Page 84 of Golden Star

His body stiffens. Then, a shudder ripples through him, his wings flare, and a chilling gasp escapes his lips.

Slowly, I pull out the dagger.

The moment it’s out, he collapses forward, heavy and lifeless, trapping my unconscious body beneath him.

I snap back into my body in an instant.

The hazy numbness is gone. Instead, pain throbs at my neck where his fangs bit deep, and where his weight crushes my chest. I try to suck in a breath, but I can barely get any air. My arms are pinned, weak, and trembling, my head is spinning from blood loss.

I squirm, trying to free myself from his weight, but all it does is send another jolt of pain through my body. I push at him, but he’s so heavy that he might as well be a boulder pinning me to the ground.

But, as I continue struggling beneath him, my healing kicks in, and the pain ebbs.

Feeling better by the second, I suck in a shallow breath, grit my teeth, and push again.

His weight shifts just enough for me to roll out from under him.

I’m free. I can breathe again. My body’s healed. The place where hebitme…

I reach for the spot on my neck where his fangs pierced my skin, and even though my fingers come backbloodied, the holes where he broke through skin are gone.

Now, his lifeless form slumps into the snow, his wings splayed around him like a fallen storm cloud.

My dagger glints underneath one of his wings. It came with me when I snapped back into my body, but I must have dropped it when I came back into consciousness.

Knowing better than to leave weapons lying around, I stumble to my feet, pick up the dagger, and hurry to Zoey. Her face is pale, almost translucent, and a dark smear of blood trails down her temple. The wound on her arm is raw and angry, exposed because I hadn’t gotten a chance to rewrap it, and possibly infected already.

My chest tightens as I kneel beside her, panic rising within me. She’s still breathing, but for how long?

I need to finish bandaging her arm.

So, I rip another piece of cloth from my shirt—which is slowly turning into a midriff instead of a tunic—and wrap her arm. My hands are cold and clumsy, but I keep going, tightening the knot even though my fingers feel frozen.

Finished, I sit back and examine my work. It seems okay for now. And she’s still breathing. The gash on her head looks nasty—an angry bruise already forming around it—but when I touch it, it’s relatively shallow.

“Zoey,” I say through the hopelessness gnawing inside me, a dark, heavy weight pressing down on my chest. “Open your eyes. Please.”

She remains unresponsive.

“We have to get to the cave,” I say, praying she’ll somehow hear me. “Riven will find us there. It’s our only chance of safety.”

Still, nothing.

I’m too weak to carry her. Even though my body is healing itself, my magic needs time to replenish.

If more of the dark vampire angels come…

A sob claws at my throat, and I reach for Zoey’s hand, finding a strange sense of comfort in it. “I don’t know what to do,” I tell her. “I’m sorry.”

If she was awake, she’d know what to do.

But now, it’s just me.

And not only do I not know what to do—I don’t know what Iam.

Sapphire

In one week,I’ve gone from thinking I’m human, to thinking I’m fae, and now to thinking I have a mix of both fae magicandvampire magic.

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