Page 5 of The Stars are Dying

My mouth turned paper-dry with my galloping heart, all too aware of our proximity and the way he towered over me. I tried to pull my arm, but he held me still. I locked those golden eyes with challenge, unsure of where my bravery had come from but seizing it nonetheless.

“Let me go, or I’ll scream and flood the room with guards.”

His mouth grew in a slow curl, dimpling one cheek. When his other hand reached up, I jerked again until my muscles locked still. The tie of the sheer material covering the lower half of my face came undone, drifting to the floor as one less barrier between us.

“I don’t think you’ll do that.”

My lips parted, but no words came. How could he know? My gaze traveled along his defined cheekbones until…

I gasped, yanking away with enough of an electric shock that he released me, and I stumbled a few steps back. “You’re…” I couldn’t speak it, blinking again as though I would be wrong, but it didn’t change.

The delicate points of his ears.

“Does that frighten you?”

The only beings I’d known to have such an attribute were the vampires. This manor had become my shield from the viciousness ofhis kind. Hektor didn’t allow them within his establishment, and I never knew how he kept them out when they were creatures that took what they wanted without morals.

“Are you going to hurt me?”

“You think I want your soul or your blood. I’ll admit, one is highly tempting to hold, the other to taste. But what if I told you I’m not what you think I am?”

“I would ask what it is about me that makes you take me for a fool.”

“Your lack of perception.”

“Excuse me?”

He stalked toward me, slipping one hand into his pocket and drawing my attention to his attire. He wore an impeccably tailored lapel jacket, all black with fine gold embroidery to complement his eyes. Pressed pants tucked into expensive boots. Everything about him was dipped in shadow, giving the illusion they movedfor him. As I trailed my eyes back up, gold markings on his neck caught my attention through his open top, inspiring an urge to get closer and discover what it was.

I hadn’t realized I’d been trying to keep some distance between us until I met a stone pillar.

“I can feel your soul. And I can show it to you if you’d like.”

I didn’t get the chance to respond as he reached for me. I gave a shallow cry when his palm pressed between my shoulder blades, drawing me tightly to him, but I was helpless to move when my back curved at the tug of something he pulled from my chest. The world became bright and wondrous as I stared into a pulsing sphere of silver and twinkling stars. It whispered, though not with words; it radiated with an inviting warmth my fingers reached for, a prickling starting in the tips to beat through every inch of me.

“Consuming it, that is not my existence.”

As though his hand had surged into the depths of me, I gasped when that sphere of otherworldly energy pummeled back, winking out the hypnotic light. I took a second to blink, breathing hard until the lingering pressure reminded me he had yet to release me. I couldn’t describe how those few seconds felt. What he’d done to me could have been a masterful trick of allurement, and I’d become ensnared by it.

“You just—” I could hardly breathe, hardly think.

His hand remained on my chest, lifting only to trace the points of my markings. I remained flush in his hold like prey finding twisted beauty in its capture. But I didn’t feel the hard pressure of him as I expected.

“You didn’t take any of it?” I dared to ask. I didn’t feel any different. No—that was a lie, though the fluttering in my stomach and my racing pulse I considered favorable over having years of my life stolen.

“No.”

“Did you want to?”

When those amber eyes flicked to me, they almost rivaled the rush of adrenaline from his trick. “I have no use for your soul outside your body, Starlight. A few fractions further and you would be dead, not knowing how to guard it.”

I couldn’t believe my own inquisition under the circumstances. “Humans can protect themselves?”

His palm slipped across my cheek, and instead of balking like I should, the tenderness made me weightless. His touch gave no warmth, but it was not cold either. “I saidyou.”

This wasn’t right. His closeness, the intensity with which he watched me, as though I would blink and see someone other than the monster I’d been told I should perceive him as.

“Should I be afraid?”

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