Page 16 of Broken Star

Resent slams into me so violently that I nearly stumble.

But it isn’t just resentment—it’s grief. It’s the unbearable ache of remembering the way he looked at me when he actuallysawme. The pain isn’t just for the past, or for the love he threw away, but for the way he stands here so casually, as if he never cared in the first place.

But somehow, I force my feet forward, moving closer to the man who ripped out my heart, threw it into a fire, and stood to the side as it burned to ash.

Lysandra nods approvingly when I approach, either unaware or not caring that each step I take forward hurts more than the last.

“It’s time to begin,” she says, and when she raises her hands, the pool at the center of the chamber glows brighter. “Face each other.”

Riven’s expression remains unreadable, blank as ice, his hands curled slightly at his sides. He doesn’t react. Doesn’t shift. He doesn’t betray a single emotion. Not even when I step into place in front of him and meet his apathetic, empty gaze.

How am I standing in this place, marrying the prince who broke me? And how is he standing right in front of me, barely seeing at me, pretending like this means nothing? LikeImean nothing?

This can’t be real.

And yet, somehow, it is.

Lysandra shifts in place, pulling me out of my spiraling thoughts, and my attention moves to her.

“Water,” she begins, and as she speaks, I feel like I’m here butnotat the same time, “is the element of connection. Of bonds. Of paths carved through stone and mountain until two streams become one.”

Droplets rise from the pool’s surface, floating midair like stars caught in suspension.

“Water is the element of memory.” Her voice is softer now, but no less powerful. “It does not forget. It carves its truth into the land, into time, and into the souls that enter it. Which is why the bond will be recorded within the strongest currents, engraved in the trenches of the deepest seas, and carried forever in the hearts of those who submit to its power.”

Memory.

The word almost chokes me.

Because Riven has forgotten. And I have to live with the memories of the past, while promising myself to a cold, empty future.

“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 to 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.”

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