Page 2 of Frozen Star (Star Touched: Fae Bound #7)
Before I can ask any more questions, Aerix reaches for the nightstand and picks up something wrapped in black velvet.
Slowly and deliberately, he opens it, revealing a delicate silver necklace inside.
A small heart-shaped pendant hangs from the chain, catching the candlelight with a soft, mesmerizing gleam.
“Jewelry?” I arch a brow, forcing a teasing smile despite the persistent ache of hunger clawing at my throat. “It’s beautiful… but how does it help the fact that I’m starving?”
He chuckles again, softer this time, the sound rippling down my spine as he leans in to clasp the chain around my neck. The pendant settles perfectly above my heart, warm against my skin, comforting in a way I can’t explain.
“It’s not just jewelry,” he murmurs, his breath cool and intoxicating across my ear. “My blood is inside it. With this, even when we’re apart, part of me will always remain close to you.”
“You put your blood in this?” Emotion thickens my voice as my fingertips brush the pendant, a subtle pulse echoing through it.
“Yes.” He cups my face, tipping my chin up to meet his gaze. “Because my heart is yours, Zoey. And I never want you to forget that.”
Exhaling shakily, I press the pendant against my chest. “I won’t,” I tell him, meaning it with every fiber of my being.
His thumb brushes across my lips, his eyes burning with a mixture of devotion and anguish. “I’ll return tomorrow night,” he says. “Until then, no jumping off any tower roofs, understood?”
“No promises,” I tease, smiling slightly. “Although, if you stayed here beside me, you’d have a foolproof guarantee that I wouldn’t leave this bed.”
His expression hardens, seriousness replacing the playfulness as he reaches out to tuck a stray lock of hair behind my ear.
“Zoey,” he warns, sharper now, more urgent.
“You know the rules. You’re safe here, and we’ll see each other once a day, when you feed.
I know it’s not enough, and I don’t want to leave you here, but I have to.
It’s how you’ll prove your strength and worthiness to the court so they’ll accept you.
And they will accept you. We’ve worked too hard to get to this point to give them a reason to fight what we’ve become. ”
His gaze pierces mine, tension etched into every line of his face.
His breaths slow to careful, controlled measures, his wings flare slightly, and his body coils tighter, as though bracing for an impact he’s terrified is coming.
He’s standing on the brink, waiting desperately, afraid I won’t say the words he needs to hear.
“I love you,” I tell him, leaning into his hand against my cheek. “I might have physically changed, but that never will. I will always love you.”
His shoulders ease, the tight line of his jaw softens, and his lips find mine in a kiss that tastes more like salvation than desire.
“I love you, too. And if you’re not waiting for me here each day when I come for you…” His voice fractures, and his wings twitch, but still, he continues, “It will break me entirely.”
The weight of his words settles into my bones, sharp and aching, and I tighten my fingers around the pendant, feeling the steady pulse of his blood beneath my fingertips.
“I’ll pass their test,” I promise. “There’s only one way I’m leaving this tower, and that’s in one month, with you.”
He nods once, his eyes burning into mine for one last, intense moment before he rises from the bed. Each step he takes toward the door is painstakingly slow, every movement an obvious battle against his instinct to stay.
At the threshold, he pauses, touching the wall next to the door. His fingers trace the stone, leaving delicate frost patterns in their wake—not because he doubts me, I realize, but because walking away from me is harder than he expected.
“Aerix?” I whisper, uncertain what to say, but wanting to ease his pain.
He inhales sharply, and when he speaks, his voice is low, stripped of its usual control.
“I didn’t know it would be this hard,” he admits, still facing away. “Leaving you. Even for one night.” His wings draw closer to his body, as if he’s physically trying to contain himself. “I’ve existed for centuries, and I’ve never felt anything like this.”
The vulnerability in his voice makes my chest ache. Because this is Aerix—the proud, powerful, prince of the Night Court—reduced to a barely controlled version of himself from the thought of leaving me alone.
“Have you ever done this before?” Anxiety rises in my chest, but I force myself to continue asking the question I wasn’t sure I wanted answered until now. “Turned someone?”
“No.” He slowly faces me again, his eyes fierce and exposed, shadows clinging to his features. “You’re the first, and you’ll be the only. Because turning you was never about creating another vampire. It was about binding us together forever.”
His words steal my breath away. Because while he says it like a vow, it feels like a plea. Like part of him still can’t believe I won’t run, or worse, that I’ll resent him for turning me.
“I’ll be right here when you return,” I tell him again, steadying my voice through the hunger burning in my throat. “I promise.”
He nods, and finally—painfully—forces himself to step through the doorway. But just before the door closes, he turns his head slightly, his profile sharp against the dim light of the hallway.
“Don’t make me live without you, Zoey,” he says quietly, and then he’s gone, the door clicking shut, the lock turning with a sound that echoes in the sudden emptiness of the room.
Panic swells in my chest, the silence crushing in his absence. The air grows heavy and suffocating, and wind whispers through the room, extinguishing a handful of candles in its wake.
But as I lie back on the silk sheets, I hold the pendant close to my heart, drawing comfort from its warmth.
Tomorrow at midnight, Aerix will return with Laura. I’ll be able to ease the fire burning in my throat, which I’m close to positive is going to spread further through my body the longer I go without drinking.
Until then, I have this piece of him to hold onto. A tether in the darkness, a lifeline through the hunger, and a promise I’ll hold with every piece of my soul.