Page 81 of Midnight Star

His other hand inches toward the hilt of his sword.

Eros steps closer, his voice smooth as silk, but as sharp as a blade. “You won’t just love him,” he tells me, enjoying this far more than he should. “You willonlylove him. He’ll be the sun in your sky, the stars in your night, and the air in your lungs. You won’t care if you live, if you die, or if you break, as long as it means you can be near him. You won’t loveanyoneother than him. You won’t even love yourself. And when he chooses another? The pain will be so intense that you’d rather die than live with knowing he wanted someone who wasn’t you.”

A cold rush sweeps through me, and I’m not sure if it’s from fear, or if Riven’s ice magic is reacting to whatever emotions he still has left for me. Because his grip on my hand is tight. Too tight. And when I look at him, his eyes are stormy with something I can’t quite place.

Not love. Not yet.

But at least it’s not ambivalence.

“What are you thinking?” I ask him, since this is the man I trusted with my heart. Whether or not he loves me back yet, I trust him to keep me safe.

“I’m thinking that I don’t know what the future holds,” he tells me, and there’s something almost painedin the way he says it—something that tugs at my soul. “But I don’t want to hate you. Because if you’re no longer here, and if it’s my fault, then I might hate myself forever, too.”

A sharp breath catches in my throat.

Because even though he doesn’t love me now, at least he doesn’t want me dead.

It’s a start.

“See?” I say to him softly. “You do care.”

“I care about the mission,” he corrects me, despite the flicker of uncertainty in his familiar silver eyes that wasn’t there before. “And about making strategic choices.”

“Is that all?” I challenge.

“Right now, I find you tolerable,” he adds, as if I should be grateful for even that. “I can trust you at my side. I believe that whatever’s coming next, we’ll keep each other safe. I don’t want that to change, and I’m going to make sure it doesn’t. For both of our sakes.”

“So, youdocare.”

Despite everything, I can’t help smiling.

He exhales sharply. “I said I tolerate you. Not that I care.”

“Tolerate, trust, want around, don’t want to kill—it sounds dangerously close tocare,if you ask me.”

His eyes narrow, but there’s no real bite to his glare. “You’re pushing your luck, Star Navigator. Unless you’d prefer that I take the lead arrow instead?”

I inhale sharply, my teasing dropping away. “You wouldn’t.”

“It would be best for both of us if I didn’t,” he says, and his thumb brushes against my wrist—almost absently, like he doesn’t realize he’s doing it.

I swallow hard, my pulse pounding beneath the spot where he’s touching me.

“This is all very moving,” Eros breaks in. “But tell me,Star Navigator—do you really, truly understand the weight of what the gold arrow will do to you?”

“You already told me what it will do.” I lift my chin, refusing to let him intimidate me—even though as a god, he’s rather intimidating. “And Riven already loves me. At least, he will love me again, soon. I can handle the gold arrow.”

“Can you? Because I’d like to paint you a better picture of your future.” Eros’s smile is razor-sharp. “Every time he touches you, it will feel like drowning and burning at once. Every time he pulls away, you’ll feel like your heart is being ripped from your chest. You’ll lose yourself so completely in loving him that nothing else will matter—not your mission, not your friend, not your family, and not even your own survival. Your love will be a curse. A poison that devours everything you are, until only a shell remains.”

The stream ripples at my feet, mirroring my unease.

Riven pulls me closer, and I lean into him, drawing comfort in the way his heart’s racing in his chest. It gives me hope. Because his steady presence is a promise of protection, even if that protection isn’t accompanied by love—yet.

“This won’t just be heartbreak,” Eros continues, and more lightning flashes across the dome, as if it’s angering him to see Riven and I standing so close. “It will be undying, unrequited, unbearable love. The type of love that will burn away at your soul and make you lose everything that makes you who you are and everything you could ever be.”

My breathing quickens, panic creeping into my thoughts.

“Are you ready?” Eros asks, drawing the golden arrow back in preparation to release.

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