15. Sapphire

Sapphire

Riven’s jacket is heavy and lined with fur, warming me up quicker than I imagined possible.

“Better?” he asks, as on-guard with his sword as ever, assessing me like I’m an unsolved mystery.

I nod, pulling the jacket tighter around myself. “Much.”

He exhales, pacing the room as he runs a hand through his dark hair. “You wouldn’t even be in that damn tower if you hadn’t come back,” he says, sharp and condescending. “What were you thinking? We made the deal to leave. But you got around the deal.”

“Zoey figured out the loophole,” I tell him. “Not me.”

“How?”

“She realized that you only said I had to stay in Presque Isle for a year. You didn’t say whether that year had to be in consecutive months, or all at one time. Which meant it was open to interpretation.”

“Your human friend thinks like a fae,” he says, sounding decently impressed by it.

“Zoey’s smart.” I shrug. “It didn’t take her long to figure it out. Plus, aren’t you supposed to be experienced at wording these deals? Shouldn’t you have made sure it didn’t have any loopholes?”

“There are always loopholes,” he says. “Some are more obvious than others, but they’re always there.”

“Then it sounds like you underestimated me,” I say.

“I figured you’d be smart enough to stay out of a realm where anyone or anything you came across would want to kill you.” He scoffs.

“It was only supposed to be for a bit. I didn’t expect to be attacked so quickly like that,” I shoot back. “That thing—the Wendigo—sneaked up on us out of nowhere.”

“Wendigos are stealthy,” he says. “It’s next to impossible to hear them coming. They eat humans, and they like to play with their food. The beast was toying with you. Otherwise, your human friend would likely be dead right now.”

“She has a name,” I remind him. “Zoey.”

“I don’t care about your human’s name,” he snaps. “I have far more important things to worry about. ”

“Like summer fae teleporting into your bedroom?” I ask.

He narrows his eyes, and I prepare for him to raise his sword again.

“You shouldn’t have come back to this realm for me,” he says instead. “I assume you think that kiss between us meant something? That I secretly wanted to see you again?”

“You really think I came back here for you?” I ask, enraged by how insanely cocky his is.

“I was the highlight of your visit,” he says simply.

“I came back for my bracelet,” I snap. “I had it on me when I came to this realm, and it was gone when I woke up the next morning.”

He blinks a few times, taking a few seconds to process what I told him.

“Let me get this straight,” he finally says. “You last saw this bracelet when you came to my realm. You didn’t realize it was gone until waking up the next morning in your realm. Which means it was gone for hours. And you believed you could track it down and find it?”

“I took a pretty good tumble in those bushes.” I shrug. “I thought it was pretty likely that it could be there.”

“And was it?” he asks. “There?”

“I don’t know,” I tell him, glaring at him. “We got attacked by that Wendigo before we finished looking. ”

He watches me as if I’ve lost my mind.

And honestly, maybe I have.

“Look,” I say, desperate now. “I’ll do anything you want. Just let Zoey go free and get her back to the human realm. Please.”

“Anything?” He raises an eyebrow.

“Yes. Anything.”

He’s silent for a moment, contemplating it.

Say yes, I think. Please, say yes.

“Why’s this human girl so important to you, anyway?” he eventually asks, and while it’s not the yes I hoped for, at least it’s not a no.

“Zoey isn’t just my best friend,” I say quietly, my heart hurting at the thought of her freezing to death in that tower. “She’s practically my sister. We’ve been through everything together.”

He raises an eyebrow, clearly skeptical, and waits for me to continue.

“We were kids.” I pull his jacket tighter around myself, as if it can protect me from the cold memory. “It was a camping trip for a classmate’s birthday. Zoey and I didn’t really know each other back then, since she’s a year younger than me, but everyone at school liked her. After sunset, she wandered over to a nearby lake that had frozen over. I followed, since I’d always been curious about her. She was so fearless, and outgoing, and adventurous. Everything I’m not. But she went out too far. The ice broke under her.”

Riven doesn’t say anything, but his eyes narrow slightly, like he’s trying to imagine it as I tell him what happened.

“She fell through,” I continue, the memory of that night as vivid as ever. “I called for help, but we were so far that I had no way of knowing if they heard or not. And there was no time to go back. So, I crawled on the ice to her and saved her.”

“How did you save her?” he asks, more interested now.

