“Join hands,” Lysandra commands, and before I can register what’s happening, Riven’s fingers close around mine—icy and unshaken, just like him.
Pain slams into me with the force of a tidal wave, and suddenly, I’m not here anymore. I’meverywhere, the world blurring around me as memories of his touch shatter my heart all over again, sharp and merciless, dragging me under until I’m struggling to breathe.
His fingers tangled in my hair, tilting my chin up before he kissed me like he would never let me go.
His hands gripping my waist as he pulled me closer, his lips at my ear, whispering my name.
His arms around me, promising he’d never hurt me.
And then…
His back turned. The sound of my heart shattering as I watched his love for me melt into nothing.
As if he knows I’m close to breaking, his grip tightens slightly. Just enough to keep me in place.
To force me into the hollow future neither of us want.
He tilts his head, just a fraction, glancing down at my hands. His expression doesn’t change, but I know him. I see the shift behind his eyes.
He’s testing me.
And I will not give him any more control over me than he already has. Not even through the crushing wave of heartbreak, grief, and betrayal that steals the breath from my lungs, drowning me in memories that nearly make me collapse from the sheer force of their weight and devastation.
Not even when I’d rather see the anger in his eyes when he learned I was half vampire instead of the indifference in them now. Because at least the anger meant he cared. At least it meant hefelt something. That his heart was more than an empty, hollow shell.
“Now,” Lysandra says, and the water droplets suspended in the air begin to move, forming twisting, fluid patterns that defy gravity itself. “Speak your vows. Let the water bear witness to your truth.”
Riven goes first, his grip on my hands firm and effortless, like none of this affects him.
Meanwhile, every second of contact makes it harder for me to breathe through the crushing pressure in my chest.
“I vow to honor this alliance between Winter and Summer,” he says, precise and calculated, each syllable chosen for maximum political impact. “To uphold the duty placed on us. To sacrifice what must be sacrificed, and to ensure that the balance of the universe doesn’t falter.”
Something inside me fractures with each sentence he speaks.
“I vow to keep you alive,” he continues, holding my gaze so intensely that it’s like he’s daring me to break more than I already have. “No matter the cost. And no matter how much you might hate me for it.”
The water surges, reacting to his truth.
I want to scream at him. I want to make him understand how devastating it feels to have someone tell you they love you and then twist those words into cruelty minutes later.
Because despite his pretty words, he’s not vowing to love me. He’s notcapableof loving me. How could he be, when he never loved me in the first place?
He said it himself when he broke my heart at the dryad’s tree—he loved the things I did for him. He never lovedme.
And that’s what hurts most of all.
Lysandra gives him an approving nod, then turns to me. “It’s your turn, daughter.”
My body locks at the word.
And before I can stop it, the magic tightens around my throat, forcing honesty from my lips whether I want to give it or not.
“I vow to fulfill my part in this alliance,” I say, sharp as steel, as unyielding as the agony the lead arrow carved into my heart. “To help save the mortal realm, the Summer Court, and the Winter Court from what’s coming.”
I should stop there. Keep it political, like he did.
But the magic pulls the truth from me, merciless in its quest to make me lay my soul bare, even as I try to fight it.
