Page 11 of Burning Star

I liein Riven’s arms, my body betraying me with every labored breath.

He shifts, just enough to press his forehead against mine, and it’s that movement—that closeness—that makes it unbearable. Because his blood is everywhere. It’s soaked into his sleeve and smeared across his fingertips, mixing with my own where my hands clutch his shirt.

The scent of it wraps around me, making my throat burn. It would be so easy to taste him. To drink deep and let his magic fill me.

But if I start, I won’t stop. I’ll drain him dry.

I’ll become the monster I saw in the visions, standing over his lifeless body, covered in his blood.

And I won’t let myself become her. I refuse.

So, I give in to the heaviness in my lids and let my eyes flutter closed.

“Sapphire.” Riven’s voice is rough, like the words are being torn from his throat. “Open your eyes. Look at me.”

He sounds so raw. So desperate.

Somehow, I force my eyes open to meet his stormy silver ones, reaching up to trace my fingers over his bloodstained cheek.

“I think this is it,” I whisper. “The vision. This is what we saw. Us, dying here, together.”

Riven’s jaw tightens, and something shifts in his expression.

“I love you,” he whispers the words I never thought I’d hear from him again. “I should have said it sooner. I should have said it a thousand times. I love you, Sapphire Hayes. In every timeline, in every vision, and in every possible future—I love you.”

The words hang between us, and my magic stirs, creating a gentle current that circles us both.

“But the dryad—” I start, pain shooting through my heart as I remember the empty look in his eyes after he traded his love for me away.

“The dryad took a piece of my soul,” he admits, his grip on me tightening. “But the moment Eros’s arrow struck you—the moment I realized how close I was to losing you—I started falling in love with you all over again.”

My throat’s so tight I can’t speak. I can only watch him, listen to him, and break with him as he continues to talk to me.

“My love for you has always been inevitable. I knew it from the moment I saw you behind that bar on New Year’s Eve.” He releases a hollow, broken breath. “And when I saw that vision—me, alone on the throne—I realized I didn’t want a future where you weren’t in it. I’d rather die here with you than live a thousand years without you.”

My vision blurs with unshed tears, and despite my injuries, my water magic stirs, as if it’s crying right along with me.

Riven loves me.

I should have known. Maybe I did know, deep down, in the way he kept choosing me, even when it tore him apart.

But hearing him say it, broken and wrecked as we bleed into the sand together, unravels something in me that I’ll never be able to piece back together.

“I love you, too,” I whisper, and his eyes flutter shut, like the words physically undo him. “I think I started falling for you the moment you rescued me from that monster in the Winter Court forest, when you showed up with Ghost, looking like an avenging ice god. Even when I hated you for making me go through those trials, even when I was furious at you for letting Zoey get taken—a part of my heart was already yours.”

Riven’s eyes widen slightly, his fingers tracing the lines of my cheek as I somehow keep going.

“When you held me in the cave after that storm, that’s when I knew for sure.” Each word drains me further, but I need to say them, before it’s too late. “And even after you gave up your love to the dryad, and even after Eros’s arrow made me hate you... I never stopped loving you.”

His breath catches, and frost blooms around us in delicate, intricate patterns.

I reach up, my fingertips tracing the sharp line of his jaw, wanting to memorize every inch of him. “Even at your coldest, when you were trying to push me away, you were still there, protecting me.Lovingme,” I continue. “I see you, Riven Draevor. Not just the Winter Prince who can destroy kingdoms, but the boy who found a snow leopard and made him family. The man who will do anything to save his father. Even those dark, broken pieces of yourself that you try to hide—I love all of it. Because I love all ofyou.”

Something cracks in his expression, like I’ve touched the part of him that has always been beyond anyone’s reach.

“Sapphire—” His voice breaks on my name, and he pulls me closer, one hand tangling in my hair.

When his lips find mine, it’s desperate and tender—a kiss that tastes of blood and tears and salt. It’s devastating in its intensity, both of us pouring everything we have left into this one moment, knowing it might be our last.

---