Lady of Starfire: The spellbinding epic dark fantasy spicy BookTok sensation for 2025 (Lady of Darkness Book 5)

by Melissa K. Roehrich

“I promised him I would keep you safe,” Sawyer answered. “Let me keep that promise.” He lifted a hand, his palm resting on her stomach. “Let me do this one last thing for the people I love most in this world.”

With a shaky breath, Nuri moved from Ashtine to Sawyer. The daggers had barely cleared her when Ashtine dropped to her knees before the Water Fae, clasping his hands in hers. “They will know of you, Sawyer. The realm will know of you.” “Tell Briar it was duty to serve as his Second, but it was an honor to call him brother.”

“I’m sorry,” Nuri whispered. “I will make it fast. That is the only mercy I can offer.”

Nuri struck, and the cry that ripped from Ashtine had Talwyn dropping down beside her and pulling her into her arms. Sobs shook her small frame to the point she was gasping for breath.

“Know that she is not the monster Alaric turned her into.”

It was only then that Eliza realized everyone had formed a small circle around them. Arianna. Stellan. Jamahl, Sariah, and Ilyas. All the Shifters were on a knee, heads bowed for the sacrifice made.

“Can you … Your fire? Please, Eliza? I will take his ashes. So Briar can perform his Farewell.”

The ashes were gathered and stored in a glass box clutched tightly to Ashtine’s chest as she was set atop a grey and black griffin, a silver hawk at her shoulder.

He did not bother undressing either as he climbed into the tub with her. Large hands pulled her to him, and she buried her face in his bare chest as he pulled the tie from her braid and unwound what was left of the plait.

“Did it seem like she and Mordecai were …something?” she asked when he gently tugged on her foot so he could get at the laces of her boot. She shifted, sliding back some. “Only someone who has been forced to commit the same atrocities she has could see her for what she is,” Razik answered.

She took a long, hot bath, and alone among the steam of the water she kept heated with her remaining power, she let the tears come. Not the shaking sobs of earlier, but the tears of loss at yet another she had called her own crossing the Veil. What would Nakoa think of her now?

There was a long, tense silence before he said with a low growl, “You are not wearing pants.” “You’re too fucking hot at night.” “You’re going to make me sleep beside you when you are only wearing my shirt?” he ground out. “No one said you had to sleep beside me. The scent of your shirt will be enough for me to sleep just fine.”

“If I sleep beside you tonight, this will not be like other times, Eliza. This will not be something we never speak of again.” “I know,” she whispered. “We will discuss everything in the morning.” “I know.” “I am going with you to the Fire Court.” She sighed loudly. “I know, Raz.”

He didn’t reach for her, didn’t touch her at all as he settled in. Then he said quietly, “Only Cethin and Lia call me Raz.” “Sorry,” she muttered. “No. I … No one else ever cared enough to call me by a nickname.” She went still, letting his words settle into her soul, before she said softly, “Good night, Raz.”

And then Callan bowed to him. When he straightened, Ezra was staring at him wide-eyed, his hand fallen slack by his side. “Your father gave his life protecting my family. Protecting me and Eva. I can never repay the debt that is owed to you and your family,” Callan said thickly, emotion welling in his throat. “He was a man I was honored to call a friend.”

“Yeah, Callan. I was working with Rydeon and Toreall rebels. Have been for years. I was worried that what was happening in their kingdoms would happen here. We were trying to be prepared. I didn’t realize that we would be following in their footsteps quite so closely.”

“I knew she would be a queen. One of those things I just knew. I had always assumed she would be your queen, based on how everything was unfolding.

“I caught her sneaking out one night,” Tava said quietly. “You caught her sneaking out?” Azrael asked, his brows high. “She sees what everyone else misses,” Callan said, gaze on Tava. She slowly raised ocean-blue eyes to his. “She’d been a spirit of the After for weeks. I had promised Cassius I would keep an eye on her. When I heard her door open well into the night, I followed her down to the study she liked to sneak out of. I demanded to know where she was going; and when I would not drop it and threatened to send word to Cassius, she finally told me to change into godsdamn pants and get a cloak. She said if I got her caught, there’d be hell to pay.”

