My stomach drops. I whip my head up, hair flying in my face, trying desperately to find Caspian’s gaze. But he’s not even looking at me. No, no, no. Certainly he doesn’t mean now. Not here. Not in front of the princes of Castletree.
Sira waves an uninterested hand.
“Rosie,” Farron calls out, eyes wide, expression frantic as he struggles against the shadows. “Rosie, what did you make a bargain for?”
“For this.” Firm hands grab me, and suddenly I’m pulled flush against the Prince of Thorns. Then his lips are on mine. The kiss is rough and quick. He pulls away near instantly, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand as if to rid himself of the taste of me.
“We can consider the bargain fulfilled,” Caspian says.
But I can’t form words, my lips trembling. I’d barely been able to think about what a kiss with the Prince of Thorns might be like, but I had never imagined that. Like merely touching me disgusted him.
A distraught agony filters through my bond. I’m not sure if it’s from Keldarion or Farron. It’s Kel’s gaze I catch first. Anger is clear on his face, but it’s not directed at me or even Caspian, but at Sira. Ezryn is rigid as stone. Farron looks lost, confused. His eyes flash. “Dayton!”
“I’m going to fucking kill you!” Dayton snarls, voice low and feral. He surges forward and changes, body rippling into that of the golden wolf.
Shadows grab him from mid-air, sending him slamming to the earth hard enough to crack the stone. The Summer wolf growls and spits but cannot break free.
“Day,” I gasp, my voice trembling with tears. What trace of magic had allowed him to transform?
Sira eyes him curiously. Is this the first time she’s seen one of the beasts of the Briar?
“Save your strength, Daytonales,” Keldarion orders, not taking his gaze from Sira.
The Summer Prince gives a low whine and submits.
Caspian rolls his eyes, then easily restrains the wolf in shadows. He leans in close to me, tucking a piece of hair behind my ear. “Say the bargain is fulfilled, Rosalina.”
My gaze flicks to my thorn bracelets. Without them, I can’t make my own arrows, can’t protect myself. Can’t save the princes. But what choice do I have? I can’t even use them now, trapped beneath Caspian’s shadows.
I meet the Prince of Thorns’ violet-flecked gaze. “The bargain is fulfilled.”
A jolt surges through me, and a burning sensation shoots along my arms. The bramble bracelets uncoil, then drop by my feet. A small, thin thorn falls from Caspian’s wrist.
Caspian looks to the thorns, then back up to me. “Guess you’re on your own now. Just like the last time you were here.”
Unbidden tears slide down my cheeks at the loss of the thorns.
“I thought it would be quite amusing,” Caspian runs a hand through his hair, “to bargain a kiss from Keldarion’s mate. Didn’t think she could get in too much trouble making a couple of extra briars, figuring the castle he keeps her in is already covered in them.”
“The Golden Rose,” Sira purrs. “Is that how she got the nickname? From using your magic, my son?”
“Those simple Autumn folk will turn anything into a song. Give them a rock, they’ll call it a diamond. Give them briars, they’ll call them roses.”
“Hmm, you are certainly rash. You should have informed me of your plan from the start. But you’ve always had a clever mind when it comes to bargains.” Sira snatches his wrist. “Like that perfectly wicked one you devised for the Prince of Winter.”
59
Keldarion
Caspian looks at me, and his expression is so raw, it’s like I’m back at Cryptgarden all those years ago when we first said the words of our bargain.
But those were words meant for whispered breath, not to be spoken aloud.
“A deep regret I shall suffer always,” I growl, the frosted thorn bracelet on my wrist seeming to dig into my skin.
A twisted smile spreads up Sira’s mouth. I’d always known that darkness ran in her veins, but for a while I’d hoped it had not passed to Caspian. But seeing them together, it’s a wonder I ever believed that. The same inky black hair, the depth of their violet eyes, the grace of movement.
“You should have broken the curse when you had the chance, Kel,” Caspian purrs. “Now you all belong to me, instead of just her.”
Rosalina whirls, cheeks flushed and stained. “What do you mean?”
“She doesn’t know?” Sira chirps happily, looking as pleased at this news as she did when she was about to set her shadows on Ezryn.