She grips my face, hands cold and soft. Then she places her lips to mine. I inhale her scent, taking her in my arms.
“Tell me, Caspian,” she whispers.
“Tell you what?”
Her smile spreads against my cheek. “What we both already know.”
My heart thunders in my chest, and a ringing sounds in my ear. “Rosalina.”
“I am tired of your secrets.” She pulls back, hair a dark frame around her face. “If we are to do this, I will have all of you. I will have all of my mate.”
CHAPTER 123
Rosalina
There are a million questions I have for the Prince of Thorns. What truly happened down Below with Farron? Does he know his adopted sister is my blood one?
But that can wait. Right now, there’s only his eyes, swirling like a galaxy, long dark lashes lowering. “How did you know?” he asks.
“I think my heart knew for a long time,” I say, unable to stop my smile. To finally say the words my heart has been telling me all these months.
Caspian is my mate.
“You shouldn’t be smiling like that for me,” he says softly, hand cupping the side of my face. “I’ve already got enough of an ego.”
I throw my arms around his shoulders, kissing him deeply. “Why did you take so long to tell me?”
He hesitates. “I didn’t know I ever would. Rosalina, I may not have bars around me, but I’m a prisoner of the Below as much as you are. I just happen to have a unique way to free you.”
“Won’t they realize you helped me escape?”
“You know me, Flower. I always have a plan.” He kisses me before I can catch his expression. “Are you sure you want this? We don’t need to make it intimate.”
I work on the clasp of his cloak. “If I’m to have you, Cas, I’ll have you properly.”
My gaze catches on something shimmering below his shirt. My moonstone necklace. “You kept it safe.”
“Of course I did.” He moves to remove it. “I suppose I should give it back to you now.”
“Keep it,” I breathe. “If we can’t stay together, then at least a part of me can be with you.”
A galaxy of emotions shimmers in his eyes, and his shoulders relax as if in surrender. “Very well, Princess. I shall not forget such a gift.” He sweeps off the cloak and spreads it on the ground before gathering me in his arms and lowering us to the velvety surface. “We have to be quick.”
Wild anticipation floods through me, fear and nerves and longing.
Caspian is my mate. Warmth blooms bright inside me, a feeling like morning mist running through my veins. It’s always been simmering there, but finally,finally, he had the courage to tell me, and I had the courage to believe it.
And with Dayton’s bond returned to full strength within my chest, I finally feel complete.
“You’re so beautiful,” Caspian murmurs, smoke-filled shadows in his voice. He kisses my neck.
“So are you,” I whisper as he slides the strap of my white tunic off my shoulder and places his mouth on my bare skin. “I thought so the first moment I met you, when you saved me in the Briar.”
He blinks, the iridescent lights of the crystals casting a rainbow across his face. “I hadn’t felt anything in so long,” he rasps. “It felt like my heart was caged in shadows, but something burst forth when you crawled through the rosebush. I followed that feeling straight to you.”
Something clenches in my heart. All this time, he’s been watching over me. Not just me, but Castletree, and in his own way, the Enchanted Vale. “You could have kept me then, but you brought me to Kel.”
Caspian rolls the dress off my shoulders, and I lift my hips to wiggle out of it until I’m completely bare. His hand, the long delicate fingers, hover above me, almost like he’s afraid to touch me. “I knew that’s where you’d be safest,” he says. “Now, back to his safety you must return.”
