Page 62 of Broken Star

“Not the queen.” Matt steps closer, urgency tightening his features. “It’s Aerix. The Night Prince. He has her under his spell, just like Ravenna had me. She thinks she’s falling in love with him. She truly believes he cares about her.”

“No.” I take a sharp breath inward. “Zoey’s smarter than that.”

“Ouch.” Matt scrunches his face and flinches back.

“It’s different,” I say quickly, even though I know Matt and Zoey well enough to know that he’s the one who believes in love at first sight—not her.

“It’s not about strength,” Matt says quickly. “The blood creates a bond. The connection grows stronger every time he drinks from her. She thinks she’s choosing it, but really...” He pauses, pain crossing his features, and his voice drops lower. “Her whole demeanor has changed. She thinks she belongs to him, and that he understands her. And the longer she’s with him, the more his spell will sink in, until there’s nothing left of her anymore.”

I shake my head, refusing to believe it.

“Zoey would never think she belongs toanyone,”I insist. “She’s my best friend. I know her. And that’s notwho she is.”

“She’s different now,” Matt says quietly, and after having dated him for so long, I can tell he’s telling the truth. “She’s colder. More calculating. Aerix keeps her close, and he lets her make small decisions to give her the illusion of control. But the biggest change is in her eyes. She looks at him like he’s everything. Like he’s the answer to questions she didn’t know she had. Like she’d kill for him if he asked her to.”

“Like she has undying love for him,” I say slowly, thinking back to what Eros said about the golden arrow.

He’ll be the sun in your sky, the stars in your night, and the air in your lungs. You won’t care if you live, if you die, or if you break, as long as it means you can be near him. You won’t love anyone other than him. You won’t even love yourself.

“Something like that.” Matt shrugs, and the final part of what he said echoes through my mind again.

It can’t be true.

But I have to know.

“You said she’d kill for him,” I say carefully, barely believing what I’m going to ask next. “Is she the one who did it? The one who killed you?”

“No,” he says, a shadow crossing his eyes. “I was killed two days ago by Thanatos—the king of the Night Court.”

Sapphire

I startleat Matt’s words.

“Why did the Night King want to kill you?” I ask him.

“No idea.” He shrugs. “He didn’t exactly sit down to have a chat with me before he slit my throat. My best guess is he was jealous that the queen was spending so much time with me, even though he was so consumed with his pets that it’s surprising he cared.”

I glance at Matt’s throat, which is—thankfully—smooth.

“They really called you that?” I ask when I meet his eyes again.“Pets?”

The word tastes vile when I say it.

“They did. They thought they owned us,” he says. “And eventually, they made uslikeit. They made us feel like we’re special—like what the queen did to me, and like what Aerix is doing to Zoey.”

“We have to get there.” I clench my fists, looking over at Riven. “We have to save her.”

“We will,” he says, his eyes hard, surprising me with the intensity in his voice. “And when we do, we’re going to destroy them. All of them.”

I nod, more on board with our plan now than ever. These people—no, thesemonsters—killed my ex-boyfriend and are turning my best friend into a lovesick zombie.

And they’re going to pay for it.

“We will,” I agree with Riven, turning my attention to Circe as well. “But can the two of you give me and Matt some privacy? Just for a few minutes.”

Circe throws her head back and laughs. “Where, exactly, would you care for us to go?” she asks, motioning around at the empty vortex of the in-between, which is no more than twenty feet in diameter.

“Can you just step to the side?” I ask. “And try not to listen?”

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