Page 6 of Midnight Star

Ghost nuzzles me with his head, as if sensing my distress, but it doesn’t matter. Because my heart’s racing, and I’m frozen in place, as if one wrong move will make the ground fall out from under me.

Breathe,I tell myself.Calm down.

But I can’t.

Not while I’m watching Riven’s thumb trace the dark angel’s bottom lip.

She lets out a breathy laugh that makes my heart stop. “Well?” she purrs, her eyes locked on Riven’s. “Are you going to seal our deal?”

She glances at me and smirks, clearly getting a rise out of this.

I say nothing. I won’t stoop to begging. I won’t give him the satisfaction of knowing he’s hurting me as much as I hurt him. Because keeping my secret from him was something I did out of fear, or shame, or something of the sort.

It wasn’t out ofspite.

His other hand moves to her shoulder, steadying her as she tilts her head back in what looks like mock submission.

Every fiber of my being screams at me to look away.

But I don’t. Not even when his lips get so close to hers that the blood drains from my face.

The Riven I knew—the one I spent all that time with in this cave, the one I fell in love with—wouldn’t do this to me.

Unless it was all a lie?

Could he have been playing with my heart this entire time? Could he actually be the cold, heartless prince Ibelieved him to be when he first brought me and Zoey to court to face his father? Was I naive enough to ever think anything else? To fall for his twisted games?

To believe he’dfallen in lovewith me?

I hold my breath, the air eerily still as I wait for the moment of truth—for him to press his lips against the dark angel’s and tear my heart from my chest.

“No,” he finally says, pulling back. “We’ll seal it the more conventional way. With a handshake.”

With that, I can breathe again.

He looks at me over his shoulder—really, trulylooksat me—and there’s a surprising amount of vulnerability in his eyes. Enough that it brings me back to when we were alone in this cave during the storm, which now feels like a distant fairytale, despite having only ended a few hours ago.

My heart warms.

The love between us might not be lost. The Riven I thought I had by my side—the one who I believed would fight on the same team as me no matter what—is still in there.

I’d thank him for not going through with kissing her, but I know better than to thank a fae. Not even a fae who might possibly love me.

“How gentlemanly of you,” the dark angel says to Riven, snapping me back to the present. “Although I’mnot sure how I can shake your hand while mine is encased in ice.”

Riven says nothing. Instead, he simply reaches forward and presses his fingers against the ice imprisoning her hand.

Frost crawls away, the ice cracking and shattering until her fingers are free.

“There,” he says. “The countdown will begin once the deal is sealed.”

She flexes her fingers slowly, as if savoring her regained freedom. “So considerate,” she says, although he doesn’t rise to the bait.

He simply takes her hand in his and repeats the terms of the deal.

“I agree to your terms,” she says, and frost blooms between their joined hands.

The deal seals with a crackle, then sinks under their skin, the ice disappearing completely.

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