Page 38 of Golden Star

“It was only supposed to be for a bit. I didn’t expect to be attacked soquicklylike 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 foryou?”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 inyourrealm. Which means it was gone for hours. And you believed you could track it down andfindit?”

“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, andadventurous. 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.”

“Howdid 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.”

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