Page 36 of The Stars are Dying

“You’re the one who keeps showing up, yet you did not harm me when you could have done.”

“You seem to have a habit of finding yourself in difficult situations.”

“I didn’t ask for your help.”

We stared off, the growing intensity sparking my realization of how intimately close we were. I pushed off him.

“Is this what your kind does—stalk their prey?”

“Until you shed your sheep’s clothing, it would seem so.”

“If you’re not going to take my soul, this gains you nothing.”

“I am highly entertained. The most I have been inmanyyears.”

“My life is not anamusement,” I hissed.

The pause between us made me contemplate my brazenness when he could end me any second. He stood tall and powerful, and I had to remember my dangerous magnet of attraction to him was a trap.

“No, not to anyone again.” His voice softened with his cooling eyes. “It is your own now, as it should have always been.”

“You don’t know anything.”

He studied the sky for a brief second with a long sigh.

My attention roved over him. “So you aren’t immune to the cold.” It wasn’t much of a gain to figuring him out, but I observed his winter cloak nonetheless.

The corner of Nyte’s mouth tugged. “I crave your warmth as much as you do mine.”

My cheeks flamed. “I don’t want anything from you.”

He gave a barely-there nod as if he approved. “I don’t need to take your soul, Starlight.” He took one step forward, and I couldn’t be sure what it was about him that didn’t trigger my instincts as it should. His fingers hummed across my temple, and I became entranced by the beauty of him searching me. Tucking the wild strand of silver hair behind my ear, his voice dropped to a gravelly whisper. “And no matter what happens, or what you feel, you should never give it to me.”

I took a breath. A blink. Ahesitation.“We won’t have to worry about that,” I breathed.

“Astraea.”

The hiss of my name made me whirl away from his touch. Cassia waved at me frantically while keeping cover behind the trees in the distance with Calix. I knew from the loneliness that had begun to embrace me Nyte was gone. I didn’t even look to confirm it as I picked up a jog to them and broke through the tree line.

I couldn’t decide why my body yearned to remain a while longer in his presence, nor why my mind settled, sure it would not be the last time.

10

We didn’t pause for anything, racing through the forest then slowing when we merged into a town to avoid being seen.

Pressed against an alley wall, Cassia turned to me with a deadly focus. “I need to be back at the Keep for the send-off. Stay with Calix. I’ll meet you down the road out of the city soon.” She forced a smile, and I could only imagine the frightened child I must look to her.

I nodded, trying to pull myself together with even a shred of the confidence Cassia radiated.

Exchanging one look with the guard, Cassia nodded to him in a silent language I would never understand.

“Let’s go,” Calix grumbled to me, hooking my arm as Cassia took off.

I shrugged out of his hold but said nothing, following his command until we came to a wide road crammed with bodies, whose excitement filled my senses. My breathing became labored at the thought of squeezing between them. Some looked to Calix, offering respect upon seeing his uniform and moving out of his path where there was space to do so. He didn’t keep track of me, and I rushed to keep up before any gap could stretch between us.

Compelled to look back, my horror spiked.

“Keep up,” Calix said, low to my ear, and his annoyance was clear.

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