Birdy begins to pace. “Yes … Yes. Lady O’Connell must die.”
“I will send my Penta Conclave after her immediately.”
Birdy makes an angry scoff. “Are you even more of a fool than I took you for? Spring must welcome you; you can’t have yourself appearing as a renegade if your men get caught.” She shakes her head. “I’ll do it myself.”
And that’s when I see it in the glint of her eye. Something deeper than wanting to break Ezryn. A traitorous glint.
She asked for Kairyn’s permission to slay Ezryn out of courtesy.
But she’ll do what she wants when the time comes.
A yawn escapes me. “Quite the plan, you two. So imaginative.”
“Something to say, Caspian?” Birdy shoots back.
I glide over to one of the shelves, start idly picking up the vials and shaking them for fun. The vein in Quellos’s head looks ready to burst. “I’m just curious how my little bird and her little dog are planning to assassinate one of the most powerful fae in the Vale. The Golden Rose took down our own dear Quellos, after all.”
“It will be quite difficult, mistress,” Quellos says. “Besides, High Prince Ezryn is in constant companionship with her.” The word comes out a slithering hiss. “She is more dangerous than she appears.”
Birdy throws her head back and laughs. “You think I’m afraid of that wretch? I’ve been waiting for this moment. I will tear her apart thorn by thorn, and Mother will thank me for it.”
My dear Birdy shows her colors, and aren’t they a vicious sight?
Quellos shoves me away from the shelves and reaches up on his tiptoes for a vial. “The mistress would do well to heed my warning. I, too, underestimated the fae woman. And now I am a servant to the Below instead of ruling over the Winter Realm as I deserved.”
Poor Perth has been in service to the Below for much longer than he realized. It was Mother after all who planted those little crowns for him to find. The crowns infused with magic of the Green Flame.
“Oh, shut it, old man.” Birdy rolls her big, blue eyes. “You’re lucky Mother saw any potential in you at all.”
“It’s that potential that might save your life.” Quellos tips the vial over and pours out a large yellow crystal. “If things don’t go as planned against the High Prince and the Golden Rose, you can use this as a contingency.”
I throw myself in the path between Quellos and my sister. The crystal gleams like a living thing. “You can’t be serious. That’s not a contingency. That’s suicide. This experiment devoured an entire unit of goblins before you contained it.”
Birdy shoves me out of her way and snatches the crystal. She holds it up to the light, examining it. “I won’t need it. Unlike you, big brother, I have follow-through. But I’ll take it … Just in case I want a little fun.”
Kairyn places a heavy hand on her shoulder. “Just the woman. Ezryn is to remain unharmed.”
“I will do my best,” Birdy says, flicking her hair behind her softly pointed ear. “Though if he interferes, there are some things beyond my control.”
My sister and the Spring Prince storm out of the laboratory, and Quellos returns to his rabid rat.
I stand quietly, thinking. Thinking. Thinking.
This is my little sister’s opportunity to prove herself to Sira, to finally make something of herself.
Rosalina has no idea what’s coming for her. If the Nightingale gets her way, both Rosalina and Ezryn will die tonight.
And it would be no fun at all if our little game ended so soon.
Sorry, sister.
I know what I have to do.
And I know I can’t do it alone.
49
Ezryn
Rosalina skips beside me, long hair flowing behind her, laughter echoing through the night. I take her hand and help her leap over the small creek running through the other side of Meadowmere. Dappled moonlight shimmers in from the tree cover and paints her skin with an ethereal glow.
It’s as if the forest were made for her, like it has been waiting all these eons for her arrival. See? We’ve bloomed just for you.
Although the foray with my brothers and our woman was not planned for tonight, it was a well-needed distraction. Watching Rosalina writhe beneath our combined pleasuring was a sight that will remain with me always. And it gave me the strength I needed to do what must come next.
Because Kairyn is right. I can’t forever hide away the sins of my past, who the High Prince of Spring truly is. Not from her.
After cleaning up, Farron and Dayton took the opportunity to sneak up to the monastery and see if there were any more clues about the missing Spring steel while Kairyn is distracted by the party. But I asked Rosalina to come with me. To walk under the hallowed boughs of Meadowmere Forest and out the other side to Sylvanita Lake.