Page 1 of Nocte

CHAPTER1

Niamh

Imustbe shunned for my own benefit.

I’ve been told as much my entire life. That I am ugly. Ungainly. Unworthy. An abomination of my race. A fae’s only purpose is to embody perfection, neatness, and order above all else. We are boundless. Eternal.

Any deviation from the path is a harbinger of death and destruction.

They tell me, and tell me, and tell me so…

Grateful for their shelter and protection, I have found it within myself to internalize those teachings.

I’ve made peace with my fate.

What I cannot stomach, however, are the lies. To be fair, I’ve only found one in my time exploring the alcoves. Just one. A tiny lie that disrupts order and contradicts the rules they enforce. A lie that entices me to entertain a dangerous line of thinking—what else might be possible?

There is a book that claims thevamryrenever stray beyond their compound. How could they? Linked in their twisted mental landscape, they cannot bear to be separated from one another for even a second.

Even a second.

Yetheis always alone. With pale skin and cold eyes, he looks like them, moves like them. But his thoughts… They show across his face as if written there in brilliant black ink. Murderous intentions.

Violent fantasies.

He isallanger—not like the rest. They stick to their covens and enclaves, traveling in pairs of two or more, never alone. Never silent. It’s how they function, you see. The vamryre.They are like bees in a hive, or that is how the old scholars referred to them as.

Together they hum with a buzz of emotions, the thoughts of many contained in one. According to another elder, if you cut one of the creatures they would all feel the pain. Never do they frown or pout or show any outward distress.

He is the exception.

Here, where no one else can see, he glowers at the world. The first time I saw his face still sticks in my mind. Beautiful beyond compare, yet frozen like the marble statues on the outskirts of the tower compound, battered and unfazed by time.

Initially, I thought he was simply curious. A creature compelled by his masters to explore beyond his boundaries. Upon finding this place, he probably wondered why a lone fae was allowed to stay here. Live here. Shelter in hiding and in secret.

Such a fool he was to wonder, or so I thought.

It wasn’t until the third day that I realized the truth, and I felt a creeping, tingling sensation all over my body. The unease festered and festered until I came back here yet again and found him lingering on the outskirts of the courtyard.

The vamryre isn’t here out of curiosity.

He is hunting. While the Citadel’s law prohibits them from taking prey within its walls, they do so anyway. Vamryers, are incapable of adhering to boundaries fully, after all. It is in their nature to test all rules, other than those their masters give them.

He sees in me something to feast upon.

Yet it is hard for me not to feel pity for this beautiful, poor vamryre. If he seeks to prey on me, he must be weaker than the rest. Desperate.

Surely, he is an abomination too.

In any case, I am as curious about him as he is about me. How do the vamryre deal with one who makes a mockery of their laws? I am not sure. They are beholden to their own twisted set of values, far different from those that guide the fae.

The fae punish those who stray from the fold. Individuality is shunned. One might think vamryres do the same…

But he is here. My mind spins as I watch him stand in the same spot he always has—near the rear wall where the crumbling stone has left a divot in the once-impenetrable structure. He looks strong enough to have caused the damage, though I know a storm did years ago.

Still…

There’s a softness to his beauty that I don’t expect to find as I creep closer to watch him. Viewed from beyond my nose, he looks so small. A spot of glaring white on a gray landscape. Not like sunlight. Something harsher and destructive, like fire. Lightning. He burns my eyes, searing the longer I stare. A painful and beautiful spot.

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