I breathed to make my irrational fear subside. Despite the thick, dark winter, my skin was beginning to become slick with sweat under my leathers. Looking high helped to spot the tallest part of the castle, which was growing closer now as I climbed to the top level.
Finally, the masses started to slow, deciding they were close enough.
Not me. I kept going, slipping through every gap I could.
My pulse built toward a crescendo like a war drum at the thought of how near Auster had to be. Was he atop the portico watching the people arrive and gloating in his new authority?
My panic of suffocation became irrelevant with the drive of my rage-fueled adrenaline as I weaved through the loud cluster of bodies. It was becoming more difficult the closer I got. I would have to start pushing to get any nearer, earning more attention than I could risk right now. A lot of people were taller than me, limiting my view of the portico. Through the movement…
There he was: Auster Nova, High Celestial of the House of Nova, with the power to brew storms and conjure lightning. He stood on the portico, radiating a calm authority that only made the crowd below more reverent. His brown hair, neatly half-tied, fell over his shoulders with an effortless grace. His jaw, strong and shadow-lined, was set with a serene confidence, his hands clasped behind him in that familiar stance that gave him an air of unwavering strength.
The crowd watched him with awe, as if he were a perfect, untouchable figure carved from marble. They couldn’t see past the polished veneer—the dark cunning lurking just behind those steady eyes.
The people had once looked at me that way, as if my presence were a comfort and my gaze over them a shield against the world.
Now, Auster had painted me as their villain whenhewore a gilded disguise over the cold ruthlessness he wielded like a blade.
Beside him stood another two of the four High Celestials—bound in brotherhood by duty if not blood. Notus hung back a step on his left and Zephyr on his right. The sight of my friend next to my preeminent enemy twisted me with nerves.
In our past, Zephyr had helped me devise a plan behind Auster, Notus, and Aquilo’s authority that ruled all wingless celestials and Nephilim were to be exiled—we’d built a secret sanctuary for them. And if Auster discovered Zephyr had aided my escape from his ambush after the recent attack on Althenia, I didn’t want to know what he would do.
Glancing over the High Celestials again, I noticed Aquilo was missing. I’d taken his wings when the rebel Nephilim and celestials had captured him after rescuing me.
Had Auster and Notus really held true to their law of exile and stripped their brother of his land and title?
I couldn’t say I would feel bad for him if that theory was true. Aquilo had always been cruel and cold. Taking his wings had felt like the most just punishment considering his distain when he ordered the barbaric act upon his own people.
The whispering taunts of Lightsdeath started to swirl around me in the wisps of air, hushing the crowd to be heard. My skin hummed and I flexed my fingers, prickling with the power that wanted to come out. This kind far deadlier and more uncertain than the magick I could conjure without Lightsdeath.
I can’t lose control now.
It seemed the more stress and anger that surfaced in me, the louder Lightsdeath became—nearly impossible to ignore.
Staring at Notus wasn’t helping, but I couldn’t tear my gaze from him while the whispers grew louder. The flashbacks of him standing by so coldly, watching Aquilo chain and whip me in the place Auster ambushed me… I could hardly stand still.
Scrunching my eyes, I clamped my hands over my ears.I can’t lose control.This was a dreadful place, packed with civilians, for me to unleash a dangerous power that might not care how many lives were lost from my retribution.
If what lived in me now was anything like Nightsdeath, I couldn’t take that chance here.
Auster raised a hand, and the restless crowd began to silence. It drew my attention up, and Lightsdeath diminished again. There was a sinister touch to the air, a darkness I didn’t think the people of Vesitire were oblivious to.
“We all grow weary in the darkness and destruction our once beloved star-maiden has caused. In angering the gods who created her, she has cast a blood moon curse upon us. She let Nightsdeath lead an attack that slaughtered many of my people and destroyed my castle on the Nova province of Althenia. Together they have become the greatest threat our lands have faced. But I want to assure you we will not rest until the star-maiden is stopped and Nightsdeath is destroyed,” he announced, his voice amplified by an enhancement of magick to reach through the crowd.
My fist flexed and I slipped through the bodies slowly, tracking him like a predator, with the desire to pounce twitching my muscles.
“She will not win in her reign of terror. Once she is found and put before the gods to answer for her crimes, I promise our daylight and balance will be restored.”
Lies.Auster preached in the name of gods but it was his own ego that wanted me dead and his own terror that destroyed the Nova province to pin the blame on me and Nyte.
“I gathered you all here today, as we cannot waste time. Upon counsel with my brothers and the reigning lords of Solanis, we have decided that henceforth I should be crowned your king as only I can bring the star-maiden to justice. As she is my Bonded, it is a deeply painful but necessary duty I will fulfill. I promise to lead us back into the daylight no matter the cost.”
He used our soul tie to his advantage, for now the people murmured their sympathy for him. How devastating it was that his Bonded was a cold, heartless maiden. Many people were bending to his false and hollow words. With the terror of the blood moon and a shaken monarchy, the people needed to cling to someone as a beacon of hope, and Auster wassoconvincing.
I couldn’t breathe easily enough and pulled my face covering down, still slipping through the gaps between people, who started to mutter their disgruntled complaints, squeezing my way closer to the front.
I couldn’t stop. Every fraction closer I got, taking in more details of Auster standing there proudly with everything he stole by spilling blood, my compulsion overpowered my rational thinking more and more.
Before I knew what I was doing, I’d slipped my hood down. My silver hair pooled out, icy air breezed across my nape. I didn’t tear my sights from my greatest enemy. Far greater than Nyte had ever been to me, far deadlier than his father had been to the realm.
