“Run!” I yell again.
Lucas steps forward. “Oh, she’s not going anywhere.”
A great wall of ice grows, closing us in. Trapping her.
Frost creeps up my neck, and I gasp for a final breath.
I wasn’t strong enough to save her.
86
Rosalina
This…Thisiswhatit’s all led to?
I heave in a shaky breath and spin in a circle. Lucas’s magic encases us on all sides, Autumn’s blue sky shut out behind the thick ice.
He stands before me, changed and mutated from the man I once knew. But he’s not unfamiliar. It’s like his outside finally matches the inside.
My princes are trapped in here with us, their bodies frozen, their pain and fear visible even within the ice.
It really has all led to this.
I’m exactly where I was eleven years ago, trapped beneath the ice, with only Lucas.
“I didn’t want it to come to this,” he says, his voice all jagged edges. “But that crazy ice faerie gave me a second chance. So, I saved you from those beasts. Saved you again.”
I glare at him through my tears. “You didn’t care about me then. You don’t care about me now. It’s always been about what makes you feel powerful.”
He gives a cruel laugh. “I don’t need to feel powerful. Iampower.” He flexes his fists, green fog lacing through his fingers. “I’ve always known it, and now I’ve proven it. Even those beasts couldn’t defeat me. Is this what you wanted? To play the role of adventurer, of princess? Fine. Stop fighting and play pretend with me.”
Stop fighting. It would be so easy just to follow him, to be his shadow once again. To give up this foolish idea that I have any say in my world.
But that’s not who I am anymore; my princes taught me that. And I proved it to myself. My men stand around me, silent sentinels of ice. I rise, trying to feel for the connection of the briars on my wrists. When I saw Lucas, the magic seemed to ebb away from me, lost within my wild fear.
But there’s no other choice but to find it now.
Power surges through me, and two thorns break free, tearing through the hard earth and striking up at Lucas like hissing snakes. The sharp briars tear at his arms, ripping past fabric. Black blood leeks from the wound. Black blood like the goblins.
He grimaces at me. I take careful steps, not taking my eyes off him. My briars are alive, coiling up my arms.
I send another thorn-shot up at him, aiming for his head. But this time he’s ready, catching it with fingers covered in ice claws. The entire briar crystallizes then shatters.
“What foul magic is this?” I spit. In all my research, I never read of magic that could rival the High Princes of the Enchanted Vale. A sinister smile creeps up his face. Green mist curls around the crown.I need to break that damned thing.
I place my hand behind my back and grow a single sharp thorn, then launch myself at Lucas. Vines wrap around my legs, propelling me higher. I scream, bringing the thorn down on the green crystal.
Lucas doesn’t have time to react, and I strike true. The thorn connects. For a single heartbeat I’m suspended in the air—my thorn pressed to the crystal—and my vision fades to black. The world spins upside down, and an image appears before me.
A woman, writhed in shadows, black hair swirling around her like tendrils of smoke. She kneels in a cavern made of massive green crystals. Her hands are splayed out, and her voice echoes in a terrible incantation. She’s calling something…
A sense of profound wrongness fills me, something so evil and terrible I can barely grasp it. My whole body goes cold, and the thorn splinters on the still intact gem as time speeds up. I collapse to the ground.
“Now, Pumpkin.” Lucas’s rough hands grip me around the waist, and he hurls me across the icy cave. “That wasn’t very nice.”
I slam against the frozen wall, landing in a heap. My head rings. Distantly, I register that he didn’t freeze me, not like the princes. Not because he can’t, but because he doesn’t want to. I can’t squirm in terror if I’m frozen.
Groaning, I try to push myself up, my hands slipping in blood. Where did that come from? I don’t get a chance to think before his boot connects with my ribs, and I roll on the ground, crying out in agony.
