Page 165 of The Stars are Dying

“He’s going to use you. Trust me, I can help you.”

“You have to be insane to think I’d go with you,” I said. I didn’t know the full extent of his capabilities, and I feared Nyte was still too weak to stand against him.

“You should leave,” I warned, feeling my palm heat slowly, but I didn’t want to attack him.

A muscle in the prince’s jaw flexed. “After all you’ve seen, you would really choose him?”

“You used me.” It hurt. I didn’t know why I’d allowed myself to care enough to believe there was good in him.

“Did I? Ipushedyou, and look at what you gained from it. I knew you could do it—find your key.”

His word choice rang through me.

Mykey.

“I didn’t need you for that.”

Nyte remained deadly still. I’d known there was animosity between them before. No—that was too tame a word for what locked Nyte so still as he pinned the prince with a calculating glare, primed to strike in a heartbeat.

“He will always hurt you,” Drystan said.

“I’m giving you this one chance to get the fuck out of here,” Nyte said, his voice so low I shivered.

“You didn’t scare me chained, and neither do you now, brother.”

Time paused. My mind scrambled to rewind, replaying the jarring word I couldn’t possibly have heard right.

Brother.

I blinked as though I could still be asleep in Nyte’s arms.

Brother.

Brother.

Brother.

It couldn’t be unspoken. As Drystan’s gaze slipped to me, it was as if he were mourning the death of someone before it had arrived. It had always been right there, and now it couldn’t be unseen. Some of the angles of Drystan’s jaw; the shape of his eyes. It made the idea of them being kin so undeniable I couldn’t believe I’d missed it.

“You didn’t tell her,” he concluded, likely reading how stunned I was as I stepped away from Nyte’s back. “Did you tell her anything before you decided to fuck her?”

Nyte crossed the space so fast my fright knocked me into the dresser. Drystan let out a groan as he was pinned roughly to the wall. “She has nothing to do with this.”

Drystan dared to laugh, and I winced as Nyte drew back his arm and connected his fist with the prince’s face.

“Stop!” I cried. Maybe it wasn’t my place to intervene, but this violence between them I couldn’t stand by and watch. Most of all, I couldn’t comprehend such hostility betweenbrothers.

Drystan wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth as he straightened. His eyes of hatred and pity met mine. “You are everything to do with this.”

Nyte clamped a hand around Drystan’s throat, and it was chilling to witness how effortlessly he could overpower him. A blood vampire. Nightsdeath. With a reputation to instill fear in entire nations. The prince should have had the strength to push him off.

“What did you hope to achieve by coming here alone? Except your death,” Nyte taunted.

“You won’t kill me.”

Nytesqueezed.Drystan choked, and I stepped forward, floundering with what to say that would get Nyte to think about what he was doing.

“He could have told the king where we are!” I tried. “We should go.”

---