Page 39 of Midnight Star

Aerix’s expression softens as he kneels in front of me and reaches slowly for my neck. His fingertips, coolagainst my overheated skin, send fire surging through my veins, each touch igniting a trail of sparks that threaten to consume me on the spot.

I suppress a shiver, but from the way his lips curl into a subtle smirk, I know he notices.

“Hold still,” he tells me. “I’m checking for injuries.”

“You don’t need to,” I say, although I’m barely able to get the words out. “I’m fine.”

But he doesn’t stop. His fingers brush my jaw, then linger at the base of my throat, just where my pulse pounds the hardest. It’s like he’s daring me to call him out—daring me to break this electrified silence.

I don’t.

“She went easy on you,” he finally declares, his hand retreating, leaving a void in its place. “Nothing’s broken.”

I exhale sharply, relieved the moment is over, yet unnerved by how much I’d wanted it to last.

“I assumed as much.” My voice is hoarse, but at least I’m speaking. “Given that if she broke my neck, I’d be dead.”

The final word echoes around the room—a reminder of what Aerix did to Jake.

The connection between us vanishes, and I flinch away from him, scrambling to put space between us. “You killed Jake,” I say, praying he’ll deny it.

“He threatened you,” he says simply, as if that’s supposed to explain everything. “He hurt you.”

“That doesn’t mean he deserved to die!” I snap, standing as the image of Jake’s lifeless, mutilated body flashes through my mind again. “I could have handled him myself.”

Aerix stands as well. “With your rake?” He chuckles, low and dark, as if he saw it all play out himself. “The question is… if Aurora hadn’t intervened, would you have continued to defend yourself with it? Would you have done what you needed to do to survive in this court?”

“Jakeis hardly the one threatening my survival,” I shoot back.

“Was,”Aerix corrects me. “Past tense. Jake’s dead.”

The unnecessary reminder hits me like a punch to the gut.

“Which he shouldn’t be, since he wasn’t a threat to me in the first place,” I say. “He was confused, upset, and hurting. We were having normalhumanproblems. But clearly, you don’t understand how those work.”

“And clearly you don’t understand how the Night Court works,” he replies, closing the space between us so suddenly that I’m backed against the wall. “You’re in our territory now. You’remyresponsibility. You will follow our rules, and you will let us to handle situations theway we see fit. Especially when we’re doing everything we can to protect you and keep you safe.”

Zoey

Aerix’swords should terrify me—and they do.

But as he speaks, the air in the room shifts, becoming heavier, pressing down on me like an invisible weight. It’s harder to draw a full breath, and I realize with a jolt that it’s his magic. He’s doing this on purpose—turning the air around me into a weapon, a reminder of just how powerless I am here.

“You don’t own me,” I say, my voice trembling despite my best efforts to sound strong.

He brushes a stray strand of hair from my face, and a chill radiates from his fingertips, like frost creeping across glass.

Ice magic.

“Don’t I?” he murmurs, and the weight of his gaze is unbearable, heavy with truths I don’t want to face.Because in the Night Court, Aerix sort of does own me. And we both know it.

He tilts his head, a slow, predatory motion that makes my heart race. “That’s what I thought,” he says, and the frost retreats, like it was never there at all. “You may not like it, but this is the reality you’re in now. You’re mine to protect. Mine to control. Mine to keep.”

My heart stops, his words cutting deeper than I want to admit. “So, you think you’re protecting me by treating me like a possession?” I finally say. “By making decisions I never agreed to? By keeping all those secrets?”

He stiffens, his gaze sharpening. “What secrets?”

“Kallista,” I say, the name slicing through the air between us. “When we first met—before I fell asleep in the bunker—you said I should be grateful that I remind you of her. I’m going to take a wild guess that you were talking about Kallista. So, who is she? And why does Cierra think I’m her replacement?”

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