Page 82 of Broken Star

Then—

We collide.

I don’t know who moves first. I don’t care.

Because suddenly, she’s in my arms, and I’m inhaling her, consuming her, burning for her.

The kiss is a battle. A war. A devastating crash of past and present, love and rage, heartbreak and want as her hands fist my shirt, her grip desperate and clinging.

I can feel how much she needs this. How much she needsme.I feel it in the way her breath hitches as my fingers tighten on her hips. I feel it in the way her body presses closer, like she’s starving for something, like she’s trying to drown out the future with the only thing we have left—the now.

But she doesn’t realize that she’s the only thing keeping me from sinking, too.

And so, I crush her harder against me, my hands sliding into her hair, pulling her closer as if I can fuse her to my soul. Like I can burn this moment into my bones, so I’ll never lose it again.

“Sapphire,” I whisper against her lips, and the way she shudders against me destroys me. The way her breath catches, and her fingers tighten, like she’s afraid I’ll disappear if she lets go.

But I won’t.

Because I refuse to lose her ever again.

“I’ve missed you,” she breathes, and I kiss her harder, my heart pounding so hard it feels like it’s trying to break free before it freezes over again.

“I’m still here,” I promise, and I press my forehead against hers, my breathing uneven, my hands shaking where they hold her. “I’ve always been here. And I know you have, too.”

And then she’s kissing me again, and I’m pulling her under with me, and time stops existing.

Because I don’t care that we’re on a spectral ship lost to the Tides. I don’t care that she’ll hate me when we leave this place. I don’t care that I’ll never deserve her.

Because right now, Ihaveher.

And I’ll take every single second of it before fate rips it away from me again. Because for the first time in days, she’s looking at me like I’m something other than a mistake. And for the first time in my life, I’m letting myself believe it.

But then, as if the Universe is determined to destroy the one good moment we’ve had since that cursed dryad’s tree, the ship lurches, the air around us shifts, and a new vision unfolds.

I barely register the moment Sapphire turns from me and gasps.

Because in the vision, she’s standing over two lifeless bodies, her dagger raised and dripping with blood.

Her face is streaked with crimson, her hands stained with it, her expression hard, cold, and unreadable.

And at her feet?—

Zoey.

And me.

Dead. Motionless.Gone.

The air leaves my lungs, ice crackling at my fingertips as the truth settles over me like a death sentence.

Sapphire is going to kill me.

And I don’t know why, but I feel like that version of myself is going tolether.

Sapphire

The vision floods my senses,drowning me in its unbearable weight.

---