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ZOEY

I head back to the human wing at sunset, feeling the sting where Aerix carved his name into my hip with every step.

The pain is exquisite. It’s a reminder of what happened between us, and I love it so much I could drown in the dizzying high that makes the world around me feel inconsequential.

Because all that matters now is him.

I enter the suite and find Victoria sitting on the edge of the couch. Sophia stands by the window, her eyes widening as I enter.

“Miss me?” I ask them, since I have to say something.

Victoria sneers.

“You’re not his equal, ,” she says without bothering to greet me. “You’re his pet. Just like we are.”

The word should sting, but it doesn’t.

Instead, I just tilt my head, amused by her outburst. Because I’m so far beyond caring what Victoria thinks of me now.

Still, she keeps going.

“The moment he gets bored,” she says, standing up and walking toward me, “you’ll be joining the rest of us in the barns.”

I smile.

Not a nervous smile. Not an apologetic one. I smile like Victoria is pathetic for trying to touch me with her words.

“You don’t know anything about him. About us.” I narrow my eyes at her, daring her to come closer.

“There is no ‘us.’” Victoria’s face flushes darker. “There’s you—his current obsession—and then there’s reality. Wake up, . He’s using you. Step back and see him for who he really is.”

I arch an eyebrow, biting back a smirk.

“You can hate me all you want, Victoria,” I tell her. “But you only know what he lets you see. I know the parts he hides from everyone else. And he’s never going to want you the way he wants me. He never has, and he never will.”

She tries to grab my arm, but I snatch her wrist mid-air and squeeze, hard enough to make her gasp.

Her eyes go wide.

“Don’t touch me,” I say simply, my grip unwavering. “Ever.”

My other hand drifts to my hip, where my dagger is hidden beneath my dress, one breath away from unsheathing it.

Because Victoria has no concept of the connection between me and Aerix. Of the love between us. She has no idea that he’s let me touch him where no human ever has before.

“You think he loves you, don’t you?” She shakes her head, like she thinks I’m pathetic. “You actually believe he cares.”

“He does care,” I say, and the certainty in my voice seems to unnerve her even more.

“Night fae don’t love.” She laughs as she repeats what Aurora told me in the garden. “They possess. They consume. They destroy. But they certainly don’t love. Their kind isn’t capable of it.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

My breaths quicken, and if I keep touching her for one more second, I swear I’m going to stab her.

So, I release her, and she stumbles back, rubbing her wrist.

Sophia rushes toward Victoria, checks her wrist to make sure she’s okay, then turns to me.

“We don’t want to hurt you, ,” she finally says, quiet and desperate. “We just don’t want to be sent to the barns.”

“I wouldn’t let that happen to either of you,” I say, although it’s mostly directed at Sophia—not Victoria.

Victoria’s face contorts with renewed fury.

“You wouldn’t let it happen?” she hisses. “Do you hear yourself? Do you think you control him now? That you can make decisions about our fates?”

I blink, taken aback. “That’s not what I meant.”

“Then what did you mean?” she demands.

“I meant that I can talk to him,” I say, impressing myself with how calm I sound. “I can make sure you’re both protected.”

Victoria shoots me a glare that could burn me to ashes if she had any magic.

“We don’t want your protection,” she says, stepping in front of Sophia, as if trying to keep the younger girl safe. “We don’t want your pity, your favors, or whatever you think you can bestow upon us from your exalted position as the prince’s favorite plaything.”

I meet her glare straight on, amused that she thinks she can actually intimidate me.

“In case you missed it, Jake and Matt were killed because Aerix didn’t like how they were touching me,” I say, since even though Aerix didn’t kill them, no one here knows it. And in the Night Court, perception is everything. “If that doesn’t show you how much he cares about me, then I don’t know what will.”

Victoria balls her hands into fists so tight that I’m surprised she isn’t drawing blood.

“And what happens when he grows tired of you?” she asks, her voice suddenly quiet.

The question stings, but I refuse to show it.

Because Aerix loves me. He carved his name into my skin. He returned my dagger. He whispered promises against my lips that I believe with every fiber of my being.

And he’s fae. Which means he can’t lie—not about any of it.

“That won’t happen,” I say firmly.

Victoria’s smile is cold and knowing.

“We’ll see,” she says, and she turns to leave, pausing at the door to her bedroom. “Just remember that no matter how special you think you are—no matter what promises he made—you’re still human. And in this court, that’s all that ever matters.”

With those final words, she disappears into her room, the door closing firmly behind her.

Sophia lingers, her chin quivering.

“She’s just scared,” she says after a moment. “We all are.”

“I know,” I reply softly. “But she doesn’t have to be. Not of me.”

“It’s not you she’s afraid of,” Sophia says, although her eyes say otherwise. “It’s what your relationship with Aerix means for the rest of us. The uncertainty. The possibility that he’ll send us to the barns if he decides he never wants us again, because all he wants is you.”

I nod, taking in her words, understanding where they’re coming from.

“I meant what I said,” I assure her. “And I’ll protect you both. I promise.”

After all, Aerix can’t feed only on me without eventually killing me, like the queen almost did to Matt. He needs Sophia and Victoria. And I don’t particularly want him taking other pets. Because at least with Sophia and Victoria, I know what I’m dealing with. I know how to keep them in line. I know how to keep them controlled.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” she says sadly, and then she makes her way out of the suite, leaving me alone in the common area.

I sink onto the couch and run my fingers over the place on my dress where Aerix’s name is engraved underneath it, on my skin.

Victoria’s wrong.

Because I love Aerix. And he loves me.

The two of us belong to each other.

And nothing in this world will ever take me away from him.