45
Keldarion
He looks like a star now. Irahn’s boat has drifted so far aheadthat the flame has blended into the horizon, fading among the other stars just starting to pop up along the skyline. I sit alone on the cliff above the sea. Everyone has returned to the city. I should also return before the wolf takes over.
But Winter already whispers so many things about me. Why not let them whisper this as well? Theydohave a beast as their high prince.
Every day that drifts by, I wonder if this will be my fate forever. How long until the beast claims me fully? I’ve felt it creeping in during the change, how the wolf is taking more pieces of my mind.
Just as it is happening to my people at Castletree. The story of Konreth still haunts me. How can I save them without condemning my Rose?
Caspian has been helpful, true, even proven himself trustworthy, and yet…he has fooled me before. His plans run deep and twisted.
“Keldarion?” a soft voice says.
I turn. It’s Rosalina, her black dress stark against the snow.
“I thought you were heading back to the keep.”
She sits down next to me. “I was, but then I noticed you weren’t with us. It’s almost sunset.”
“I wanted to stay here a little longer.”
She follows my gaze out to the sea, bergs of ice splattered pink and purple.
“Would you like to remain as a man?” she asks.
I open my arms, letting her curl into my side as I wrap my heavy woolen cloak around us. Her gloved hands knot in my tunic. Her touch will hold off the transformation of my wolf.
“How are you feeling?” she asks.
“Still a little sore. The healers did a fine job patching me up—though Ezryn wouldn’t agree. He’s been watching over me like a mother hen.”
“No, not your wounds.Here.” Her hand drifts over my heart.
I take in a shuddering breath of the cold air. “Irahn was my only family. I’m the last of my line. I can’t help but think my parents would be so ashamed of everything I’ve done.”
Rosalina tilts her head up at me, then bites her lip. I can tell she’s holding back. Finally, she says, “Your parents…what were they like?”
Rarely do I dwell in these memories, but here with only my mate, on this day to honor my uncle, perhaps I can fall into them.
“We were close. It was only the three of us. We did everything together,” I say. “Ezryn would often stay for months at a time for the winter solstice. Kairyn as well, though he kept to himself. I would always rejoice when Uncle Irahn visited, bringing treasures and trinkets from all over the Enchanted Vale.
“My father taught me to fight, to ride, what it meant to be a high prince. My mother was a force to be reckoned with herself,deadly with a lance. She could often be found in the library. She loved researching old legends and myths. And she’d always have a pitcher of hot chocolate in front of her. Until one day, she discovered something that she couldn’t get out of her head.”
Rosalina must sense the uncomfortable shift in my body, because she moves in closer. “What was that?”
“She believed she had uncovered a way to take the rose from Sira. You see, Sira had stolen a rose from the Gardens of Ithilias. It’s what she used to create the goblins and her other monsters. Using the rose, she had utter control of her creations. My parents knew recovering it would turn the tides. So they led a mission to the Below. They never shared all the details with me. I was sent to ward in Spring at this time as I was quite young. Their mission began as a success. They stole the rose from Sira but were ambushed on the way to the surface. The rose was lost somewhere in the Below’s expanse. Sira did not have it, but neither did they.”
“But the goblins still obeyed her,” Rosalina says.
“Some out of loyalty, but there are a fair number that run amok in the Briar. Other creatures abandoned her, such as the harpies that took up residence in the Ribs.”
Rosalina nods, and I continue: “There was a change in my parents once they returned. The things they saw haunted them. My father grew paranoid. He was constantly waiting for Sira to seek retribution for her stolen rose. Using his powers as high prince, he built the wall of ice and stone around Keep Wolfhelm. Whereas before, the gates of the keep were open to all, after that, they were closed forever. Father was worried anyone might be a spy of the Below. He kept appointments and staffing as minimal as possible.”
Cold wind blows my hair back, exposing more of my face to the bitter chill. But I keep speaking, afraid if I stop, the words will be lost forever.
“The rest is history. When Caspian first arrived on the surface, he claimed to have escaped the Below. I advocated for him, threw my full support behind him, told him all Winter’s secrets. There was so much trust between us as we took up my parents’ search for the rose. Even more trust grew when we found it. And it ended in betrayal and the rose being destroyed during the creation of the Great Chasm. Or so we thought.” I squeeze my fist on air, as if clutching the hilt of a sword. “If George can piece it back together, there may still be a way to achieve my parents’ wish.”
