“Are you ready, Rose?”
I nod, and my father carefully places the rose-shaped locket into my hands. I sit on the floor before my altar and close my eyes.
Carefully, I open the locket. “Castletree,” I whisper, “if your magic can reach me here, please send it. I need your help.” I let my body empty. Everything except that smoldering in my chest. “I need to see them.”
Let my body be your vessel. Let your magic run through me. Let me do this thing, just this once.
With one hand, I hold out the open locket. With the other, I drag my fingers over the smooth jewels of the necklace, the jagged edges of the crown, and the rough fabric. My hands catch on the clothes, and I bring it to my chest. Tears stream down my face, and I inhale deeply. Wet earth and rain and the Briar. I smell the Briar… I smell him.
“Rosalina.” My father’s voice.
I blink my eyes open. A shimmering light appears before me, a soft glow emanating from the very air itself. I scramble forward as the light coalesces into a shape, a pool of liquid silver. The edges of the light take on definition forming…
Forming a window.
And staring back at me, rain ringing off his silver armor, is Ezryn.
6
Rosalina
Is…Isthisreal?
Is Ezryn, High Prince of Spring, actually in front of me right now? The glowing light shimmers at the edges, but the middle is clear as a window. Looking down, as if peering at me from above, is Ezryn.
“Ez…”
He tilts his head, and though I can’t see his true face behind the silver helm, I feel his confusion. “R-Rose?”
The sound of my name in his raspy voice—tinged with the metallic reverberation of his helmet—is all too familiar. All too right.
I pitch forward. “Ez!” My fingers grasp the shining light—and scrape against the image. An invisible barrier blocks me from the fae realm.
“What’s wrong with it?” I turn to my father. “It’s supposed to be a portal.”
My father only gulps and shakes his head. “I-I don’t know! Could be the moonstone isn’t a strong enough conduit now that it’s cracked. Or the magic isn’t right—”
I fling myself to the window, palms flat on the unseen barricade between us. Home. Home, home, home, it’s through here. And Ezryn isrightin front of me, and I can smell him, and I know what it would feel like to have his warm hands caress my skin.
“How is this possible?” Ezryn’s voice grows more frantic, and he looks back and forth, grasping for me. His gloved hand bangs against the barrier. “Where are you? Are you in danger?”
“No,” I cry, eyes welling with tears. “I’m safe. I’m home.”
Ezryn gives a shaky laugh, a sound I’ve never heard from him before. “You’re home? Stars. Okay, wait for me. I’m not far from Castletree. I’ll head straight there. When did you get back? Doesn’t matter. I’m coming—”
“No.” My heart rages within my chest. “I mean, I’m home in Orca Cove.”
His fingers scrape down the barrier and his head falls forward, as if his helm is suddenly too heavy. “Oh.”
Images flash through my mind: his warm hands healing my ragged flesh, him sneaking chocolate muffins underneath the table, his steady presence as he named me Lady of Castletree before Kel’s vizier. For so long, I thought he’d been avoiding me. Or that he hated me. But the night of the ball, I swore… I swore I was so wrong about everything.
“Why are you tormenting me?” he whispers, his voice a broken rasp.
“Tormenting you?” My hands fall from the barrier. Tears stream down my face, but I don’t care. “Why didn’t you come for me? I thought you would keep me safe.”
His whole body shudders. “You left. Keldarion said—”
“Keldarionbanishedme,” I half-sob, half-snarl. “He wouldn’t even let me say goodbye. He sent me away. I’ve been trying to get back to you and everyone at Castletree, but I can’t figure out how—”