“How do the Maraans not know you are here?” Azrael asked, avoiding Tava’s gaze. “That’s where I come in,” Ezra said. He’d been so quiet, Callan had forgotten he was here. He had a knife and a piece of wood in his hand. He’d been carving on it the entire time they’d been speaking. “I am Tava’s newly appointed personal guard.”

Her arms looped around his neck. She pulled his lips back to hers as she murmured, “You already have me. In this life and the next. Now we fight for our people together.”

She sucked in a sharp breath, shoving the note into her pocket. Then she gently pulled Sorin’s hands away before she wrapped her arms around him and pulled her husband close. He buried his face in her neck, and she reached over and grabbed Rayner’s hand, squeezing his fingers tightly in hers.

“Tethys was the only one I have ever wanted something more with. Thousands of years, and there was only ever him.”

She may tease Sorin about his past experiences, but there would never be another. He was it. No one else, and she wasn’t about to share him with anyone either. It would only ever be him.

“When I first came to this world, I stayed hidden with no one but those who had traveled with me. We discovered there were Legacy here after a time. They called themselves Avonleyans after the kingdom they had built. They once ruled the entirety of the realm. Avonleyan, Fae, and mortal. All living in harmony. This world had been a secret from many. We thought it would stay that way. A sanctuary hidden among the stars.”

“You left?” Saylah nodded, still scarcely moving. “I returned with the spirit animals this world knows of. I did not know that while I was gone, Gehenna was sent here. I did not know that she had stolen the lock and brought it here for Moranna. I did not know until it was too late. Not until it was decided to put up the Wards. “The Wards had been part of our plans. We would regroup. Give the Avonleyans a moment to breathe. Then we would bring the Wards down and claim victory. I would see this world restored to peace before I left for good. The Avonleyan King gave his life as part of the enchantment to enact the Wards, willingly paid the cost for his people. He did not have children. His husband was killed in the war, as was his brother. Which left his nephew to assume the throne.

She altered the enchantment, and when the Wards went up, the gateway was sealed. I could not leave. The spirit animals could not leave. I could no longer spare this world, and more than that, we did not know how to take down the Wards. They were only meant to be up for a year, two at most, while we prepared. The Avonleyans became separated from the Fae, weakened to a point of sure surrender. The Fae that were here Faded early, part of the enchantment that Gehenna had altered. The spirit animals could move among the Wards because of what they are, but even their power is a fraction of what it used to be.

The gods emerged from the Chaos. That is where our power comes from. By being stuck here, I am cut off from the most powerful sources of Chaos. M...

“The spirit animals were bonded with the Fae Royalty to give them as much protection as I could. The Sorceress was found and imprisoned, but she would not tell Eliné and Henna of the lock. The Shifters and Witc...

And your father and I? He did not know what I was. My secret had died with his uncle, but he knew I was something other. He was relentless, digging until he learned the truth. Another trait I am told you also have.”

For the first time in my long life, I wanted more and did not feel foolish for wanting it. Cethin was born, and with his birth, we learned how wrong we had been about everything.”

“As you know, things escalated when Esmeray reemerged and killed the Fae Royals. We learned Alaric had found a way in and was bringing more. Tethys and I knew we needed to do something, and I spent many decades searching for answers. We wanted to leave. To draw the war from this world, hoping the Maraans would follow. I was what they were after. Me and my own. But we could not leave without the lock. The day I learned you were growing in my womb was the day we became desperate. Your father would have given anything to keep you and your brother safe. He did give everything.”

“So how am I the only one who can find it now?” She felt Saylah’s gaze fix on her again. “You know the answer to this. I told you when you came to Shira Forest. But you were right that night too, Daughter. You are a god here. Not my god, like you claim. Not like Anala or Silas or any of the others. But to this realm? You may as well be one. There is no one more powerful aside from me.”

“When I learned of Eliné’s death, I assumed you had met the same fate. I had no way of knowing otherwise. It was not until Cethin unknowingly found his way into your dreams that I learned you still lived, and by then, everything had changed.”

