Page 28

Sapphire

I startle at 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 us like it. 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, these monsters —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?”

“Fine.” She huffs. “But be quick about it. We don’t have all night.”

I nearly ask what else she has on her schedule, but I press my lips together, stopping myself.

Riven gives me a single nod and turns around, just like he did while giving me privacy when I fed from the night fae in the cave.

It’s not much, but I don’t know how much time we have, so I focus back on Matt.

His ghostly form flickers at the edges, and a sick feeling settles in my stomach. Whatever’s keeping him here won’t last much longer.

I swallow hard. “Matt…” I start, a million thoughts running through my mind, unable to fully focus on any of them.

He exhales, rubbing the back of his neck like he always did when he was struggling to find the right words. “Listen, Saph,” he says. “Before I go, I need to say something.”

I nod, bracing myself.

“I was a jerk to you,” he admits. “I blamed you for everything that went wrong in my life. For not getting that scholarship, for being stuck in Presque Isle...” His voice cracks. “I unleashed my failures on you, and it wasn’t fair.”

“You were hurting,” I say softly.

“That’s not an excuse.” He shakes his head, and I don’t argue, since it’s true. “I loved you, but I loved you in a way that was bad for you. I tried to control you—like what the night fae did to us in their court. I tried to keep you small so I wouldn’t feel so small myself. I know what it feels like to be on the other side of that now, and I’m sorry. More than you’ll ever know.”

The sincerity in his voice makes my chest tight. Because this is the Matt I remember from before everything went wrong—the one who could be vulnerable, and who could admit when he messed up.

“I understand why you did it,” I tell him. “But you’re right—it wasn’t okay.”

“I know.” He gives me a sad smile. “And I need to apologize for something else, too. For hanging on when you were clearly done. For that proposal...” He trails off, wincing at the memory.

“That’s partly my fault,” I admit, since if he’s able to accept blame where he deserves it, I need to do the same. “I should have ended it sooner. I knew for months that we weren’t right for each other anymore, but I was scared.”

He tilts his head slightly, his brows drawing together. “Scared of what?”

“I guess I was scared of whatever was coming next. Of giving up the past for an unknown future. One I could never imagine was possible,” I say, motioning around at the impossibilities around us. “You can’t want something that you don’t know exists.”

“You were always meant for bigger things than Presque Isle,” he says. “Things that were bigger than me.”

My magic pulses beneath my skin, a reminder of how much has changed. “Matt, I?—”

“You don’t have to say you love me,” he cuts in. “I know you don’t. At least, not anymore. And that’s okay.”

Relief floods through me, because he’s right. I care about him—I always will—but the romantic love faded months ago.

Matt was my past, but he was never my future.

“Just promise me something,” he says, his form fading at the edges. “Save Zoey. Don’t let her end up like me.”

“I promise,” I say firmly, and I mean it with all my heart.

He smiles—a real smile this time, not bitter or angry. “And there’s one more thing,” he says slowly, as if he doesn’t like what’s coming next, but is determined to say it anyway.

“What’s that?” I lean forward, watching his ghostly form become more transparent by the second.

“I saw the way he looked at you that night.” He glances at Riven, who’s still turned away to give us privacy, even though the space is so small that he can obviously hear us.

My pulse stutters at Riven’s name.

“What night?” I ask, returning my focus to Matt.

“New Year’s Eve. At the Maple Pig.” He tilts his head slightly, watching me closely. “He looked at you the same way I did when I first saw you in the hallway at high school.”

I swallow, since I’ll never forget the moment I first saw Riven at the Maple Pig. He was so focused on me—like nothing else mattered in the world.

Which makes sense, since he was there to hunt me down. To use me for my potion making abilities. He was testing me—seeing if my magic was strong enough to give him what he needed. To see how much of an asset I could be to him.

“You have no idea what happened that night,” I tell Matt, trying to breathe steadily, despite my racing heart.

“I was there,” he reminds me. “And the way he was looking at you… it was the look of someone who knew they were doomed from the start, but who fell anyway.” His voice drops, almost like he’s talking to himself now. “Like he didn’t have a choice.”

The words hit me so hard that it’s impossible to steadily breathe.

“Saph?” Matt’s voice rips me out of my thoughts, and when I look at him, he’s fading even more, dissolving like mist in the starlight. “I hope you find your way back to whatever you lost. Both of you.”

Then he’s gone, leaving me alone with the weight of his words and the storm of my magic that can’t be released in this ghostly limbo.

I take a shaky breath, trying to push away the memory of silver eyes watching me from across a crowded bar, full of wonder and possibility and that terrifying, beautiful thing Matt called love at first sight.

“Time to go,” Circe calls, her voice cutting through my thoughts.

I turn back to her and Riven, forcing my expression into something neutral. But as Riven’s gaze meets mine—like he’s searching for something he lost—Matt’s words echo in my mind.

Love at first sight. Like he didn’t have a choice.

But it’s not true. Riven did have a choice. We all have choices. And he chose to throw whatever existed between us away to that dryad.

My magic settles, not in peace, but in resignation. Because whatever sparked between me and Riven in that electric moment at the bar, when he made one of his typical teasing comments about the pink drink I made for him, is gone.

And no amount of wishing or remembering will ever bring it back.