Page 14 of Burning Star

“No,” I fight against the pull, focusing on Riven, trying to push past the haze that’s blurring my vision. “I need to go back.”

Why return to pain? To hatred?The Tides grow stronger, more insistent.The arrow’s poison still flows through your physical form. If you return to your realm, you’ll hate him again. Any progress you think you made here will be lost.

I struggle harder, pushing against the cosmic current.

And despite what he says, he’ll never truly love you,the Tides continue.Not with that piece of his soul missing. The emptiness is destroying him, eating at him, haunting him. You can’t fill it. You can’t save him from himself.

As they say it, I know it’s true.

Because even though Riven fell in love with me again, he’s still not whole. He’ll never be whole—not like he was before giving a piece of his soul to the dryad.

The Cosmic Tides can’t fill it. I’m not sure anything can fill it.

Stay with us. Become one with us,the whispers curl around me, their voices weaving through my mind.

My body feels light. Too light. Like if I stop fighting, I’ll drift away.

And then, the cosmic mist parts, and I’m not in the Tides anymore.

I’m standing behind the bar in the Maple Pig, laughing as I mix a drink for a customer.

Before I can finish, Zoey bursts through the door, her hair wild around her face, her smile brighter than I’ve ever seen it.

“Guess who got into NYU!” she shrieks, waving a piece of paper in front of my face. “We’re going to New York!”

“We?”my other self asks, the drink she’s making forgotten.

“The apartment I’m getting there would feel pretty lonely if I didn’t have a roommate.” She smiles slyly. “So, what do you say? New York or bust?”

Before I can hear my answer, the scene dissolves and reforms.

Now, I’m in a sunlit meadow in what looks like the Summer Court. I’m wearing a flowing blue gown, and Riven’s riding toward me on Ghost, with a smile I’ve only seen in our softest moments together.

There’s no ice in his eyes as he hops off his snow leopard and strides to my side. No tension in his shoulders. No frost coating his fingers.

There’s only pure, unbridled joy.

“Ready for this, Princess?” he asks, taking my hands in his.

We’re at some kind of ceremony—our wedding, but not the cold, transactional one we endured in that underground chamber.

This one is real. Wanted. Warm. Celebrated.

He leans down to whisper in my ear. “You’re about to be the luckiest princess in all the realms, because you’re going to have me for the rest of your immortal life,” he says, and I roll my eyes, because he’s as arrogant in that world as he is in ours.

In that world, he never gave up his love for you,the Tides murmur in my mind.You were never hit by Eros’s arrow. The two of you could simply be happy together.

I swallow down a lump in my throat, tears welling in my eyes as I see the happiness shining in Riven’s eyes as he picks me up, twirls me around, and kisses me.

He loves you, Sapphire,the Tides press down on me, pushing me, tempting me.And if you want that life for yourself, all you have to do is step into it and let go.

SAPPHIRE

As I grapplewith what the Tides are offering me, the wedding continues.

Riven—the one in the vision—reaches for me and tucks a stray piece of hair behind my ear.

“Do you feel that, Summer Princess?” he says with an effortless grin that makes my chest tighten. “The sun on our skin, and the wind in our hair? That’s happiness. That’s freedom. That’s our forever.”

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