The Ashes and the Star-Cursed King (Crowns of Nyaxia Book 2)

I had always been a good fighter. But this—this was like breathing, effortless, innate. I didn’t have to think. I didn’t have to plan. I didn’t have to compensate for my weakness.

I was the Heir of the House of Night, and I was the daughter of Vincent the Nightborn King, and I was every bit as powerful as both those things suggested.

The Taker of Hearts was an incredible weapon. It shredded bodies and pierced ribcages like they were made of sand. Now I understood why Vincent might have been willing to sacrifice his soul for this kind of power. Why Septimus was willing to tear Obitraes apart for something even greater.

I was drunk on it.

I didn’t remember killing them. I was only vaguely aware of the bodies collecting beneath my feet. My wings erased the barrier between the ground and the sky, helping me move faster and dodge quicker and fling myself exactly where I needed to be. Blood covered my face, dripped into my eyes, tinting the world black-red.

Another gust of wind as I fought my way to the open doors of the balcony. Sivrinaj spread out beneath me, a sea of ivory curves, the Lituro River slithering through it all like a glass serpent.

The Taker of Hearts cut through the next Rishan who came at me in seconds.

Did he strike me? I wasn’t sure. I didn’t feel it.

I didn’t care, either way.

A strange sensation in my back—not pain, not quite. I turned. The man’s sword was bloody, dripping with crimson. “Half-breed bitch,” he snarled, but my sword stole the rest of his words.

Good, Vincent said. They deserve it.

The last man, the one who had been handling the chains, lunged for me. I lowered the Taker of Hearts and let it slice through his leg, sending him stumbling, howling, to the ground.

I didn’t let him fall fully. Hoisted him up, even though distantly, I recognized my muscles burned. Pressed him to the wall.

The last one here. The last one between me and Raihn. But I wasn’t fucking done. I was hungry. I was angry.

“Simon,” I snarled. “Septimus. Where are they?”

The man spat at me and tried to swing at me. He hit something, I wasn’t sure what.

Fine. If he didn’t want to talk, he didn’t want to talk. Like he’d be important enough to know that information, anyway.

I skewered him and tossed him from the balcony.

I whirled around, ready for the next attacker. But instead of battle cries or gasps of pain or clattering steel, I heard only my own pounding heartbeat.

And—

“Hell of an entrance, princess.”

The voice was hollow and hoarse.

I blinked the red from my eyes. The haze of my blood rage fell away, a sudden cold enveloping me at the sight.

Raihn.

Raihn strung up with silver chains against the wall of the castle. His wings were out and nailed through, blood clumping in the elegant feathers. Blood spattered his face and smeared his once-fine clothing. His hair was free around his face, clinging to his skin.

He’d fought like hell. One look at him told me that. Drugged or no.

I crashed back to the earth with staggering force. Suddenly, looking at Raihn like this, I did not feel powerful, despite the trail of bodies I’d left in my wake or the sword in my hand or the Nightfire at my fingertips. I did not feel powerful at all.

He gave me a weak, lopsided smile.

“I can’t possibly look that bad.”

I sheathed the blade at my side and strode across the balcony. Up close he looked even worse—some of the chains were screwed right through his skin.

I swore under my breath.

They were going to let him burn. Let the dawn kill him, slowly, right in front of all of Sivrinaj. The most humiliating way for a vampire to die. In Simon’s mind, he wasn’t even worthy of a real execution. Executions were for threats.

“Cairis,” Raihn rasped. “It was Cairis. The traitor. Can you fucking believe that?”

Then he laughed, like something about this was hysterically funny.

“Don’t do that,” I snapped.

I heard voices in the distance. Many of them.

Shit.

My attack wasn’t exactly subtle. They’d be coming for me. Coming for Raihn.

He heard it too, his head tilted towards the noise. Then back to me.

“This is going to hurt,” I muttered. I didn’t have time to be gentle. I yanked the first chain free from his wrist, a fresh spurt of blood dribbling down his arm.

“You can leave me,” he said. “I’ll be alright.”

I laughed. It was an ugly sound. “Like hell you will.”

“You’re hurt, Oraya. There will be a lot of them.”

No joking anymore. No cocky remarks.

Raihn was right. I was injured. Probably badly. Now that the adrenaline faded, everything hurt. I tried not to think about it, but I was getting dizzy.

A lump rose in my throat.

“I already came this far,” I muttered, moving faster as I grabbed another chain and pulled it. One wing slumped down, pain spasming across his face at the extra weight yanking on his other side.

The voices were getting louder. Fuck.

I pulled away the second chain on his left arm, freeing it.

“Here. You’ve got an arm now. Help me,” I spat, moving to the other wing.

He did, wincing as he tugged against his right side.

The voices were on this floor now, or closer.

“Hurry,” I said.

“Oraya—”

“Don’t you dare tell me to leave,” I spat. “We don’t have time for that.”

Only his ankles left now. Both wings were free, and both arms. I dropped to my knees to get one ankle while he reached for the other.

Goddess, we had seconds. Less.

“Oraya.”

I didn’t look up. “What?”

CLANG, as metal fell to the ground.

“Why did you come for me?”

I paused for a split second we didn’t have.

I didn’t even ask myself that question. I didn’t want to look too hard at the answer, a confusing knot in my chest.

“We don’t have time for this.” I yanked his final restraint free with one last clatter.

I stood, and Raihn tried to take a step forward only to slump against me. I nearly caved beneath his weight.

Over his shoulder, I watched a flood of Rishan and Bloodborn soldiers pour around the corner. More than I could fight in this state, even with the Taker of Hearts at my side.

Raihn noticed them too, then stumbled to the railing.

I looked at his wings, broken and useless. At his injuries. Down at the drop below. At the soldiers.

Then, finally, at his face.

He was bathed in pink gold as the sun crested the horizon, making his eyes gleam like dark rubies. The right side of his face was already starting to blister under the force of the sun. His hair was so red beneath the dawn—redder than I’d ever realized it was, closer to human blood than vampire.

An arrow whizzed by his head.

As the first soldiers breached the doorway, I grabbed Raihn and held him close.

“You are so impossibly beautiful,” he murmured in my ear.

And then I spread my wings, and we hurled ourselves over the edge of the balcony.