I look around for something, anything, to help me get out of here and warn Dayton. But there’s only a bed with rumpled sheets,a vanity messy with makeup and hair accessories, and a dresser, though a few robes are scattered on the ground and not properly put away.
Then something catches my gaze tucked into the corner: the hovering golden orb with the rings around it. Dayton called it the Orb of Ancestors … It’s what brought the warriors of light to life in the arena. The Nightingale has it constrained in a tangle of her prismatic thorns. Dark lines leech into the glowing surface. Is this how she corrupted the memory of Damocles and Decimus?
The door swings open and Kairyn’s huge black frame takes up the whole doorway. His helm turns to me, chest heaving. “You did it,” he breathes and looks to Wrenley. “You found her!”
He slams the door shut, and a joyous laugh bubbles up from Wrenley’s throat. Kairyn crosses the distance between them in two steps and grabs Wrenley in his arms, swinging her around. The most genuine smile I’ve ever seen plays across her face. It’s so big, the pink of her gums shows, and if she hadn’t just told me I’m imminently going to die, I’d almost think it was cute.
“I’m so glad my presence pleases you both,” I say dryly. “Now, if we could finish this interrogation so I could begin my escape, that would be great.”
Kairyn drops Wrenley and stomps over to me. I can feel his grin behind the helm. “Do you know what these handcuffs are made of, Dandelion?”
I do. I recognize it from the Spring Realm. “Spring steel.”
“Exactly. Try to use your briars to take you away and your arms will rip from their sockets before these chains break.”
“Knowing her, she’s stupid enough to try,” Wrenley spits. She walks over to me and snatches my chin with one hand, while popping the cork off a small vial with her other. I try to thrash out of her grip, but she forces a thick, floral-tasting black liquid down my throat. “Say goodbye to your magic,” she purrs.
“You can’t keep me here!” I scream. “Dayton will realize I’m not there. He’ll come for me!”
But they both ignore me, instead focused on the other. Kairyn smooths the hair back from her brow, his gloved hands so large compared to her delicate face.
“I can’t believe you found her,” he murmurs. “Everything’s going to be okay.”
She smiles up at him, then flicks her gaze to me and notices how intently I’m staring at them. Giving a tittering laugh, she pushes away from Kairyn and waltzes over to the vanity. “Of course I found her. It was only a matter of time.” She puts a dab of rouge on her lips. “Now, for the next stage of our plan. Breaking the gladiator.”
I don’t care that I’m in chains, that there’s two of them and only me. Primal instinct shoots through my chest. “I will kill you if you touch him.”
Again, it’s as if I’m nothing more than a nattering fly to these two. Kairyn rests a hand on Wrenley’s shoulder. “I’ve got my knights at the ready. I’ll have him brought to a cell and—”
“No!” Wrenley wheels around and glares at him. “I have the Summer Prince right where I want him. He’s finally ready to trust his little mate.” She looks at me with a self-satisfied smile. “How does it feel, Rosalina, to watch someone you love slip away? Now, do you understand what it feels like to be alone, to be left behind?”
The way she’s speaking, it’s likethishas been her goal all along: to make me feel alone. Though I know it’s not true. What she really wants is control over Summer. Yet still, there’s a glint in her eyes that tells me she knows all too well the feeling she’s describing.
“I’m not alone. Dayton isn’t doing this for his mate. He’s doing this for his realm,” I say. “Even if Dayton sleeps with you, he’ll never love you. Not how he loves Farron.” I suck in a breath. “Not how he loves me.”
Wrenley begins to roll her eyes, but Kairyn grabs her shoulders. “You’re going through with it? You’re going to bed him?”
“Yes,” she snarls. “Now.”
Kairyn staggers backward. “W-why would you do that? We have the Golden Rose. We can stop these mind games. We’ll throw Daytonales in prison, use the Golden Rose as leverage. We can find a way to still get his Blessing—”
“We’ve come this far,” she hisses. “This will work.”
“Let us just kill him and be done with it!”
“What, so the Blessing passes to that whelp hiding out in the Ribs with your brother? No. We stick to the plan.”
Ah, of course Wrenley would have told Kairyn about Ezryn’s plan. I bet it’s been driving him crazy, knowing where Ez is and not being able to go after him.
Kairyn paces back and forth, hands on his helm. “It’s not going to work, Wrenley. If you sleep with him, he’ll know you’re not his mate.”
“Yeah!” I say, then realize I’m agreeing with Kairyn and shut my mouth. Doesn’t matter. Neither of them looks at me anyway. Distantly, I notice that Kairyn called her by the name she gave us. Is that her real name? Is there a piece of truth in all the lies she’s told?
Wrenley begins aggressively brushing her short hair. “He’s been waiting decades to find his mate and break the curse. Imagine what will happen to him when nothing changes? I’ll convince him he’s broken. He’s too far gone to free himself of the curse. He’ll be so devastated, he won’t have the will to fight. In the arena, your Bronze Knight will beat him to within an inch of his life. Knowing death is upon him, he’ll be greeted by me,” she bats her eyelashes exaggeratedly, “his mate. I’ll remind him that if he passes this burden to his sister, she’ll be hunted down just as his brothers were. So he should pass it to me, an unassuming acolyte who will keep the Blessing safe until the Queen’s eventual return.”
“You’ll never break Dayton,” I say. “Not his body. Not his spirit.”
She gives me a smirk. “Oh, I suspect he’s already broken, and I think I have you to thank for that.”
