” Nyte mused.

A second later he shot to the sky, grabbing the flailing nightcrawler who tried to catch himself with his wings while Nyte tore them from his back. I winced and wailed agonizingly but it was silenced when Nyte’s shadows smothered him as his body plummeted to the ground.

“You seem to have a habit of doing that,” I said, subconsciously rolling my shoulders.

Nyte landed gracefully.

“The wings? It’s the most pain they can endure.”

I figured.

There’s at least a few dozen more around,” he informed.

Nyte blinked away again and I honed my senses to help end this vicious, blindsided attack.

My pulse blocked my throat as I spun, and instead of the key I formed light in my hand, pushing it toward the nightcrawler who screamed when it slammed into his chest. Then the light seeped into his screaming mouth, his ears, and eyes. I felt the warmth but it would be nothing to the magick setting him on fire from the inside out and he couldn’t make a sound. His body burst into flames and though I should have been repulsed by the death and fighting, I was too in awe of the magick that was answering me. Methods of attack filtered through me like lost threads and I came alive with the action.

I would never be weak or helpless again.

All this time I’d been made to feel like I needed someone to protect me. I’d been manipulated to believe I couldn’t survive out here.

Goldfell was right. This world is vast and full of monsters but fear is a choice. What I let it do to me was my choice .

I would never let it own me again.

I wouldn’t fear trying. Or failing. Or myself.

Tears pricked my eyes and my adrenaline coursed proud and determined.

Running into the clearing, I targeted the skies. My only frustration came from the fact I couldn’t chase the nightcrawlers in flight. I threw the key from my right hand as it transformed, catching it in my left as a bow and conjuring magick to craft an arrow with three heads.

I aimed skyward, waiting for the attention of all three nightcrawlers that were closing in. Awareness that one was racing toward me on the ground pricked my skin but I shifted my legs, keeping my stance braced.

Almost.

Two of them dove for me, but the third was a little too far away.

Terror pounded in my chest but I used it to craft my focus.

The enemy on the ground was moments from pummeling into me and then…

I let my arrow soar, not getting a chance to watch if it’d separated to strike all three like I’d attempted, certain I’d achieved it before.

The key became a blade in a breath, and the nightcrawler’s snapping teeth came inches from my face as he ran straight through my blade. The weight of him made me drop it completely.

Then I was standing face to face with a pleasantly surprised Nyte.

“I’ll admit, I doubted you for a second there.”

I scanned the clearing, and got to witness the last of my triumph when I found three light arrows fading like burned-out matchsticks from three bodies.

The stillness came down chillingly and exhilaratingly. The ground was now covered in bodies but to my relief I didn’t see any fallen fae in a quick scan.

“There you are,” Nyte said. I’d never heard such awe in his voice.

“I don’t…” I panted, the exertion only just now touching me at all. “I don’t know how I did any of that.”

Nyte scanned my face with sparks of pleasure dancing in his eyes.

“I do,” he said, tipping my chin to him. “You’ve just been hiding for a little while. But you are breathtaking.”

He kissed me, hard and only once.

Then he pulled back and reached down, yanking my key blade free from the nightcrawler’s gut. Darkness spilled down the key and the light magick hissed, but it only lasted a few seconds before Nyte’s magick erased the blood from it.

Nyte held the key out to me.

“Thanks for the help,” Davina said, wiping the blood off one of her blades and returning it to her fan.

Making her way over to us, she stopped to pluck another from the neck of a fallen nightcrawler.

“Are all of them like this?” I asked, looking around the gruesome display of death.

“They are the more untrained and savage of the vampires, but not all,” Nyte said.

“Was one of your guardians not a nightcrawler?” Davina inquired, folding her fan and fitting it to her thigh.

Nyte had mentioned them before, and I was beginning to sense that it was important I backtrack to them. As if it could unveil something necessary.

“Alisus,” I muttered. “There has to be a reason why I fell to Alisus.”

“Of course,” Davina said as if just remembering that fact. “The Guardian Temple. You should go there.”

Inspiration erupted in me. Every time I felt myself clutching a new thread to help me learn my path I became giddy with anticipation.

“They might have more to say than your parents,” Nyte agreed.

“I need to visit there first,” I said. The temple in Vesitire I’d come to at the end of the Libertatem.

I could have opened the temple then and I’ll never know what that choice could have granted me instead. But I’d chosen Nyte.

“Are you heading out with us?” Davina asked. “The night is young and this has only warmed us up for some vampire hunting tonight. The attacks in the towns are getting out of hand.”

Nyte looked to me to decide. “As much as I’d love nothing more than to persuade you to come back to the castle with me, the choice is yours.”

I was hoping to meet with Auster tomorrow, and the thought of that coiled such guilt in me that my eyes dropped.

“I think I’ve had enough for tonight. Best not push my luck with whatever is coming back to me,” I said.

Nyte nodded with no judgment and Davina squeezed my arm.

“It gave them hope to see you; you should be proud,” she said.

I hadn’t thought about the other fae. They fought just as valiantly and were now scattered throughout the clearing, beginning to gather the bodies into a pile.

“I hope to join you again, though.”

“Anytime.”

Nyte circled my waist and I exchanged a smile with Davina before he took us through the void. My rooms expanded around us when the starry smoke cleared and my heart now weighed heavy.

“I told Rose I would go with her into the city tomorrow. She has a few errands to run.” It was a pitiful lie, and I was anxious with the thought that he knew it.

“So you’re saying I need to occupy myself in the meantime?”

“Are you saying you have a shortage of things to do?”

“That would be a blessing. But things are far more tolerable when you’re by my side.”

Stars, he was making it difficult to keep up this secret. Or to even want to go to Althenia without him at all.

For a moment I imagined him there with me instead. That he wouldn’t be shunned or feared, that he would get to enjoy the wonders of those lands just like any other. That was a future that seemed so precious yet impossible.

I didn’t think Auster would ever welcome Nyte on his land.

“Can we go to Drystan in the evening though?” I asked.

“Probably best we don’t delay that, yes.”

I nodded, and when Nyte made to leave me for sleep, I couldn’t stop the request that tumbled from me.

“Can you stay?”

Maybe it was my guilt that made me think keeping him close would compensate for the secret about Auster I was harboring. Or maybe I was only trying to soothe the wicked demons in my mind that were taunting that I could come to find an attachment in my heart to someone else.

Nyte’s expression turned so soft and yearning. It was moments like this that he was merely a person and so was I. We had an attraction without curse, and feelings without burdens. The pretend might be the only thing that kept the spirit of our bond alive.

“Those might be my favorite three words you’ve ever said to me.”

He tucked in tight behind me in bed. His shirtless chest against my back and how his warmth enveloped me made it impossible to believe I could feel this from anyone else. My hand slipped over his knuckles at my chest and our fingers entwined.

“You’re particularly nice to me today,” he murmured, pressing lips to my shoulder. “Should I be concerned?”

“Don’t get used to it,” I answered lightheartedly.

He huffed softly. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”