Page 24 of Frozen Star (Star Touched: Fae Bound #7)

The pain is searing, sharp, and violent. But it’s the betrayal that shocks me the most.

Zoey bit me. Zoey is feeding from me.

This is my best friend. The girl I pulled from freezing water when we were children, the one who stood beside me through everything. And now she’s trying to drain me like I’m nothing more than prey. Like I mean nothing to her.

Waves of dizziness crash over me with each pull of her fangs. The room blurs at the edges, my knees weakening as she takes more and more, as if she’ll never get enough.

I should fight back. I should blast her away with scalding water or freeze her with ice. Instead, I lean into her embrace as I try and fail to process everything that’s happened since Riven and I burst through that door.

I’ve fought through so much to get here, and now Zoey’s changed so much that she hates me? It can’t be real. It just can’t.

“Sapphire!” Riven’s voice cuts through the fog in my mind, his panic surging through the bond. In the distance, I hear ice crash against ice, metal clang against metal, and wind swirling in violent currents as he and Aerix face off against each other. “Fight back!”

Another clang of metal. I open my eyes to see Riven trying to get to me, but being held back by Aerix every time.

Before I can close them again, a memory surfaces. Matt when he spoke to me from the Underworld.

When I was alive, I couldn’t see it. But now I see everything so clearly. What the queen did to me... the way she twisted my mind until I couldn’t think about anything but her.

Realization hits me like lightning. Aerix’s hold on Zoey might be unbreakable while he’s alive, but if he dies...

Maybe there’s still hope.

Strength surges back into my limbs. Water erupts from my skin in a violent wave, throwing Zoey backwards. She crashes into the wall with a surprised gasp, and blood—my blood—stains her lips.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper, my voice hoarse as I press my palm to the wound on my neck, the skin there stitching together as it starts to heal. “But I’m going to save you.”

Even if it means hurting you.

My magic flows stronger now, purpose replacing hesitation. Ice bands wrap around Zoey, pinning her arms and legs to the wall before she can recover.

She screams, thrashing against the restraints, but the more she struggles, the tighter my magic binds her.

“Let me go,” she growls, twisting again.

I increase the pressure, and her breaths come faster, panic crossing her face as she stops thrashing.

Her gaze snaps back to mine, and beneath the vampire hunger and blind devotion to Aerix, something human and hurt is staring back at me.

A flicker of the girl who promised me marshmallow nachos and endless loyalty.

“You don’t get it.” Her voice breaks on the words. “I love him, and he loves me. The two of us…” She swallows, looking down at her feet, as if she’s afraid. When she looks back up, her eyes are hard, the vampire in her replacing whatever remains of my best friend. “There’s so much you don’t know.”

I step closer, keeping my magic steady, holding the ice around her limbs. “Zoey, listen to me.” My voice is as firm as I can manage, despite my trembling hands. “Whatever Aerix made you believe is a lie. Everything will become clear after Riven deals with him. I swear it.”

Ice and metal continue clashing behind me, but I don’t take my eyes off Zoey. Not for a second.

“Aerix will win.” Her gaze drifts past me to the fight, a small, knowing smile curving her bloodstained lips. “I’ve watched him snap necks and tear out hearts. He’ll kill Riven just like he killed all the others—quick and merciless.”

The detached way she says it makes my stomach turn.

“Aerix isn’t going to win.” I move around her, positioning myself to watch the fight just as Riven blasts Aerix with a surge of water that sends him crashing to the other side of the room.

The Night Prince recovers in time to block Riven’s next blow, but when Aerix has an in to go on the offensive again, he misses it.

Tracking their movements, I search for a way to use the Star Disc to help while keeping Zoey restrained at the same time. But it’s too risky. Aerix and Riven are moving too fast. If I throw the Disc and it accidentally hits Riven instead of Aerix…

The heart-crushing pain would take me out right along with him.

“He’s holding back, you know,” Zoey says, bringing my attention back to her. “There’s so much you don’t understand about him. About us.”

“Then enlighten me,” I challenge, tightening the ice bonds when she shifts her weight. “What exactly am I missing here, Zoey? What could possibly justify kidnapping you, keeping you as a pet, turning you into a vampire against your will?—”

“He didn’t turn me against my will,” she snaps. “I asked him to turn me, and he gave me exactly what I wanted—because he loves me and wants to be together forever.”

I shake my head in disbelief. “That’s the manipulation talking. The real Zoey would never?—”

“You have no idea who I am anymore.” She laughs, her gaze drifting to the fight where Riven and Aerix are still clashing, the air crackling with magic.

“Is that really what you think? That you’re not the same person anymore?” I ask her, but it just makes her laugh again.

“Say it,” she challenges me. “Say that you still know who I am.”

I open my mouth, but the words don’t come. They can’t.

Because they’d be a lie.

“Thought so.” She gives me a cryptic smile that freezes me to the core.

I don’t reply. What’s the point? I know it as well as she does—this Zoey isn’t my Zoey. Aerix’s manipulations have clawed their way into her heart, just like how his venom has poisoned her veins.

But it’s going to be okay. Zoey’s in there somewhere. When this is over and Aerix is dead, her mind will clear, just like Matt’s did. I’ll have my best friend back.

As it is now, I reinforce the bonds and keep her held down, so she won’t do something stupid like try to interfere in the fight again. All I can do is keep her controlled and wait this out.

Riven will kill Aerix.

And then, finally, we can go home—wherever our home turns out to be.