“Because the Maraans had you. Knew what you carried.” “I don’t understand,” Scarlett said, digging her toes into the sand. “What do I carry?”

To help you understand why all this is necessary,” she answered. “To tell you of your father, who was pure goodness and light. He cared deeply for his people. You and Cethin got that trait from him. I will not pretend that any of that goodness came from me. But I am glad you still feel, Scarlett. It is a dreadful thing to become so numb to loss that you no longer feel the cost of such things. I am glad you found your way back before you lost that light for good.”

Secrets are the currency of the gods,”

“With Arantxa going to be with Juliette,

Nuri. The wicked, cunning female who had been playing her master from the very beginning. Who had somehow found the one seraph who was doing the same.

After Nuri had told her to run, Mordecai had scooped Talwyn into the sky and taken her to some hideaway in the Dresden Forest on the Toreall and Witch Kingdoms’ border. Because somehow, inexplicably, the seraph could Travel.

Mordecai had replied, grabbing Nuri’s elbow as she’d begun to pace in a tight circle. He’d lifted his now bare arm with the sleeve folded up to the elbow, and Nuri’s fangs had immediately sank into it with a feral moan as he’d gently tugged her closer.

“Alaric is withholding blood from her as punishment for losing you,” Mordecai had said at Talwyn’s arched brow. “You were not punished?” “Of course I was,” he’d retorted, one of his wings curving protectively around Nuri.

Yet despite all their cunning and secrecy, they had still been forced to commit their own atrocities to keep their cover. The Blood Bond. Killing the Contessa. Fighting in the various battles and slaughtering those they were trying to aid.

She’d fed the entire time Mordecai spoke. He’d eventually lowered them to the ground, and slowly her limbs had relaxed. “Has he starved her this whole time?” Talwyn asked, eyeing the vampyre. “Yes,” Mordecai said darkly. “This is the first time I have seen her since the prison. He has had her locked away in a room of sunlight to drain her even more.”

Ashtine pushed herself up to a sitting position, taking the tonic and tipping it into her mouth. Then Talwyn was scrambling up when the princess moved from the bed faster than expected. Nasima swooped to Ashtine’s shoulder a moment later. She reached up, dragging her fingers along her feathers, and the bird nuzzled into her hand. “I have missed you, my friend,” Ashtine whispered.

Then she came for memories of you.” He heard Cassius suck in a sharp breath. “She altered one, and I begged—begged her, Cassius—not to touch any more. To let me keep those, because I could live without memories of my past, but you were not my past. You were …everything I did not deserve in the future.”

And then Cassius was in his face, forcing him to look into his eyes. One brown, one pale and white. “I will never look at you with derision, disgust, or hatred. Never, Cyrus. Do you hear me? It is impossible when I love you.” Cyrus stopped breathing because he couldn’t have heard him right. “Say it again,” Cyrus whispered.

But what Cyrus had intended to be a taunt had Cassius’s eyes glowing brighter as he leaned over him in a move that had Cyrus tipping his head back against the sofa to see him. “Remember what I said, Cyrus,” he said, his tone rough and low. “I’m not as selfless as you believe me to be. I want, and I take.”

“Make no mistake, Cyrus,” he murmured. “I’ll take what’s mine.” Well, fuck. That was all he could think as Cass straightened and started heading back to the bedchamber to change. “Cass,” he called out, his voice a hoarse rasp. Cassius paused, looking back over his shoulder. “I love you too.”

So was Rayner, who had only bothered to put on pants and was drinking a cup of tea. The male looked exhausted. Granted, he was still recouping the power he’d used to save Sorin and Scarlett from those feline-type creatures. In fact, Rayner was the main reason Scarlett hadn’t gone for the lock yet. But this was a different type of exhaustion. As if the mere idea of putting on a shirt was too much.

“I found her. Nearly two hours later. As a godsdamn mouse nestled deep under the blankets at the foot of my bed,” Rayner continued, tipping his head back against the chair, his eyes falling closed.