32. Sapphire
Sapphire
Grounding myself, I push back at the frost.
I’ll be no help to Riven if I try to do it with a broken heart. The pain will hold me back from being able to focus, to think, and to breathe. I’ll be worthless to him.
Miraculously, the ice creeping along my skin starts to melt. Not completely, but it’s a start.
“Sapphire.” Riven’s voice is soft but certain, drawing my attention back to him. “Look at me.”
I do.
The love shining in his eyes makes my chest ache. Because if he does this, that love will be gone, replaced by nothing but hollow memories.
“Do you remember the first trial?” he asks. “When you were in that frozen lake, trying to get the key?”
I nod, unable to speak past the lump in my throat.
“That’s when I started falling in love with you,” he says, and my heart stops at the realization that he’s confessing this truth so I’ll always remember it, even when he doesn’t. “When you emerged from that water, alive and triumphant, I knew you weren’t just a game anymore. I knew my feelings for you were real.” His expression softens, and he continues, “I wasn’t just coaching you through the whisper stone because I needed to keep you alive to get what I wanted. I was helping you because I couldn’t bear the thought of losing you. And when you surfaced—when I knew you were safe...” He trails off, shaking his head. “Everything changed.”
Tears well in my eyes, and I hate that I can’t stop them. Because I’ve never loved like this before. I don’t think I ever will. I’ve always believed in soulmates, and I know in the deepest part of my heart that Riven is mine.
“I’ll have a moment like that again,” he says with fierce conviction. “A moment when I look at you and everything shifts. When I realize that what I feel is more than attraction, or curiosity, or duty. I’ll fall in love with you again, Sapphire—I promise.”
The ice magic from our deal surges against my skin, demanding that I accept his words.
But I push back. Harder. Because he might believe what he’s saying, but belief isn’t certainty.
The frost recedes again, just slightly .
“You can’t know that for sure,” I say, somehow able to speak through the tears.
I want to run to him—to kiss him and remind him what he’s considering giving up.
And luckily, even though I can’t physically escape this rooted jail cell, breaking through it isn’t my only option.
So, I project, materializing in front of him.
His eyes widen in surprise, but before he can speak, I press my lips to his.
The kiss is desperate and demanding, filled with every ounce of love, fear, and need coursing through me. I pour my entire soul into it, willing him to feel everything I can’t put into words. The way he’s become my anchor, my reason, my everything. The way losing him—not physically, but emotionally—would destroy me in ways I can’t comprehend.
He responds instantly, matching my intensity with his own. His hands thread through my hair, pulling me closer, and the rest of the world falls away. Wind rushes around us, and it’s like we’re surrounded by a storm, standing in the peaceful eye of it.
Every memory, every emotion, and every dream of my future with him rages through me at once.
The spark that ignited between us when I first saw him across the bar. The gentle way he held me after I fell into the fae realm. The trust in his eyes when he opened his heart to me in the cave. The steady belief he had in me every time he taught me how to use my magic and my weapons. The safeness of his arms around me in the igloo. The conviction in his voice when he first told me he loved me. The confidence he had in me that I could successfully project myself across the universe to the Midnight Star.
All of it flows from my heart to his in a desperate attempt to make him understand the gravity of what we’ll lose if he decides to go through with this.
When we eventually break apart, his eyes are dark with emotion, his hands cradling my face like I’m the most precious thing he’s ever held.
“Don’t do this,” I whisper against his lips. “I can’t watch you forget how to love me.”
“I’ll find my way back to you.” His voice is rough with emotion, and the resolve beneath it makes tears well in my eyes again. “Because you’re not just in my heart. You’re in my soul.”
At his confession, the frost from our deal crawls back over my skin.
I fight it again, clinging to the fragile threads of hope that remain.
“No,” I say, my tears spilling freely now. “I don’t want to start over. I don’t want to lose you.”
“I’ll still be here,” he promises. “We have a long road ahead of us. Just think of this as a car breaking down and needing to take a detour. It delays the journey, but we can fix the car. We can make it even better than it was before.”
