The Stars are Dying : (Nytefall: Book 1)

“It knew who I was the whole time,” I ranted in a panic, walking the streets with Nyte. I fidgeted with the key piece, skimming every grove and dent. It was nothing more than a sad piece of metal. The beginning of a pattern had been engraved into it, but it broke off before it could be fully admired.

“Of course it did. It had to find out what to test your pride with.”

I shot him an incredulous look. “What if it tells the king?”

“It has no allegiance to him.”

I didn’t know if I could believe him.

“He set up the games,” I said.

“No. He set you up. Did you not listen to a word?”

“I listened!”

Nyte scoffed. “What part of the games being personal didn’t you understand? He has as little clue about where the trials lead each person as they do.”

My head spun with everything I was learning about the Libertatem. “I didn’t need your help in there,” I grumbled.

“I couldn’t take the chance. There are many tones to that stunning voice you’ve yet to indulge me with.”

“You’re insufferable.”

“Yet I’m still here.”

I dipped into a darker alley, not wanting to linger on the main streets with the potential to become a vampire’s target now we’d climbed to the second level of the city.

I turned to him. “You still haven’t told me what you want for helping me.” I looked him over like scattered pieces, beginning to fear my debt to him was growing to more than what I’d be able to repay. “You either give me answers or I don’t want your help anymore,” I said low, sounding far braver than I felt while he towered over me. He was so breathtakingly, dangerously beautiful that it was an effort to keep my wits around him. His guise could lure me in only to capture me. Yet with the way I fought gravity to be closer to him, to touch him, maybe I wanted to know if his claim on me would be bliss or torture.

Or if the two came hand in hand, an unseen entanglement within all his darkness.

“Fine. Then leave,” I said at his silence. Without thinking, I raised my hand to his chest, meaning to push him, or at least confirm he was real.

It was the wrong thing to do. He took my wrist, securing my palm and flattening it against his chest, which was clad in a thick black winter cloak. We wore gloves, and I blushed at the thought of what he might feel like without them.

“I have helped you. Saved you. Don’t forget that I am on your side,” he said, with a hint of a plea if I didn’t know any better. “I need you to swear to me you believe that.”

My heart beat hard with worry. “What for?”

The tips of his fingers grazed my chin, tilting it to lock onto his mellow pale gold eyes. “For what I have to show you.”

The sound of someone dropping down behind us made me whirl away from him, and I gasped, reaching for a small dagger at my waist, but this assailant had been waiting for me. They grabbed my wrist, spinning us around and crashing my back into the wall. I tried to slip out of their hold, but their knee wedged into my stomach, winding me, though I managed to reach up and yank down their hood, and that was when we both stopped our struggle.

Beautiful lengths of curly pink hair tumbled out, and I stared into Rose’s large hazel eyes in bewilderment. “What among the stars are you doing?” I breathed, letting go of my fight completely. “We can’t kill each other. I thought we—”

I didn’t know what I’d foolishly thought. That Rose was an ally? I had trusted too easily, too desperately, when she’d given me no real confidence to believe it.

Scanning around, I cursed the bastard Nyte for leaving me to face the confrontation alone.

“Who are you?”

I blinked at the question. Then my blood soared when cool metal pressed to my throat. I opened my mouth, but I knew my lie was broken, and I didn’t know how she’d figured it out so quickly.

“Please,” I whispered. “I can explain.”

“Did you kill her to be here?” The way Rose spoke was fierce…protective even.

“No,” I said quickly. “I have no desire to be in this game, but I had no choice.”

“Clearly,” she scoffed. “I’ve been watching you. And you’re a damned fool if you think attracting the king’s attention gives you an advantage. Perhaps he’s onto you as fast as I am.”

“How do you know I’m not Cassia?” To speak it aloud made a lump form in my throat.

“What did you do to her?”

“Nothing, I—”

Rose leaned in close, adding pressure through the blade, and my eyes welled with blurred vision. “What the hell did you do to her?”

“She’s dead!” My tears spilled over, and I released one sob.

Rose eased off me a little but didn’t remove the threat of her dagger. I watched her expression twitch with something I related to. Sorrow. “I figured as much for you to be in her place,” she muttered coldly.

“There was a soulless…and I-I wasn’t able to save her.” I couldn’t breathe. Not with the waves of grief flooding me over and over at the scene playing out in my mind.

Rose finally backed away.

“I guess I did kill her.” I spilled my darkest confession, the guilt that would consume me for the rest of my existence. “She always came for me. And if she hadn’t that night she would be here.”

The stillness that fell between us was colder than our winter breaths.

“This meant so much to her, and I couldn’t let a whole kingdom lose their only beacon of hope…” I couldn’t stop. The story came tumbling out of me, and I didn’t care if her blade came to swipe my throat for real. I paced the alley until I ran dry of words, emotion, and as I gazed up at the sky, I prayed it was the last time I’d have to tell this story when I felt like I was dying all over again.

