Page 31 of Frozen Star (Star Touched: Fae Bound #7)

I exchange a quick look with Riven, and we rush to the stairs, chasing after Aerix and Zoey as dread tightens around my chest.

The staircase winds upward, narrow and steep, the stone slick beneath my feet. Sunlight spills through the open door, and the moment we burst outside, icy wind hits my face, sharp and biting, stealing my breath away.

Aerix has settled Zoey onto the rooftop’s stone floor, crouched beside her as he cups her face with one hand, brushing back strands of her dark hair while icy wind swirls around him.

“Zoey. Wake up.” His voice is low and urgent, shaking with intensity, even though Zoey’s nearly healed from the wound I inflicted on her. “Come back to me. Please. You have to come back.”

I freeze, stunned. Because Aerix’s voice is thick with fear and need, with a love so consuming it borders on madness.

“Please, Zoey,” he murmurs, pressing a trembling kiss to her forehead. “I can’t—I won’t—exist without you.”

Riven’s hand is in mine—I don’t remember when it got there—tightening as he watches the two of them together. And I realize, in one devastating moment, that Aerix isn’t faking this. He truly, desperately, loves Zoey. I can feel that love, even from here.

Her eyes open and find Aerix’s, locking onto him with pure devotion.

“Zoey.” Her name is a breath on his lips, relief flooding his features as she returns to consciousness.

“I’m here,” she whispers back, soft, steady, and unshakable. “I’m right here.”

Aerix exhales, the sound shuddering from deep within him, like he’s been holding his breath for an eternity.

Then he leans down and captures Zoey’s mouth in a kiss that’s raw, possessive, and gentle all at once.

It’s the kind of kiss that doesn’t just speak of love—it screams of desperate, obsessive devotion.

His hands cradle her face like she’s something sacred, his wings curling around them both, creating a cocoon of midnight feathers that shields them from the winter wind.

When they break apart, he helps her to her feet.

And now she stands steadily beside him, her hand clasped in his, their shadows merging into one long silhouette across the stone rooftop as her eyes meet mine.

There’s a sharpness in them that I don’t like, along with anger for everything that happened between us in the room below.

Although in her defense, I’d be pretty pissed if she used a celestial weapon on me, too.

“I love Aerix,” she says to me, her voice unwavering as she repeats the same thing she said to me below. “And I choose him.”

“Zoey…” I plead, even though deep down, I already know it’s useless.

“No,” she snaps, her eyes flashing with anger. “Listen to me, Sapphire. Aerix is my family now. He protected me. He gave me strength I never imagined possible. He gives me love like I’ve never known. I’m not leaving him—not now, and not ever.”

Beside her, Aerix’s expression softens, his gaze fixed on Zoey with a kind of ruined awe that goes far beyond ordinary affection. He’s hanging onto every word she speaks, drinking in her devotion like he needs it to breathe, as if she’s the only source of life in his world of darkness.

“Now,” he says to her, quiet yet powerful. “Tell them.”

My muscles tense, magic gathering as alarm bells ring through my mind.

Zoey lifts her chin, focused entirely on me. “I’m pregnant,” she says, the words landing like a thunderclap between us. “It’s Aerix’s.”

Everything around me spins, blurring out of focus. Shock courses through me, and I stumble back, gripping Riven’s hand harder for support, the world tilting as I struggle to process what my best friend just said.

“No.” Riven shakes his head. “That’s impossible. Vampires can’t carry children.”

“It’s possible,” I whisper, my voice distant and hollow even to my own ears. Because of course it’s possible—I’m living proof of it. “My father’s a vampire, Riven. I’m half vampire, even though that was supposed to be impossible, too.”

“That was different.” His brow furrows. “Your mother is a fae queen with access to ancient magic and knowledge. She had to create a special potion to make it happen.”

“Anything is possible,” I counter softly, my eyes drifting back to Zoey. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned in all of this, it’s that the rules we think we know are constantly being rewritten.”

Zoey steps forward, Aerix’s hand still tight around hers, just like Riven’s is around mine. “It’s true.” Her eyes burn with sincerity, pleading with us to believe her. “I wouldn’t lie about something like this. You know I wouldn’t.”

