Page 7

SAPPHIRE

As I grapple with what the Tides are offering me, the wedding continues.

Riven—the one in the vision—reaches for me and tucks a stray piece of hair behind my ear.

“Do you feel that, Summer Princess?” he says with an effortless grin that makes my chest tighten. “The sun on our skin, and the wind in our hair? That’s happiness. That’s freedom. That’s our forever.”

Step into it. Into him, the Tides continue to tempt me. If you do, everything between the two of you will be perfect and easy, just like you’re seeing now.

I move closer to the vision, reaching out to touch it. And when I do, I see the Winter King standing nearby… holding the hand of a beautiful, radiant woman with the softness Riven’s face sometimes shows when his guard is down.

She’s his mother.

In this world, she never died. The Winter King never lost himself to grief. Riven never knew the heartbreak of pain and loss. He never had to push down his emotions—to force himself to feel nothing.

Join him there, the Tides continue. You can be happy. You can be a family.

One more step. That’s all it would take.

But somewhere, distantly, I hear a voice. Riven’s voice. Not the perfect version of him in the vision, but my Riven. Real, broken, and desperate.

“. Come back,” he says, and I stagger, the warmth around me cracking at the edges.

“What’s wrong?” Happy Riven asks, reaching for my hand and taking it in his. “I thought you wanted forever?”

“I do,” I say at the same time as myself in the vision.

But my Riven’s voice cuts through my thoughts again, stronger this time. More insistent.

“Don’t leave me. Not like this. Not ever. ”

I turn, looking back through the thinning veil between realms.

My Riven is hovering over my body, his hands touching my face, my hair, and my arms, as if he can pull me back through sheer force of will. As he does, his magic spreads in uncontrolled patterns across the cosmic sand, and when he speaks, his voice breaks on every word.

“You’re the only thing holding me together,” he says, curling himself around me and pressing his forehead to my lifeless one. “If you leave me, I’ll never come back from it.”

Then, something happens that I’ve never seen before.

Riven—my cold, controlled Winter Prince—begins to cry. Not the silent tears of someone who was trained to never show weakness, but broken, wracking sobs that tear through his body.

The sight of it pulls me back, anchoring me to reality in a way nothing else could.

Because this is my Riven. The boy who stood stone-faced at his mother’s funeral, refusing to shed a tear as his father told him emotions were a weakness. The prince who buried his pain beneath layers of ice so thick that no one could reach it.

And he’s breaking for me.

I look back at the vision of us—at the Riven who smiles easily and loves without reservation.

And suddenly, I understand.

That’s not Riven. Not really. It’s a shadow of him—a false promise. Because the Riven in that vision has never fought for me. He’s never suffered for me, or sacrificed for me. He’s never held me while we both bled out, choosing death together instead of a life apart.

He doesn’t know what it means to love someone when it costs him everything.

“No,” I say, stepping back from the vision. “This isn’t real. It doesn’t belong to me.”

It could, the Tides insist, the vision growing brighter, more tempting. Give the word, and it will be yours.

“I don’t want it,” I say, turning away from the scenes of perfect happiness. “I want him. The real him.”

Suddenly, the Tides change, the whispers transforming into screams that tear through my mind.

You will regret this.

I press my hands over my ears, but it does nothing to block the assault.

He’s broken. And he’ll break you again. He’ll always bring you down with him. There’s no running from it. No escaping it.

I look down at my hands, and panic spikes up my throat. Because the edges of my fingers are dissolving into static, little pieces of me disappearing into the cosmic void. My body is being ripped apart, every molecule fighting to stay together as the Tides try to scatter me across the universe.

“Riven!” I call out to him, but my voice is lost in the chaos. “Help me.”

He remains crouched over my body, his fingers curled in the fabric of my shirt like he can physically force my soul to return. His breathing is erratic, his body’s trembling, and his eyes are wild and wrecked. His lips move as he whispers something in my ear, but the words are lost beneath the howling rage of the Tides.

Then, he slams his fist into the ocean floor.

Ice explodes around him—sharp, jagged spears that blast outward in a wave of grief and rage. Frost races across the ground, climbing up the void around us, consuming everything in its path.

It’s the raw, unchecked power of someone who’s coming apart at the seams.

And I’m the one destroying him. Because if I let the Tides take me to one of those other realities, I won’t just be choosing a different life. I’ll be abandoning this Riven— my Riven. I’ll be leaving him alone with the knowledge that he failed to save me. That I gave up on him.

That I didn’t want him.

The thought shatters my heart. Because I will always, always want him. And no matter how many other versions of him exist in the universe, the one who’s wrecked and broken, crying over my lifeless body on the cosmic ocean floor, is the only one I care about.

And then there’s Zoey, trapped in the Night Court, waiting for me to come for her. She’s counting on me. Who will rescue her if I’m gone?

If you return to your world, you’ll be trapped in the cycle of pain, the Tides scream into my mind, louder than ever.

I plant my feet, reaching for the core of my magic.

“I’m not here to run,” I tell the Tides, my voice rising above their howling rage. “I’m here to save my world. To love my Riven. To rescue my Zoey. And you’re not going to stop me.”

I summon every shred of magic I have left and reach for my body, ready to snap back to it.

My vision goes black. I’m unraveling faster, my projection tearing apart, ripping through me until I can barely breathe.

“Riven!” I scream, but the darkness presses in, leaving me with the terrifying realization that I might be lost forever, trapped in the space between worlds, unable to return to the people I love.