It feels distant. Hazy. Like memories from someone else’s life, filtered through years instead of months. That girl from Presque Isle who worried about college applications and would have done anything for her best friend—she’s gone. She died the night Aerix’s fangs pierced my neck and released his venom into my veins.
Now, Sapphire’s raising a glowing disc above her head. Riven’s sword gleams with deadly intent. They cut through the lines of Night Court guards without hesitation, without mercy, and with no attempt to spare anyone.
If Sapphire saw me standing here with Aerix, with his child growing inside me, she might not hesitate to kill me, either.
Aerix moves around to face me, his hands shaking as they reach for mine, that wild edge creeping back into his eyes.
“Say something,” he insists, more of a command than a plea.
Slowly, I lift my hand to touch his jaw, my fingertips brushing the sharp line of his cheekbone, and he leans into my touch.
“I love you, Aerix,” I tell him again—I’ll tell him a million times if that’s what it takes for him to believe me. “I choose you.Because you and this baby are the only things that matter to me anymore.”
He pulls me against him, his body trembling as he buries his face in my hair. His wings curl protectively around us, shadows blotting out the chaos unfolding below, as if he’s creating a cage that’s impossible to penetrate.
“I won’t let anyone hurt you,” he promises. “It’s you and me until the end.”
My blood runs cold at how final his words sound. So, I pull back enough to see his face again, searching his eyes for a trace of hope that after seeing the size of their army, he still thinks they won’t be able to get to us here.
I find none.
“Can you fly us out of here?” My gaze darts to the edge of the tower’s roof and the sprawling battlefield below.
He closes his eyes, pain flickering across his face before he opens them again. “My wings can carry me short distances. Maybe a few miles, but not past the borders. Not far enough.”
Reality hits me like ice water in my veins.
There are too many of them. We’re trapped.
I look around the tower roof—at the view stretching out over what might be my grave. This is the place where I learned to paint with vampire precision, where I discovered music flowed through my fingers like magic, where the wind started to obey my command, and where Aerix showered me with gifts and promises of forever. It’s where I tasted human blood for the first time. Where I was turned into a vampire and found out I was carrying Aerix’s child.
It might be the last place I ever see.
“We could die here,” I say, the words barely a whisper.
“Then we die together.” His hands frame my face, his thumbs tracing my cheekbones like I’m his salvation in a world set todestroy us. “If this is the end, I’ll have you with me until the final moment.”
My chest tightens as I stare at this beautiful, terrifying prince who remade me in his image, who promised me eternity and power and love beyond measure. He created me, but I never had the chance to exit this tower and be reborn.
What good is immortality if it ends before it truly begins?
“I’m scared,” I whisper, feeling more vulnerable than I have since coming to the Night Court.
“Don’t be.” He presses his forehead against mine, his wings blocking out the light of the rising sun. “Whatever comes next, you won’t face it alone. I’m here with you, always, until the very end.”
As he speaks, I see his fear reflected in those normally deadly midnight eyes. Because for all his centuries, for all his power, my Night Prince is just as trapped as I am. And somewhere below, my former best friend is cutting through his people like they’re nothing, alongside the Winter Prince who was in love with her from the moment he saw her.
She didn’t see it, but I did. The second he walked into that bar, I knew his heart would always belong to her.
Just like how mine will always belong to Aerix.
The wind picks up around us, carrying the smell of blood from the battlefield below. Aerix’s hands are trembling against my face, like he’s trying to memorize the shape of it, and there’s something in his expression that makes my stomach clench with dread.
“There’s something else,” he says, his voice so soft I almost don’t hear it over the chaos. “Something I never told you.”
I frown, searching his eyes, those silver flecks sparkling even more now that the sun is almost finished rising. “What do you mean?”
His wings shift restlessly behind him. “The truth,” he says, and there’s a weight to his words, like he’s been carrying this secret for too long and it’s finally breaking him open. “About why I really saved you.”
