The last image scars itself into my mind: Anya, gaze intense, clutching a baby to her breast. She grabs George’s hand; he looks younger than he does now, dark hair without the speckles of gray.
George takes the baby from her arms and gently rocks it back and forth. “Our sweet Rose.”
“I’ll protect you both,” Anya whispers.
The light flashes again, and then darkness grips me. The purple fog wafts back into my vision, and I blink to settle myself.
I’m still standing in the labyrinth. The leather book crumbles to flecks of ash in my hand, and I swear I hear a soft, sweet sigh as it disappears.
George blinks over at me, his book vanishing as well.
“How old are you?” I rasp.
“Fifty.”
I shake my head. “No, you’re a lot fucking older than that.”
George grimaces. “That’s impossible. Tell me what you saw.”
I close my eyes and try to describe the memories in as much detail as possible. George’s breathing quickens. “I don’t understand,” he mumbles. “Those events you’re talking about—they happened decades before Rosalina was born. How could I have been there?”
“Do you remember them?” I ask.
He kneads his nose. “Yes. No. Bits and pieces. They happened, Iknowthey did. But how is that possible?”
The intensity in Anya’s gaze in the last memory plays in my mind.What did you do?
George slumps against the wall and rubs his eyes. “I saw him. The dark-haired boy who spoke to Anya.”
“Caspian,” I whisper.
“You made a bargain with him. One of eternal love.”
Of course, Clio would share such a personal memory. “A bargain of eternal love on my end, but not on his. It was one of his many tricks. He had sought out the Fates beforehand and seen I was to have a mate. The bargain with me was a trap all along.”
George shakes his head. “No, that’s not right. I saw it. He made the bargain with you, and then went to the Fates with his mother. There, he saw a vision of you and Rosalina. I felt it, Keldarion. There was … sorrow. I don’t know how else to express it. Sorrow of the soul.”
My legs slacken, and I stumble back against the wall. “Caspian … Caspian made the bargain before he saw the vision?”
“So the Fate would claim. You did say she was the Chronicler of Lives, so I’m inclined to believe her.”
If Caspian made the bargain without seeing the vision of Rosalina and me then …
Then it was the truth. Hedidlove me. He had wanted everything that I had wanted in that moment.
I look down at the intertwining snowflake and thorn bracelet. All these years, I had thought only I was keeping the bargain alive with my stubborn, ridiculous love.
But he loved me once.
Does he love me still?
“Come on. Let’s keep moving,” I growl.
Caspian is counting on us.
CHAPTER 60
Rosalina
