“Ezryn!” I scream, and the thorns binding me fall away like waves rolling off sand. I stretch out my hand. Thorns from my bracelet strike at the shadow serpents. As they hit, the two snakes disappear into a cloud of smoke.
Sira turns to me, eyes flashing.
While holding her gaze, I try to reach for the thorns chaining my princes. If I could just connect with all of them, then we could escape.
“So, the rumors are true,” Sira snarls. “How is this possible?”
Kel, Farron. I spread the magic further, reaching to connect with the thorns binding Ezryn and Dayton. A smile spreads over my lips. “I—”
“I made a bargain with her.” Caspian steps in front of me.
Sira’s expression contorts into one of fury.
There’s a hard crack as she slaps her son across the face. “Fix this.”
Caspian inhales a rattly breath. Shadows leach from Sira’s fingers, wrapping over Caspian’s thorns until they all shrivel and die. I feel the loss of the connection, like someone cut off my arm.
Then, like his mother, shadows creep from Caspian. “No,” I gasp. The gloom forms shackles around the princes’ ankles and wrists. Two inky black ropes shoot out and wrap around my arms, tethering me to the ground.
And Caspian’s eyes are entirely void.
“Let me go!” I cry out, pulling at them, but they don’t give. I have no connection to these like I did the thorns.
Caspian shrugs, dusting his shoulders, and the last of the shadows fall away from him like clouds, eyes returning to that dark purple.
Twice today I’ve witnessed Caspian wield magic I didn’t know he possessed. I had noticed this gloom around his thorns before, but always thought they were connected. No, these shadows he inherited from his mother.
“Rescind the bargain,” Sira commands, then shifts her gaze to me. “And I would not resist, girl, or you may find my mercy for the remaining princes short-lived.”
Instinctively, I try to reach for the thorn bracelets around my wrists, but the shadows hold my arms taunt.
“What bargain?” Keldarion growls.
I can’t bear to look at him, nor the rest of the princes. I should have told them. Now, my lie is out in the open.
Sira gives a light chuckle at Kel’s obvious torment. “Well, darling, what are you waiting for?”
“I can’t rescind the bargain.” Caspian practically spits out the words, his usual musical cadence now clipped and short. “She hasn’t fulfilled her end of it yet.”
My stomach drops. I whip my head up, hair flying in my face, trying desperately to find Caspian’s gaze. But he’s not even looking at me.No, no, no.Certainly he doesn’t mean now. Not here. Not in front of the princes of Castletree.
Sira waves an uninterested hand.
“Rosie,” Farron calls out, eyes wide, expression frantic as he struggles against the shadows. “Rosie, what did you make a bargain for?”
“For this.” Firm hands grab me, and suddenly I’m pulled flush against the Prince of Thorns. Then his lips are on mine. The kiss is rough and quick. He pulls away near instantly, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand as if to rid himself of the taste of me.
“We can consider the bargain fulfilled,” Caspian says.
But I can’t form words, my lips trembling. I’d barely been able to think about what a kiss with the Prince of Thorns might be like, but I had never imaginedthat. Like merely touching me disgusted him.
A distraught agony filters through my bond. I’m not sure if it’s from Keldarion or Farron. It’s Kel’s gaze I catch first. Anger is clear on his face, but it’s not directed at me or even Caspian, but at Sira. Ezryn is rigid as stone. Farron looks lost, confused. His eyes flash. “Dayton!”
“I’m going to fucking kill you!” Dayton snarls, voice low and feral. He surges forward and changes, body rippling into that of the golden wolf.
Shadows grab him from mid-air, sending him slamming to the earth hard enough to crack the stone. The Summer wolf growls and spits but cannot break free.
“Day,” I gasp, my voice trembling with tears. What trace of magic had allowed him to transform?
