Page 154 of The Stars are Dying

Something wrapped around me like a tether urging me to reach back and slow myself down. So I did, giving over to the aid, and then all at once I was caught. Breath returned to my body, too much to inhale at once, and I spluttered. The sensations of the real world returned to me one by one. And they were allhim.

The scent of mint and sandalwood. I thought I’d known it before, but this was so much more embracing. My fingers flexed against the thin material, but beneath I shivered at the solid feel of him that was unmistakably real compared to every other touch we’d shared.

I feared opening my eyes, but the moment they fluttered and I saw my hand on him, my pulse returned as a racing beat. I shivered violently with the cold that came back, demanding in its force.

As he shifted, I panicked. My fist clenched his torn shirt as though he would drift away, and so would the only thing I craved in the world.

His warmth.

I realized with a flood of emotion it was all that was keeping me from breaking against the agony of the freezing ice. Nyte pulled my cloak tighter around me and I fought the desire to slip my eyes closed, encased in his heat. Instead I finally looked up to find twin suns staring back at me. Concern and rage waged war as a fiery tango in those irises that burned so ethereally bright.

“Nyte,” I whispered.

His firm brow eased. “Starlight.”

He spoke with such clarity, and I didn’t want him to stop talking with the vibrations I felt under my palm.

“You’re real,” I said, my teeth bashing together.

Nyte tried to hug me closer as though it would transfer more heat. “After all this time, did you still doubt it?” he mused.

I chuckled, my vision blurry.

“I need you to keep your eyes on me,” he said.

I did, but my face was pained when I felt his hand approaching my thigh. “It hurts,” I breathed through the panic of him reaching for the arrow.

“I’m going to take it all away. Then kill every hand responsible for harming you.”

My teeth clenched as his hand curled around the broken end, but pain didn’t explode like I anticipated. Instead gentle notes lapped over me, a sense of calm and numbness.

“That’s it,” he said.

All I focused on was what he offered me within. I winced at the sensation of the arrow slicking out of me, but it only stung superficially.

He tore the cloak, wrapping the strip tightly around my thigh to quell the bleeding. Nyte remained on his knees, and I shuffled upright before easing up to straddle him, my heart galloping at the position. I was too greedy for his heat, pressing our chests together, and he didn’t move—not even when my frozen hands touched his face. He didn’t even flinch, allowing me every decision and action.

Under his collar my breath stuttered. He tensed when my fingers brushed the abrasions around his neck.

“What did they do to you?” I choked out.

He took my hand, brushing his lips to my bruised knuckles, which he noticed with a flex of wrath. His tender care fluttered in my chest. “Nothing I haven’t felt before.”

That didn’t help the ache that swelled within me. I pressed my forehead to his, not knowing how to release all my hurt for him. “I’m sorry they did that to get to me. I think I know why, but I don’t know how they knew about you. How I feel—” I stopped myself, stumbling with the confession I’d almost let slip, too afraid of what it meant.

Nyte took a deep breath, his fingers tangling into the back of my hair. “Don’t ever say you’re sorry. Not to me. There are still things you need to know.”

I shook my head. I couldn’t hear anything else right now. Drawing back, my eyes dropped from his golden gaze to his mouth. I’d kissed him before, and though it had been a masterful illusion that bent the laws of reality, this would be different.Stars, there was nothing I wanted more.

Maybe he heard that thought, because finally his hands touched my waist. They moved over me with careful precision, and I came alive at his touch.

Gravity needed no words, and as we both gave in at once…

The stars collided, and the sky became our palace.

Nyte was right. In this moment, I didn’t care if the stars fell and the world cracked. I didn’t care about anything but him. The taste of him, so raw and passionate; the way we moved as if centuries of resistance were pouring out violently. I whimpered against his mouth, opening mine for our tongues to clash feverishly. A low groan of pain emitted from him as our bodies pressed tighter together, my hands fisting his hair, and the same ache of explosive yearning tightened inside me. I didn’t want to ever part from this salvation he’d become.

Nyte took my pain and thawed the ice of my skin with blazing desire. His hands dipped under my shirt, and my brow pinched with his warmth.His warmth.I didn’t think I could get enough, and despite where we were, I wanted to feel every inch of his skin on mine for the heat we would create.

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