He responds by pressing me against the ground, his body covering mine as his lips trail down my throat.
Around us, the battlefield remains locked in its deadly moment of frozen time—hundreds of corpses-to-be suspended in their final moments—but Riven’s focus is singular, almostdangerous in its intensity, as if I’m the only thing tethering him to sanity.
“I almost lost you,” he whispers against my skin. “When you couldn’t snap back to your body, all I could think about was that moment in the Tides when you almost went to that other version of us, the one where we were happy and free, without any ofthisto worry about.” He motions around the battlefield, but his grip on me tightens further, as if he’s afraid the memory might snatch me from his arms simply from mentioning it.
“I’m not going to leave you,” I promise, praying to get through to him, to make him understand. “I’ll never leave you. You’re the onlyyouI ever want. I love you, Riven. Always.”
My words soften the sharp lines of tension in his face, but something shadowed and turbulent still burns in the depths of his silver eyes.
“We have ten minutes before time resumes.” His gaze locks onto mine, pupils blown wide with desire. “I can show you how much I love you in less than ten minutes, Starlight. Right here, right now, where the world can’t take you from me again.”
Before I can protest, he’s kissing me again. It’s so intense that it’s bordering on frantic, like a man starved, convinced this is the last chance he has to feel me.
“Riven, no.” I push against his chest, but he’s stronger, his muscles tense with urgency. “We can’t. Not here. Not now.”
“Why not? Time is frozen. No one can see us. No one can stop us. It’s just you and me and?—”
“And hundreds of corpses!” I snap, finally managing to create some space between us. “Look around us, Riven. Really look.”
His breath shudders out in frustration, his eyes squeezing shut, as if he can’t bring himself to look. When he finally opens them, his jaw clenches so tightly it looks painful. It’s like he’s fighting an internal battle more violent than the war aroundus, and we stay there like that for a few tense seconds as I do everything I can to push reason through the bond.
His breathing remains ragged, his pupils dilated with need.
It’s not working.Howis it not working? How is he so consumed with desire that all he can think about is wanting to be intimate in the middle of a frozen battlefield? Where’s the Winter Prince I fell in love with, who would be preparing me for whatever might happen when time resumes?
“Riven,” I say his name quietly, unwilling to give up on him. “We’ll have time together later. But here, in this moment… we can’t.”
Slowly, his breathing steadies, focus filtering back into his expression.
“You’re right.” His voice shakes with effort as he lifts himself off me, his fists clenched at his sides, frost crawling across his hands. “I just… when you couldn’t come back to your body and I thought I was losing you, it felt like I was losing myself, too. I couldn’t let that happen. Not again. Never again.”
“We’re both alive. We’re both here. That’s what matters.” I reach up to touch his face, feeling the tension coiled in his every muscle as he leans into me, like he’s clinging to a lifeline between sanity and madness. “And it’s probably best not to join the Night Court Battlefield Slaughter Club anyway,” I add, trying to lighten the mood with a weak smile.
Instead of the smirk and witty response I expect from him, he glances back down at the Stillpoint Compass, his jaw tight, shadows remaining behind his eyes. “Less than five minutes,” he says, his tone steady but quiet, as though counting down to the moment when he might lose himself to his own darkness.
I rise slowly, straightening my clothing, taking a deep breath to settle myself as we stand side by side.
He does the same, his arm grazing mine in the process and sending another rush of longing through the bond.
“I love you,” I tell him, taking his hand and giving it a small squeeze.
“I love you, too. More than anything.” His voice trembles slightly on the last word—an unspoken reminder that he’ll cross any line if that’s what it takes to keep me by his side. However, he quickly switches gears, strategizing what to tell his knights when time resumes.
There he is—my Winter Prince back in action.
Worry continues to knot my stomach as he talks, but at least this time, I got through to him. As for next time… that’s a problem to deal with after we win this war.
A minute later, the world explodes back into motion.
Bodies fall like rain. The night fae we marked for death hit the earth with wet thuds, their hearts burned through, their necks severed. The ones still airborne that I sliced through with my Star Disc plummet from the sky, their screams dying in their throats before they can form.
The winter knights, still poised mid-strike, stumble to a stop, their expressions flickering from confusion to shock. They look around wildly, weapons raised, and chaotic chatter erupts.
“What the hell just happened?” one of them calls out, eyes wide with disbelief. “Where did they?—”
“By the gods,” another of them breathes, his sword trembling in his grip.
“Impossible…” says another nearby.
