The Stars Are Dying (Nytefall Trilogy #1)

by Chloe C. Peñaranda

“Who did this to you?” His tone grated with bitter-cold notes.

Maybe it was time for me to stop hunting for the past, or I would never be prepared for a hopeful future.

Knowledge could turn into the most dangerous weapon.

“I would kill him, but that vengeance has the chance to be yours.”

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.”

“Don’t move.” Nyte’s breath sounded labored. Not with exertion but worry. “I can’t save you here.”

“Would you be jealous if I said yes?” He chuckled, the sound light and staggered with exertion. It was enough to tug at my mouth, but not to open my eyes. “To a dangerous degree.”

“You’re mine, Starlight.”

“Rest now. When you wake, the world will still be cruel and your heart will still be bleeding, but you are breathing, Astraea. And every breath is a reminder that you live for something.”

“You could take ten throws and prove yourself as competent as them. Or you could take one and silence them from thinking you’re anything less than perfect.”

It was only when I stood around more books than I could consume in a lifetime that immortality became desirable. Though I had lived many lives because of books and learned more than a sheltered girl ever could in five years, I hungrily took in everything still to be discovered with a thrill.

“How are you here?” I aired the question, not really expecting an answer as I scanned the room for the satchel I’d arrived with. “I have always been here,” he said, so quietly I almost missed it.

“Is it because of him?” A dark chill entered his voice, turning silver notes to black, and I looked at him, trying to figure out the nagging sensation that disrupted my mind.

Anger touched me, consumed me, making my whole body hot. The emotion didn’t belong to me

“The world will always have dark corners of cruelty. Life, no matter which species, will always deal unkind hands of fate. Make it more difficult for one to reach the same goal. If you ask me, it only makes their story worth more in the makings of their legacy.”

“Do you feel me?” I asked quietly. “As much as you do me.” He continued until his knuckles grazed my palm, his hand rested in mine, and I slipped my fingers through his, unable to stop my curiosity as I locked them under mine. “But it’s nothing compared to how I want to feel you,” he added in a low murmur. “Truly real. I may have moments of peace in my mind, but you are a maddening temptation, Starlight.”

And if I only got one true feel of you before the world collapsed, it would be worth it.”

I cast away the thoughts of him as I watched the tub start to fill. I dipped my hand in the warmth. My teeth clenched against the pain, but as my skin adjusted to the drastic change in temperature I moaned contentedly. “This isn’t how I imagined I’d be hearing those sounds from you.” Nyte’s voice interrupted my peace.

“Hektor’s men who grabbed me … they died. You-you had to have killed them.” “If I were there, they would have died the second they touched you.”

“You are exquisite,” he said, his voice barely audible as if he hadn’t meant to speak.

“Knowing you are naked right now is the most riling madness I’ve felt in a very long time.”

His fingers grazed my calf, and I breathed steadily.

“What happened?” Nyte asked in a low and deadly growl.

“What else do you want?” I didn’t care anymore—whatever it took for him to give us the advantage. “Careful,” he said, the word teasing down my neck like a caress of shadow. His head tilted as he observed me through molten eyes. “There are many things I could want, and you are too vulnerable right now to agree to something you might regret.”

“You have no idea the agony it was. To watch as you did it all craving for someone to help, to be there for you. So no, I didn’t remove your face covering at the manor. I didn’t hand you the glass of water. I didn’t pull your dress ribbon, but, fuck, as enthralling as you are when you stretch, I wanted to unravel every ribbon from you that night so badly it torments me still.”

“Nor did I do anything else when you believed me to be interacting with physical things. I am limited still. What if I said in all my time locked here, being unable to have your true touch has been the one thing fueling my rage to be free beyond sanity?”

“But there are far more exciting things I would like to watch you bend for me,” he continued.

“You’re insufferable in my mind. You’d be intolerable if I couldn’t banish you with a thought.” “Has anyone ever told you how attractive your anger is?”

Nyte hovered over me, strands of dark hair curling into his eyes. “Show me,” he said in an alluring gravel tone. “What?” I breathed, bewildered by how sudden and impulsive he could be. “Your anger. I want to see it.”

Because the thought of you beautifully unleashed is driving me wild. Like I said, darkness becomes you.”

“You seem to have an obsession with my hair.” “I have an obsession with you

AHHH

“As much as your true voice here is highly desirable, you have to get back.

“I’ve known many centuries of torture,” he said, so quiet it touched me gently. “And yet the greatest agony is you.”

“I don’t spare your thoughts because I’ve gained some moral code; it’s because I don’t need them. One look in your eyes and you don’t even realize you tell me everything. Like right now, you have no idea the punishment you’re inflicting with that look, knowing should this veil not exist, one touch would make the stars collide, and neither of us would care if we collapsed the world with it.”

I scoffed, my smile pure bitter resentment. “You don’t do anything unless it is to your benefit.” Nyte crouched slowly, sparking a hint of challenge in those molten eyes. “My benefit and my desire are that you stay alive.”

“You are perfect.”

“I’m right here,” he soothed, so close I bit back my whimper, wanting it to be real. To lean into him. “Please don’t leave,” I said pitifully. “Never.”

“I wish you were real so I could slap you.” “I shouldn’t find your violence so attractive.”

“Astraea, you need to get up. Please.” I didn’t think Nyte would plead for anything, but when I found the golden dawn of his irises, he seemed so at a loss for what to do that I couldn’t stand to be his burden.

“Astraea.” One word of utter strained misery and desperation. “I can’t protect you here. You have to get up, love.”

Nyte’s breaths were calculated. I studied his every flicker of rage to gauge the vultures who circled me, too cowardly to see them for myself.

“I’m going to kill them all,” Nyte said, so low and promising.

Both of Nyte’s hands were upon me now. His lips traveled lower, then they pressed to my neck, and I parted my lips with a suppressed sigh of bliss. “You deserve to be worshipped—every damn inch of you.”

“Because you are the brightest star,” he said, a murmur over my lips. “And the brightest star needs the darkest night.”

“You want this,” I told him. He tipped my chin. “More than anything I’ve wanted in my long and torturous existence.”

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

“Fuck,” he said as his lips crashed to mine.

“I have waited so long for you,” he murmured, pressing his lips to my jaw, then my neck, and I moaned softly, clutching his hair in my fingers. “I would have waited an eternity for this.”

“Nyte,” I whispered. His firm brow eased. “Starlight.”

“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.”