Page 16 of Burning Star

He’s broken. And he’ll break you again. He’ll always bring you down with him. There’s no running from it. No escaping it.

I look down at my hands, and panic spikes up my throat. Because the edges of my fingers are dissolving into static, little pieces of me disappearing into the cosmic void. My body is being ripped apart, every molecule fighting to stay together as the Tides try to scatter me across the universe.

“Riven!” I call out to him, but my voice is lost in the chaos. “Help me.”

He remains crouched over my body, his fingers curled in the fabric of my shirt like he can physically force my soul to return. His breathing is erratic, his body’s trembling, and his eyes are wild and wrecked. His lips move as he whispers something in my ear, but the words are lost beneath the howling rage of the Tides.

Then, he slams his fist into the ocean floor.

Ice explodes around him—sharp, jagged spears that blast outward in a wave of grief and rage. Frost races across the ground, climbing up the void around us, consuming everything in its path.

It’s the raw, unchecked power of someone who’s coming apart at the seams.

And I’m the one destroying him. Because if I let the Tides take me to one of those other realities, I won’t just be choosing a different life. I’ll be abandoning this Riven—myRiven. I’ll be leaving him alone with the knowledge that he failed to save me. That I gave up on him.

That I didn’twanthim.

The thought shatters my heart. Because I will always, always want him. And no matter how many other versions of him exist in the universe, the one who’s wrecked and broken, crying over my lifeless body on the cosmic ocean floor, is the only one I care about.

And then there’s Zoey, trapped in the Night Court, waiting for me to come for her. She’s counting on me. Who will rescue her if I’m gone?

If you return to your world, you’ll be trapped in the cycle of pain,the Tides scream into my mind, louder than ever.

I plant my feet, reaching for the core of my magic.

“I’m not here to run,” I tell the Tides, my voice rising above their howling rage. “I’m here to save my world. To lovemyRiven. To rescuemyZoey. And you’re not going to stop me.”

I summon every shred of magic I have left and reach for my body, ready to snap back to it.

My vision goes black. I’m unraveling faster, my projection tearing apart, ripping through me until I can barely breathe.

“Riven!” I scream, but the darkness presses in, leaving me with the terrifying realization that I might be lost forever, trapped in the space between worlds, unable to return to the people I love.

RIVEN

She’s gone.

I feel it—not just in the unnatural stillness of her body, but in something deeper. Something soul-crushingly empty.

It’s the absence of her. The suffocating, unbearable void where she’s supposed to be.

My arms tighten around her, my body curling around hers like I can shield her from the cosmic forces that claimed her soul.

“Sapphire.” I shake her, harder this time, unwilling to give up. “Come back.”

There’s nothing.

The Tides took her from me. They ripped her projection away, swallowing her soul right when she was supposed to return. They stole her and left this pale imitation behind, taunting me with her lifelessness. She physically healed at the same time I did—after she killed Cetus—but the life that’s always radiated out of her isn’t there anymore.

“Don’t leave me,” I whisper, burying my face in her hair, inhaling her sweet scent of summer rain, torturing myself with the memory of her warmth. “Not like this. Notever.”

Still nothing. Just the shallow rise and fall of her chest and the pallor of death creeping across her smooth skin.

Ice cracks through the cosmic sand—my magic surging, uncontrolled and unchecked. Unraveling. Because how the hell am I supposed to control myself when she’s not here to anchor me?

I trace every detail of her face—every feature I’ve loved from the first moment I saw her. The delicate arch of her eyebrows. The gentle slope of her nose. The soft curve of her lips—lips that should be smiling or screaming or kissing me senseless, not still and lifeless like this.

I don’t know if I’m memorizing her or worshipping her.

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