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“I just wish there was another way,” I finally say, my heart hurting—or maybe it’s Riven’s heart hurting.

He moves toward me, his eyes begging me to understand.

“Turn around,” he says, gentler now, sorrow softening his voice. “Let me do it. Let me carry this burden.”

“But what if some of them weren’t going to turn on us?” I ask again.

“That’s not a risk I’m willing to take.” His jaw tightens, frost spreading across the ground where he stands. “Turn around. Please, Sapphire—I don’t want you to watch me do this.”

I flash back to a similar request I had of him weeks ago, when I fed from that night fae in the cave. I was so ashamed of what I was that I couldn’t bear the thoughtof having him see. And he accepted my request without question.

I might technically be the Winter Princess, but these are his people. His mentor, his friends, and his guards.

I owe him the same mercy he gave me.

“Okay,” I tell him, and then I add, “I love you.”

Something raw and vulnerable flashes across his features, and his magic ripples in response, ice crystals forming and melting on the ground between us.

“I love you more than anything else in this entire universe.” He lets out a shuddering breath, each second paining him more than I know he cares to admit. “You’re not just the most important thing in my life—you’re the reason Ihavea life. So please,” he says again, his voice breaking. “Turn around and let me finish this.”

RIVEN

Sapphire turns away,her shoulders tight with the weight of what I’m about to do.

For a moment, her trust steals my breath away. She’s seen the worst of me—my cruelty, my coldness, the weapon I become when I’m protecting her—and still, she gives me what little privacy she can instead of turning against me.

Given what I’m about to do, I don’t deserve it.

But I can do this. I have to. After all, I’ve done it before—when I left the Winter Court, crossed the ravine, and spilled my own knights’ blood just to get to her. I killed them easily then. Without hesitation. Each strike was efficient, calculated, and necessary.

But that was different.

That was before I knew what it felt like to be hers. Before her touch rewired every instinct I once trusted.Before her love became the compass by which I judge every act and every sin.

She didn’t just touch my heart—she dismantled it. Slowly. Lovingly. Without mercy.

Back then, killing was strategy. A necessary sacrifice. Something I’d been born and bred to do.

Now, my fingers tighten around my sword’s hilt as I face Calder. My mentor. The man who taught me how to wield this very weapon.

He was like a father to me,I think as I look at his frozen form, ice crackling along my blade.I trusted him with everything.

Now he’s a statue of betrayal, and I’m his executioner.

My blade meets resistance as it slices through his neck, separating his head from his shoulders in one clean arc. No blood sprays—the compass’s magic holds it suspended in his veins. When time resumes, there will be nothing but the aftermath… and the echoes of my choices.

My new water magic trembles beneath my skin, churning in protest. It recognizes what I’m doing as a slaughter, not a battle. It knows this isn’t war, but grief with a blade.

The bond between Sapphire and me pulses with each flash of my sword.

Can she feel it, too? This growing fracture inside me?Probably. But still, she stays quiet. Because she knows Ihaveto do this—that this is my burden to bear.

And so, I return to the task at hand. Each frozen guard is a monument to my failure—my catastrophic lapse in judgment that nearly got Sapphire killed.

I memorize them all as I move methodically through the clearing. These are the faces of my mistakes, and I will not forget them.

I pause before the guard Sapphire mentioned. Bastian, who appears to be fighting for us. He and I occasionally trained together. Now, his blade is angled to block Kyler’s attack, and his eyes hold no malice. Only determination.