Page 29 of Frozen Star (Star Touched: Fae Bound #7)

Ice shatters like deadly glass, water swirls in violent torrents, and the air turns razor-sharp. The tower walls creak and groan under the strain, hairline fractures spreading through stone that’s stood for centuries. A window explodes outward, sending shards flying out to the war-torn court below.

At the center of the storm stands Riven, my Winter Prince, looking less like himself with every passing second.

His silver eyes have gone almost white with unrestrained power, frost patterns racing across his skin like living tattoos.

His sword trembles in his grip, the blade coated in layers of ice so thick I can barely see the metal beneath.

He’s holding it at an angle that speaks of imminent violence—a killing blow waiting to be delivered.

But it’s his expression that terrifies me most.

There’s something wild and unhinged in his eyes that reminds me of the cold, ruthless madness that once claimed his father. It’s that same disconnection from reality, the cold fury that recognizes nothing but the object of its rage.

Right now, that object is Aerix.

Riven’s brother.

The universe truly has a twisted sense of humor.

“Riven!” I scream, tightening the bands of ice and water around Zoey, even though every part of me wants to rush to my soulmate instead. “You have to stop. You have to breathe.”

He doesn’t hear me. He doesn’t even flinch. The bond sputters and cracks, energy snapping and flickering in my chest like a frayed wire about to explode. I can feel it—the pain, the confusion, and the terror surging inside him—but even my love can’t pierce the storm that’s swallowed him whole.

Aerix watches him warily, shadows moving around his wings. But the Night Prince doesn’t yield. Instead, he stands defiant, ready to meet the lethal force hurtling toward him head-on.

As I look back and forth between them, I see that they’re more similar than they likely realize. Both are so heartbreakingly self-destructive that they’re on the verge of obliterating themselves and those they love in the process.

Riven steps closer to Aerix, a chunk of ceiling dislodging behind him and smashing into the floor.

The entire tower groans around us, threatening to collapse under the weight of Riven’s pain if he can’t control himself and his magic.

I need to get closer, to ground him physically, since our bond is failing. But Zoey’s still straining against my magical restraints, her vampire strength surging as my focus splinters.

“Stop fighting me!” I snap at her, tightening the bands of ice and water around her body.

“Let me go to him,” she snarls back, her eyes fixed on Aerix with single-minded devotion. “He needs me.”

“Did you not hear anything he just said?” I reinforce the bonds with a rush of magic, rage coursing through me as I resist the urge to grab her by her shoulders and shake her back to reality. “Aerix used you to get to Riven. It was never about you. It was always about him.”

“Aerix loves me,” she insists, her lips curling in what seems to be genuine hatred. “Or is it really so hard for you to believe that you’re not the only one who deserves a soulmate?”

“Zoey, please.” I brace myself as Riven’s magic shatters a second window, raining shards of glass across the floor. “Aerix took you from us at the waterfall. He manipulated you. He’s been using you to get to Riven this entire time.”

“You’re just jealous because I found happiness without you.” She glares at me, her fangs extending, a painful reminder of when she sank them into my neck and drank from me. “Aerix loves me, Sapphire. Why do you refuse to see that he loves me?”

Her words break something inside me, a devastating ache spreading through my chest as another wave of Riven’s ice splinters through the room.

Aerix just stands there, watching Riven fight the urge to kill him—his own brother—as if it’s another night of courtly entertainment.

From the look in Riven’s eyes, I actually think he will kill him.

And I know Riven well enough to know that if he goes through with it and has to harbor the guilt of killing his brother for the rest of his life, it will ruin him.

Which means that now, I have to make an impossible choice.

“I’m sorry.” The words taste like ash in my mouth as I reach for the Star Disc, hold my breath, and slash one of its points across Zoey’s thigh.

The weapon cuts deep, slicing through muscle and tendon, infusing the wound with celestial magic that slows supernatural healing.

Her scream pierces the chaos, and she collapses, clutching at her leg as blood seeps between her fingers.

“I’m so sorry.” I back away, my stomach twisting as I watch her blood drip onto the stone floor. “But he’s part of me now. I can’t lose him. I won’t.”

Swallowing down the self-hatred crawling its way up my throat, I turn before she can reply and hurry toward Riven.

His magic lashes out in waves, ice and frost swirling chaotically, the walls and ceiling cracking with the sheer force of his power.

