Page 69 of Fallen Star

The conversation turns soft and demure—like when there’s tension while you’re dining with your family at a fancy restaurant, but you’re trying to not make a spectacle of yourself.

Jake’s gaze lingers on me throughout the meal. It’s different from the way the others look at me. There’s no hostility, no calculation. Just interest. Maybe even concern.

Matt refuses to look at me. Not even for a second.

When the plates are cleared, Jake makes his way over to our table, his eyes locked on mine the entire time. “Welcome to the Night Court,” he says when he reaches me. “I’m Jake.”

“Zoey,” I introduce myself, as if he didn’t already know that from that little confrontation with Matt and Elijah at the start at the meal.

“Nice to meet you, Zoey,” he says with a shy smile that warms my heart. “After dinner, I like to spend time in the courtyard until curfew—which is at dawn, by the way. Come join me out there after you change. If you want.”

“After I change?” I ask, confused.

“Out of your dinner dress…”

At that, I glance to Sophia. “We just put these on,” I tell her, motioning to our dresses. “Now we’re supposed to change?”

“Life at court.” She shrugs. “We go through a few dresses a day.”

“Lovely.” I huff, since changing in and out of fancy dresses is hardly how I like spending my time. Not when there are far more interesting things to do. Like tennis, and pottery, and horseback riding, and wood whittling, and cooking, and figuring out how to escape a palace ruled by fae-vampire hybrids with dark wings and hypnotizing eyes that dig into my soul.

“Zoey?” Jake asks, bringing my focus back to him, where he’s watching me with puppy dog eyes. “Hopefully I’ll see you later?”

“I’ll see if I can work you into my busy schedule,” I say, trying to keep it light, which earns me another smile from him.

“Looking forward to it,” he says, and as he walks away, I notice how gracefully he moves. Like an athlete.

Like Patrick.

It’s not just that he reminds me of Patrick,I realize.It’s that he reminds me of home.

But Jake’s not from my home. Not really—not from Presque Isle.

Matt is.

But when I look for him, he’s gone, along with most of the other humans.

Another one of the girls makes her way over to me and Sophia—Aurora. One of the king’s pets. She’s the most beautiful of all of us, but she barely looked up during dinner.

“Don’t get attached,” she warns when she’s next to me, barely above a whisper. “To Jake. To anyone. It only makes it harder when...” She trails off, but I know what she means.

When we’re sent to the barns. When we’re too old to be worth keeping. When we’re nothing but food to be shared amongst the nobles.

I look back at Jake one last time—at the way he carries himself with dignity, even in captivity.

How long can we hold on to who we were before this place?

Even scarier—will we recognize ourselves when it’s over?

Ifit’s ever over?

Zoey

“Doyou want to go out to the courtyard?” Sophia asks after Aurora and Victoria leave the dining room. “To see Jake?”

“Do you know where Matt is?” I ask her instead.

“Um…” She fidgets uncomfortably, tugging at the ends of her sleeves. “You’d have to ask either Elijah or Henry. The queen’s other pets.”

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