Page 117 of The Stars are Dying

“What?” I breathed, bewildered by how sudden and impulsive he could be.

“Your anger. I want to see it.”

“You’re twisted.”

He chuckled, so low and smooth my eyes nearlyfluttered. “Perhaps. Because the thought of you beautifully unleashed is driving me wild. Like I said, darkness becomes you.” His golden gaze flashed to the spilled tresses around my head, and he hooked his finger around a strand. “Except this.”

“I quite like it dark.”

“I never said I didn’t. But your glittering silver hair is more befitting.”

“You seem to have an obsession with my hair.”

“I have an obsession withyou.”

Clearly.Stars, I was slipping. Losing what had become a game between us.

He added, “Your hair is an alluring attribute. Though you’ve certainly drawn the attention of the prince without it.”

“You sound jealous.”

The darkening of his eyes switched to a swirling gold. “I don’t have to be when you don’t truly return any affection he shows.”

“And with you I do?”

“You tell me.”

“I don’t.”

He leaned down until I couldn’t hold eye contact anymore. My breaths came shallow with the proximity of his lips.

“I still don’t need to read your thoughts to know that’s a lie.”

Suddenly, Nyte’s gaze flicked up with an alertness that cooled the heat flushing my body.

“Stay down and don’t move,” he said.

The groaning of the library doors rattled through me. I could already picture the face that might be walking inside. Though with what I knew about the prince now, this newnamehe carried, I couldn’t decide if the king would be a slightly lesser threat.

My head tipped further back, but I wouldn’t be able to see, and when I straightened Nyte had eased off me. I was too stunned to order him to hide, but he didn’t need to. Only I was truly there, and that fact would never fail to drop in my gut when I looked at him.

Rolling carefully onto my stomach, I crawled awkwardly to the end of the bookcase to peer over it.

“Do you ever listen to instruction?” Nyte drawled.

I didn’t answer when my words might be heard by the intruder. Tentatively I peeked, and sure enough, Drystan was strolling around the balcony perimeter, heading toward…

“He’s here to see me,” Nyte confirmed.

There was a bookcase that featured a hidden trigger into the passage I had climbed to get here. As Drystan pulled the faux book and dipped away, my eyes widened with realization.

“The ward…”

“It’s likely what brought him here earlier than usual. I wasn’t sure if it would set anything off since you technically didn’t breech it from the outside. The door you came through is just outside its protection. But being in the main library, perhaps he felt something.”

“Seems flawed,” I said.

“The ward is only for common measure. There is a hoard of weapons in here. Knowledge that has been safeguarded for millennia. The ward they keep me behind is entirely personal.” He said the last word with sarcasm.

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