Lightning flashed over Auster’s hands, and I tensed, in no fit state to defend myself if chaos broke out.
“You’re not stepping a foot inside that castle,” Auster snarled, standing between Nightsdeath and the way into Vesitire’s stronghold.
“I have very little restraint as it is not to kill you all where you stand and take over this pathetic city, but I would rather not have to spend my time forcing your armies to obey me before I get what I need.”
His words made me think that Nyte’s ability to manipulate minds had to be something he was born with, not a part of Nightsdeath. Otherwise it wouldn’t be difficult to bend the allegiance of the army generals to make the shift of authority believable.
“What is it that you want?” Notus spoke at last, his voice the most devoid of any emotion at all.
“To kill Rainyte.”
I thought my heart stopped beating. My breath certainly felt trapped in my lungs from that unthinkable outcome.
This time the High Celestials didn’t mock him right away. They kept their confusion but Auster’s intrigue was caught now. Why would Nyte himself say such a thing?
Nightsdeath trailed a hand over my nape; his fingers threaded through my hair before I cried out at his tightening grip. “I will break you to find out where Rainyte is,” he said, so cold and promising. Then he said to Auster, whose eyes twitched with conflict over his roughness with me, “isn’t that what you want as well?”
Auster shifted his weight, considering, while Notus gave little away. Zephyrstruggled to contain his anger, and I feared he would slip up and expose his deep care for me.
“It is,” Auster finally said, bemused over the situation and untrusting.
A roar broke their tense deliberation, and I gasped, casting my eyes up with a burst of hope. It was followed by a loud crashing of shattered glass and then…
Eltanin shot high, and on his back, he carried Drystan.
My eyes pricked with pure relief seeing them.
Until they began to head this way.
No. No, they can’t come for me.
Nightsdeath let go of my hair with a shove, and I bit my lip against the throbbing sting. He tracked the black dragon that began to swoop lower, and I could hardly see,think,through the fear that drummed in my chest and swayed my vision. Watching Nightsdeath walk so calmly, tracking them carefully, arose a sick, terrible dread over what he might do.
Leave!I yelled in my mind with everything I had. If there was some kind of bond between Eltanin and me, and I was sure I’d felt it before, I hoped he could feel my command.Go to Nyte; it’s the only way to help me. Leave, now!
The dragon roared again; this time I clutched my chest at his cry of anguish. Eltanin didn’t want to obey and leave me, but I kept chanting my urgency.
Darkness gathered toward Nightsdeath, and my pulse beat in my throat as I watched shadow form into a giant, long spear, which hovered the air above his raised palm.
A dry sob escaped me as Eltanin finally changed direction. I caught only a trace of Drystan’s pained expression before the duo started gaining distance again.
Nightsdeath gave barely a flick of his wrist, and that huge, lethal spear of dark magick projected toward the black dragon with the velocity of a crossbow.
“NO!” I yelled, throwing my own clumsy flare of light after it, but it wasn’t enough to stop the spear.
My hands covered my mouth.
It was going to strike them.
At the last possible second, Eltanin dipped sideways, almost clearing the path of it completely, but it tore the side of his wing. His roar of pain sliced within me, but he kept flying, fast and powerfully.
Nightsdeath didn’t try again. Instead he turned around, his expression half lost in the shadows he was partially made of, but it wore nothing but boredom.
In my unthinking rage over his attempt to harm or kill Eltanin and Drystan, I threw another weak attack of my magick at him. He deflected it with a lazy wave of his hand while closing the distance between us in slow,unperturbed strides. I tried again. Again. And again until he reached me, gripping my throat in a near choking grip.
“You can hardly contend with a squirrel right now, but you amuse me,” he said calmly, tilting his head while I pinned a hateful glare on him. It ached in me so badly, to look at him, seeingmyNyte even at his worst. My heart still reached to love him.
“Why… Why do you want to kill Nyte?” I wheezed, digging my nails into his hand around my neck, but it was like he couldn’t feel it at all.
