Page 22 of The Night Is Defying (Nytefall Trilogy #2)

22

N yte

Astraea was the most exquisite thing to have ever lived. I was soaring with her blood in my system, which was the only thing keeping me from wrecking everything in my path because she was currently venturing away from me.

I couldn’t deny that what she had done was utterly brilliant. A fantastic announcement to the world that she was back.

“How could you not have seen that coming?” Tarran drawled at my back.

I stopped with my hand on the door to my father’s old study.

“Amazing, wasn’t she?”

Heading inside, I had to make tremendous effort not to do something deadly and impulsive to the soul vampire that followed me in.

As an elder vampire, one of the oldest alive, he had a reputation and influence I had to navigate carefully. When I was free and known across the land by my notorious name, Tarran wasn’t a force I considered a threat. I knew of him, but he was quiet back then. It seemed that in my absence he had found an opportunity to gain power, and from my findings, he had a lot of it in follower numbers where the vampires were considered.

I gravitated toward the window as if her distance from me was straining a tether. My mouth curved when I saw her, chest clenching with such pride I wanted the pain to linger. I savored the last flickers of her silver hair before she disappeared out of sight over the curve of the frosty courtyard with Rose, Zath, and to my absolute displeasure, Calix.

Tarran said, “It was quite a spectacle indeed. Though I’m surprised you allowed it.”

“She’s the star-maiden. We never should have doubted that, even if she’s still finding herself from before.”

What he couldn’t know was that I’d been hoping for her to escape. Waiting for it. Though I never predicted the bargain she would trick me into. I adored that about her—the unpredictability of what Astraea could be planning.

“What is your plan now that we’ve lost our greatest ally?”

This was my part to play. Assuring Tarran I still had things under control no matter what Astraea did.

“I haven’t left Astraea since the early days after she came back; I’m not going to start now.”

He knew what I meant. “You’ll continue to follow her?”

“She didn’t say anything about infiltrating her mind,” I mused, fixing my stare out the window and replaying the breathtaking sight of her. “I’ll know all of her movements and plans. We’ll have her soon enough.”

“When she feels you there, she might block you.”

“Don’t underestimate me, Tarran. And it’s in your best interest to tame the restless vampires away from this. Astraea is smart enough to have pulled off this bargain; she’ll know she hasn’t gained an escape from me, only a head start.”

I’d lost her once. This world would end before I lost her again.

“My lord, you might want to—” Elliot halted in the door he’d entered without so much as a knock.

Usually I wouldn’t mind, but locking eyes with Tarran made him regretful of that. It was no secret the vampires hated the turned—seeing them as an abomination of their species and I guess that’s why I could sympathize with the Golden Guard.

“What is it?” I asked sharply.

“Drystan is here,” he replied, but my spine straightened at his tone. Elliot added, “Nadia is trying to kill him.”

When I found my brother and the rogue, I was quite irritable Elliot had made it seem more urgent than the childish display I stood witness to.

They were fighting. Perhaps it seemed vicious enough to the others who stood with me, but I found it mildly entertaining.

She chased him while he darted around the drawing room. They’d wrecked the map and crushed the figurines I was quite fond of on the table. There were claw marks on the wood too, and at least three chairs were in splinters.

Nadia picked up another, throwing it, and Drystan was too cornered to avoid the impact of that one. It slammed him to the wall and broke into pieces.

“Stop this,” I warned. My command trembled through the room and she wisely stopped herself before taking another step.

“You’re quite strong,” Drystan groaned, rolling back his shoulders.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I asked, targeting Nadia.

She straightened, gathering her breath not from exertion but anger. Nadia had so much of it bottled inside her I could practically feel it emanating from her. It made me curious, because I didn’t think Drystan was entirely the cause, merely one volatile trigger that unleashed some of it.

“Welcoming our guest,” she said, keeping her heated stare on my brother like she anticipated another round.

“Next time, allow me,” I warned. Then I said to the others, “Leave us.”

