SAPPHIRE
“No,”I tell her, my chest tightening with panic. “You can’t just take something like that. You can’t takehis love.Or my love. Oranyone’slove.”
“I absolutely can.” Her smile turns sharp and predatory. “And if you want the sap, I will.”
The roots encasing me tighten in a silent warning.
Across from me, Riven tenses, his eyes locked onto Chryserra with lethal intensity. Even now, trapped by magic that resists our powers, he’s waiting for the right moment to strike.
“There must be something else you want.” His hands flex at his sides as he tests the roots that bind him, as if sheer willpower alone might break them. “The Winter Court has vast resources. Name your price—gold, jewels, magical artifacts. Anything you want. It’s yours.”
“I have no need for material things.” Chryserra steps closer, weaving effortlessly through the tangled vines and glowing leaves. “I want to experience impossible love. I want to feel how a heart born of frost can love so fiercely, especially for something made of heat and starlight.”
No.
The word slams through my mind like a violent tide.
The roots shift again, this time around Riven, pulling tighter against his chest like they’re eager to claim him.
He grits his teeth, but he doesn’t flinch. He doesn’t break eye contact with Chryserra. Still, I see the tension in his jaw, and the way his fingers flex, as if reaching for a weapon that isn’t there.
“And if we refuse?” I ask the nymph, although I already know the answer.
“Then you leave empty-handed.” She shrugs, the movement causing a few leaves to drift from her shoulders and fall to the ground.
“There has to be something else you want,” I plead, and the roots shift again, pressing into my ribs.
“There isn’t,” she says again.
Riven launches into more propositions, offering anything and everything, grasping for something that might spare us from this choice.
Think,I tell myself as he throws out idea after idea, searching for ones of my own.
Then, it comes to me.
I could give her my magic. Not all of it, but part of it.
Which would I want to keep? Air, or water?
“My star magic,” I say softly, and all eyes go to me. “If you could project, you could explore the world beyond your tree.”
The roots tighten, as if reacting to my words.
Riven’s body tenses.
“No,” he snaps, his eyes flashing with something more than anger—fear. “Your magic was gifted to you by a goddess. If you trade it away, you’ll never get it back.”
“You’rethe one who told me that my magic doesn’t define me.” My voice is firm, unwavering, even as the roots pulse against my skin. “But love? Love is something that’s built. Fought for. It’s not something that can be reduced to a bargain.Not because it makes me whole, but because it makes memore.It reminds me that I don’t have to stand alone against the darkness. And besides,” I add, my eyes locked on his, “I’ll still be me. And I’ll still have my air and water magic. I’ll still be able to fight. I’ll still be able to stand. And I’ll have you by my side as I do.”
His jaw tightens, his muscles tensing against the roots that bind him.
“I will not let you trade away something that was gifted to you by a goddess,” he insists, not breaking, even in the slightest.
“You don’t have toletme,” I counter. “Because it’s not your choice to make.”
His gaze darkens, but he doesn’t fight me. He looks like he wants to, but he doesn’t.
I take a deep breath and look to the sky, praying that Celeste can hear me.Please understand,I think, but I get no response.
