Page 24 of The Night Is Defying (Nytefall Trilogy #2)

24

N yte

I’d given her enough time without me.

Seventy-one hours was even too many.

I sat, tipping my head back, and while I could reach her at any moment, slipping my eyes closed and giving over to the task completely would make it all the more tangible and I was starved for her touch.

It didn’t take long to find the brightest star. Before she discovered me there, I scanned her surroundings to know where she was. They were heading for Alisus. Smart girl.

Finding Calix trailing them particularly stirred my loathing. As far as I was concerned his days were still numbered, stretched longer only on Astraea’s mercy, and I fucking loved her heart. Even when it defied me it was a beam of light against my darkness.

The flash of red hair I saw was unexpected and filled me with dread and anger, however. What was Nadia doing with her? And how had Elliot and the others let her elude them?

They stopped by a stream, and I took that moment to watch Astraea bend beautifully, cupping hands in the water and bringing it to her lips.

“Come home, Starlight.” How present I could become for both of us depended on her mind being open to me. For now, she didn’t want to see me, but there was a part of her that at least wanted to hear me, to my great pleasure.

“I’m going home,” she answered.

She didn’t truly believe that. Alisus was all she knew, but it was not her home.

I pushed her barriers a little harder and she yielded enough to feel my touch along her collar, shivering to it.

“I miss you,” I murmured.

“It’s only been three days.”

That was far too many with the years I’d been without, but I didn’t expose myself as a pining fool completely.

“You were absolutely radiant declaring yourself,” I said, making it a believable whisper across her ear.

Astraea’s body was singing even to the phantom presence of me, and it took every bit of my willpower not to damn everything and follow her already. I would behave. Give her this venture to find herself before I helped. We would always be stronger together, she would see that soon.

Her head turned, and just like that she gave me what I wanted, the clear opening to her mind that was as close to kneeling right there by the water with her as I would come. It was only then that I started to feel her surroundings through her mind. The bitter air nipping her cheeks, how her hands were cold from the water, much colder than the rest of her. The rush of the stream and the song of faraway birds. Her companions were chatting or minding their own business while it seemed they’d stopped for a short rest. It gave us this moment alone with them entirely unsuspecting of my intrusion.

“Seeing you kneel for me was very satisfying,” she said aloud, but quietly now that she could see me.

I couldn’t fight the curve of my mouth. “Which time?”

Her pink lips parted. Both of us felt the rush of desire to remember her spread out for me on that dining table. She was a temptation just by breathing.

“You’re insufferable,” she grumbled.

My fingers grazed her chin. “Come back to me. I’ll kneel for you any time you ask.”

I knew she wouldn’t come back. Not yet. I asked only to feel the yearning pull inside her. It soothed a wicked beast that paced within me, tormenting me with the knowledge that she truly wanted me gone. That she could leave me. But her expression couldn’t lie to me no matter how hard she tried to resist the twitch of her brow, the flicker of her eyes, and most preciously, the gentle uptick in her heartbeat.

“I need your help,” she said, reluctantly, but it was music to my ears.

Those four words, I decided, were close to my favorite in the fucking world from her.

But while I was close to falling at her damned feet, having Astraea bend for me was thrilling.

“What are you willing to owe me for it?”

“More bargains?”

“Always.”

“What do you want?”

The sadistic side of me was rejoicing in the game.

“I thought we’d talked about this,” I said, leaning in closer until our mouths were just shy of meeting. “Monsters can want frightening things and gain them in pretty ways. You wouldn’t know what you’d sold until it was in my hands.”

Her breathing came delightfully shorter.

“Like my soul?”

“Already mine.”

I kissed her, only for a second before she added resistance to my reach that numbed her surroundings to me again. I clung on enough to meet her adorable scowl with a wicked smirk.

“What do you need?” I asked.

“Past the borders of Alisus.”

“Done. Anything else?”

“What happened to wanting something in return?”

“You’ve already opened your willingness for it to be anything. I won’t forget to collect.” Her lips parted again to voice a protest. It silenced with the brush of my thumb along her lower lip.

“What does the rogue want?”

“Nadia? Same thing she tried to gain from you.”

“She really is hell-bent on ending Drystan.”

“It seems so. What do we do about her?”

“I’m trying to seek out my father with Drystan now. Then I’ll deal with her. Unless she’s a threat or an annoyance to you, I’ll send Elliot and the others to dispose of her.”

“She doesn’t deserve to die.”

“I don’t think she’ll let go of her vendetta and it’s a risk I won’t take. I should have ended her the moment I learned of it.”

“But you didn’t because you know why she feels so strongly about it. As do I.”

I kissed her head. Her soul was so precious it hurt.

“If she harms any of you—besides Calix—I won’t have the patience of mercy before I come for her.” Before she could protest I claimed her parted mouth. “Be safe, Starlight. You know how to call for me.”

As soon as I slipped away from her and opened my eyes to the dull brown office my mood became sour.

I couldn’t stay idle for one fucking moment without her near or I was sure to be villainous for no reason in these vampire infested halls. That wouldn’t be ideal. I didn’t mind the reputation I’d gained; it was the truth even if their terrors about me were often amplified by the unknown. The unpredictability of what I could do when few would care to know the motive behind heinous actions. There was always a purpose.

So Drystan would be my distraction.