“There are things beyond your comprehension, Farron, son of Autumn. Entities that make queens seem like commoners. My entire existence is to be a conduit for this kind of force. I was made to bring about the end of the Vale as we know it.” His voice becomes a whispered breath, and then he blinks, eyes returning to lavender. The flames around our hands flicker out. “I cannot let this happen.”
I take a shaky inhale. “If you’re human, Sira won’t be able to use you.”
“Can you do it?”
“No.” I turn the corner and walk to a different bookshelf.
“Farron!”
Caspian runs after me, nearly bumping into my back. I pluck a book off a shelf, a very special book. The one Caspian stole from the alder tree. “There’s only one person who can.”
“I have asked her and asked her and asked her,” Caspian says. “Aurelia cannot turn me.”
“Then she’s a better liar than you.” I flip open the book, filled with lost tales of the Queen. “First evidence: the people of Aerantheis. She changed them from fae to sirens. Second evidence: the people of Calandorin. She turned them from fae to birds. Third evidence: the princes of Castletree. She changed us into something beyond fae, beyond animal.” I slam the book into his chest. “The Queen can turn you. But you’re going to have to break her out of prison first.”
I hold my breath as I walk back to the table he’d first been lying on. For a long minute, he does not follow. Then, like a skulking cat, he appears from behind me, eyes wide and questioning. “It can’t be done.”
“What? Rescuing her?”
“Yes,” he says. “It’s impossible.”
I lean back on the table in the position he previously was in. “Oh yeah? Like how making golden briars is impossible? Or thorns holding up all of Castletree? Or Kel actually admitting to someone he was wrong? I don’t know about you, but we seem to like to do the impossible.”
“It’s suicide.”
“Sounds like waiting for your mother to turn you into some evil god bomb is suicide, too.”
Caspian kneads the bridge of his nose. “You’re not listening to me. My mother is vicious. If she finds out I’m plotting against her, her vengeance could—”
I sit up, grab his wrist, and glare at him. “I don’t care what your excuse is, Cas. My mother was the bravest and most generous woman to ever live. She’s dead. Dead because of your mother and whatever magic she’s letting into the Vale. You and I may both be absent a mother’s love now. But not Rosalina. If you’re too afraid to try for yourself, then do it for her. Give her the family you and I will never have again.”
We stare at each other, matching scowls and heavy breathing. Caspian tears out of my grip and stalks to the window, looking over the Briar. I walk toward the exit. “Think about it, Cas. Work with us, break Aurelia out of prison, and take your humanhood as a reward. Then you can run away from the Vale and never think of us again. You don’t have to be a great hero. But for once in your damned life, you don’t have to be the villain.”
CHAPTER 28
Caspian
It’s been weeks since I’ve spoken with the Nightingale alone. Not many things surprise me, but finding my adopted sister here, lurking about Castletree, is one of them. I can only imagine she’s shocked to see me too.
She shouldn’t be here, doing whatever she’s doing. Spying, sneaking, plotting. For all her skills as an assassin, this is bold. Too bold.
My briars lift me up to the side of the castle to one of the great branches that flows out through the turrets. Like the rest of it, Castletree’s roof is a mixture of the canopy of a tree and the stonework of a building. There are still leaves this high up, though dark lines of rot shoot through the wood. I felt someone using my briar pathways and came up to investigate.
Birdy sits on the edge of the branch, which is thick as a rampart, and swings her legs in the air. Dusk is setting, and the Briar is painted in strokes of brilliant pink and purple. Fear and protectiveness war within me at the sight of her at Castletree, clad in her iridescent armor. Where did she come from? Cryptgarden? Hadria?
“What are you doing here?” I ask. “Did Mother send you to spy? Castletree isn’t safe for the likes of us. You’re in danger.”
She doesn’t say anything. I sit beside her. Her eyes shimmer, the dusky rays playing across her face. She’s not wearing her usual mask, the absence of it making her look younger. Innocent, even.
I tuck a short strand of hair behind her softly pointed ear. “You look beautiful like this,” I murmur.
“Shut up,” she says.
“I mean it.” My voice is soft. “What are you really doing here, Birdy? Spying on them? Spying on me?”
“I’ve been watching you,” she spits. “Would you like to explain what you’re doing playing nice with the enemy?”
I sigh. Farron’s words from earlier sit heavy in my chest. “I know you won’t believe this, but it’s true. I’m trying to keep you safe.”
