“Rosalina!” five voices yell.
An explosion of magic hurtles toward me. Salt-crested wind knocks the creature back, followed by a whirl of fire, a slash to its gut—and then it’s like we’ve been transported to the Winter Realm. A torrent of hail and ice spreads over the creature’s tail. It shrieks and I fall.
Then a thorn wraps around me, holding me up. Gritting his teeth, Caspian leads the vine down toward him, and instinctively I wrap my arms around his waist, grateful to be on solid ground again.
I feel something beneath the folds of his tunic, the shape of a familiar notebook. “You keep this with you?”
He glances across the battlefield, gaze landing on Farron. “I never know when I need to add something to the ‘Things That Make Me Happy’ page. I was going to add man-eating rat weed, but—”
“Planty Ratty!” Dayton yells, slicing deeply into the creature’s back.
“Well, now I’m reconsidering my stance on Planty Rattys.” He smiles, and even crusted in black goo, it’s a beautiful sight.
His gaze drops to my mouth, then to my wrist, and I realize I still haven’t let him go.
“Now is definitely not the time or place,” I mean to sneer, but it comes out a breathy sigh.
He raises a dark brow. “But battlefield kisses are your speciality. Must be the rot on my lips. Fear it may ruin your complexion?”
The ground shakes, and we fall apart. I half land in the lake. The creature has Caspian now, wrapped in its tail. The second tail that grew after Farron’s flaming attack now has the Autumn Prince tight in its grasp.
Dayton’s chest is smeared with blood. Ez and Kel fight side by side, holding the monster back, trying to rescue Farron and Caspian. And Kairyn has not risen since Caspian struck him.
My heart pounds in my chest, and I clutch my fingers into the soft earth. Where is my power? The power of the golden roses? It saved us against Lucas, it saved Dayton in Castletree, and it can save us now.
It would be great if I knew how to summon it. Every time, it’s felt like exploding from within. The cries of the princes and horrible sounds of the monster fade away as I dig deeper and deeper and deeper. I grit my teeth, ignoring the call to the thorns on my wrist. There is another power within me. One that allows me to make briars of my own. To make the golden roses. If I keep reaching…
Darkness engulfs the grove, then the entire world. A darkness so immense it blocks out the stars and the light of the moon. It spirals inward, condensing into the shape of a woman.
Long, black hair drips down her back like spilled ink, and she wears a dress of night, tipped with spiked metal shoulder plates. Her beauty is like a moonlit graveyard, unsettling in its etherealness. There’s no color on her pale cheeks, though jewels crest all the way up her long, pointed ears. Upon her head lies a dark crown with seven spikes.
My blood turns to ice and I go completely still, afraid to even breathe. She doesn’t look my way. Instead, she walks toward the monster. Ez, Kel, and Day have all stilled their attacks, stepping backward. I see, in the careful movements, they’re trying to make their way toward me.
“Sira,” Dayton mouths.
Sira.
So, this is the Queen of the Below.
She tilts her head, regarding the situation with a look of benevolence. And when her gaze passes over me, I feel very much how a little mouse must feel when the shadow of a great owl flies above.
“Honestly, Caspian,” she says, voice dripping with disappointment, “how embarrassing this must be for you, my darling baby boy.”
Fear flashes on his face, more vibrant than when he’d stared at the monster. It’s gone in a moment, replaced with a stony expression hidden by black-rimmed lips and eyes.
The rat monster lunges for her, but she sticks her arm into its mouth, as casually as one might slip a hand beneath an ocean wave.
The creature stills instantly, then convulses. Farron and Caspian wave back and forth in its tail.
Keldarion grabs me tight around the waist, his necklace in his hand. “The moment we get Farron, we retreat to Castletree.”
Dayton has moved to the creature’s other side, close to Farron, and I see Ezryn make his way toward his brother.
Sira’s attention is only on the monster, but I have no doubt she knows exactly where each of us is. The plants forming the creature’s legs ripple before disintegrating into black rot. Darkness sweeps the rest of its body in an instant, and the entire frame of the monster dissolves into a shadowy puddle.
Caspian and Farron fall to the ground. Sira shakes her arm, covered to the forearm in rot, and waves her other hand. A trail of shadows wraps around her arm before dissipating, leaving her skin clear.