ZOEY
I head backto the human wing at sunset, feeling the sting where Aerix carved his name into my hip with every step.
The pain is exquisite. It’s a reminder of what happened between us, and I love it so much I could drown in the dizzying high that makes the world around me feel inconsequential.
Because all that matters now ishim.
I enter the suite and find Victoria sitting on the edge of the couch. Sophia stands by the window, her eyes widening as I enter.
“Miss me?” I ask them, since I have to saysomething.
Victoria sneers.
“You’re not his equal, Zoey,” she says without bothering to greet me. “You’re hispet.Just like we are.”
The word should sting, but it doesn’t.
Instead, I just tilt my head, amused by her outburst. Because I’m so far beyond caring what Victoria thinks of me now.
Still, she keeps going.
“The moment he gets bored,” she says, standing up and walking toward me, “you’ll be joining the rest of us in the barns.”
I smile.
Not a nervous smile. Not an apologetic one. I smile like Victoria is pathetic for trying to touch me with her words.
“You don’t know anything about him. Aboutus.”I narrow my eyes at her, daring her to come closer.
“There is no ‘us.’” Victoria’s face flushes darker. “There’s you—his current obsession—and then there’s reality. Wake up, Zoey. He’s using you. Step back and see him for who he really is.”
I arch an eyebrow, biting back a smirk.
“You can hate me all you want, Victoria,” I tell her. “But you only know what he lets you see. I know the parts he hides from everyone else. And he’s never going to want you the way he wants me. He never has, and he never will.”
She tries to grab my arm, but I snatch her wrist mid-air and squeeze, hard enough to make her gasp.
Her eyes go wide.
“Don’t touch me,” I say simply, my grip unwavering. “Ever.”
My other hand drifts to my hip, where my dagger is hidden beneath my dress, one breath away from unsheathing it.
Because Victoria has no concept of the connection between me and Aerix. Of thelovebetween us. She has no idea that he’s let me touch him where no human ever has before.
“You think he loves you, don’t you?” She shakes her head, like she thinks I’m pathetic. “You actually believe he cares.”
“He does care,” I say, and the certainty in my voice seems to unnerve her even more.
“Night fae don’t love.” She laughs as she repeats what Aurora told me in the garden. “They possess. They consume. They destroy. But they certainly don’tlove.Their kind isn’t capable of it.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
My breaths quicken, and if I keep touching her for one more second, I swear I’m going to stab her.
So, I release her, and she stumbles back, rubbing her wrist.
Sophia rushes toward Victoria, checks her wrist to make sure she’s okay, then turns to me.
