“Tell me what?” I ask.
“What I showed him the night before he made that little bargain with you.” Sira claps her hands together. “Or what the Fates showed him.”
The Fates. I had ventured to them only once. Ancient creatures that dwelled in the deepest depths of the Below. Perhaps they came from the Above like our ancestors, or more likely they’ve been here since the dawn of time.
Some described them as beautiful, others wizened and old. All I saw were shadows of time and space.
What had Cas gone to them for?
Caspian turns to Rosalina. “The Fates showed me you.”
Rosalina doesn’t say a word, but her eyes move between us. I know that look. She’s thinking, always thinking. But there’s nothing we can do. No way out of this. Perhaps I can find a means to petition for her safety. Why would Caspian even help me save her if this was his plan all along?
“What do you mean, you saw Rosalina? She wasn’t even born.”
Caspian shrugs. “The Fates show threads of the future. I saw your life with her. Your mate.”
“So, you crafted a bargain to trap his mate,” Farron spits out, face scrunched in agony. “You are despicable, Caspian.”
I feel hollow, wrung inside out, my whole body numb. I know how it ended with him. His betrayal. But before that … The bargain…
Hadn’t that been real?
I glance down at the frosted thorn bracelet, and I almost believe it will wither away.
“Oh, poor Keldarion.” Sira worries her bottom lip. “He truly believed the lie.”
“Idiots, all of them.” Caspian smiles. “I told you, Mother.”
“I loved you,” I growl, lunging toward him. The shadows grow taut around my wrists.
“Sure.” Caspian rolls his eyes in that infuriating way of his. “Believing that was your first mistake.”
“There are so many mistakes regarding you.”
Caspian prowls over, closing the distance between us. “And with this so-called love, you preached to your people how I seduced you, how I corrupted you and used all that dark magic of the Below to lure you into its depths. All so you could keep your precious throne.”
“You betrayed me,” I growl.
His eyes narrow to catlike slivers. “Who was the first one to bring an army into the other’s realm?”
My gaze involuntarily slides to Ezryn, still clawing at the ground, but thankfully Caspian is too distracted to notice. “It doesn’t matter. We both burned together, didn’t we?”
“Speak for yourself, Kel. I’m not the one who hasn’t had sex in twenty-five years. Was I really that hard to get over?”
I lunge, the shadows giving slightly, so I tower above him. “I would never subject anyone to the likes of you. Especially Rosalina.”
“Oh, she looks like mine right now. All wrapped up in shadows.”
Rosalina shrinks back, a look I haven’t seen on her since she first came to the castle. “P-please, don’t hurt us.”
But in my mind, another voice filters through, strong and confident. Keep him distracted, Kel.
I don’t risk a second look at her.
“It’s you who can’t let go, Cas.” I spit out the nickname. “Haunting my castle. Obsessing over my mate.”
“Of course, I would want to watch my greatest enemy fall. I’ve always loved a spectacle.”
The air is cold around us, and the shadows tighten.
“You say I am powerless to let you go, Keldarion.” Caspian’s voice becomes a whisper. “Then answer me this. Why haven’t you killed me? Why haven’t you even tried? You never loved me, but you still can’t let me go.”
Power erupts from Ezryn, and all the decayed briars at our feet burst back to life as full, living vines.
Despite the distance to Castletree, he found a path to his magic. A path to save us.
“Rosalina!” Ezryn bellows.
My mate doesn’t look scared or frightened. She just looks mad. Rosalina shoots out her hand and screams. The briars at my feet rustle and move under her command and wrap up around me.
And I’ve never been so happy to be tangled in thorns.
60
Rosalina
Briars writhe beneath my touch, wrapping around each of the princes.
You’re on your own now. It had taken me a moment to catch Caspian’s meaning. But I understood when I saw Ezryn trying to revive the thorns.
The thorn bracelets helped me create briars, but I never needed them to control thorns that were already present.
And the last time I was in the Below, I could summon the magic, despite being so far from Castletree. Bits of magic had found their way through, changing Dayton into his wolf, letting Ezryn revive the briars. But my connection to the thorns feels stronger than ever.