But he’s still on the ground, head rocking back and forth. “I’m trying, I’m trying, I’m trying.”
There’s only one choice. I’ll have to stall her until Farron and Dayton arrive.
And then hope the three of us can take on this bitch and her little army.
I shoot a blast of white fire out behind me, but her briars lift her up, projecting her over the flames. “The Golden Rose, they call you,” she sneers. “I don’t see any gold. Or roses. How can someone like you ever think themselves capable of saving anyone?”
I yelp as a briar wraps around my ankle and pulls. I slam hard to the ground, then am ripped backward. Her small hands are all over me, blades tossed to the side, as she shoves me on my back.
Then she’s straddling my waist, clawing at my eyes like a vicious cat. “You can’t even fight! You’re weak! So weak!”
By some miracle, I catch her wrists and rip them away. The words are out of my mouth before I have a chance to think: “Why do you hate me?”
For a moment, there’s silence in the clearing. “Because,” she breathes, “you got him. And I gotnothing.”
Then briars lace around my wrists, pinning me down, and her hands are on my neck.
I can’t move. There’s nothing but the Nightingale. Tears fall from her eyes and land on my cheeks.
I gasp for breath, but can’t take anything in.Farron…
I’m almost there, Rosie. Almost down the mountain. Hold on!
But I can’t hold on. The breath is being squeezed out of me, and my mate will find my body here, and this fae woman who hates me for a reason I don’t understand will kill Ezryn and he’ll never know I forgive him for what he did in his past.
How I want to move forward with him into a new future.
My vision blackens at the edges. The Nightingale squeezes tighter, and she’s sobbing now, full-on sobbing, but she keeps her hands wrapped around my throat. And I’m so sad. Because I never told each of them how much I love them.
Out of the corner of my eye, I catch sight of something. An eruption of thorns.
But these are different.
These are thorns frosted with ice.
53
Keldarion
“So, you still snore.” A voice cuts through my haze of sleep. “I suppose you don’t realize, as you spend most nights as that mangy beast.”
The Prince of Thorns leans in the doorway, his black cloak covered in snow, moonlight glinting off his pink nose and cheeks.
I leap up, grabbing his collar and slamming him against the wall. “How are you here?”
“Oh, just thought I’d take a quick jaunt to the most miserable and cold place in all the Vale.”
I snarl, drawing him closer. He must have traveled here from the thorns in the chasm. “I should rip you apart for what you did to Autumn. What you did to Farron.”
Caspian slinks out of my grip. “Unfortunately, there isn’t time for your empty threats today.” He tosses me my warm jerkin and boots.
Keeping my eyes locked on his, I lace the shirt and tug on the supple leather shoes.
A sharp pain cuts through my bond.
Rosalina.
“Damn, she’s fast,” he murmurs. “You’re going to need this.”
