Or maybe the world is the same and there’s something different about me.
“Rosie? Rosie, come back to us!”
Farron’s voice soaks into me like a balm, and his soft hands run over my face. My chest hums at his touch, and my skin seems to bloom beneath his fingertips. Perhaps this new world is not too bad.
“Rosalina!” Rougher hands grab me, shake me.
“Stop it! You’ll hurt her!”
I’m pressed to a cold chest, and a strange, keening wail sounds. Keldarion. I inhale a deep breath, and the air feels alive within me, cleansing and cool.
“I can’t find any wounds.” Another worried voice: Ezryn’s. His hand is on my forehead. I have no idea how I can differentiate between each of their touches, yet it’s like my skin quivers and heats all at once. I smile inwardly, a strange sense of peace fluttering in my chest.
“Then why isn’t she waking up?” Dayton for once sounds serious. “Can you hear me? Open your eyes, Blossom. Come on.”
I don’t want them to be worried. Though I’m not sure I’m ready for this changed world.
But they’re with me. My princes.
I blink, gaze met with the beaming Autumn sun. It’s so bright, each ray sparkling like starfall.
Oh. The world is beautiful. The clear sky, the rustle of the cool breeze through the grass, the rich smell of the earth.
And most beautiful of all are the four faces peering at me.
“Hi,” I whisper, voice raspy.
Farron breaks out in the biggest smile I’ve ever seen. Ezryn shakes his helmet in disbelief. Dayton stares down at me with a fervent gaze. And Keldarion…
Keldarion is crying.
“What happened—” I start to sit up but stop.
I feel buoyant. Like I’m less tethered to the earth, a part of me mixing with the air.
“Rosalina.” Farron muscles Kel out of the way and takes my hands to help me sit up. I hold on to his gaze to keep my breathing steady. Have I never noticed how many colors swirl in his eyes? Amber and gold and flecks of bronze. “You did something. Awoke something.”
My hand shakes as I bring it to my face. Up my cheek.
To the point of my ear.
“Rosie,” Farron says softly, “you’re fae.”
I clutch my chest. Thatthinginside of me, the embers I’d kept smothered. It no longer feels like embers now, nor the burning inferno as it did when I unleashed my magic. Has this been lying dormant within me all this time?
I turn to Kel. “Did you know?”
He shakes his head. “No. I knew there was something about you because of your connection to Castletree and ability to use the mirror, but I never imagined…”
“Perhaps there is more to learn about your mother than only her location,” Ezryn says.
I heave in a shaky breath. The princes didn’t know…
But someone did.
Listen carefully, Princess. Trust your own instincts above all else. The world will tell you that you don’t belong. That you are a mere human. That you have no dominion over the sway of destiny. They are wrong.
Caspian’s words from our dance months ago drift over my mind.
