Page 60 of The Stars are Dying

“Or you could just take it.”

“I have coin.”

“But not time.”

Just then, a man exited the tavern smoking a pipe, and I stilled as his attention landed right on us. He gave no reaction but walked over. I believed the horse to be his. I cursed Nyte for the distraction and opened my mouth to explain we were simply admiring it.

A finger to my lips and a body pressing to mine switched my state to one of incredulity. Nyte’s irises danced at my reaction as the man approached, scratching the horse’s head as though he didn’t see us. My eyes widened. I knew what Nyte was doing. His gloved hand eased away from my face, but the one around my waist remained. He held my stare with a challenge to be silent, not breaking it until the man took a deep pull of the substance he was smoking and headed back inside.

“How do you do that?” I asked, shuffling away from him.

Nyte shrugged. “That’s an explanation for another day.”

“Can other vampires…manipulate minds?”

“I’ve told you before I am not that. But no, they cannot. They have some magnetic compulsion to trap their victims, that is all.” He contemplated my eager reaction. “Though you might say I’m particularly good at it.”

I nearly rolled my eyes at his arrogance. “How am I supposed to believe you?”

“I’m not trying to convince you.”

He’s insufferable.

“Your eyes—they’re different,” I ground out.

That earned me one of those smirks that danced the line between approval and amusement. I didn’t give him the satisfaction of my scowl as I reached up to the horse’s saddle and strained with the height to jam my foot into metal half-hoop. I felt childish for not knowing its name.

“Your struggle right now has me questioning who really danced for me,” Nyte said as he came up behind me. “How high that leg can go is something I’ll never forget.”

My mouth gaped, only to snap shut when his hands held my waist. “I didn’t dance for you,” I grumbled.

“Bend and jump.”

I did as he instructed, and my heart lunged when I soared higher than my mind had prepared for. My other leg hooked over the saddle, my thighs clamped tight, and my whole body seized at the new vantage point and how the horse huffed and dipped.

“Now shuffle forward.”

I wondered why until I looked down and saw he was braced to mount the horse too.

“No way. There’s another horse.”

Nyte chuckled—a low, genuine sound I despised myself for enjoying the lightness of. “If I leave you to ride alone, I hope you’re content with going wherever the horse decides to lead you.”

“It can’t be that hard.” Yet I had no example to follow when I didn’t know how to command the horse to even walk.

Nyte simply waited, knowing my admission would come, but I said nothing and simply shifted forward. He mounted the horse so elegantly I couldn’t suppress my admiration, but I should have anticipated there would be no space between us when he slipped in behind me. He enveloped me completely, reaching over me for the reins, and my breath caught. I said nothing of his breath blowing across my ear, but I wondered if it was deliberate so he could delight in my reaction now my head was level with his shoulder.

His hand snaking around my waist made me open my mouth to object, but he kicked his feet, and when the horse jerked forward I leaned back to balance myself, my hand lashing over his. There was a second, when Nyte’s fingers flexed and mine could have slipped through, that I wanted the gloves removed, if only to know if the tingling in my stomach would erupt at the contact.

I snatched my hand away as quickly as the thought came.

“I’m heading to the Central,” I said.

“I know.” He seemed to contemplate it. “If you were smart, you would forget this course. Head past the Central and toward the veil.”

“Why?”

“You’ve been longing for adventure, have you not?”

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