Page 5

After hours of tense travel through the otherworldly fog of the Twilight Mists, the sky parts, revealing a star-studded sky that stretches above the tree line.

Now, the atmosphere grows almost festive as the entire caravan gathers around the fire for dinner. Riven sits beside me on a log, our shoulders touching in an easy, familiar way. Nebula settles at my feet, while Ghost prowls the edge of our circle, his vigilance reminding me of Riven’s.

“To surviving the Mists,” a guard—Kyler—toasts, raising a goblet.

“To new alliances,” Calder adds, looking at me.

“The Winter Court has weathered many changes through the centuries. Shifts in power, unexpected threats, and treaties formed in moments of necessity. Change is uncomfortable, but it’s what keeps us strong.

It’s what allows us to endure when the world tries to break us. ”

He’s staring at me so intensely that I glance down at my food—a selection of berries and cheeses—and move it around with my fork. It looks good, but I’m far more excited for the meat that’s roasting above the fire?—

“Sapphire!” Riven’s scream interrupts my train of thought, and then a shield of ice is in front of me, a blade buried in it, its tip inches from my eyes.

The camp erupts into chaos.

I leap to my feet, reaching for the Star Disc in my weapons belt as I scan the clearing.

Calder stands across the fire. His hand is still extended from the throw, his expression stone-cold.

This is not the same kind, caring man who spoke to us earlier in the carriage. But at the same time, that exchange was real. At least, I thought it was. Riven thought it was.

And I can’t bring myself to kill someone who was so important to the man I love.

So instead of throwing the Star Disc at him, I channel my water magic into a shield and block his next attack.

“Behind you!” Riven yells, and I pivot as another guard lunges from the shadows.

His blade slices through the air where my neck had been a second before, his eyes gleaming with deadly intent.

A surge of energy races up my arm from the Star Disc.

Use me, it seems to be saying. Defend yourself. End them.

“For the true Winter Court!” another attacker shouts, and I don’t hesitate again.

The Disc leaves my hand, trailing stardust in its wake, and slices clean through the guard’s sword. The blade’s remains clatter to the ground as the Disc continues its arc, slicing through his chest and sending him crumpling to the ground before returning to my outstretched hand.

From there, the attacks continue in a blur.

I barely track the Star Disc’s movement as it cuts through one guard’s armor, then keeps its curve at the perfect pace to intercept another dagger.

Riven’s occupied with Calder, keeping other guards at bay with his air magic while his sword clashes with his mentor’s, the two of them exchanging words as they fight.

Before I can process what’s happening, Lira—Calder’s daughter—appears beside me, her frost-edged blade slicing through an attacker’s throat.

I ready the Disc to throw at her.

“The carriage!” she shouts a split-second before I throw, stopping a group of frost daggers from hitting me. “Now!”

Three more guards converge.

Lira turns to face them, frost crackling around her hands. “Go!” she screams at me over her shoulder. “I’ll hold them off.”

“No,” I snap at her, throwing the Star Disc at another guard who’s lunging to attack. “Not without Riven.”

I turn to find him in the chaos—and that’s when I feel it. The shift in the air behind me.

I spin and dodge out of the way just as Lira’s blade thrusts toward my back.

Her eyes have changed—cold, calculating, and merciless—and I use my air magic to force her blade out of her hand.

Three more guards approach from different angles. One is wielding daggers, another has a bow, and a third is… attacking the archer?

Is he on our side?

As I’m trying to figure it out, Lira strikes again. Her blade slices across my arm, burning cold, cutting so deeply that I cry out from the pain.

“Sapphire!” Riven appears between me and Lira in a blink, taking another blow that was meant for me.

Her dagger sinks into his shoulder instead of my heart.

But watching it—seeing his bright-red blood, feeling its warm splash on my skin, and smelling its sweet, familiar scent—might as well hurt me worse than her blade hurt him.

Because our hearts beat as one. Our souls breathe as one.

Ever since I brought him back to life, it’s sometimes impossible to tell where Riven stops and I begin.

White-hot anger rushes through my veins at the sight of someone hurting the man I love. I’m ready to destroy her… but his sword answers before I can, slicing her throat in one savage arc.

She drops without a sound, eyes wide, as if shocked the blade came from him. As she does, Riven’s gaze locks with mine. They’re wild, unhinged, and burning with a fear I’ve only seen once before: when I was dying in the Cosmic Tides.

