Page 6

SAPPHIRE

My consciousness tears free with a violent snap.

I glance down at myself cradled in Riven’s arms. My physical form looks so broken, so pale, and so close to death.

When I’m done, will I even have a body to return to?

I don’t know. But I still have to try.

Riven looks more wrecked than the day he gave up his love for me, more broken than when I told him I hated him, and more ruined than when we saw the vision of him alone on the icy throne.

So, I kneel beside him until my lips brush his ear. “I’m still here,” I whisper, brushing a stray strand of dark, blood-soaked hair from his forehead. “I need you to trust me. Don’t leave me. Hold on a little longer.”

“I will,” he says, and he grips my body tighter, his breathing uneven, as if each inhale is costing him something precious.

“I love you,” I whisper again, because if I don’t make it back, I need those to be the last words I say to him.

“I love you, too,” he replies, his eyes fluttering closed, looking more at peace than he has in days. “Always.”

My heart breaks as I look down at him. But time is of the essence, so I push myself up and turn to Cetus.

The monster lies broken on the sand, his body torn apart, blood dripping onto the cosmic ocean floor. But even with his own end written into the stars, his glowing eyes burn into mine as I move toward him.

Every step feels like walking through a backward current. It’s like the Cosmic Tides are dragging at me, pulling me deeper, trying to keep me here. But I force myself forward, because if I stop now—if I let go—Riven and I will die. Just like the vision said we would.

When I reach Cetus, I unsheathe my dagger—a perfect astral replica of the one strapped to my physical body.

But I can’t strike him yet. First, I need to verify that my theory is correct.

You cannot escape fate, he hisses, but my only response is to drag the blade across one of his cheeks, deep enough to draw blood.

No matching wound appears on Riven.

“It worked,” I breathe, relief flooding through me.

Because Cetus connected our physical bodies. Which means when my projection attacks Cetus, the damage doesn’t transfer to Riven.

Cetus’s first attack happened too quickly for me to think through it, and now that I’m next to him in my astral form, I curse myself for not seeing it sooner.

But all I can do is move forward.

So, I raise my dagger for the final blow.

You think killing me will change your fate? The words materialize inside my head. It won’t. You’ll still destroy him. If not today, then in the future.

My breath shakes. My projection wavers. The memories of every wound Riven and I have inflicted on each other—every scar, every betrayal, and every moment of love turned to ruin—flash through my mind.

You will always destroy each other, Cetus continues, his voice a dark, seductive whisper. Even the stars can’t escape their own collapse.

“Go to hell,” I snarl, raising my dagger and plunging it into his heart.

Light erupts from the wound, blinding and brilliant, spreading through him in fractured lines until his entire body glows from within.

Then, he shatters. Not into pieces, but into stardust that rains into a pile of sparkling light on the ocean floor.

In the silence that follows, I turn to where Riven and I are lying together on the sand.

Color is returning to his face, his wounds knitting together as his supernatural healing returns.

It worked.

So, I go to snap back into my body, reaching for the pull that guides me home.

But something’s wrong. The connection is stretched thin, distorted by the unnatural physics of the Tides.

Stay with us.

The whisper isn’t from Cetus. It’s the Tides again, their collective consciousness reaching for me with hungry tendrils.

You belong here, Star Touched. Stay.

“No,” I fight against the pull, focusing on Riven, trying to push past the haze that’s blurring my vision. “I need to go back.”

Why return to pain? To hatred? The Tides grow stronger, more insistent. The arrow’s poison still flows through your physical form. If you return to your realm, you’ll hate him again. Any progress you think you made here will be lost.

I struggle harder, pushing against the cosmic current.

And despite what he says, he’ll never truly love you, the Tides continue. Not with that piece of his soul missing. The emptiness is destroying him, eating at him, haunting him. You can’t fill it. You can’t save him from himself.

As they say it, I know it’s true.

Because even though Riven fell in love with me again, he’s still not whole. He’ll never be whole—not like he was before giving a piece of his soul to the dryad.

The Cosmic Tides can’t fill it. I’m not sure anything can fill it.

Stay with us. Become one with us, the whispers curl around me, their voices weaving through my mind.

My body feels light. Too light. Like if I stop fighting, I’ll drift away.

And then, the cosmic mist parts, and I’m not in the Tides anymore.

I’m standing behind the bar in the Maple Pig, laughing as I mix a drink for a customer.

Before I can finish, Zoey bursts through the door, her hair wild around her face, her smile brighter than I’ve ever seen it.

“Guess who got into NYU!” she shrieks, waving a piece of paper in front of my face. “We’re going to New York!”

“We?” my other self asks, the drink she’s making forgotten.

“The apartment I’m getting there would feel pretty lonely if I didn’t have a roommate.” She smiles slyly. “So, what do you say? New York or bust?”

Before I can hear my answer, the scene dissolves and reforms.

Now, I’m in a sunlit meadow in what looks like the Summer Court. I’m wearing a flowing blue gown, and Riven’s riding toward me on Ghost, with a smile I’ve only seen in our softest moments together.

There’s no ice in his eyes as he hops off his snow leopard and strides to my side. No tension in his shoulders. No frost coating his fingers.

There’s only pure, unbridled joy.

“Ready for this, Princess?” he asks, taking my hands in his.

We’re at some kind of ceremony—our wedding, but not the cold, transactional one we endured in that underground chamber.

This one is real. Wanted. Warm. Celebrated.

He leans down to whisper in my ear. “You’re about to be the luckiest princess in all the realms, because you’re going to have me for the rest of your immortal life,” he says, and I roll my eyes, because he’s as arrogant in that world as he is in ours.

In that world, he never gave up his love for you, the Tides murmur in my mind. You were never hit by Eros’s arrow. The two of you could simply be happy together.

I swallow down a lump in my throat, tears welling in my eyes as I see the happiness shining in Riven’s eyes as he picks me up, twirls me around, and kisses me.

He loves you, , the Tides press down on me, pushing me, tempting me. And if you want that life for yourself, all you have to do is step into it and let go.