The Stars are Dying : (Nytefall: Book 1)

Down an open stone hall lined with archways that led out onto a small courtyard, a hook on my arm pulled me from my wonder and awe at the Keep.

“What are you doing here?”

I snapped my attention to Calix. “I had to see her. It might be my last chance.”

My nerves spiked. That wasn’t my only reason. Not anymore.

“Shit, Astraea, you look like hell. You shouldn’t be wandering around in this weather.”

“Thanks for your concern, but I’m here now. Can you take me to Cassia?”

Calix surveyed the quiet area. A few humans walked along the opposite path. The Keep was far more tranquil than I thought I’d find it at this hour.

“What if you were found?”

“I was.” I tried a smile, which earned a scowl from him. “By you.”

Calix grumbled as he steered me to continue walking. “I would not have been able to get you out of detainment had someone else discovered your brazen infiltration.”

“Reihan would have come.”

“You can’t refer to the reigning lord without title around here,” he scolded. “Cassia’s the most important person in the kingdom right now. You’d do best to remember that.”

I winced at that. As Cassia’s personal guard, Calix was highly protective of her. He tolerated me for her sake, helping her sneak out to meet me, which she was only permitted to do once a month or less with how scarcely Hektor left his manor. While Calix’s presence wasn’t nearly as bright and yearned-for as the reigning lord’s daughter, I considered him a reluctant friend.

“You really know how to bring down the mood—” My steps stumbled at the squeal from across the new open courtyard. I knew that voice in any pitch, any tone.

Every negative aura dissipated when I saw Cassia. Her black hair was tied in a braid, the loose strands around her face indicating she’d been training with the bow she held for some time.

I tried to advance, but Calix’s arm extended in front of me. Cassia gave a quick scan around to the person I assumed was her swordplay mentor, then to their surroundings, before deeming it safe to come over. I relaxed my scowl at her guard.

“I wasn’t expecting you,” she said, throwing her arms around my neck. “Stars, I worried you wouldn’t visit before I left.”

My arms tightened. “I would never have let you go without a last goodbye,” I said.

When we pulled apart, the words I wanted to blurt became lodged in my throat. My mouth floundered, and Cassia seemed to notice, maybe even reading what I wanted to say by the hopeful widening of her eyes. She waited patiently, but I couldn’t speak with the lingering presence around us. There would be no taking it back, and I knew once I’d planted the notion in Cassia’s mind she would do everything she could to seal it as she had tried to over so many months.

“We need another bow,” Cassia said to Calix behind me.

“I’ll get Fenson to retrieve—”

“You’ll be far faster. And a quiver of new arrows, please.”

I couldn’t see them, but I imagined the soft plea she used was accompanied by the widening of her blue doe eyes. Unlike the silver-blue of mine, Cassia’s were a deep sapphire shade that could entrance a person.

The soft crunching of grass signaled he’d obliged.

“I’ll continue on my own,” she said to her mentor, Fenson.

“Your father insisted—”

“One more hour isn’t going to change me now,” she interjected.

After the reluctant dismissal, Fenson left too. Cassia took my arm, leading me into the center of the small courtyard. I gleaned the five targets that had been set out over the far side. Some hung over the stone arches, others were propped on the ground, and people could pass under the walkway behind them, but it remained deserted.

“Did something happen?” Cassia asked as we sat on a bench. Her gloved hands took mine, hope and attentiveness clear in her shining irises.

Five years ago, before we met, Cassia had won the kingdom trials that decided the best candidate to be put forth for the Libertatem. For the prize of immortality and the honor of bestowing safety from the vampires upon the kingdom.

“I—” Once again my words were choked as if my mind were taunting me that this course of action was ludicrous to take. The world had always called to be ventured, and I remained too afraid to answer it. With a squeeze of assurance from Cassia’s hands, I said quietly, “I don’t want this to be the last goodbye.”

Cassia’s smile stretched wide as if she’d been waiting so long for me to come to this decision and had lost all hope that I would. “You want to come with me?” she clarified.

I nodded, and she gave an excitable squeal.

“Oh, Astraea, I’m so relieved! I knew you would come to your senses. This is an opportunity of a lifetime!”

My smile faltered. I was unable to match her thrill since the reality wasn’t an adventure between two friends getting to leave their humble kingdom, the one chance in a hundred years. Cassia would be competing in a set of trials for which there would be only one victor.

“This year will be different.” Cassia spoke to my turmoil. “I can feel it. The vampire attacks have been growing more than ever. Something’s not right. I think he’s slipping.”

“The king?”

Cassia nodded. “The great King of the Gods isn’t so powerful anymore,” she drawled with brazen mockery.

I glanced around, a dark stroke of foreboding coiling my spine as if I would find him watching. “How does he gain such a name?”

“For his conquer of the faelestial war. They say he united the fae and vampires to fight the unfair hierarchy and dominance of the celestials. Haven’t you heard this before?”

I hadn’t, and until Cassia’s fate had become tied to the Central Kingdom, my sheltered existence in the manor had left me clueless and naïve.

