The Stars are Dying : (Nytefall: Book 1)

I jerked back up with a gasp. I didn’t know how I’d gotten to my feet, but my disorientation began to clear, and I walked a few vacant steps.

“Nyte,” I hissed down the dark hall I was standing in.

He didn’t answer.

My hand caressed my neck, certain it had been on fire seconds ago, but now I felt normal. My shoes echoed as if it were marble beneath my feet as I walked toward a light with flickers of color. Voices sounded now, though distorted, like I was underwater, and I became desperate to push through to the surface.

Until a bustling room unfolded around me as my focus came back. My hands shielded the burst of light.

It wasn’t the sudden commotion that stilled me. A slow chill crept down every notch of my spine before beginning to coat my skin.

I felt him, and I wanted to race from this place I thought I’d escaped.

“My darling,” he said in a sultry tone.

Hektor’s hand touched my waist, and I couldn’t move.

Oh gods.

He’d found me. I couldn’t believe I’d thought I could ever escape this hold, ever run, when my chain to him would always have a limit.

“I missed you.” He pressed his lips to my bare shoulder, and my eyes pricked.

I examined my gown. It was a dark purple, hugging my body. The cut at the top of my thigh let air breeze over my legs while sheer sleeves fell from my shoulders, attached to a low, heart-shaped neckline.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. It was all I could do when what I’d done rushed in with a daunting horror. I’d run from him, and now he’d found me I would face punishment. “I didn’t mean to—”

“Shh,” he silenced me, easing me around until my head leaned back to look him in the eye. Those green eyes I’d hoped to never see again. Yet in that second, maybe the pang in my chest was relief at the familiarity and the fact I hadn’t killed him.

“I want to give you the world, Astraea,” he said, running his hands up and down my arms, but it felt so wrong it grated my skin. “Everything you have ever dreamed of.”

That had my thoughts drifting to wondrous things, unlocking every desire I’d ever had and knowing there was one key to having it all.

Hektor’s hand dipped into his pocket, and while he’d gifted me jewels and trinkets before, my heart stopped with the purpose of this.

He took my hand. “Marry me, and it will all be yours.”

There were no limits to what I could have. I thought of every precious stone and beautiful garment. All the delicious food and expensive wine. I spared a glance around the room and realized how much he meant it. I had only ever glimpsed this room from above, but here I was—public, known. I wasn’t hidden anymore, and these people looked at me as if I were a queen.

The cool metal drew a gasp from me as it was slipped onto my finger, and as I stared at it, I realized the price. The rock on my finger spoke of a lifetime of wealth, but there was a distant tug in my heart.

Hektor didn’t release my hand, instead guiding me gently, and I followed.

When I looked up, the purple velvet throne he led me toward was triumphant, though it felt somewhat familiar—but not in this room. It dominated the place with power, and I wanted to know what it would feel like to sit upon it and have the eyes of the room regard me as royalty.

I turned with his coaxing and sat, looking over the adoring crowd and noticing their gifts. They wanted to extend them to me. I met eyes with Hektor and his sparkled wide with adoration, giving me everything I could ever desire.

“Not everything.”

I gasped at the intruding voice. He couldn’t be here—not now. I tried to shake him, but it was like he fought to remain. He wanted to take it from me.

“Leave me alone, or I’ll order you gone.”

Nyte’s chuckle was darkly smooth, and a featherlight stroke along my jaw invited my head to turn to my opposite side. “This is not what you want,” he said.

I tried to shake him again, but he grew roots in my mind, and they had claws I would have to pry free.

This was everything I wanted. The power pulsed with exhilaration, the gifts and jewels more than I could crave in a lifetime.

I was seen, and I would be heard.

“Greed comes at the price of losing something,” Nyte said distantly, observing the crowd with me. “For this, it would be your heart.”

His enlightenment had me glancing at the hand Hektor held out. I looked at the diamond now, feeling the weight of an iron shackle. I could have every luxury with him, but not love.

“No,” I said, the word barely a breath as I knew it would inspire the sinister look in Hektor’s eyes. I pushed to my feet, backing away from him, and tried to pull the ring free, but I cried out when it clamped down harder.

“I offered you everything. Why won’t you take it?” Hektor’s voice became unrecognizable, a dark vibration, as shadows engulfed the room.

My answer was there, lodged in my throat, and I knew it had been for some time. Growing and suffocating, and now I wouldn’t breathe until it was out.

“Say it,” Nyte taunted.

My head was spinning. The ring around my finger squeezed tighter, and I yelped with pain before lowering to the ground. My hands clamped over my ears, trying to expel Nyte’s presence so I could focus.

“You have already beat the trial—now end it.”

I looked up, trying to find him, though I knew he wasn’t here.

“I can make it all go away, darling. Give yourself to me.” Hektor’s hand reached out again, and I looked at his palm. The offer had me contemplating the material things once again.

What was one harsh hand to a world of many?

My mind broke with anger, a surge like a power line through me that I didn’t think was of my own making. It snapped me with sense. There was nothing I wanted, nothing I could be bribed with, more than the freedom and strength to never feel another harsh hand again.

“I don’t love you,” I confessed. “No number of diamonds in this world could make me love you truly.” My heart was cleaved and I was bleeding. “That was all I wanted, not your wealth. But your love is condemning.”

I didn’t want to mourn for him, but I was. The darkness faded and his face turned to something I’d never seen before. Pleading, regretful.

“I love you,” he said, voice soft, and the temptation to fall for it was too much.

Tears fell for the years I’d spent with him, the gifts he’d showered me with, and the illusion of safety he’d built around me. As the one who harbored the only memories I had.

I could change that now.

“This isn’t love,” I said. I held up my hand. The band cut into my skin and warm blood trickled, dripping off my elbow.

On his face, sorrow snapped to rage.

“We don’t need her.”

Both of us whirled at the woman who spoke. My knees almost buckled.

Rosalind sat like a goddess atop the throne.

I closed my eyes, shook my head, but when I looked at her again her smile only widened. She held out her hand for Hektor, and he went to her.

The people all looked to Rose with the same adoration they had showered me with. She would have it, while I…

My breath hitched as I examined myself. The stunning dress had vanished, and now I wore torn rags and had bare feet. My hands were dirty, my silver hair tangled. Rose laughed, but I couldn’t believe the haughty sound. She wasn’t warm and kind, but this cruel mockery I couldn’t have predicted from her.

I wanted to take it back. Switch places.

“No, you don’t.” Beside me, Nyte observed the scene. “Look at your hand.”

I did, and no longer did the diamond ring cut my flesh.

“You are free now. You don’t truly envy what she has at the price it would cost.”

We watched Rose as she drank from a golden chalice. People gushed at her; Hektor doted on her. And here I stood, with nothing, as a nobody.

Nyte was wrong.

I took a step forward, but a hand curled around my arm. I snapped him a hard look, but Nyte’s golden eyes held firm.

“Walk away.”

“Let me go!” I cried, trying to pull free, but he only drew me closer. Standing flush against his tall, firm body, I stilled, hypnotized by his irises.

“I’ll be damned if you lose a single year of this lifetime. Walk. Away. Now.”

Something moved me at the command. I couldn’t deny him.

The bond.

My body turned, and the laughter at my back grew, taunting me that it was the wrong choice. I could have everything Rose had. I deserved it as much as her.

My eyes burned at the ridicule as it echoed after me because I’d chosen to remain as no one instead. The lights dimmed in the hall and the sounds plummeted as if I’d walked through glass.

In my despair I didn’t see the floor end, and I fell into a black void that swallowed my miserable existence whole.