“You sure you’re strong enough to ride, never mind face Auster Nova?” Drystan said skeptically.
“I have one reason to be glad this curse is broken. One fucking reason to want to be awake in this hell right now, and I’m not leaving her alone with him another damned second.”
I sized up the climb to the saddle, but when Drystan didn’t respond this time, I glanced at him. His expression turned hard and guarded, then I realized the error in my angry words.
“I didn’t mean—”
“Forget it. I know she’s the only reason you live and breathe, the apple of your eye, the star to your night.” Drystan waved me off, heading toward the great red dragon, Athebyne. “Some things never change.”
He threw the comment dryly, and I swore inwardly. I was constantly letting him down. Making him feel he was insignificant to me, when it was so far from the truth.
Nadia hesitated, glancing at us in silent debate before she followed Drystan, who was about to mount his dragon.
“I don’t know where she is. Last I knew she was in Vesitire’s castle, but that was at least a week ago,” Drystan said.
I rubbed my chest, reaching to feel our bond, hoping it would to be enough to guide me to her if Auster had moved her from Vesitire.
“Drystan,” I called, but I lost what I was going to say when he glanced my way.
It was strange… this tension between us. I wanted it gone but didn’t know where to start cutting through it to reach him. Drystan read my failure to communicate, casting his sight forward and bracing himself as Athebyne shifted, ready to take flight. Nadia held onto him from behind.
“If you fall off Eltanin, I won’t catch you,” Drystan said.
I had to shield my eyes with the powerful blasts of wind throwing snow over me as the dragon launched into the sky.
“Let’s go get our Starlight,” I muttered to the dragon.
Every piece of me ached and strained to be reunited with Astraea. And every ounce of my villainous darkness itched to rain the hell of a thousand ages down upon Auster Nova for all he’d done to her in the past and present.
21Astraea
I killed Nightsdeath… and I mourned for the loss of him. My body was sunk in a frozen embrace as my consciousness stirred, but the only place I wanted to awaken was by Nyte’s bedside. Until I remembered he might not be there anymore. He might not be anywhere in my realm for me to find anymore after what I’d done.
When I opened my eyes… the sky was the most beautiful color I’d ever seen. A forgotten depthless midnight cradling the lonely stars. The blood moon curse was lifted.
“Nyte.” I whispered his name like it might summon him to me from the stars.
Then my eyes pricked with the most dreadful thought that punched through me: what if the blood moon curse was lifted because Nyte was truly dead this time? What if I’d killed the only piece of Nyte I had left?
Lying here, everything within me steadily became as numb as my flesh.
Through the depths of my despair, I heard distant cries of fighting trickled over to me. Pitches of steel, cries of pain. A battle had broken out nearby, and my memory weaved back together to remember Auster was here, but who would he be fighting if Nightsdeath was gone?
I pushed up, wincing at the sharp stabbing in my muscles. Whipping my head around, through the small patch of forestry, I could make out bodies moving. Many of them. Adrenaline started to warm my body enough for me to find my footing on stable legs.
“I should have known your loyalty always has and always will lie in part with him.” I tensed at that voice, turning to find Laviana, flanked by two other vampires, approaching me.
“You followed me?”
“Of course. You can’t think us all fools who don’t know you’re hunting dragons that will grant an unparalleled advantage to the side they’re on.”
“You’ve wasted your time and lost lives for nothing. The dragon here can’t be released,” I said through gritted teeth.
“What does it take?”
I pursed my lips. That knowledge wasn’t safe to give out when, on top of Auster’s bounty that had people out to capture us, Laviana and all the vampires could leverage any of us to get to Eltanin.
“A specific stone. It’s well hidden and not with me.”
