Come to Me by Lisa Cach

invisible walls of energy.
    There was only one place she could be: the palace of Nyx, the Queen of the Night.
    It was not a healthy place to unexpectedly find oneself, when one had been breaking rules right, left, and every which way inbetween.
    In the beginning there had been Chaos, and out of Chaos had come Nyx. Darkness was her consort; Death and Sleep were her children. Nyx was the source of all existence in the Night World.
    Samira, like Theron, was one of the Oneiroi: one of the One Thousand Dreams, the demons born of Nyx's son, Sleep. There was a complex hierarchy among the Oneiroi, and different branches of their demon family had different talents, but they were all grandchildren of Nyx.
    Which was not to say that Samira could expect grandmotherly feelings from Nyx. Nyx ruled her family as any strong queen would rule her subjects: with an iron fist.
    Capturing Nyx's attention was rarely a good thing. Not even the great gods of the past, like Zeus, had ever dared to cross her. Born of Chaos, Nyx was a force as elemental and powerful as the universe itself.
    And she lacked a sense of humor.
    Holy stars of the night
. Samira had been safer in Nicolae's conjuring circle.
    "Are you feeling better?" a voice asked. The sound of it was as slow as the hum of the universe, vibrating through Samira's body.
    Samira turned around, and she saw the flash of a disembodied, star-white smile. Pinpoints of starlight swirled and gathered to form the whites of Nyx's eyes, then scattered freckles of twinkling light coalesced on the surface of her black body, making it visible. She was like a sculpture carved from deep space. Tall and slender, fine-featured, and with a river of black hair falling down her back, Nyx was simultaneously beautiful and eerie, inhuman and perfect, frightening in her elementality and yet soothing for the same basic, fabric-of-the-universe reason.
    "I am feeling… whole, Your Majesty," Samira said. "Thank you."
    "A moment more and you would have felt nothing at all," Nyx said, and as she gestured with her hand, a trail of stars trailed from her fingertips.
    "Yes, Your Majesty."
    There was silence as Nyx gazed at her. Samira shifted uneasily and looked down at the moon. Should she compliment Nyx on her choice of housing? The thought brought a nervous giggle to Samira's throat.
    "Something humorous, Samira?"
    Samira swallowed and looked up at her queen. "No, Your Majesty. My apologies."
    "I should not think amusement to be the mood of a succubus so recently captured by a wizard, and nearly destroyed."
    "No, Your Majesty. It is relief I feel, and a deep gratitude. May I ask how you knew what was happening to me?"
    Nyx made a careless gesture with her hand, sending more stars flickering out into the room. "I feel it when one of my descendants is destroyed. Sometimes they have brought it on themselves, and I let events continue as they will. Other times, the situation is not so clear, and I do what I must. So it was with you, and your wizard."
    Samira was less than reassured. If Nyx had known more, she would have left Samira to be destroyed. "I don't think Nicolae is a true wizard. He doesn't fully understand what he is doing."
    Nyx sat down on an invisible chair, her starred legs crossing as she sat back and made herself comfortable.
    "Interesting. And concerning, as well. As the mortals like to say, a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. I can't have him capturing my grandchildren whenever he pleases."
    "He has a book," Samira said. "It was that which let him do it."
    "Hmm." Nyx tapped a nail on her lower lip. "I never like to hear that information is being gathered about the Night World. We may know everything about
them
, but they should know nothing of us. It is always better to have them unaware of our existence.
    "What do you think?" she asked. "Should I send a demon to destroy this book, and send Forgetfulness to erase the memories of it—and of you—from this wizard's mind?"
    Samira wet her lips,