“Riven!” I scream his name, fighting the freezing cold wind with everything inside myself. Shards of ice cut into my skin, each step forward more agonizing than the last, but I have to reach him. I can’t lose him to this. Losing him would be worse than losing myself.

He doesn’t hear me. He doesn’t even flinch. Our bond flickers and dims, barely holding under the strain. Every wave of his unchecked magic is shredding my heart, his eyes wild with fury and anguish as more ice explodes around him, so forceful that it cracks parts of the stone floor.

“Riven!” I try again, reaching for the bond and finding nothing. “You promised we’d both get out of here alive! We can’t do that if you…”

I trail off, since what, exactly, is he trying to do? Destroy himself? Kill his own brother? Freeze this entire court and bury us in its icy remains so none of us make it out of here alive?

Aerix steps back, uncertainty flashing across his face as he watches my Winter Prince unravel.

Good, I think, fierce and bitter. Let him see the damage he’s done. Let him witness the wreckage left behind when someone who loves deeper than anyone I’ve ever known—someone who could have loved him, too—snaps.

A sob escapes my throat, and finally, Riven’s eyes meet mine, their silver hue consumed by brilliant white power.

“Sapphire…?” he whispers my name like a fractured prayer.

“I’m here,” I promise, and with a surge of desperation, I summon every scrap of magic I possess.

Water, ice, and air whip around us, forming a shimmering, protective bubble—a sanctuary built from my need to hold him together with every last piece of myself.

“You have to stop. You have to breathe. I love you. Let me help you.”

It doesn’t work. His magic claws and rages, pressing against the elemental shield I’m holding up with every fragment of my strength. The storm around us intensifies, ice shattering into razor-sharp shards, wind screaming through cracks in the walls.

My strength drains with every passing second, exhaustion creeping into my bones, but losing him isn’t an option. I’d let the world collapse before letting him break.

“I feel it, Sapphire.” His gaze locks onto mine, wild and desperate, like a drowning man grasping for the shore. “It’s everywhere. It’s inside me, and it won’t let go.”

“Neither will I.” I push closer until I see my reflection in his eyes, our magic colliding like crashing waves in the space between us. “Do you really think we marched into the Night Court and won a war just for you to bury us all beneath a pile of rubble?”

There’s no smirk. No witty comeback. Just the wind rushing around us and the ice biting my skin as Riven fights and fails to focus on me.

I reach for him, trying to ground him physically, to remind him who he is—of who we are. But the moment my fingertips brush his skin, he flinches, pulling back like my touch burns.

Dread spirals through me as his eyes glaze over again, hollow and haunted.

“Riven,” I whisper, terror threading through my veins. “Don’t look at me like that. Not again. Come back to me. Please.”

But it’s like staring into the face of the Winter King’s madness—cold, distant, and detached.

My throat tightens, fear filling every space inside me.

Is this it? Am I going to lose the love of my life to the brother he never knew he had, to a cruel ultimatum he should have never been forced to make?

No, I think, blinking away the possibility. I won’t lose him. I won’t let him shatter. We didn’t come this far so we could go down like this.

“You’re Prince Riven Draevor of the Winter and Summer Courts.” My voice trembles, but I force strength into it, pushing forward. “You’re my soulmate. My husband. My everything. I love you, and I didn’t bring you back from the dead just to lose you now.”

The space between us is a battlefield—violent winds and lethal ice shards creating a storm of Riven’s pain. His eyes still burn white-hot with power, but a flicker of recognition remains. A flash of the man I love fighting against the chaos consuming his mind.

“Look at me,” I beg, the words nearly lost in the howling of his uncontrolled magic. “Please, just look at me.”

His gaze drifts to mine, unfocused and distant, but it’s enough.

I reach for his left hand, the one not holding his sword.

For a heartbeat, I think he’ll pull away, but he lets me keep it and turn it over, so his palm faces upward.

The scar there, a mirror to the one etched on my own palm, pulses faintly, a reminder of the vows we sealed beneath starlight and shadows.

Holding his gaze, I trace the first letter slowly.

I

The contact seems to startle him, his magic flaring, ice cracking up my arm. But I push through the cold and keep going, drawing each letter deliberately, my heart pounding like a drumbeat in my chest.

L

A shudder runs through him. The white glow in his eyes dims slightly, silver peeking through as his pupils focus on my face.