The weight of it settled between them. The border confrontation made more sense now. Malus's barely contained rage, his threats, his refusal to let her go despite the political complications. She wasn't just a human he owned. She was the key to something bigger.
"What does he need your power for?" she asked. "What's he planning?"
Eliam's hands tightened on her shoulders, then released. He stepped back, running a hand through his hair in a gesture of frustration she rarely saw from him.
"I don't know," he said.
The autumn marks at her throat rustled, responding to something. A shift in the air, a change in temperature. Briar's hand went to them automatically.
"We tell the others tomorrow," Eliam said, his voice settling back into that controlled authority. "We will figure out what he's planning and how to stop him. But right now…" He moved to her, pulling her to her feet. "Right now you should rest."
"I don't think I can," she admitted. He said nothing, his hands were already working the laces of her dress. She didn’t stop him from undressing her, enjoying the warmth of his touch as she let him guide her into the sleep shirt and then let him pull her into bed with possessive care. His arms wrapped around her, solid and warm, and the warmth in her chest settled, recognizing its other half.
"Sleep," he commanded, pressing a light kiss against her hair.
Tomorrow they would figure out what it meant. What Malus wanted with it. How to keep him from taking it.
Chapter twenty-three
Something pulled her from sleep. Not sound or touch, butcold.
It as the biting kind—winter air against bare skin, stone beneath her feet where smooth wood should be, wind that carried the sharp scent of snow.
Briar's eyes opened to darkness punctuated by soft blue light.
Standing stones rose around her, tall as trees, carved with symbols that glowed with steady azure luminescence. The border. She was at the border of the Star Court, the same stones they'd crossed fleeing from Malus, and she had no memory of how she'd gotten here.
Her heart stuttered in her chest. She was barefoot, wearing only the thin sleep shirt Eliam had dressed her in. Overhead she could see white drifting down from the sky.
Snow.
The first snow of winter. It would have been enchanting if Briar wasn’t so confused. What was she doing outside and why was she standing so close to the edge of safety?
She tried to move back, to turn around, to run, to do anything, but her body wouldn't respond. Her feet stayed planted, her weight already shifting forward, preparing for that final step.
No.
Panic flared hot in her chest. The warmth pulsed frantically, trying to push back against whatever held her, but it was weak, exhausted from the day's trials. Her foot lifted, bare toes pointing toward the invisible line between safety and—
Movement in thesnow beyond.
A figure stepped into view between the standing stones, and her blood turned to ice that had nothing to do with the temperature.
Malus stood just beyond the border, snowflakes catching in his copper hair, his dark coat pristine despite the weather. He looked exactly as he had at their last confrontation—immaculate, composed, terrible in his beauty. But his eyes held something different now. Hunger. Triumph.
He smiled and extended his hand toward her, palm up, beckoning.
"Come here, dear one," he said, his voice carrying across the distance with unnatural clarity. "You've kept me waiting long enough."
Her foot moved forward another inch. The autumn marks at her throat were burning now, pulling her toward him with inexorable force. She could feel the compulsion wrapping around her like invisible chains, dragging her step by step toward the border.
"No, please," she tried to say, but her mouth wouldn't form the words. Her body belonged to the bargain, and the bargain belonged to him, and he was calling her home.
Another step. Then another. The blue glow of the standing stones washed over her skin, and she was so close now she could see the individual snowflakes falling beyond, could see the way Malus's breath misted in the frozen air.
"That's it," he murmured, his voice like honey and poison. "Just a few more steps. Come to me."
The warmth in her chest was screaming now, raging against the compulsion with everything it had left. Golden light flickered beneath her skin, trying to manifest, trying to stop her, but the autumn marks squeezed tighter in response. She couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. Couldn't do anything but walk.
