The Stars are Dying : (Nytefall: Book 1)

I jolted awake, the urgency of knowing I was not where I was supposed to be surging through my mind. I scanned the view through the tall balcony doors. It was dark, but the first signs of day would break within the hour.

“Shit,” I swore, scrambling to my feet.

“Can’t we lie in for once?” Cassia groaned, rolling over from where we’d fallen asleep by the dwindling fire.

“Why did you let me fall asleep?” I threw my cloak over my shoulders, fingers fumbling with the clasp in my hurry.

“You needed it. Look at you—there’s more color in your cheeks already.”

“I told you I needed to be back.” I couldn’t stop the panic from slipping into my voice.

As I hooked my cloak shut, warm hands took my trembling ones.

“What are you so afraid of?” Cassia forced my eyes to hers, but I couldn’t voice what truly stormed in my mind. The fear of Hektor arriving at the manor before me.

“I just promised Hektor I would be home before nightfall. He’ll think something happened to me.”

“Damn, I’m sorry. I thought he would have had enough sense to guess you’d stayed. That you’re safe here.”

I gave my best convincing smile. If Hektor knew I came here… If he found out the reigning lord knew who I was… I didn’t want to think of what he would do.

“Two more days,” she said, pulling me into an embrace. “I’ll send instruction, and I’ll see you in two days.”

The reminder that the world was about to burst before me in such a short time shot a wild thrill through my stomach. “Yes,” was all I could say, but my smile lifted to a genuine grin.

“Okay, now go, before your overprotective—”

“If you call him my husband again…”

Cassia giggled as she shoved me toward the door. “Let me get Calix to escort you back.”

“I made it here fine by myself. I know the route.”

A silvery voice floated in my mind, paired with golden irises that reminded me I wasn’t entirely alone. Shadow or not, I had some comfort in his company.

“Day is only breaking. Be careful.”

I raced out of town, slipping on the ice that made my pace a danger, but I had to make it back before him, and so I raced the sunrise. The woods made my skin crawl with unease, sparking an irrational fear that there could be soulless—or worse, nightcrawlers—lurking. The fading colors of night made this journey more challenging than the last.

I thought I heard wings; mistook the charcoal barren branches as them too when the wind animated them. Or perhaps some wild animal would launch out of the many hiding places to devour me instead. I couldn’t decide what terrified me more: losing part of my soul, my blood, or having my flesh torn.

I shook my head to dispel the panic gathering from nothing more than tales that had been told to scare me. Tales that made me so compliant in Hektor’s bonds I may as well have tied them myself.

Something lunged out into my path, and I shrieked, colliding with it. Strong hands gripped me, and my eyes trailed up from a leather-clad chest to the blue eyes of Zath.

“Fuck, Astraea, you have no idea how concerned I’ve been. What were you thinking?”

My heart skipped a beat with the fright that choked my throat. “I was thinking I couldn’t spend the last night I had to see Cassia locked away like a prisoner.” I shrugged out of his hold, my frustration dissolving into dread. “Will you tell him?”

“Of course not,” he said quickly. His expression was exasperated as he drove a hand through his unbound dirty-blond waves. “Anything could have happened to you out here. But we don’t have time to argue—Hektor will be back any moment. Come.” He took my gloved hand, ushering me along until the glowing windows of the manor drew out a whoosh of relief that I was back safely. It conflicted with my slump of disappointment at seeing the elaborate cage.

We used the main door this time, knowing there was nothing the staff could do. They wouldn’t tell Hektor since every one of them would face punishment for my leaving and being at risk. My protection, I had witnessed, he took as seriously and made as personal as any job.

“Milady!” Sira’s screech startled me. She skipped over, hooking my arm with a frantic look around, but mercifully the early hour revealed no one else.

“Get her upstairs,” Zathrian ordered firmly.

The maid nodded, but before we reached the top of the first flight of stairs, the clamor of hooves at the main entrance shot through me like electricity. Sira and I exchanged a split-second look of horror before we took off running. My rooms were on the top floor of the three-story manor.

Sira took my cloak as I removed it, and my hands grappled with the ties and buttons of my dress as Hector’s voice echoed distantly. Inside, she finished helping me strip out of the dress, and I slipped into a silver nightgown then got into bed just as she stuffed my outdoor clothing haphazardly into the closet. Footsteps grew louder, closing in on the door, and my heart beat hard as I forced my eyes closed, feigning sleep as it opened.

“What are you doing in here?” Hektor asked Sira with a quiet warning.

“Checking her fever.”

My teeth clenched at the quiver in her tone, ready to damn the ruse and stand up for her if he thought to punish her.

“And she is well?”

The gentleness he switched to I didn’t expect. I focused on keeping my breath steady and my body from turning rigid as I listened to the floorboards creak toward me.

“I believe so.”

“Leave us.”

The bed dipped and his soft fingers brushed my temple as the click signaled Sira’s exit. I chose then to inhale deeply, fluttering my lids as though he’d awoken me. I swallowed through my dry throat, scratchy from the run here. I hadn’t gotten a moment to relieve it. My small smile turned to a round of coughing, and Hektor reacted immediately, heading into the washroom and running the water.

I propped myself up against the headboard when he returned, and he sat by me again as he handed me the glass. His tenderness now, I couldn’t deny, inspired hopeful notions, like a fleeting glimpse of what care and happiness should be between two lovers.

“How are you feeling?” he asked, running a hand over my leg under the sheets.

“Better,” I admitted. “I wasn’t so when you left. It came on so suddenly I haven’t managed far from bed these past few days.”

He smiled knowingly, and I wondered if he’d felt my fever the morning before, and if so, why he’d still locked the door. Remembering the confinement, my endearment soured to anger so fast my grip around the glass turned painful. He detected nothing, but the mask of compassion he wore cracked before me, and I wanted to hate him. I wanted to shout and demand why, but it would only bring out a more frightening wrath I couldn’t contend with.

I was feeble and weak and nothing like Cassia, but I longed to be, if only so I could be the breaker of my own chains.

“As you are becoming well, perhaps some air away from the manor would lift your spirits,” he said, taking the glass from me. He leaned in, planting his lips to mine, and in my shock at his words I pulled out of the kiss. He smiled at my look—the kind that eased the hard lines of his face and gave off a soft handsomeness. “The send-off in a few days, I think you will enjoy the spectacle they plan to make of it.”

Why would he offer this now?

Never had I hoped more for Hektor’s tight protection to hold firm. He’d refused for me to attend Cassia’s send-off weeks ago; now I rose with anxiety knowing I needed him to be otherwise occupied that day so I could slip away. Long enough to gain a lead and hope he wouldn’t suspect my relationship with the reigning lord’s eldest daughter.

“I would love that,” I said quickly.

“Good. There is nothing more valuable to me than your happiness.”

I believed him. Only, Hektor’s view of my happiness was an illusion of his own making. He thought this protection he offered, the wears and the jewelry, his affection…that it was enough. Life would be easier if I could convince myself it was, but no matter what he showered me with, I couldn’t fill the void inside of me that yearned for something coin couldn’t buy. Or perhaps a fantasy that didn’t exist at all.

Hektor stood. “I have some things to see to, but I will be back tonight. You should rest to be as well as you can for it.”

I nodded, grateful for the alone time when I had to figure out how the hell I was going to orchestrate an escape plan in mere days.

When he left, I sank back down as the sun kept rising. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t do anything but reel at the thought of what was to come.