Elliot read my silent command, edging tentatively toward Nadia like she was an explosive that would detonate on him too any minute. She tore her glare from Drystan and I felt a stroke of heat from it falling on me for a second before she marched from the room.

“I don’t know what I did to piss her off so much,” Drystan said when we were alone.

He straightened his jacket and ran a hand through his hair, staring after the ghost of her like she lingered on his thoughts.

“She doesn’t like the power you have over her.”

“I have never used it.”

“But you could.”

His hazel eyes slipped to me then, and my chest felt the mutual understanding. Drystan knew the centuries I’d lived through as the monster lingering in people’s nightmares without ever needing to terrorize them.

“So the attack doesn’t matter, only that you hold the weapon,” he said.

I didn’t wish this life on Drystan, but he’d brought this upon himself.

“Your mistake was ever picking it up in the first place,” I answered, pacing around the table and stepping over the pieces of Nadia’s rage.

“She’s not going to stop wanting you dead,” I said. “Unless you know of another way to break the blood bond.”

“There is no other way.”

I quite liked Nadia’s spirit. Admittedly, I wanted to figure her out just like I did each of the Golden Guard after their game. What made them compete in their selected trials to be in the Libertatem. Who they’d lost or hoped to return to. But with her passionate drive to end Drystan, I might have to put her down instead.

“Why did you come?” I asked.

“Have you shown her the day in the library yet?” he asked.

My brow curved curiously. “Why are you eager for her to have that memory?”

“She should know.”

“I thought you didn’t have concern for her anymore—so what is your gain?”

Drystan shrugged. Then circled back to my question.

“I came to tell you, rumor is father has been bragging about a way to kill you—and he plans to use Astraea to do it.”

Heat torched through me so fast I risked causing far more destruction to this room than Nadia.

“You know where he is?” I snarled.

“I said I heard rumors. ”

“Where?”

“Here and there.”

I was so fucking far away from being able to tolerate a verbal dance with him.

“He has no army. No power.”

“He has an answer to a once impossible feat.”

My true death. I didn’t know what it would take, but the fact that Astraea was mentioned made me want to hunt him down like a savage beast if that’s what it took to find him and rip the black heart from his chest.

“You have no leads on where he’s hiding?” I asked.

“I’ve had some of the transitioned on the lookout as spies. It’s curious how untraceable he’s become.”

“Magick?”

“I had that thought, yes.”

He could be cloaked, stealing the identity of someone else through one of many means of magick.

“You never did find the final item of the Wanderers Trove, did you?” Drystan asked.

“No.”

There was a monocular out there that could unveil anything hidden by magick, but we’d never been able to find it.

“A shame,” he said.

“So you came here to warn me?”

“You said we were working together on finding father? I’m waiting for you to start pulling your weight.”

I’d been too distracted with Astraea. I still was. She was the only thing I wanted to care or think about but that was a luxury I couldn’t afford right now. While she was gaining her freedom and challenging herself, this could be the distraction I needed to use my sharp edges in her absence.

“I still have the compass,” I confessed.

“You said you broke it in your foolish rage,” Drystan grumbled.

It had been the first thing to make Astraea and me realize our doomed fate. The thing we’d thought was broken and useless had been warning us the whole time and I had thrown it against a stone wall and watched it shatter. Then witnessed the mockery when it laughed at me as the pieces vibrated against the ground and reformed back into the enchanted item.

“It might take us to him if we can find the right mage to enchant it,” I said.

“You could have told me this before. I would have been on it while you’ve been gallivanting with the maiden.”

“She’s been learning her powers.”

“Too fucking slowly,” Drystan snapped.

“Watch yourself.”

“You’ve been too precious with her when you know she’s not so easily breakable. The more you treat her like glass the longer she’ll believe she is.”

“Not anymore,” I assured him.

I’d pushed her in the woods and feared I’d gone too far. But she was magnificent. Watching her defiance and power unleashed filled me with awe to see again after so long.

“Just meet me tomorrow with the damned compass.”