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August 23 - August 26, 2025
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.
“I would have waited an eternity just for this,” he said.
Brushing a strand of his midnight hair, I traced the long scar from his temple over his cheekbone. “Where have you been?” I asked quietly. “Right here,” he said, reaching for a tangled silver strand, which he tucked behind my ear. “I’ve always been right here. Waiting for you.”
“Who did this?”
Dark locks fell away as I cut, and soon I became lost to the feel of his hair. My fingers combed through it, and I delighted in the low noises he occasionally gave off that tightened my skin. “Your hands … Fuck, you don’t even know.”
“Astraea, you made your mark on me long ago and I vowed never to remove it. Even if it became my greatest punishment to carry.”
“I’m going to right everything he wronged. Give you everything he denied you. Worship every inch of the goddess you are, starting right now. Do you believe that?”
“I’m going to be hearing those noises on repeat on my damn deathbed.”
“You’re perfect for me, Starlight. So fucking perfect the gods reject it out of spite.”
“Bring me the one who fired the arrow that hit her. If I have to go looking for them myself, many more of you will die in my path.”
“A queen doesn’t sit on a throne; she owns it. How exquisite you would look doing so.”
“There is no being on this earth that exists without a weakness,” he said, the words traveling like a lover’s caress over my collar.
“Do you think destinies can change?” I asked quietly. Nyte let a few seconds of heavy silence pass. “I used to.” “What happened?” “You died.”
“I have waited more than three hundred years for you to come back,” he said, equally as hushed. “I came to terms with believing it wouldn’t matter when I couldn’t find a way to break the curse of our clashing existence. Then, when I became trapped … I can’t deny there was a selfish part of me that didn’t give a fuck about the world, or that my father and brother had betrayed me, because I would get to see you again.”
All that kept me here was Nyte’s gentle strokes over my hair, his warmth holding me tight. I was too exhausted to put on a front that I didn’t want it. Because I needed it.
“You have no idea, love,” he said, a crack in his voice slowing me from hyperventilating, “how I would tear my own heart from my chest if it could help you right now.”
I thought I’d have the strength to look at you and not fall. But I looked at you … and I plummeted. I didn’t stand a chance.”
“I think a lot of things of you.” “Anything of endearment?” “All of them.” My fist flexed. “Like how I would love for you to open that damn door so I can stab you.” The bastard smiled. “I shouldn’t find that attractive.”
“You are the most stunning, volatile, and fair thing,” he said, inciting war within me through a mere look as his other hand cupped my neck and jaw, forcing me to angle my head for him. “And it’s about time you showed yourself.”
His kiss turned labored; his skin paled. He said nothing. His hand on my nape became limp, and he kissed me one final time before his head lost balance too.
I planted my foot on the seat between his legs, intending to push him away, but he caught my calf. With the electricity that surged through me I wanted to fight him. It raised a sadistic thrill. Because fighting with Nyte would be as exhilarating as it would be devastating.
“Why don’t you sit at the head of the table?” I ground out. “Until I replace it to be wide enough to fit two there, I’ll remain here.”
“The things I want from you are entirely selfish and nothing to do with your power,”
To my bewilderment, Nyte eased off his chair to kneel before me, not letting go of my hand.
“Can I ask you something?” That seemed to lift something from him. “Anything. Anytime you need me. I would stop the rage of a battlefield just to hear you.”
“I would meet you in the darkness. Every time you called,” he said quietly.
“But, fuck, the past three centuries of misery, despite all I became and all I am to you now, I would suffer all again for this.”
“You have nothing binding you anymore, Astraea. You are safe and free. You can walk out of this room right now and I will not stop you. Walk out of the kingdom and I may follow, but every path we take is yours to pave.”
“The most exquisite, beautiful celestial to have ever lived,” he said between strides toward the edge.
“What does it feel like?” I asked. “Like any other touch of yours—and I don’t think I have the words to tell you how burdens lift with it. Even when you’re driving a blade through my chest.”
“Your soul is magnetic. There won’t exist a time or place where I won’t be drawn to it. And, love, you might look the same, you might remember everything we almost had one day, but here and now I’m falling for you. I found you with a steel heart in my chest, and for the first time in three centuries it doesn’t feel so cold. Not because of what you were, but for everything you are.
