Page 9 of Midnight Star

“Who’s Ambrogio?” I ask.

“Ambrogio is the key to all of this.” Zythara tilts her head as much as she can in her ice prison, her expression mocking. “He’s the first vampire.”

“The one whose son turned your queen,” Riven says, studying her as he pieces it all together.

“Yes. That one,” she says, and my mind spins, desperate to learn how this all might affect Zoey.

“What will happen to the humans of the Night Court if you all join?—”

A sharp crack interrupts my words, and the ice around Zythara’s body begins to splinter, the magic of our deal reaching its end.

Our hour is up.

My throat tightens with desperation. Because there’s so much more I need to know.

Why do I have the same powers as the night fae? Am I one of them? Am I a descendant of this Ambrogio, too? Could I have been unknowingly turned by him? Or maybe I was too young when it happened to remember? Is this darkness—this insistent hunger—something I can learn to control, or will I be a slave to it forever?

The questions swirl in my mind, and I’m drowning in them, unable to separate them into coherent thoughts.

Not like it matters, since I’ve run out of time to ask.

“Time to fulfill your end of the bargain,” Riven says, pulling out the vial of relaxation potion.

He kneels next to Zythara, uncaps the vial, and holds it to her lips.

She drinks without resistance.

In seconds, her body slackens against the melting ice prison, her eyelids drooping as the potion takes effect.

The silence somehow feels louder than the brutal interrogation session.

Because it’s time to complete the next part of our deal. The part I’ve been dreading.

Feeding from her. Draining her of enough blood to weaken her without killing her.

My gaze travels to her neck, and shame burns through me. Shame at what I am, and at what I have to do to survive.

But most of all, fear that whenever Riven sees me, he’ll see darkness that haunts me instead of the real me he fell in love with.

“Don’t look,” I say, my voice small, unable to meet his eyes. “Please.”

For a moment, there’s only silence.

Then, quietly, he says, “I won’t.”

I give him a small, thankful smile, and he turns away, giving me privacy.

Ghost follows him, as if the snow leopard knows this is something I have to do away from prying eyes, too.

It’s now or never. So, taking a deep breath, I walktoward Zythara, who’s slumped against the cave wall, thanks to the relaxation potion.

The night fae looks disturbingly innocent in sleep. No one would ever know that she agreed to what’s coming next.

Slowly, I kneel next to her and study the place where her pulse beats beneath her pale skin. It calls to the darkness inside me in a way that makes me want to fearmyself.

I glance back over at Riven.

He’s turned away, just as I requested.

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