“Do not degrade yourself because he took advantage of your kind heart,” Keldarion mumbles. “I should have shielded you from his darkness.”
I glance at the window. “They’re out there, Kel. Farron, Dayton, and Ez.” Tears pool down my cheeks. “We need to help them.”
“You drained yourself freeing us from the Below.” Keldarion sighs. “The revelry poisoned me. There is nothing I am capable of. I corrupt whatever I touch.”
“Start by standing.” I grip his shirt, trying to heave him up, but my arms are so weak and he’s so heavy.
“After what I’ve done? I’ve failed my realm, failed Farron. I’ve failed you. How can you bear to look at me?”
“I’m not looking at you.” I clutch his face. “Iseeyou.”
He tries to pull away, but I hold him firm. “No, listen. You pretend to hide in Castletree because you don’t care. But that’s not true. All you do is care. For the realm, for the princes, for me.”
“Do not paint me as a hero.”
“It is the truth of who you are. You came for me on the ice, then sent me away, even resisting our bond, to keep me safe. You’ve distanced yourself from your realm since you were cursed. Was it shame? Or were you afraid Caspian would turn his thorns upon Winter if you spent too much time there? You came to defend Autumn against a frost despite the accusations. And you let Farron make his own decisions, setting aside your own desires.”
“All that has only led us here,” he says.
“Where we can still make this right. They’re hurt and lost and frightened. Can’t you feel them? They need us.”
“My Rose,” he rasps, “if you only knew how selfish my wretched heart truly is.”
“Wretched or not, I know what your heart does best.” I drop my forehead to his in surrender. “Shelter those you care about.”
I kiss him gently, feeling my shattered heart blazing to life against his touch. His mouth opens to mine in a longing sigh. The fire grows. The bond between us stirs in pleasure and might. “Kel, my mate, you are the Protector of the Realms,” I say. “So protect them.”
65
Ezryn
Splinteringpainradiatesthroughmy shoulder as I collide with the massive brown wolf. Farron’s thrown off balance, and he sails through the air, landing in a cadre of assailing goblins.That’ll keep you busy.
My heart thuds in my throat as I scamper around, looking for Dayton’s body amongst the chaos. I find him bloody and gasping for breath. If I had gotten here a second later…
Farron would have ripped him apart.
Goblins ascend upon him and with a growl, I grab one and twist its neck until it snaps.Snap. Snap. Snap.Then I sink to my knees, blood and mud coating my armor. “I’m here, Day.”
His eyes look unseeing into the dark sky. Rattling breaths wheeze out of his throat, becoming shallower and faster, like the fluttering of a dying bird’s wings fighting to stay adrift. Distantly, I hear the clash of swords and screams of the wounded—goblin and fae alike. An arrow rings off my armor, but I ignore it, not even bothering to check if it is the crooked shaft and crude fletching of a goblin’s or the fine craftsmanship of the fae.
“I’m here,” I say again. Stars Above, the blood. It sputters out of his mouth with each breath. I need to work fast, but there’s so much going on. I barely have time to bring my hands to his chest before having to block a goblin’s sword with my gauntlet.
“Hold on, Day,” I growl as I crush my thumbs into the goblin’s eye sockets and drop its dead body. “I’m going to fix you.”
I need to stop his bleeding, but my magic feels so far away, trapped within the sick bark of Castletree. Even the most elaborate healing I’ve done before seems nothing compared to the chest of my brother, struck with arrows. I sit on my heels, blood flinging from my leather gloves as my hands shake.
All around is death, death, and more death. Fire rages, and the sickly smell of burning goblin flesh stings the air. Farron roars as an arrow sinks deep into his shoulder. From across the burned library, Princess Niamh lowers her bow and stares at him with hatred.
My vision tunnels to blackness. Everything feels muted and distant as Dayton’s gaze flicks to me. “Ez,” he gasps, voice barely intelligible, “I-I’m afraid.”
“Day.” I wrap my arms around my brother and heave him to my chest. Dayton is dying. Farron will be shot. And I will roast within my armor until I am nothing more than a charred skeleton upon this field.
Dayton’s blood splatters over me and I can’t help it: an inhuman scream tears out of my throat. I never wanted to hold the dying body of anyone I loved ever again. My gaze shifts up to Farron.Not Farron. The beast.
He asked me to kill him if he lost control. I failed my promise. Now, when the sun cuts over the horizon and the wolf retreats, Farron will have to live with knowing he caused the death of his beloved. He will have to stare into Dayton’s lifeless eyes and knowthe truth of his destruction.
It is a sorrow I would not wish upon my most hated enemy.
