Page 191 of The Stars are Dying

The bastard smiled. “I shouldn’t find that attractive.”

I had to take a pause for sanity. “Rainyte.” I didn’t take pleasure in the wince he tried to disguise with the tilt of his head. “You must have a family name.”

“Why do you ask?”

“You said no more secrets.”

“That’s the exception,” he said, showing the first flicker of warning toward me.

Good.

I shook my head, taunting him. “What would it uncover about you?”

“Nothing of interest to you.”

“What would you know of my interests?” I purposely recited his words from the night we met. It brought him closer, the tension between us toeing the line between anger and desire.

“You have no idea,” he said, low and with a gravel that felt enticing over my skin.

“That doesn’t seem fair.”

“What are you trying to do, Starlight?”

I leaned my forehead to the cool metal. “Let me out.”

“We just want to be sure—”

“Why couldn’t I have been in my rooms?” I cut him off. My emotions were so volatile, still tiring me out despite all the time I’d spent asleep. Or pacing the floors. Scratching my nails along the walls just tofeelsomething.Talking aloud.

I couldn’t stay in here a moment longer.

“For this reason. You would have found an escape, and trust me, you would never have forgiven the person who would have done anything to find more of the same drug I destroyed.”

My teeth ground. I knew this. I’d run through so many murderous thoughts, even hallucinated I was living them at some points. “I’m fine now.”

“Almost—”

My fist slammed the harsh stone. Warmth tricked down as I caught a jagged edge. Nyte’s gaze flashed, and his jaw worked. So I did it again.

“Stop.”

And again.

“Astraea.”

My next try was halted with a grip around my wrist. I breathed hard in a deadly stare-off with his molten eyes. His fingers laced through mine, slicking both our skin with my blood.

“You are the most stunning, volatile, and fair thing,” he said, inciting war within me through a mere look as his other hand cupped my neck and jaw, forcing me to angle my head for him. “And it’s about time you showed yourself.”

His lips crashed to mine, and I wasn’t prepared for how wholly it would consume me when I wanted tohatehim. It didn’t erase that feeling; instead it entangled it with an explosive passion. Being pressed to his warmth and tasting him threw a blanket of insignificance over the world around us.

Just him and me, and this battle that was far from over between us. It almost distracted me completely from what I’d goaded him in here for.

My other hand reached out, feeling as though it had been dipped into a pool of sparkling water with the tingles over my skin. My fist closed tight. I didn’t hesitate. I’d spent so long deciding on this moment.

We both gasped, barely breaking apart with the firm but slick pressure of my stormstone dagger lodging in his chest. As we shared breath his hand tightened with pain in mine, his other wrapping around me as we stumbled until his back met the wall.

Then he kissed meharder.

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