Heart hammering, I stare at Zoey, my mind struggling to process what’s happening. Because Zoey’s many things, but she’s not a liar. Especially not about something as huge as this.

And standing next to her, Aerix is watching her with a look so full of fierce devotion and obsessive protectiveness that it makes my heart hurt.

Because Zoey isn’t just connected to Aerix—she’s tied to him in the most irreversible way imaginable.

He sired her—he made her. Part of him is growing inside her.

A sickening sense of loss floods through me as the truth I’ve refused to see since entering the tower’s doors hits me with brutal clarity. Zoey—my best friend, my sister in all but blood—is choosing this. Choosing him.

She never wanted to be saved. And she’s never coming back.

My throat constricts, tears burning at the corners of my eyes. “Zoey,” I whisper, barely loud enough for anyone else to hear, my voice breaking under the weight of my shattered heart.

Her gaze stays locked on mine as she crosses the roof toward me, each step deliberate and steady.

The wind tugs at her hair, sending dark strands dancing around her face, but she doesn’t seem to notice.

There’s a new grace to her movements—vampire grace—that makes her familiar and foreign all at once.

I release Riven’s hand and move to meet her halfway, droplets of water swirling anxiously around my fingertips. It’s taking everything in me not to grab her, to force her to come with us, to make her see reason.

When we’re just a foot apart, she stops.

Her hazel eyes search mine, and for a heartbeat, I see a flicker of the girl I knew.

The one who made terrible nachos, dragged me to parties, fought bullies for me, and followed me into a magical realm that nearly killed us both.

And there must be something about the sunlight—maybe it’s weakening her defenses—that suddenly seems to make her remember our shared past, too.

That makes her see me not as her enemy who tried to hold her down with magical restraints while she tried to help the man she loved while he went head-to-head against the brother who never knew he existed, but as her best friend.

“I remember the first time he saw you.” She gestures to Riven without looking at him. “At the Maple Pig on New Year’s Eve.”

The tears in my eyes threaten to spill over. “Zoey?—”

“No, listen,” she insists. “I saw the way he looked at you that night. It was love at first sight. That’s why I told you to talk to him.” A small, sad smile touches her lips. “And I see it now, too. He looks at you like you’re his entire world.”

I swallow hard, unable to find words as she continues.

“Aerix loves me just as fiercely.” Her voice strengthens, conviction making her stand taller. “You saw it just now. You know what we have is real.”

And I did. I saw it in the way he cradled her face, the way his voice broke when he begged her to wake up. It wasn’t manipulation. It wasn’t a lie. It was different than the love I share with Riven, but at the same time, it was just as intense and consuming.

“I know,” I say, the admission tearing something open inside me.

Zoey reaches out, hesitantly touching my arm. Her skin is cooler now, like Riven’s. “I’m not the same person anymore, Sapphire. But I’m not a victim, either. I chose this. I love him. And I’m staying with him until the end.”

Water rises around us, mirroring the storm of emotions I can’t contain. I want to argue, to fight, to scream that she’s wrong—but I can’t. Because standing here, looking into her eyes, the truth is undeniable.

Just like how I’ll always choose Riven, Zoey will always choose Aerix.

“No matter what happens,” I tell her, my voice breaking. “You’ll always be my sister.”

She wraps her arms around me in a hug that reminds me of a hundred sleepovers, a thousand shared secrets, and every moment that made us who we were together.

“You’ll always be mine, too,” she says, but then she pulls back, resolution hardening her features. “But the universe gave you Riven… and when it did, it also gave me Aerix. I love him. And I’m not leaving him, just like how you’d never leave Riven.”

Without another word, she returns to Aerix’s side, wind swirling around them as their magic mingles.

He slips his arm around her waist, pulling her close and scanning the battlefield below.

Then his gaze drifts to the edge of the tower, where the drop would surely kill even a supernatural if they fell.

Not to mention that the Winter Court army is surrounding the palace, their armor glinting in the midday light, ordered to kill any night fae who refuse to be detained.

When he returns his focus to Zoey, there’s a quiet stillness in his gaze—a depth of devotion so intense it almost hurts to witness.

“I love you,” he tells her, soft and fierce, as if each time he utters the words, they carve themselves into his soul. “And if we fall, we’ll fall together.”