“But—”
“I’ll keep it safe. I’ll keepyousafe.” I think I catch a smile on his face between the speckles of light. Then he’s kissing me again.
And I believe him.
Maybe here in this moment, in this space that doesn’t really exist, it’s okay to give in to the shadows. To submit to pure feeling and sensation and need. His fiery, desperate lips caress my neck. All sense of control is lost from both of us as I thread my fingers through his hair and writhe my body against his.
He kisses me again, softer this time. A kiss I know means the end.
He cups my face. “Goodbye, Princess. I think it’ll be a little while before I see you again.”
“Wait,” I gasp, catching the edge of his shirt. “I have so many questions.”
“And I have so many answers.” His voice fades away as the briars swallow him up. I have the tumbling sensation of falling, falling, falling. I break through the vines, gasping for air, the foggy vision of Castletree’s entrance hall swirling around me.
61
Ezryn
The thud of the hard ground reverberates through my armor. Thorns release from around my waist, and I steady myself on all fours, immediately taking in my surroundings. We’re in the entrance hall of Castletree. Farron, Dayton, and Kel are collapsed beside me. My heart begins to blaze as I stagger to my feet and turn in a circle. The ground opens up again, and Rosalina emerges from a bramble bush.
Silence fills the hall, but blood rushes through my head, and my heart hammers.
Stay still. Stay in control. Stay grounded.
But when his eyes meet mine, there is no such thing as peace.
“How could you?” I roar, snagging Kel by his collar and slamming him against a pillar. “The bargain you made with Caspian has condemned us all!”
Kel grabs my wrists. “Do you understand now, brother, why I have chosen this path? Do you see me for the monster I truly am?”
“You are not a monster,” I growl back. “For monsters have no reason, no responsibility. You are far worse. You are a traitor, Keldarion.”
Pain riots through my chest, a wound that has no physical origin. I keep my grip tight on Kel to stop from falling to the ground. Year after year, I watched him throw his life away for Caspian. But for him to have made a bargain like this…
A bargain that now involves Rosalina.
Kel stares down at me with glazed eyes, a defeated half-smile on his face. “I own my betrayal. But let us not dance around it anymore. You betrayed me, too.”
Breath tears from my throat. The thoughts in my head are raw with memories from the past, but they keep coming, assaulting me like arrows through the flesh. “Never. I never—”
“My army, Ez,” Kel says softly. “You took my own army out from under me and marched it upon the Below.”
“That wasn’t a betrayal—” Even I can hear the doubt in my words.
Because wasn’t that exactly what it was?His own good, it was for his own good…
Or was it for mine?
I’d known it from the moment he showed up at Castletree begging for sanctuary: Caspian had evil in his heart. He’d tricked Kel, charmed Dayton and Farron, and had all the realms bespelled by the hope of a single smile.
But I knew it.
Kel never believed me. Nevertrustedme.
When I discovered Caspian had been a spy for the Below all along, I knew it was up to me to save Keldarion from himself.
Keldarion and I had served as generals, side by side for decades. I was in Winter at the time I learned the truth of Caspian’s plan, and my own army was still in Spring. But Kel’s soldiers were right there. When I told his personal legion of Caspian’s intention, they agreed to aid me.
