Page 39 of Golden Star

“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, andsoon.

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 Ican’tlie. “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.

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