Page 35 of Burning Star

The voices shift, hardening.

This love is doomed,they continue.You’ve seen the futures.

“We’ve seen possibilities,” I correct them. “Not certainties.”

“And we’re writing our own ending,” Riven declares, his frost magic spiraling outward to meet my water in a dazzling display of power.

The ship accelerates upward, driven not only by our magic, but by something deeper—raw power, bright and dangerous.

You cannot escape fate,the voices hiss, their whispers turning to screams as we near the boundary between worlds.

Riven’s laughter is sharp, cold, and beautifully defiant. “Watch us.”

His challenge hangs in the air, sparking across my skin like electricity, igniting a storm deep inside my veins. Our magic surges in response—not just water and ice, but air and starlight weaving together, entwining, caressing, and growing brighter with every heartbeat.

“We’ve already defied gods,” I say as the ship ascends, thunder booming around us, echoing the rush of adrenaline under my skin. “We’ve already broken curses. And we’ve already survived death.”

“And we’re only just getting started,” Riven adds, his grin feral, his eyes burning into mine with promises far darker, sweeter, and more dangerous than survival.

My pulse races as cosmic currents wrap around the ship, possessive in their hunger.

The deck tilts. The sails groan.

It’s too much.

The Tides are too strong.

But then my eyes lock on Riven’s, and every doubt burns away beneath the intensity of his gaze. His marked palm finds mine, fingers interlacing and gripping tightly, igniting a firestorm between us. Our souls merge as our magic does—every hidden craving, every denied need, and every unspoken longing poured into this shared surge of power, until it’s impossible to tell where mine ends and his begins.

When we’ve gathered all we can without breaking, Riven lifts his arm, his muscles rippling beneath sweat-slicked skin. He releases a beam of light from his palm, and a raw, primal sound rises from his throat as he pushes his power out into the abyss, a challenge aimed at fate itself.

“Go to hell,” he screams into the cosmos, his magic pouring from him unrestrained.

“Or whatever dark void you came from,” I say, breathless, extending my own hand as our light burns hotter than ever, swelling to something neither of us can control. “You don’t get to keep us. Not this time.”

Our power grows and gathers at the ship’s base, pushing it upward, as if fueled by everything we are to each other and everything we’ll be. The spectral wood creaks and shudders, as if it might break.

But we keep going. We pour everything we have into our connection, magic blazing through our veins as we drive the ship higher, our bodies trembling as we surrender to it completely.

The Tides grip tighter, pulling at us, desperate to drag us down and erase us from existence.

“Dig deeper,” Riven growls, his voice strained, his breaths coming faster as he forces everything he can into our entwined magic.

I instinctively do the same, and just as we’re on the edge of something impossible to control, our lighterupts,a shock wave pulsing outward from our joined hands, slamming up into the boundary between worlds with a force that leaves me gasping.

The barrier resists, stretching thin from our combined power, and then?—

Cracks.

The Tides scream their defeat as the wall between realms shatters into glittering fragments that burn around us like stars, leaving us breathless and victorious, standing together at the edge of infinity.

But we can’t bask in it. Because we’re not finished yet.

“Now!” Riven shouts, and we throw our air magic at the spectral sails, releasing a final burst of it to push the ship through the opening we’ve created.

We break through the barrier with so much force that I’m nearly thrown off my feet. But Riven’s arm wraps around my waist, anchoring me to him as the ship surges forward into air.Realair. Not the heavy, timeless atmosphere of the Tides, but crisp, clean air.

Behind us, the barrier collapses, a blinding supernova of cosmic energy that bathes the ship in celestial light as the Tides shatter into stardust.

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