Page 52 of Stolen Star

“Watch out!” I scream as the edge of the cyclone catches Riven’s shoulder, fire licking across his sleeve.

He stumbles, hissing as he uses his water magic to douse out the flames. His pain shoots through the bond—hot and sharp—before he clamps down on the connection between us again.

I thrust my hands forward, channeling a blast of air into the heart of the fiery vortex and parting it like a sea.

“Get through now!” I shout to Riven, and he dives through the gap, rolling to his feet on the other side and shooting a blast of ice at the monster’s whip mid-swing.

Frost spreads across the fiery weapon, and the creature screeches as the flames dim, cracks forming along the whip’s length.

“It’s working!” I call out to Riven, gripping the Star Disc tighter. “Keep it frozen!”

Riven pours more winter magic into the whip, frost spreading further along its burning surface. His expression is focused—but there’s a wildness in his magic now. A quiet fury in every movement, as if the power he wields is the only language he has left to express how desperately he’ll fight for me.

The creature roars, attempting to reignite its weapon, but the flames flicker weaker than before.

Spotting an in, I send the Star Disc spinning through the air, slicing the whip clean through, severing the weapon at its base.

Fragments of it scatter across the stone, hissing and smoking as they die out.

“Now!” I shout to Riven as the Disc returns to my hand, humming with satisfied energy.

With his sword coated in ice, Riven charges forward, ducking under the monster’s desperate swipe with its remaining arm. His blade sinks into a crack in its chest, ice spreading from the wound like frostbite.

“Die,” he growls, and as he twists the sword deeper, the bond opens again, stronger than ever.

I’m nearly thrown off my feet by the tidal wave of fierce, raw emotion that promises he’d rip the world apart and challenge fate itself to ensure my safety. It’s so overwhelming that I can’t focus onanythingelse around me. All I can feel is his love burning brighter than a thousand stars, strong enough to reshape reality.

Then there’s the darkness creeping along the edges, threatening to inch its way through his veins and destroy every part of him that cares about anything other than me. It’s like his devotion is bringing out the weapon forged in steel and frost he’s been training to become for his entire life, built to destroy anything that gets in his—and now my—path.

Maybe he wanted to dull the bond to ensure its sheerforce didn’t hinder me in the fight rather than help me? Given how crushingly intense it is right now, I don’t think I can blame him for it.

As he continues to throw everything he can into the attack, the monster thrashes, its molten skin hardening as Riven’s ice overcomes its internal fire. And then, with one last defiant screech, the creature crumbles to stone, the light in its coal-red eyes fading to nothing.

Riven yanks his sword free, turning to me with triumph blazing in his stormy eyes, power coming off him in waves. “One down?—”

A scream cuts him off.

We spin around to see Maeris caught in the second monster’s whip, flames wrapping around his torso like a fiery serpent. The creature jerks the summer warrior off his feet, pulling the whip tighter as Maeris’s body ignites.

The smell hits me first. Burning flesh, char, and magic unraveling all at once.

“No!” Thalia screams, unleashing a torrent of water at the monster. Steam explodes upward, but when it clears, Maeris is still burning, his agonized cries echoing through the crater.

I’m already running, Star Disc ready. “Hold on!” I scream as the Disc leaves my hand, cutting through the air and slicing through the whip in a burst of stardust.

The monster stumbles backward.

Maeris—or rather, what’s left of Maeris—collapses to the ground, his blackened body crumbling to a pile of ash.

I stare at the place where he fell, my pulse thundering, my legs suddenly too heavy for me to move. I try to breathe, but it’s like the heat has stolen even that.

This is what we’re up against. This is what it means to be unprepared for just a second.

I swallow down the bile threatening to rise in my throat as I continue to stare at the pile of ash.

“Maeris!” Thalia falls to her knees beside the remains, her eyes burning with unrestrained fury as she turns to face the monster that killed her soulmate. “You,” she hisses, water gathering around her like a storm, “will pay for what you’ve done.”

The monster cracks its remaining whip, its eyes glowing with malevolent intelligence as it prepares for another attack.

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