“I’m guessing you’re the car?” I ask, somehow managing to smile through the tears.
“Yes, I’m the car. But you’re the road I want to travel on for the rest of my life,” he says, and I commit his words to memory, so I’ll never forget them. “Even if I lose my way for a while, I’ll find my way back to you. You’re my compass, Sapphire. And you don’t just navigate the stars—you navigate my heart.”
When he’s done, I memorize every detail of his face and the way his hands cradle me so carefully, like he’s terrified of letting go. I memorize the sincerity in his voice, and the quiet, unshakable conviction in his promise.
If this is all I’ll have left of us, I will burn it into my soul so deeply that nothing in this world will ever be able to take it from me.
“How touching,” Chryserra’s voice cuts through our moment, sharp and cold. “But I’m growing tired of these dramatics. Return to your body, or I’ll kill it, and you’ll never see your winter prince—or anyone else you love—again.”
Panic grips me as I glance at my physical form, immobilized and helpless.
The roots constrict around it further, curling around my chest and throat. I see my own lips parting, gasping for air, and my fingers twitching in a reflexive plea for freedom.
It’s surreal to watch my own body being crushed while I feel nothing. Like watching a horror movie where I’m the victim, but only seeing it through a screen.
“Sapphire, please,” Riven’s voice breaks through my panic, rough and raw. “Go back. I will fall in love with you again. But if you don’t go back into your body right now, my heart will be frozen forever, and I will never, ever forgive you for it.”
I lock eyes with him, trembling under the weight of his words.
I don’t want to break his heart, like he’s about to break mine. I also don’t want to leave Zoey in the Night Court, with those dark vampire fae who are doing who knows what to her. I want to see Aunt Martha again, to let her know I’m safe. I even want Matt to know that despite my turning down his proposal, he’ll always be an important part of my past—which is saying a lot, given that he basically left me in the woods to die.
And I want to help Riven make this potion—not just because of our deal, but because I want to help him get his father’s sanity back, so he can have a family again.
On top of all that, Celeste trusted me with her star magic. She believes I can be a guiding force in ensuring Ambrogio and the Blood Coven never rise to power .
Riven was right that trading it away would have been reckless. Foolish. A sacrifice that might not have only weakened me, but one that might have thrown the entire world into darkness.
Would I have been able to go through with the trade?
I don’t think so. Because yes, my magic doesn’t define me. But this magic was entrusted to me. Keeping it safe is—and will always be—my responsibility.
Not to mention that there are others out there like me—other star touched. And I intend on joining them to stop Ambrogio, the Blood Coven, and the Revenants.
I love Riven with all my heart. And if I’m right that we’re soulmates, his promise to find his way back to me is one that will be impossible to break.
On top of all that, I’m not going to sit back and let a dryad crush me with a tree before I can make any real difference in the world.
So, I snap back.
Agony explodes through me. My skin’s rubbed raw, and every heartbeat is pure torture as my crushed lungs fight for air.
But just as quickly as the roots tightened, they loosen, giving me space to breathe again. And my body, with its supernatural healing, is already starting to repair itself.
However, nothing can stop the frost, which is swirling from my hands up to my elbows, demanding me to follow through with my deal to help Riven with the potion.
“Much better,” Chryserra says, looking me over in approval. “Now, about our deal...”
I glare at her through the tears pooling in my eyes. “You’re a monster.”
“So harsh.” She tilts her head, unaffected by the venom in my words. “And so inspiring that now, I’d like to add an addendum.”
Hope rises in my chest. She’s going to offer something else. She sees what she’s doing—the pain she’s causing—and she’s not enough of a monster to follow through with it.
“What?” I ask, although the coldness that crosses her eyes crushes every ounce of momentary hope I had.
“A deal revolving around love must be done properly,” she says, and she turns to Riven, her lips curling into a sly smile. “Therefore, I’ll only seal it with a kiss.”