Page 58 of Stolen Star

The thought of Sapphire fades away as Aerix’s kisses deepen, his touch growing more deliberate. There’s something different in the way his hands move over metonight—not with his usual hungry possession, but with a careful reverence that makes my breath catch.

“What is it?” I whisper against his lips.

His eyes meet mine, something ancient and knowing in their depths. “I’m memorizing you,” he says softly. “This version of you. The warmth of your skin. The sound of your heartbeat.” His fingers trace down my throat and across my collarbone, his touch cool and gentle. “Because tomorrow, everything changes.”

“Does that bother you?” I ask. “That I’ll be different?”

“Different, yes,” he murmurs. “But still mine. Always mine.”

He undresses me with deliberate care, each movement unhurried, as if we have all the time in the world. And when I stand before him, the dawn light filtering through the window, his eyes darken with appreciation.

“Lie down,” he says, gentle, but still commanding.

I do as he asks, watching as he removes his own clothing, his wings folding and unfurling with fluid grace. The sight of him still takes my breath away—all lean muscle and deadly elegance. It always will.

And now,alwayshas a new meaning.

Because it’s forever. Until the end of time.

I can barely wrap my mind around the concept of immortality, but right now, it doesn’t matter. All that matters is Aerix.Him and me together, right here, right now.

He joins me on the bed, his body hovering over mine without touching, his wings creating a canopy of shadow above us. Then, slowly, he lowers himself, skin against skin, the coolness of him making me gasp.

“Your heart,” he says, pressing his palm against my chest. “It’s racing.”

I reach up to touch his face, trailing my fingers along the sharp angle of his jaw. “Only for you.”

His smile is tinged with something that might be sadness. “This is the last time I’ll ever feel your heartbeat like this,” he says, and then he’s making his way down my body, kissing every inch of me, as if committing it to memory. When he reaches my hip—the place where he carved his name into my skin—he lingers, tracing the raised scar with his tongue, as if memorizing the grooves of it. “This will remain,” he says, looking up at me with possessive satisfaction. “Any scars from when you were human will stay with you through the transformation. It’s why I marked you when I did.”

The realization hits me with sudden clarity. “You always planned to turn me.”

“From the moment I saw you, I knew you were meant for me.” His fingers tighten on my thighs, his eyes pleading, as if he needs me to understand. “The gods designed you for me, Zoey. And tomorrow, I’ll give you the finishing touches, binding us in the most intimate way possible.”

His eyes burn into me now, desire swirling in their inky depths.

“But if you knew,” I say, breathless, “why didn’t you tell me?”

“Would you have been ready to hear it?” He crawls back up my body, his face hovering just above mine. “Would you have believed that you were meant for this darkness? Meant forme?”

I think back to that terrified girl in the bunker, pleading for her life. The girl who fought against Aerix’s control at every turn, who clung desperately to her humanity. Who tried tostabhim in a hopeless attempt to escape.

I’m so, so glad I didn’t escape—that he never wants to let me go. That he’ll keep me with him, safe from all the monsters in this realm who have been trying to kill me since I followed Sapphire into that stream and my life changed forever.

“I don’t know what I would have believed,” I say honestly. “But I’m ready now.”

“And what made you realize you’re ready?” His voice drops lower, his magic swirling around us in cool currents.

He’s watching me with that familiar look—the look of a man who wants nothing more than to be loved.

“It was when I realized I love you,” I tell him, and his wings shudder, and then they’re folding closer aroundus and his mouth is on mine again, the kiss deeper, more urgent. Like he’s afraid this will be the last time I’ll be soft beneath him. And I kiss him back like I’m not afraid at all.

My dark, deadly prince—the one who kills in a flash if anyone ever crosses me—ismine.Forever.

This has always been my destiny.Hehas always been my destiny. He might have known it first, but now I know it with absolute certainty, too.

As we lose ourselves in each other, his hand slides between us, finding the places that make me gasp and arch against him. His fingers move with worshipful precision—mapping me,claimingme.

“I want to remember you like this,” he whispers against my throat. “Warm. Alive. Breakable.Mine.”

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