Page 197 of The Stars are Dying

“Don’t do anything impulsive.”

I was becoming attuned to his looks, and this one definitely said “I think we’re past that.” Gripping the folds of his coat, I pulled his mouth back to mine. With a low growl he pressed himself into me tighter. More clattering surrounded us as he kept coaxing me back. Then hedidjoin me, effortlessly climbing over me on the table as I lay down. It was incredible how insignificant any care for the improper became with my body’s demand for him.

“My lord.” A deep voice disrupted us.

Nyte pulled out of the kiss with a groan of annoyance while my whole body was torched by awareness as it returned to me.

“This had better be something of deadly urgency,” Nyte grumbled.

I pushed myself up with him. Nyte’s arm around me lifted me off the table effortlessly, and I was glad for his tall, broad form that shielded me while I righted my gown and combed my fingers through my hair. Though nothing could erase the lingering sensation his hands had branded all over me.

“A letter for you,” the guard said eloquently.

Not just anyone.

I didn’t know how Nyte sensed I was comfortablypresentableagain when he stepped to the side to reveal the Golden Guard. His features were cut so sharp and beautifully with his dark skin and formally short hair. He was the one who had been assigned to Rose. I didn’t expect the small smile he offered to me—the first hint of emotion I’d seen from him to erase my fear.

“This is Elliot,” Nyte introduced.

“It’s a pleasure to finally get a chance to meet you properly, Astraea.” Elliot’s voice was so melodic it was easy to forget what he was.

“You knew me the whole time?” I asked. My gazed shifted to Nyte, but he tried to disguise his guilt by preoccupying himself with unfolding the letter.

Elliot nodded. “Our loyalty to Nyte has never changed.”

Nyte paced away as he read, seeming to disconnect from the room with it.

“Not the king?”

“I was the first to ever win the Libertatem from Pyxtia—an excellent set of trials, by the way. I only recently found out their true origin, and I’m impressed.” He paused to ease a teasing smirk. It was sonormalI was beginning to harbor guilt for believing everything I’d heard and assuming the worst of him. “If we won, we were promised immortality. As you can see, it was given, but as soon as I knewhow,I didn’t want it. By then it wasn’t a choice, and we were no more than his experiment to create a new vampire—one by transition, not birth.”

“There are only four of you,” I said. I wondered about the consequences of the change he’d gone through.

“There are more.”

That inspired something dark and sinister, and I became afraid to discover what other nefarious plans the king had been working toward. I was about to ask when a tug within me turned my attention to Nyte. His face was firm and scarily calculating as he paced back over to us. He crumpled the paper tightly in his fist before I watched with awe as it turned to black smoke that leaked through his fingers.

“I won’t waste my time penning a response to that,” he rumbled low. With a breath he straightened, slipping back into calm authority. “I want you to go personally. Take Zeik with you, or Kerah. Tell that bastard Auster if he wants to talk, he can very well come out of his cowardly hiding place since he’s content to send his dogs this side of the veil.”

Elliot gave a faint smile of satisfaction. “It’s been some time since we got any order of decent action,” he said.

Nyte huffed, and the exchange between them shouldn’t have been so surprising, but I warmed with the ease of what I could only discern as friendship from the clear respect they shared.

“It’s good to have you back,” Elliot said.

Nyte gave a tight nod, and Elliot cast me a warm smile with the dip of his head, which I returned before he left.

My mind backtracked to the name he spoke—one I had heard once before. “Who is Auster?”

Nyte’s jaw locked with my question, his shoulders squared. “I promised you no more secrets, but will you trust me when I say that isn’t an explanation you’ll want right now?”

My heart skipped a beat as I concluded, “I knew him?”

He nodded, but it wasn’t pleasant. “He’s a celestial—the High Celestial of the House of Nova.”

“What did he say?” I stored the mention of the celestial house to discover more about it later.

Nyte’s fingers tipped my chin. “I have something he wants.”

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