“I will stop him,” Kairyn says and looks into the storm.
Kel grabs my shoulder, then Farron’s. “Find Rosalina. Do whatever you must to save her.” His gaze shifts to the tempest. “I will stop Ezryn.”
I turn to Farron. “Lead the way.”
Farron nods, then closes his eyes. I can tell he’s going inward, feeling for the bond that weaves him and Rosalina together.
Kel walks up beside Kairyn. The owl’s mask tilts toward the High Prince of Winter as Kairyn says, “I am going into the storm to save him. I’m his brother.”
Kel sucks in a breath through his nose, then marches into the wind. “We both are. Now, come on.”
82
Farron
The turmoil encircling me fades away. The tempest raging through the grove could be no more than a spring breeze, the clatter of guards distant and unimportant. All that matters is the pull to Rosalina. I run away from the lake, from the torrent of wind spiraling around Ezryn, and toward the base of the huge willow tree.
“She’s here!” I call to Dayton.
My bond cries out within my chest. She’shere,but where? I can’t see anything but churned earth, cracked branches, and a rusted sword in the sickly trunk of the tree—
“There.” Dayton rushes forward then slides to the ground, reaching toward a pile of broken boughs and ragged cloth.
From that pile, he lifts my mate on to his lap.
“This isn’t happening.” I fall to my knees beside them, grabbing her face. I hardly recognize her; she looks so small, her skin sallow and limp, as if all the moisture has been pulled from her. Dark bruises encircle her eyes, and her lips are cracked, cheekbones too prominent.
“What’s wrong with her?” Dayton cries.
“I-I don’t know.” I feel her pulse—weak—and her breathing—barely audible. “She doesn’t seem injured. It’s like the life has been sucked out of her.”
Dayton casts his gaze around the grove. “The same as the rest of this place.” Then he stares at me. “Fix her, Fare.”
“Me? I’m no healer.” Panic rushes up my chest. Suddenly, I’m back on the fields outside of Coppershire, holding my mother in my arms as her blood runs over my hands.
“You’ve been training with Ezryn.” Dayton’s blue eyes are relentless, burrowing into me. “She is your mate. Dosomething. Doanything. Just save her.”
It’s so simple in his eyes—save her. Just do it. But he doesn’t understand. Doesn’t feel what I feel: the panic rushing through me, the crying out of my bond for hers, each of her weakening heartbeats sounding in my own chest, the image of my mother’s open-eyed stare.
“She needs you, Farron.” Dayton’s voice cracks. “Ineed you.”
I close my eyes. Rosie needs me to save her life. Dayton needs me to protect the woman he loves. Kel needs me to keep my promise that I will do anything for her. Ezryn needs me to save him from a life of guilt.
And I need to stop thinking and justdothis.
I will not bear witness to any more final breaths.
I place my hands on Rosalina’s face, bringing my own body tight to Dayton’s. Wind bellows around us, carrying both a man’s cry and a wolf’s howl. I seek inward for my magic reserve, for the new knowledge I’ve learned since studying with Ezryn. Tendrils of orange power spark out from me, dusting over her figure.
There are no bones to be mended, no skin to be sealed. No blood to redirect back in the body, no oxygen needed to inflate the lungs. She’s simply … empty.
I don’t know what to do here. Even with my healing magic, what is there to heal?
“It’s her life force,” I whisper. “Everything’s been sucked into that huge storm. We need a way to replenish her.”
Dayton’s jaw twitches. “Okay, then.”
Panic surges through me with each pump of her weakening heartbeat. “Okay, then?Okay, then?Day, we need to do somethingnow—”