“Do you want to know what I think could beat the King of the Gods?” Her deep blue eyes sparkled.

My brow curved in question.

“The Queen of the Kings.”

I smiled at her childish enthusiasm as if it were a fairy tale, but our world was far from that. “Whatever book you’ve been reading, I want to borrow it.”

“I came up with that on my own! Maybe I should write one.” She nudged my side as she stood, retrieving her bow and extending it to me. “It came to me in a dream, actually.”

“After a night of drinking?”

Her mouth curved a wicked grin. “Maybe. Since I’m about to leave this place, I had to give my father a few lasting antics to remember me by.”

She sang the words as though her life that was about to change didn’t hurt her, but I saw the truth. The faint wince around her eyes, and how her brow would lift for just a second to prevent the threatening fall of sorrow.

“What if he makes you one of them—a nightcrawler?” I said, suddenly overcome with the dread that had trickled through me when I’d first heard of the victor’s personal prize alongside the safety that would be granted to their kingdom. “The immortality—”

Cassia shook her head. “His four Golden Guards have been seen plenty in daylight.”

“Four?”

“Three Libertatem winners, and I suppose the first was a test.”

“That’s not reassuring.”

“It’s the only chance I have.”

My mouth opened to speak to her nerves, but she studied me from head to toe with new assessment.

“You look unwell.”

“Not enough to stop me from coming. I’m fine,” I insisted, reaching for an arrow before she could fuss.

I preferred to throw small daggers, but archery was a close second pastime of mine thanks to Cassia. She was masterful with the weapon. She accepted a new bow from Calix when he returned, and I fixed an arrow in place while she leaned in close to ask him for something else.

“We’ll be leaving in three days,” Cassia chirped, coming up beside me and raising her aim. I admired her perfect form and laser focus before she let her shot fly with the release of a breath. It hit dead center of the furthest target. “I thought your overprotective husband was against it.”

I shot her a dead look before letting my own arrow soar. While not as perfect as Cassia’s aim, it hit close to hers. “Hektor is not my husband.”

“Does he know that?”

I rolled my eyes, swiping another arrow. “I’ll deal with him.”

Evading Hektor wasn’t something I’d factored into my reckless decision to leave with Cassia for the Central. I’d thought of it many times, and most plans I’d calculated required the stars to align and grant me the timing to slip out for long enough that I’d be too far along the road for him to track us by the time he realized.

My doubt surfaced all at once. The danger I’d be placing Cassia in inspired more fear than anything that could come for me. If Hektor found me before we reached the Central…

“What do you need?” Cassia’s gloved hand went over mine.

Pulling my gaze up from the arrow, I pointed to the icy grass, lost in thought. I took a deep breath. I couldn’t lose my nerve now. “The exact timing that you’ll be past the city gates. I’ll have to meet you out there.”

“Done. Don’t bring anything that might slow you down. I’ll take care of it.”

I couldn’t believe that in just a few days I could be venturing free, bursting from the cage I’d known, and I was exhilarated above my fear to discover what lay beyond.

“We’re really doing this,” I said.

Cassia beamed brightly. “Yes, you are.”

I’d never spoken much about Hektor, but somehow I didn’t need to. What I treasured about Cassia was her ability to know what a person needed without prying. She was fierce and brave, and I envied her for it often.

“Your mother would be so proud,” I said quietly, unable to stop the slipped thought.

Cassia smiled, sad but grateful. “She should still be alive. Yet that soul-sucking vampire tested the one law of protection we have. She died aged only thirty-one, before I could even walk. I don’t want to have children if that’s the life they could face, losing a mother far too soon—or worse, losing their own years.”

I nodded in understanding, but as always, Cassia seemed to read my expression before I could change the topic.

“You’ll find out where you came from,” she said softly.

It was something I had no leads on, but Cassia had always been hopeful in sparking fresh ideas for where to start looking for my parents—if they were even still alive.

“Perhaps we’ll have more luck in the Central.”

“Or it could take me further from the answer,” I muttered, kicking at the grass.

I didn’t hold much hope that anything could be found in the Central. With all borders locked, I had to have come from Alisus. The price of leaving with Cassia might be to accept that my past would be forever lost. As I thought about it in that moment, I knew my choice wouldn’t change.

Maybe it was time for me to stop hunting for the past, or I would never be prepared for a hopeful future.

“Don’t be so negative. Regardless, I’m so glad you changed your mind to come.”

I smiled, still wary, knowing the chains that held me to Hektor’s manor could be shortened with my attempt to flee. “What will Calix say?”

Cassia waved her hand. “Let me worry about him.”

I simply watched in admiration as she continued to fire arrows with such precision and focus as if she were one with the weapon.

“Do they tell you anything about the Libertatem—what you could face?” I asked to fill the silence.

Cassia blew frosted breaths in her exertion. “No. Only that it will be a long time before we come back. Victor or not.”

The three existing Selected to have won the Libertatem had been sworn in as the king’s Golden Guard. Not only had they won a century of safety for the kingdom, banishing any vampire from the land, but the human victors had been gifted immortality.

