Page 64 of Midnight Star

“I would watch my entire court crumble before I’d let any harm come to her,” he says without pause.

“You don’t mean that,” I say, unable to fully process the weight of his words.

“I assure you that I do.” He focuses on me so intensely that the rest of the world falls away. “You’re touched by a goddess, Sapphire. But you’re more than that. You’re the only person who’s ever seen me—not the prince, not the ice-wielding fae—just me. And you didn’t run. You stayed. Even when I tried to push you away, you stayed. I didn’t think I was capable of love until you proved me wrong.”

My heart pounds, his words wrapping around me like a storm I can’t escape—one that I don’twantto escape. All I can do is feel the raw, concentrated truth of his love pouring over me like a wave.

“Riven,” I say, wanting to show him my heart as much as he’s showing me his. “I came back to this realm because if I never saw you again, I’d regret it for the rest of my life. And then, in that cave, I saw you. Not the prince, not the warrior, and not the heir to a frozen kingdom. I saw therealyou. Now, you’re the only person who’s ever made me feel like I belong. With you, I don’t have to question whether I’m enough. You’ve taught me that I’m more than what fate carved me into. And I couldn’t walk away, even if I tried.”

“Promise me you’ll never try,” he says, his voice so full of emotion that it leaves me breathless.

“I promise,” I say, desperate to break out of this rooted cage and reach out to him. To hold him. To anchor myself in the storm of everything we’ve just laid bare.

But before I can try, Chryserra’s voice cuts through the air like a knife.

“How sweet,” she says, and the roots around Riven and me shift again, tightening just enough to remind us of her control. “Such pure, powerful love. A love so strong it defies the nature of a winter fae.” She reaches out as if to touch Riven’s face, but stops just short. “I want to feel it.”

My stomach drops. “What do you mean?”

“A trade,” she says, smiling at me in a way that makes dread curl through my body. “I’ll give you the sap you need, in exchange for the love he feels for you.”

Sapphire

“No,”I tell her, my chest tightening with panic. “You can’t just take something like that. You can’t takehis love.Or my love. Oranyone’slove.”

“I absolutely can.” Her smile turns sharp and predatory. “And if you want the sap, I will.”

The roots encasing me tighten in a silent warning.

Across from me, Riven tenses, his eyes locked onto Chryserra with lethal intensity. Even now, trapped by magic that resists our powers, he’s waiting for the right moment to strike.

“There must be something else you want.” His hands flex at his sides as he tests the roots that bind him, as if sheer willpower alone might break them. “The Winter Court has vast resources. Name your price—gold, jewels, magical artifacts. Anything you want. It’s yours.”

“I have no need for material things.” Chryserra stepscloser, weaving effortlessly through the tangled vines and glowing leaves. “I want to experience impossible love. I want to feel how a heart born of frost can love so fiercely, especially for something made of heat and starlight.”

No.

The word slams through my mind like a violent tide.

The roots shift again, this time around Riven, pulling tighter against his chest like they’re eager to claim him.

He grits his teeth, but he doesn’t flinch. He doesn’t break eye contact with Chryserra. Still, I see the tension in his jaw, and the way his fingers flex, as if reaching for a weapon that isn’t there.

“And if we refuse?” I ask the nymph, although I already know the answer.

“Then you leave empty-handed.” She shrugs, the movement causing a few leaves to drift from her shoulders and fall to the ground.

“There has to be something else you want,” I plead, and the roots shift again, pressing into my ribs.

“There isn’t,” she says again.

Riven launches into more propositions, offering anything and everything, grasping for something that might spare us from this choice.

Think,I tell myself as he throws out idea after idea, searching for ones of my own.

Then, it comes to me.

I could give her my magic. Not all of it, but part of it.

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