“I don’t mind breaking you,” Lucas says. “I’ve done it before.”
I force myself up, crying through the pain, using the frozen body of one of my princes to help me. Farron. Tears stream down my face. I’m just as trapped as them.
Lucas lunges, and I desperately throw out a briar to stop his advance. But it won’t hold him for long. Red coats the icy wall as I run my palm along it, trying to steady myself. Distorted silhouettes waver outside the ice cave—soldiers trying to break in?
Lucas’s footsteps echo behind me, and I turn, struck by my reflection in the ice. Broken, frightened, helpless. Human.
“There you are,” Lucas says.
I try to dodge out of his way, but he grabs me, placing a large hand around both my wrists andfreezing. I scream. The ice crawls up my arms, over the briar bracelets I bargained for. The only way to defend myself… Gone.
“No!” I screech, a long terrible wail. Lucas stops the ice as it reaches my elbows, then lifts me by my frozen arms. I kick my feet, and they bang uselessly against him.
“I think your friends are trying to get in.”
Still holding me with one hand, Lucas waves his other. The ice around us dissipates, showing the surrounding Autumn soldiers. They let out a collective cheer of victory and race toward us.
A terrible understanding courses through me. Perth was right. We’ve lost.
Lucas waves his free hand, and that green crystal glows brighter. The crown… It’s funneling magic from that cursed cave I saw. And without Perth and his dead army, Lucas is taking it all. He roars, sending another vicious hailstorm into the soldiers.
“No!” I scream, feeling as if I take each blow to my own heart. Distantly, I see Billy, Dom, and Padraig racing toward me, their eyes wide as they take in the scene, spotting the frozen princes. The only people who could save us.
Now, you know that’s not true,a voice, barely audible, scratches at my mind.
Lucas lowers me closer to his frosted face. “Forget this place.”
I squeeze my eyes shut. Forget this place… How could I?
It’s so much more than aplace.I have found more in this land than I could ever imagine. I’ve found a family. My loves. A purpose.
You were made for this world,Caspian had told me. It wasn’t just a jest.
To forget this place would be to forget myself.
And I won’t give up on her.
I lift my chin and heave in a breath. “I’m not your captive anymore.”
“I beg to differ.” Lucas curls his lip over his teeth, and the ice crawls further up my arms. “Look around, Pumpkin. Your princes are frozen. Your army is dead. You’re trapped, no magic, no crown. You’re nothing. Gaze upon what I have become, so much more than a mere human.”
The air seems to crackle, and my skin heats. Words spark in my mind, and I realize, I do have the answers.
They come to me, crashing down like shooting stars.
Caspian’s words.
You are no mere human.
Trapped in that human skin.
“You might not be human anymore,” I growl at Lucas, “but neither am I.”
My mother wasn’t stolen by the fae. Shewasfae.
Something kindles in my chest: a flash of heat next to my heart. The embers I’ve smothered to keep from igniting. My own beast within me, slumbering in the dark place I’ve been too afraid to look.
Lucas stole my trust in myself. Made me believe there was nothing inside of me worthy of the light.
