Page 39

One by one, the layers fall.

His shirt. My dress.

His hands go to remove my chemise.

“Wait,” I breathe, the word escaping before I realize I’ve said it.

He freezes, and the temperature drops several degrees.

But he says nothing. He’s just watching me, waiting, like one wrong word will make him snap.

“Aerix,” I say softly, placing my palm against his chest. “I’ve been thinking.”

His eyes narrow, the only indication that he’s heard me.

“About everything you’ve done for me,” I continue, my voice steadier now. “About how you saved my life. Over and over again.”

He inhales slowly, enough to let me know he’s listening.

“Continue.” His voice is carefully controlled, but there’s an undertone of curiosity behind it.

“It started at the waterfall.” I straighten and hold his hypnotizing midnight gaze, more confident now, empowered for what’s coming next. “If you hadn’t pulled me out, I would have drowned.”

His wings flex once, then settle, as if my words are relaxing him.

“You would have,” he agrees.

“And then there were those water zombies. If you’d left me there, I would have been slaughtered,” I say, and the corner of his mouth twitches.

“Your odds,” he says, “were nonexistent.”

He says it like a fact. Not cruel—just true.

“The winter woods,” I continue, my fingers tracing the contours of his chest. His skin is cold beneath my touch, but heat rises in me like a tide pulling me under. “You couldn’t just leave me in the middle of nowhere. I would have frozen, or been hunted down, or something worse.”

He still hasn’t moved, but his eyes are fixed on me with a hunger that has nothing to do with blood. It’s something sharper—a predatory satisfaction that should terrify me, but instead sends a thrill through me.

“And bringing me to the Night Court,” I keep going. “You didn’t have to do that, either. But you did. You gave me safety, even if it wasn’t gentle.”

“I did,” he murmurs, and his voice drops—low, rich, and laced with something that scrapes deliciously down my spine.

“And then, of course, there was the king.” I step closer, so our bodies are flush against each other. “You refused to let him claim me. You took me before he could.”

His hand comes up to cup my face, his thumb tracing my lower lip. “I’d fight him for you a thousand times if I had to,” he says. “And I wouldn’t lose. Not even once.”

My breath catches, wanting to lean in and give everything to him right there, but I keep going.

“Then there was Princess Cierra,” I say, thinking of the way he threatened his own sister when she came after me. “You stopped her from snapping my neck like it was nothing.”

His wings unfurl slightly, creating a partial cocoon around us.

“You’ve survived this realm because of me,” he agrees. “Your so-called friends—Sapphire and Riven—kept you locked in a frozen tower. A place that would have killed you.”

His fingers tangle in my hair, slowly and gently, like he’s winding it around his hand so I can’t escape.

“They made you walk across an icy bridge,” he continues, his jaw tensing. “One wrong step, and you would have fallen to your death.”

Technically,Rivenis the one who made Sapphire and me walk across that bridge, but now isn’t the time for technicalities. Especially since even though I acted confident while walking across that bridge, I was terrified. Anyone who has a remote desire to stay alive would have been terrified.