Page 153 of The Stars are Dying

Drip, drip, drip.

My chest warmed, pulsing in time with that sound. It grew, becoming urgent, and with the next pulse it stole my breath as if it had almost broken free from its cage.

“Get up.”

I turned entirely still as those two words came in a voice I’d thought I’d never hear again.

“Get. Up. Astraea!”

I surged upright. “Cassia?” My eyes filled, but I couldn’t see a thing. My chest was so warm and bright.

“You’re almost there.”

Her voice didn’t sound full. Not even close. It was like a whisper from within, and even if it was my own mind shaping my will to live and a determination to see this through, I clung to it with everything I had.

The wound in my leg was growing with intense pain and still bleeding, but I got to my feet, and without using the wall I walked, then jogged, then raced, down the passage. I was so close to Nyte. And even though he hadn’t shown for some time, I had to believe he still cared. That this wasn’t all a trick, and he would be able to save us all.

Light broke through the darkness, and a sharp sob escaped me. I didn’t stop to find him, somehow knowing he would be there waiting.

He wasn’t the only one.

I didn’t think I’d ever be able to explain what overcame me at the sight.

Nyte on his knees.

Three guards.

All holding a whip that restrained him like some animal.

By his wrists, stretching his arms wide. And around his neck.

I saw white. Both from my all-consuming rage and the key that flared to life. As the guards turned at my intrusion—shadowless—I detonated.

The key became a blade, so featherlight it was as easy to direct as a throwing dagger. My speed—I didn’t know where that came from, but they didn’t fall from the strike of the blade; a sheet of light surged from the key I’d made, and I watched in fascination, then horror, as it cut through all three of them.

I didn’t get a chance to react to the gruesome sight when the power that had sliced through them kept flying. It hit the veil, and my hands covered my ears at the high-pitched collision.

My blood raced as I watched the iridescent sheet crack like beautiful glass.

This was it.

As Nyte freed his wrists and unbound the whip around his neck, I was running again. Braced, exhilarated.

Clutching an arm around himself, Nyte rose weakly. Those beautiful amber eyes flicked up to me, momentarily stunned as if he didn’t believe I’d truly come.

A current began in my fingertips. My markings flared with the streaks of silver and gold that swirled around us. As if we existed in our own time. Our own void.

The electricity grew, the veil rippled to distortion, and my palm grew hot.

The key glowed so brightly I didn’t know how I was doing it, but I twisted it in my hand and didn’t think twice as I braced, slicing at the veil.

The world erupted.

White light stole my vision. I couldn’t feel the thump of my heart. I was floating, and during those seconds where I was suspended I wondered if this was death. Peaceful oblivion. Until I was unwanted by its claim, cast out to face my punishment instead, and then I was falling…

And falling…

So fast I thought the impact would shatter me.

---