He reaches for my left hand and traces my palm, as if he’s worshipping my existence with a single touch.
“As much as I’d love to stay here and revel in our whole cosmically bound, dangerously obsessed soulmates situation,” he says, seeming to get an immense amount of joy from the words, “we did come here for something.”
“Right,” I say, trying—and failing—to ground myself. “The Star Disc.”
We glance around the Tides, but there’s nothing here other than Cetus’s pile of sparkly stardust.
“Maybe we have to...” Riven focuses on it and trails off, grimacing slightly. “Dig through it?”
I wrinkle my nose, but nod in reluctant agreement. “It wouldn’t be the weirdest thing we’ve ever done,” I say, but as we’re about to reach into the glittering dust, the ground tremors, and the cosmic sand shifts, vibrating with an energy that seems to come from the core of the Tides themselves.
Riven draws his sword, staying close. I do the same with my dagger.
Ahead of us, the Tides part, revealing a shimmering tower rising from the depths of the abyss. It’s unlike any structure I’ve ever seen—a colorful turret made of crystallized starlight, stretching upward through the gap in the Tides like it’s trying to touch the sky.
Riven and I exchange a quick glance, and then we move as one, hurrying toward the tower.
There’s no door. Just an open archway that leads to a spiraling staircase that seems to stretch infinitely upward. So, we climb what feels like hundreds of steps, our joined magic swirling around us, until finally, we reach the top. We’re standing on an open platform beneath a domed, crystal ceiling, gazing up at the swirling cosmos above, infinitely vast and breathtakingly beautiful.
Riven exhales sharply, running a hand through his dark hair as he surveys the platform. “All right, Universe,” he calls out tothe cosmos. “We climbed your celestial staircase. Now, where’s our prize?”
I barely have time to roll my eyes before a streak of golden light tears through the night sky.
A meteor—or a falling star—hurtling straight toward us.