While I shuddered at the thought of the sacrifice for such a prize, I couldn’t deny Cassia would dominate with a position in the guard. And she wanted it more than anything.

“When you live forever, don’t forget about me,” I mused. It was intended to be a lighthearted comment, but it weighed the air heavy.

“Maybe I can pledge for both of us.” She nudged me as she passed.

I thought of having years beyond my mortality. Who I was now wouldn’t wish for that. No bird in a cage would want to live that way forever. But as I pictured the possibility of a door through which to fly free, suddenly the world felt too vast to be seen only in human years. Only then might I envy those who had centuries of youth to explore.

Calix returned, along with a servant girl who beamed brightly at Cassia. I accepted a steaming cup of tea, biting back my moan when I removed my gloves to feel the warmth shooting up my arms from my palms.

“How did you get here?” Calix asked, relaxing his stiff posture now he was off duty to lean against the wall.

“It’s not far,” I said.

“Are you going to tell me what’s up with you now?” Cassia shot me a pointed look.

My muscles remained tender while my body couldn’t decide the temperature it wanted to keep me at. I imagined my impromptu venture had ruffled my appearance more, and I subconsciously ran my fingers through the lengths of my hair.

“Just a bit of fever. I don’t think it’s contagious though.”

I was sure it wasn’t, but Cassia knew nothing of my illness, and I wanted to keep it that way. She was strong and brave and incredibly skilled, and I guess a part of me longed to prove myself to be even a fraction of those things.

“I hope not. I won’t be off to a great start if we arrive at the Central unwell,” she mused.

I tried to match her smile, but my stomach hollowed out with every mention of the games. And my looming escape to watch her in them.

“We?” Calix interrupted, looking between us.

“Astraea is coming with us, and you only have this one chance to complain. Use it wisely,” Cassia said, firm but with a playful smirk Calix rolled his eyes at.

“That is not a good idea.”

Cassia huffed. “That’s all you have to say? You’re coming with me—what’s one more mentor?”

“A mentor of what?”

“Delightful company.”

“You’re saying mine isn’t?”

“Exactly.”

I sipped at my tea as I watched their exchange, unsure if the flush of my cheeks was from that or the tension humming electric between them.

“They release the profiles of the Selected tomorrow.” Cassia sighed, taking up a seat on the bench. I joined her. “The kingdoms will be unsettled. Thirty days—only thirty days in the next one hundred years—they open the borders for all to choose if they want to move. Then, when they’re locked again, thirty more days will decide if they put their faith in the right victor to earn their safety from the vampires.”

“It’s not right,” I said. Pitiful words to describe our barbaric reality.

“No, it’s not,” Cassia agreed. Her sights were fixed on the targets, distant as though she were thinking deeply on the matter and it wasn’t nearly the first time it had consumed her thoughts.

“I did not know we were expecting company.” The deep voice of Lord Reihan, Reigning Lord of Alisus and Cassia’s father, traveled over to us.

“Neither did I,” Cassia chirped, always so bright in his company.

My heart yearned to see it. I adored their relationship. It reminded me this was something I’d never had, or at least couldn’t remember having—but that sometimes felt worse to believe.

“It’s good to see you, Astraea.”

When Reihan spoke to me it was like being touched with the warmth of a father. His presence I had come to treasure over the years.

“You know, when my girl leaves, you are welcome here anytime. To stay, should you wish.”

The offer burst in my chest. I set my teacup down on the bench. “Thank you, but I—”

“Astraea is coming with me.”

I whipped my head to Cassia, not surprised she would blurt it out so eagerly, but I hadn’t had the chance to warn her against it. The more people who knew, the higher the chance of Hektor finding out before I was long gone.

Surprise lifted the reigning lord’s dark brows. Then he broke a wide, fatherly smile. “I am glad. My Cass hasn’t stopped whining about your decline for months.” He pulled his daughter into him with one large fur-clad arm. She giggled when he went to tousle her hair, trying to shove him away.

Every time I witnessed their carefree relationship, it flared a new drive to dredge the memories of my own father that were lost to me.

His palm encased her cheek, his mouth still smiling as a mask, but the real emotion spoke through his eyes. He was mournful. They were mere days from being parted and had to prepare for the possibility it could be forever.

“Councilman Tarran awaits you, my lord,” a messenger called across the courtyard.

The reigning lord’s brows drew together in reluctance, but his duty was something he never took lightly. Reihan turned to me, and the moment his arms opened I stepped into them. It was more than just an embrace; it was a thank-you and a farewell. Both squeezed so tightly in my throat I didn’t think I could speak. His warmth I savored, stored in the most precious parts of my mind. It was the closest thing to a father’s love I might ever remember.

“Stay safe, my child.”

When we broke apart I only nodded, not trusting my voice not to betray the brave smile I wore for him.

When Reihan left, Cassia’s arm looped around mine. “It’s so damn freezing I can hardly feel my nose. Let’s get warm.”