Page 60 of Fallen Star

Aerix watches carefully, as if he’s undoing each braid simply by looking at them.

“You worked hard on this, didn’t you?” The king’s tone turns mockingly thoughtful. “All this effort, and yet, it only serves to highlight how much you’ll need to be tamed.”

There’s that word again.

Tamed.

I’m starting to really regret bringing up the story about Milo to Aerix. It’s like the entire world was listening, and is now using the fact that I tamed a cat against me.

“And here I thought that styling my hair was the same thing as taming it,” I say sweetly, as if I’m not imagining how satisfying it would be to swat my hand at his face and slash at his skin with my nails like a feral cat.

He pauses, looking down at me with a slow, cruel smile. “So quaint. Youthought.”

A laugh echoes from one of the thrones behind him—Malakai. “The human’s a philosopher,” he says. “How charming.”

“Isn’t it?” The king tugs the final braid, and my hair falls loose, cascading over my shoulders in thick, dark waves. “Much better. Now you look like what you are.”

“And what’s that?” I ask, the words slipping out in a desperate attempt to regain some semblance of control.

His eyes gleam, sharp and dangerous. “A pet.Mypet.”

The word lands like a blow.

I step back, but his hand shoots out, wrapping around my wrist with unnerving ease. The strength of his grip is absolute—unyielding, but not crushing.

He’s toying with me, like a cat with a mouse, savoring my fear.

I glance around the room, desperate for someone—anyone—to intervene.

Mirena averts her eyes. Cierra studies her nails. The queen’s lips are pressed together in a harsh line. And Aerix staresstraight ahead, indifferent, as if I’m no more interesting than a plain piece of furniture.

The king’s wings flare, casting deeper shadows around us, and then I see them—his fangs. Long, sharp, and glinting in the moonlight.

“No.” It’s the only protest I can manage as he moves toward me, but it feels so small, so insignificant in the face of his overwhelming presence.

He tilts his head, considering me with mild amusement. “No?” he repeats, as though tasting the word. “Do you think you have a choice?”

Panic surges through me as he moves toward my neck.

He’s going to bite me. Claim me. Drain me.

I would have preferred to have drowned in that waterfall—or even in their blood-filled moat.

“Father.” Aerix’s voice cuts through the tension, and the king jolts to a stop, clearly caught off guard. “A moment, if I may?”

Irritation flashes through the king’s eyes, and he snaps his attention to Aerix, his fangs still bared. “What is it?”

“I apologize for interrupting, but I must point out that she’s unworthy of your attention,” he says, rising from his throne. “She’s weak. Obstinate. And, as you pointed out after she talked back, stupid.”

The king raises his brow after that last point—when Aerix said this was something he’dalready pointed out.“Go on,” he says, keeping his fingers wrapped around my wrist in a clear warning that I’m not to move.

“She can’t swim,” Aerix continues, sounding almost bored. “She’s a creature so fundamentally senseless that she’s unable to do such a basic skill, even for humans. She nearly drowned at that waterfall where I found her, flailing about like a child. Imagine the embarrassment of having a pet who can’t keep herself afloat.”

A ripple of laughter echoes through the room, Malakai’s the loudest.

The king straightens, frowning, and turns back to me. “Is this true?”

My cheeks heat, and from the way the king glares as me, I feel like that was as much of a response as he needed.

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