Sira eyes him curiously. Is this the first time she’s seen one of the beasts of the Briar?
“Save your strength, Daytonales,” Keldarion orders, not taking his gaze from Sira.
The Summer Prince gives a low whine and submits.
Caspian rolls his eyes, then easily restrains the wolf in shadows. He leans in close to me, tucking a piece of hair behind my ear. “Say the bargain is fulfilled, Rosalina.”
My gaze flicks to my thorn bracelets. Without them, I can’t make my own arrows, can’t protect myself. Can’t save the princes. But what choice do I have? I can’t even use them now, trapped beneath Caspian’s shadows.
I meet the Prince of Thorns’ violet-flecked gaze. “The bargain is fulfilled.”
A jolt surges through me, and a burning sensation shoots along my arms. The bramble bracelets uncoil, then drop by my feet. A small, thin thorn falls from Caspian’s wrist.
Caspian looks to the thorns, then back up to me. “Guess you’re on your own now. Just like the last time you were here.”
Unbidden tears slide down my cheeks at the loss of the thorns.
“I thought it would be quite amusing,” Caspian runs a hand through his hair, “to bargain a kiss from Keldarion’s mate. Didn’t think she could get in too much trouble making a couple of extra briars, figuring the castle he keeps her in is already covered in them.”
“The Golden Rose,” Sira purrs. “Is that how she got the nickname? From using your magic, my son?”
“Those simple Autumn folk will turn anything into a song. Give them a rock, they’ll call it a diamond. Give them briars, they’ll call them roses.”
“Hmm, you are certainly rash. You should have informed me of your plan from the start. But you’ve always had a clever mind when it comes to bargains.” Sira snatches his wrist. “Like that perfectly wicked one you devised for the Prince of Winter.”
59
Keldarion
Caspian looks at me, and his expression is so raw, it’s like I’m back at Cryptgarden all those years ago when we first said the words of our bargain.
But those were words meant for whispered breath, not to be spoken aloud.
“A deep regret I shall suffer always,” I growl, the frosted thorn bracelet on my wrist seeming to dig into my skin.
A twisted smile spreads up Sira’s mouth. I’d always known that darkness ran in her veins, but for a while I’d hoped it had not passed to Caspian. But seeing them together, it’s a wonder I ever believed that. The same inky black hair, the depth of their violet eyes, the grace of movement.
“You should have broken the curse when you had the chance, Kel,” Caspian purrs. “Now youallbelong to me, instead of just her.”
Rosalina whirls, cheeks flushed and stained. “What do you mean?”
“She doesn’t know?” Sira chirps happily, looking as pleased at this news as she did when she was about to set her shadows on Ezryn.
Of course, Rosalina doesn’t know. I have never had the courage to speak of it to anyone, not even my brothers. The shame and stupidity were too great to bear aloud.
And the answer is so clear and so complex. To free myself without Caspian’s agreement to rescind the bargain, only his death would do. Even with the High Princes’ combined power, that would be a feat. How do you kill someone with his magic?How can you bring yourself to kill someone who’s lying on your bed,body betrayed by the air of the very world he wishes to conquer?
My fists close at my side, bound by shadow. A magic he’s always loathed to use.
“What was it again, hmm?” Caspian drums his fingers on his arm. “It wassovery long ago now.”
“Rescind the bargain,” I growl.
“Oh, I remember now,” he purrs. His voice takes on a dark purpose. “Let me take no other but you. If one day, my vow shall prove false and I lie with another, let them serve you in repentance until you tire of them as I did your heart. And if ever there is no love between us, let this bargain melt away like snow under rain.”
There it is, the words hovering between us. I watch as they register with my brothers.
Ezryn roars and falls to his knees, shadow shackles still tight. “Kel, how could you?”
