Page 137 of The Stars are Dying

“Don’t mind if I do,” an irritating voice sang.

My objection stumbled in my throat as Draven shoved past me, his brute form nearly knocking me off-balance. He flashed a cruel grin before opening the door to the carriage.

“You’re welcome to join me,” he said, making a show of mock chivalry for me to go first.

I kept my face blank. “I was planning to walk anyway.” As if I would spend even a minute locked in a confined space with that bastard.

“Suit yourself.” Draven disappeared, and I couldn’t see him through the curtains of the carriage.

When it took off, my shoulders slumped and my eyelids weighed heavy.

“Will you come with me?”

I turned to find Nyte standing a few paces behind me. An eruption in my stomach jolted me wide-awake. I thought I’d feel embarrassment at seeing him, the need to insist that what had happened earlier was simply lust fueled by the trial to get me to break. But as soon as I looked at him, the return of those feelings stole my denial in fluttering echoes.

I glanced at the sky. It had to be around midday. “Okay,” I said, knowing I would follow him even if twilight were falling.

41

“Where are we going?” I asked after too long in giddy silence.

“Always so inquisitive,” he mused.

I watched him as we walked. Nyte had never felt like a stranger. He’d never treated me like one either, and I couldn’t place what it was that made me gravitate toward him. He slipped his gaze down, but there was something pained in his irises at whatever he found in mine, and it dissipated my growing thrill.

“I didn’t think you would object to a climb,” he said, stopping, and I followed his line of sight.

We stood in a dead-end alley, and the climb he indicated was a rather precarious venture up the side of a building. My mind mapped the route too easily.

“We won’t have much time if you stare at it,” Nyte called—from above now.

I grumbled a curse since I was the only one needing to put in physical effort to scale the building. But as soon as my legs were stretching to find the next ledge and my fingers were grappling with each crevice and stuck-out brick, freedom became me.

I spied Nyte standing on the roof across from me and realized the jump it would take to join him. I’d hesitated on Rose’s balcony, but this jump I was somehow more confident I could achieve. So I ran.

I cast out my arms, and in those seconds I felt nothing but air. An overwhelming sense of what it would be like to fly higher, soar longer, made me tumble to my landing. I caught myself on my hands and knees, breathing deeply but wanting to do it again.

“Are you all right?” Nyte crouched, examining me for any injury.

I was more than all right. Straightening, I looked over the distorted array of rooftops, wanting more than anything to fly above them all.

“Come,” Nyte said gently, and I felt the brush of his hand against mine.

I watched our palms meet. My fingers slipped through the spaces between his, and though he didn’t grip me with the realness I wanted or emit the warmth I craved, I was glad when he didn’t immediately pull away. Instead he continued to lead with my hand locked with his, and I ignited inside.

“Try not to fall,” he whispered from behind me, bracing his hands on my waist when we came to a small wooden ladder attached to the outside of a tall tower. “I can’t really catch you if you do.”

I nodded, bracing my hands to climb, but Nyte pressed himself to me closer, his phantom form so tangible I wanted to lean back.

“It’s killing me,” he added in a low murmur against my ear. “I wish I had the strength to stay away from you.”

My head turned, and our lips came so close I should have been able to feel his breath, but all that embraced me was the cold winter wind. I ached inside—more than what was safe to feel for him. “I don’t want you to stay away.”

In my next blink Nyte was gone. On instinct I looked up, finding him perched in the opening, but he didn’t look down. I began to climb, though a part of me was crying out not to follow him any further. What sped up my heart was sure to shatter it, but I didn’t think it belonged to me anymore.

Nyte wasn’t waiting for me at the top when I finally gripped the ledge and hauled myself over. I didn’t expect the warmth to hit me with the open archways as windows. My breath was stolen by the space.

“We’re in the city bell tower,” I observed, walking around the perimeter of the huge brass bell in the center.

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