Page 20 of Midnight Star

No response.

“Matt?” I call out.

Still nothing.

“He’s in there,” Henry repeats. “And I don’t know about you, but if I wanted to talk to him as badly as you do, I’d just walk in. Who knows when you’ll get anotherchance?”

There’s something in his tone that I don’t like. A warning.

“Did something happen to him?” I ask.

“Why don’t you go in and find out for yourself?”

Curious—and worried that something’s really, seriously wrong—I push the door open and step inside.

The room’s small, but tastefully designed in fine silks and plush furniture, like all the rooms given to the humans.

Matt’s lying on the queen-sized bed, his face turned away, sleeping.

Relief fills my lungs at the fact that he’shere.I’ll finally have a chance to actually talk to him, without anyone else around.

As I close the door and slowly make my way toward him, he stirs, groaning softly.

He turns his head, and my heart clenches. Because his face is pale, his eyes sunken and shadowed, his blond hair flat and dull. He looks like he hasn’t eaten or slept in days.

Confusion flickers across his features before recognition dawns.

“Zoey?” He blinks at me slowly. “What are you doing here?”

I walk over to the bed and perch on the side of it, taking a sharp breath inward at how he looks even worseup close than from far away. “What happened to you?” I ask. “You look?—”

“I’m fine,” he cuts me off, smiling weakly. “Just tired.”

“Tired?” I shake my head. “You’re barely hanging on. This place—it’s killing you.”

“She’s not killing me.” He chuckles softly, the sound more like a rasp.

“She?” My stomach twists. “You mean the queen?”

“She’s…” He trails off, his eyes glazing over. “She’s everything. You wouldn’t understand.”

Given what I already know, it’s not difficult to piece together what’s happening here.

“She’s drinking from you too often, and too much,” I say it as a fact, daring him to contradict me. “She’s going to kill you.”

“No,” he insists, the one word stronger than any he’s said so far. “She loves me. I just need rest. I’ll be fine.”

“You’re not fine.” I force myself to take a steadying breath, not wanting to anger him to the point where he shuts down. I’ve seen him shut down on Sapphire far too many times to know it’s in the realm of extreme possibility. “You need to eat something. Drink something. Anything to keep your strength up.”

He shakes his head, his smile slipping. “You don’t understand. She needs me.”

I bite back a curse, frustration bubbling in my chest.

“And what about whatyouneed?” I ask. “Have you seen yourself today? Because if you don’t take care of yourself, you’re not going to survive this.”

“I’ll be fine,” he says, closing his eyes again. “I just need to rest.”

A lump of tears forms in my throat, but I swallow them down.

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