Before I can reach for him, another guard charges. Kyler, who joked around with us during breakfast this morning, who started the toast to our marriage at the campfire.

As I’m preparing to throw the Star Disc, the guard who was helping me earlier raises his sword next to Kyler.

Is he helping me again? Do I trust him? Is he on my side? Or do I fight him? Will he turn on me like Lira did?

“Move!” Riven shouts as another blade flashes toward me.

His ice magic erupts in a devastating wave, impaling another guard through the chest .

And then, the world stops.

The sounds of battle cut off mid-yell. A guard lunging for me is frozen mid-air, his expression a twisted mask of hatred. Calder stands a few feet away, his blade raised, hatred etched across his features. Even the campfire’s flames are motionless as they lick against the now-charred meat.

Nebula and Ghost are the only other ones still moving, padding silently to our sides.

Riven stands at the center of it all, clutching the Stillpoint Compass. The dial is glowing faintly, its ticking soft and rhythmic—the only sound in this frozen world.

“We don’t have much time,” he says, his voice unnaturally loud in the eerie silence. “We have to take care of this. Now.”

Now that I have a moment to look at him, the guilt I find in his eyes is unbearable. It’s the weight of betrayal, of lost faith, and of a kingdom fracturing in his hands.

“This wasn’t your fault,” I tell him, even though I know it won’t be enough.

His gaze cuts to mine, his jaw tightening as he tries to hide the storm raging within him. “It was my fault,” he says. “Calder was my mentor. I trusted him. I trusted all of them. And look where it got us.”

He sweeps a hand around the frozen clearing, where guards stand locked in mid-attack, eyes wild with rage, determination, or fear .

“You had no way to know.” I step closer, reaching for him, feeling his pain through the bond. “They chose this. They chose betrayal. That’s on them—not you.”

He flinches as my fingers brush his arm, and my heart tightens as he steps away, turning his back to shield his expression.

“If we don’t finish this before the compass’s magic breaks, they’ll kill us,” he says, as if he didn’t even hear me. “We have to eliminate them all.”

“But not all of them attacked,” I remind him. “Some of them fought to protect us.”

“Maybe. But maybe they were just biding their time, waiting for an opening. Look at Kyler—he laughed with us this morning. Shared breakfast. And now?” He gestures at Kyler, frozen mid-lunge, his blade raised to strike me down.

“Every guard in this caravan was hand-picked by Calder. The only way we survive now is by ensuring none of them live.”

Dread pools deep in my stomach as I look around at the frozen guards. “If we do that, it won’t just be us defending ourselves,” I say slowly. “It will be an execution.”

Riven inhales sharply, as if the word is a dagger to his heart.

“Don’t think for a second that this is easy for me,” he says, his voice tight.

“This betrayal rips apart everything I believed about who I could trust, and my ability to judge who stands with me. But right now, the only thing that matters more than my pride, more than my judgment, and more than the guilt I’ll carry after tonight, is you.

And if protecting you means doing this awful, unforgivable thing, then I’ll bear that burden every day for the rest of my life.

Because I will always keep you safe. Always. No matter what it costs.”

I still, my heart fluttering at his words. But then my gaze shifts to Kyler, his face locked in furious determination as the guard who seems to have been defending me is raising his sword against him.

“I just wish there was another way,” I finally say, my heart hurting—or maybe it’s Riven’s heart hurting.

He moves toward me, his eyes begging me to understand.

“Turn around,” he says, gentler now, sorrow softening his voice. “Let me do it. Let me carry this burden.”

“But what if some of them weren’t going to turn on us?” I ask again.

“That’s not a risk I’m willing to take.” His jaw tightens, frost spreading across the ground where he stands. “Turn around. Please, Sapphire—I don’t want you to watch me do this.”

I flash back to a similar request I had of him weeks ago, when I fed from that night fae in the cave. I was so ashamed of what I was that I couldn’t bear the thought of having him see. And he accepted my request without question.

I might technically be the Winter Princess, but these are his people. His mentor, his friends, and his guards.

I owe him the same mercy he gave me.

“Okay,” I tell him, and then I add, “I love you.”

Something raw and vulnerable flashes across his features, and his magic ripples in response, ice crystals forming and melting on the ground between us.

“I love you more than anything else in this entire universe.” He lets out a shuddering breath, each second paining him more than I know he cares to admit.

“You’re not just the most important thing in my life—you’re the reason I have a life.

So please,” he says again, his voice breaking. “Turn around and let me finish this.”