Page 5

SAPPHIRE

I lie in Riven’s arms, my body betraying me with every labored breath.

He shifts, just enough to press his forehead against mine, and it’s that movement—that closeness—that makes it unbearable. Because his blood is everywhere. It’s soaked into his sleeve and smeared across his fingertips, mixing with my own where my hands clutch his shirt.

The scent of it wraps around me, making my throat burn. It would be so easy to taste him. To drink deep and let his magic fill me.

But if I start, I won’t stop. I’ll drain him dry.

I’ll become the monster I saw in the visions, standing over his lifeless body, covered in his blood.

And I won’t let myself become her. I refuse.

So, I give in to the heaviness in my lids and let my eyes flutter closed.

“.” Riven’s voice is rough, like the words are being torn from his throat. “Open your eyes. Look at me.”

He sounds so raw. So desperate.

Somehow, I force my eyes open to meet his stormy silver ones, reaching up to trace my fingers over his bloodstained cheek.

“I think this is it,” I whisper. “The vision. This is what we saw. Us, dying here, together.”

Riven’s jaw tightens, and something shifts in his expression.

“I love you,” he whispers the words I never thought I’d hear from him again. “I should have said it sooner. I should have said it a thousand times. I love you, Hayes. In every timeline, in every vision, and in every possible future—I love you.”

The words hang between us, and my magic stirs, creating a gentle current that circles us both.

“But the dryad—” I start, pain shooting through my heart as I remember the empty look in his eyes after he traded his love for me away.

“The dryad took a piece of my soul,” he admits, his grip on me tightening. “But the moment Eros’s arrow struck you—the moment I realized how close I was to losing you—I started falling in love with you all over again.”

My throat’s so tight I can’t speak. I can only watch him, listen to him, and break with him as he continues to talk to me.

“My love for you has always been inevitable. I knew it from the moment I saw you behind that bar on New Year’s Eve.” He releases a hollow, broken breath. “And when I saw that vision—me, alone on the throne—I realized I didn’t want a future where you weren’t in it. I’d rather die here with you than live a thousand years without you.”

My vision blurs with unshed tears, and despite my injuries, my water magic stirs, as if it’s crying right along with me.

Riven loves me.

I should have known. Maybe I did know, deep down, in the way he kept choosing me, even when it tore him apart.

But hearing him say it, broken and wrecked as we bleed into the sand together, unravels something in me that I’ll never be able to piece back together.

“I love you, too,” I whisper, and his eyes flutter shut, like the words physically undo him. “I think I started falling for you the moment you rescued me from that monster in the Winter Court forest, when you showed up with Ghost, looking like an avenging ice god. Even when I hated you for making me go through those trials, even when I was furious at you for letting Zoey get taken—a part of my heart was already yours.”

Riven’s eyes widen slightly, his fingers tracing the lines of my cheek as I somehow keep going.

“When you held me in the cave after that storm, that’s when I knew for sure.” Each word drains me further, but I need to say them, before it’s too late. “And even after you gave up your love to the dryad, and even after Eros’s arrow made me hate you... I never stopped loving you.”

His breath catches, and frost blooms around us in delicate, intricate patterns.

I reach up, my fingertips tracing the sharp line of his jaw, wanting to memorize every inch of him. “Even at your coldest, when you were trying to push me away, you were still there, protecting me. Loving me,” I continue. “I see you, Riven Draevor. Not just the Winter Prince who can destroy kingdoms, but the boy who found a snow leopard and made him family. The man who will do anything to save his father. Even those dark, broken pieces of yourself that you try to hide—I love all of it. Because I love all of you.”

Something cracks in his expression, like I’ve touched the part of him that has always been beyond anyone’s reach.

“—” His voice breaks on my name, and he pulls me closer, one hand tangling in my hair.

When his lips find mine, it’s desperate and tender—a kiss that tastes of blood and tears and salt. It’s devastating in its intensity, both of us pouring everything we have left into this one moment, knowing it might be our last.

Then, I hear it. A whisper that’s not a voice, but a feeling pressing against my mind.

This is your fate. You love him, yet every time you reach for him, you destroy him.

The Tides. They’re talking to us.

I flinch, but Riven’s grip on me tightens, holding me close as the Tides direct their next cruel statement to him.

You thought sacrificing yourself would save her, yet here she is—dying in your arms.

Riven lets out a ragged breath, and I feel his pain, his rage, and his hatred for the universe that keeps doing everything it can to destroy us.

You were never meant to be together, the Tides continue. Every lifetime, every future—you will always end like this.

What’s left of my magic flares in defiance, but the voices only grow stronger.

You’ve spent every moment breaking each other.

You’ll never stop.

And do you want to know the worst part?

“No,” I manage softly, because I don’t want to know the worst part. I really, really don’t.

Even knowing that you’ll destroy each other, you’ll always choose each other. Every single time.

The truth of it hits me harder than the wounds already inflicted on me. Because the Tides are right—Riven and I have been destroying each other. Every moment we’ve tried to save each other has driven us deeper into this spiral of pain and loss.

“They’re right,” I whisper, my fingers curling against his chest. “We keep hurting each other.”

And yet, looking at him now, I know I’d choose him again. In every timeline, in every iteration of fate, I would always find my way back to him.

Riven’s jaw clenches, ice crackling beneath us. “They’re wrong,” he growls. “We’re not destroying each other because we love each other. It’s happening because of the dryad, and Eros, and Cetus. They used our love as a weapon against us. But that doesn’t mean loving you is wrong. It means they’re afraid of what we could be together.”

Together.

The vision we saw earlier flashes in my mind—the two of us lying together, lifeless on the battlefield.

What if it wasn’t a prophecy? What if it was a warning?

A burning desire to try anything I might have left settles inside me.

“Riven,” I whisper, tilting my head to meet his gaze. “I know you’ll always catch me when I fall. So keep holding on, okay? I’ll be back soon.”

His brows furrow, his fingers gripping my waist. “What are you?—”

But before he can stop me, I let go.