“What are you doing?” Farron asks.
I turn to my brothers and hold each of their gazes. I know they can’t see my eyes, but they can feel it. The determination. The vengeance. “Kel sent her away.”
8
Dayton
Hesentheraway.Kel fucking sent her away.
Fury and despair mix inside of me. I can barely see straight through my ale-blurred vision, but I glimpse Ezryn. His metal body thrums with anger, shaking as if he’s about to jump out of his own skin.
He sent her away.
“So, she didn’t want to leave us?” Farron asks softly, the first whisper of hope I’ve heard in his voice in months.
“No.” Ezryn storms out the door. “Rosalina used magic to speak to me. I don’t know how. She said she’s been trying to find her way back to us.”
“Gods Below.” I tangle my hands in my hair, doubling over. Nausea roils in my gut.
“Get up.” Farron grabs me under the shoulders and the contact of his arms on my bare chest has me reeling. How long has it been since I’ve had him? My mind feels foggy. Weeks? Months? “Snap out of it, Day!”
He snatches something off a dresser, and suddenly I’m drenched in a spray of cold water. Well, that’s a shock to the system. I squeeze my eyes shut and take a deep breath. “Okay, okay.”
Farron and I dart into the hall after Ez. It’s harder to get around with the huge number of new briars that have grown in the last few months. Fuck the Prince of Thorns.
Ez is almost to the main staircase, taking strong, deliberate steps. He pauses as he passes a huddled Astrid and Marigold. “Grab the master’s clothes. I will not fight a naked man.”
Farron and I exchange a look before following Ez out the main castle door to the grounds. Immediately, I’m hit with a wave of sleet and cold wind. Winter’s last attempt at the coming spring. The clouds are so dark, I almost think it’s night. But of course, it’s not. I’m a man, not a beast.
We circle Castletree. I glance at Farron, and I’m pretty sure those are tears mixed with the rainwater on his cheeks. “Ez just threw Kel out a window, and you’re smiling?”
He wipes his face with the heel of his palm and grins up at me. “Rosie didn’t leave us. She doesn’t hate us. Aren’t you happy?”
I… I don’t know what to feel. Because I honestly don’t know what I’ve been feeling these last four months. In fact, I’ve been doing everything in my power to not feel at all.
Because when Kel returned without Rosalina, and I knew I’d never see her again… That pierced something so deep inside me I thought I was going to die. And equally heartbreaking was watching Farron. For the first week he didn’t read, didn’t do anything, just stared glassy-eyed at the wall. Then he started going over everything, every moment that may have led to her leaving us. I wanted to help him. Really, I did. But when he said stuff like that, the ache in my chest started to grow.
It’s better to feel nothing at all.
We round the corner and see Kel kneeling on the ground among the overgrown topiaries and briars. His long white hair falls in messy strands over his muscular shoulders. The Sword of the Protector lies untouched before him.
He’s a man.
I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen Kel as a man. He’s been the white wolf day and night since she left.
Not left. Since he sent her away.
Behind us, Marigold and Astrid scurry up, bundles of cloth in their arms. Ezryn grabs the fabric and tosses it at Kel’s feet.
Keldarion gives a long sigh. “Fuck.” Then he stands, tugging on a pair of thick leather pants and a loose black shirt.
Kel runs a hand through his wet hair, then stares at us all in turn. For someone who was recently flung out a window, he doesn’t look angry. Only exhausted, a bone-deep weariness.
Ezryn’s grip tightens on his black sword. Now there’s anger, and I can’t even see his goddamned face. “Why did you send her away?”
No expression passes across Kel’s hard features before he turns away from Ez, voice rough from lack of use as he mutters, “I did what you all could not.”
Ezryn grabs Kel’s shoulder. “You took away our choice. You took awayherchoice!”
