“My name is Rosalina O’Connell,” I say, straightening. “I’m … friends with your brother.”
“Oh, I know who you are, Lady O’Connell.” Kairyn turns and walks toward the door. “Everyone knows who you are.”
“Everyone?” I say more to myself.
Kairyn stands in the doorway. “My brother is a great many things, but a connoisseur of the arts he is not. It would be my honor to show you the monastery’s other masterpieces.”
Slowly, I step toward him. Looking down the hall, there’s no sign of Ez or Farron. But they know I’m here.
Kairyn is Ezryn’s family—maybe I can help soothe whatever resentment lies between them. We need allies more than ever.
“I’d be delighted,” I say.
Kairyn sweeps a huge hand behind my back and shivers run down my spine.
He leads me up a staircase and into a grand hall filled with tables, desks, and resplendently carved pillars. “This is the study chamber, a place for contemplation, meditation, and scholarly pursuits. It is also home to one of my favorite pieces of art.”
He directs me past a row of bow-necked acolytes and into a hallway capped by a beautiful arched window. Golden light from outside filters in onto a tapestry.
I drift over to it, eyes searching the threads. It goes from ceiling to floor, depicting an epic scene.
Stretching across the top are colorful, nebulous clouds. In the very middle, blooms a glowing rosebush.
I point up. “What is that?”
Kairyn’s voice echoes in the hallway. “The Above, of course. The first realm. A place that now only exists in memory … or so they say.”
My eyes drift lower to the very bottom. In a perfect parallel, it depicts caverns and dark mist. “That is the Below, I suppose.”
Kairyn quirks his head at me. “You do not recognize such sacred art. It must be true then.”
“Hmm?”
He takes a heavy step, his shape blocking out the light of the window. My heart pounds; he’s the only thing I can see, towering over me, his body silhouetted by the light. He reaches out a massive, gloved hand, and I shrink back—
But he only gently touches the point of my ear. “It’s true. You were not fae-born. Or you were and…”
I give a nervous laugh. “Yeah, I wish I could tell you the whole story, but I don’t even know it.”
“The Princes of Castletree have truly kept their little treasure to themselves.”
My voice finds strength: “The princes and I make the best decisions we can for Castletree.”
“Our dying hope,” he murmurs. “Twenty-five years they’ve been searching to heal the source of all magic, and still nothing. Some people may think they hoard the magic for themselves.”
“Some people would be wrong,” I growl.
“Rumor has it more problems plague our dear princes. Their home rots, goblins run wild, and some say they’ve even caught sight of a horrible monster running through the brambles. A beast in the Briar.”
Now, it’s my turn to steady myself, to be like Ezryn and think before I speak. “I find the scariest beasts aren’t the ones with teeth and claws, but the ones that hide behind a smile.”
We hold each other’s gazes—his that terrible dark void beneath the protruding metal brow—before he chuckles, deep and haunting.
“I happen to love things that scare me, Lady O’Connell.” He turns to the tapestry. “As you are a new-born fae and my brother has not seen fit to educate you, let me. I have often taught the youngest acolytes of our history.”
I shift back to the art, keeping Kairyn visible in my peripheral.
“At the dawning of time, there was only the Realm Above, a place of ethereal beauty. And it owed its radiance to the Gardens of Ithilias, a celestial rosebush that bathed the realm in its divine light.”