I didn’t know how much time passed in silence after I said the last word. I had no care for the threat Rose could still be, and regardless of whether she spared my life tonight or kept my secret, only one of us could survive this bigger deadly game.

“There you are!”

Both of us firmed into defensive positions at the voice that disturbed us. Until the familiar blond head came out of the glare of the sun and into the alley.

“Zath!” I couldn’t have been more relieved to see him, and my jog to him didn’t slow until we collided. “How did you find me?”

“Luck, it would seem,” he said.

Rose didn’t ease her threatening expression that held a hint of ire now we were in Zath’s presence.

“Good to see you too, Thorns,” he grumbled, dropping his arms from me.

“Is he in on it too?” Rose accused, using her dagger as a pointer toward him, which didn’t settle well.

Zath stepped forward at the threat. “In on what?” he asked in a deadly tone.

“That I’m not Cassia,” I interjected.

That only inspired a far more tense standoff as Zath reached for his blade. He said to Rose, “We might not be permitted to kill you, but I can arrange it.”

“And I might not be able to kill her, but you, however…” Rose finished her sentence with action, feigning a right attack before switching at Zath’s response, but he was equally as cunning.

I stumbled back, at a complete loss for how to stop them before they could follow through on their threats. There was nothing friendly about the way they moved. Rose landed her elbow on Zath’s jaw, stunning him, but he managed to disarm her dagger, pinning her to the wall.

The victory didn’t last long.

I watched with a rush of dread, calling out to them, but it was as if I no longer existed in their honed battle. They kicked discarded crates, tossing debris at each other, and I was equal parts in awe at the way they seamlessly answered to each other and flailing in my mind since placing myself between them seemed to be the only option that might stop the madness.

“Stop this before I do,” a deep voice interrupted.

I turned taut, twisting my head to peer up at the Golden Guard. Rose’s protector. I spared a second glance to check for Drystan, but he wasn’t here. Perhaps giving me the enchanted map had been his way of fulfilling his obligation without needing to track me senselessly.

“Truce,” Zath called finally, taking several long strides back before Rose could attack again.

She panted, locked in a beautiful position of defense as she debated his retreat. “Not even close,” she grumbled, but to my relief she straightened.

“You fight well,” Zath commented.

“I handed you your ass.”

“Hardly.”

“You two have to sort your shit out,” I said, exasperated. “We have bigger issues.”

“She’s right.” Zath sheathed his blade. “But if you turn out to be a threat to her—”

“You’ll what?” Rose challenged.

I wanted to ask how she knew I wasn’t Cassia and so many other things now my secret was out, and my nerves sharpened at the hold she had over me. With the guard here, I couldn’t confront it now.

“We should get to work,” she said. “I assume you have your first riddle.”

I dipped a hand into my pocket, retrieving the piece of the key.

“Well, shit,” she muttered. “Perhaps I underestimated you.”

“I’m going to head back to the castle. There’s something I need to do.”

“Rest, I hope. You’ve earned it,” Rose said with approval. “I’d better get going for mine.”

I didn’t argue, pocketing the key piece that didn’t feel worthy of her praise when I’d almost failed. She turned to walk away, but I called out, “Wait! We still have so much to talk about.”

“I’m sure I’ll see you again soon.”

Rose said nothing more as she turned away this time, and I had nothing left either as I watched her back. The moment she dipped out of sight, I turned to her guard. Spinning on the spot, I couldn’t believe how stealthily he’d slipped away, just like how he’d arrived.

I focused on Zath instead. “You have to trail after her.”

He gave me a look like I’d lost my damn mind.

“Please. She’ll say she doesn’t need help, but I don’t think she knows how to ask for it without being seen as weak. Just…try not to kill each other.”

“I’m staying with you.”

“I’m heading back to the castle right now anyway. I’ll be completely safe, and no offense, but I managed the whole first trial without you.”

“Yet you judge Rosalind’s ability to do the same alone?”

“I wasn’t alone.”

Zath’s brow arched, and he even glanced sideward as though mocking my imaginary help. Truthfully, I had no proof to even convince myself Nyte was real. He disappeared at the most convenient times to avoid other company.

Zath gave an overdramatic sigh. “Fine. I’ll go after her. But if she tries to fight me again, I’m leaving her to set up her own funeral.”

I smiled, which only deepened his scowl. “I’ll see you later. Make it back before twilight, remember.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Zath pulled me into an embrace. “Keep to the shadows.”

I nodded, and Zath pressed his lips lightly to my head before he took off in the direction Rose went. I wasn’t keen to linger for a moment, and a giddiness bubbled in me when Nyte’s last words trickled back in.

For what I have to show you.