“I don’t know,” I admit. “It just sort of… happened. One moment she was drowning, and the next, I’d pulled her up onto the surface.”

“You used magic,” he decides.

“Probably,” I say, since the more I think about it, the more I believe that’s what happened that night. “But magic or not, we’ve been inseparable since then. She’s my family. I’ll do anything if you let her go free and make sure she gets safely back to the human realm, as soon as you possibly can.”

As I make my request, I’m careful about my wording. After all, asking him to set her free won’t be enough. Freeing her from that tower won’t guarantee safe passage home.

She needs to get back there safely, and soon .

Riven watches me for a long moment, his silver eyes piercing in that cold, assessing way of his.

Again, I pray to the universe that he’ll say yes. That he’ll care.

“I’ve never had anyone like that,” he eventually says. “No best friend. No one to pull me out of the ice if I fall through. The only person who ever loved me is dead.”

I blink, caught off guard by his sudden shift in tone.

Is he being vulnerable?

Is the ice prince warming up to me?

“She’s the only person who’s ever truly cared about me. Everyone else…” He glances out the window, as if the moonlight holds answers, then returns his focus to me. “They care about power. Control. They care about what I can give them, or what I can take away from them.”

Throughout what he’s saying, one word rings through my mind.

She.

A girlfriend? A wife? A soulmate?

Whoever it was, he’s speaking about her in the past tense. Which means they either broke up, or she died.

“No need to look so sullen,” he says, back to being as callous as ever. “The woman I’m talking about was my mother.”

“I’m sorry,” I say. “My mom isn’t in my life, either. ”

“It’s because your mother knew you were different,” he says. “She left you. She chose to not be in your life.”

His words sting.

Mainly because they’re probably true.

“It happens a lot with changelings,” he continues. “The mother can tell there’s something off about their baby. That it’s not truly theirs. So, they drop them off with someone else and leave.”

My chest tightens at the hard truth behind his words.

“Who did she drop you off with?” he asks.

“My aunt,” I admit, since there’s no point in lying. Especially because I can’t lie. “Her sister.”

“Your aunt must be tough, to be able to raise a fae child,” he says.

“Yes,” I say without hesitation. “She is.”

Suddenly, I’m prouder of Aunt Martha than ever.

Riven steps closer, his eyes fixed on me in that intense way that makes my heart race.

It’s the same way he looked at me last night in the forest, before he kissed me.

“Would you really do anything to save Zoey?” His voice is a soft, dangerous whisper now, his eyes locking onto mine as if he’s trying to size me up.

“Yes.” I don’t hesitate. “Anything.”

The world narrows to just the two of us, standing so close that I can smell the frost and pine clinging to his body .

There’s a challenge in his eyes. Something dark and alluring.

Something that intrigues me and scares me at the same time.

Before I can comprehend what’s happening, he leans in, his breath brushing against my skin.

“Then let’s see how far you’ll go,” he says, and then his lips are on mine, and he’s taking my breath away just like he did last night.

His kiss is slow and deliberate, his lips firm but coaxing. Heat rushes through me, burning away the cold that settled in my bones in that tower, and all I’m aware of is him as he pulls me closer, his hand sliding to the small of my back.

Every nerve in my body is electrified, and I respond to him with a hunger I didn't know I possessed. This kiss is everything I wanted when he dropped me off at my house last night.

His lips are demanding. Teasing. Drowning out any type of rational thought. The world fades around us, and all I want is more.

I’m only half aware of my fingers clutching his shirt, and then he’s slowly pushing me back, toward the bed.

But then, as he presses me down onto it, the truth slams into me with brutal clarity.

This isn’t some passionate connection. He made that clear last night .

This is him pushing me. Testing how far I’ll go.

“Wait.” I pull back, trying to get some air to help me think straight.

“You said you’d do anything to save your friend,” he murmurs, his breath cool in my ear, his nose brushing my cheek. “Are you going to prove it?”

My stomach drops.

Out of everything he could have asked for in exchange for helping Zoey, this is what he wants?

Of course it is. After last night, I shouldn’t be surprised.

Recently, a lot of men have been asking me for more than I’m willing to give.

“No,” I tell him, as firmly as I did when I rejected Matt’s proposal. “This isn’t what I want.”

“Sapphire…” He leans in again, but I press my hands against his chest, stopping him.

I don’t want him touching me.

I don’t want him near me.

And then, suddenly… he’s gone.