After some time, Ez shifts. He walks to the window and draws the curtain. It’s late afternoon, and dusky sunlight spills over the snowy horizon.
“You got one of the best rooms in the keep,” Ez murmurs. “You can see all the way to Mount Rhuvenmark.”
“Hmm?”
“Come look.” He gestures for me to join him. I know it’s a ploy to get me moving, to stop this numbness from spreading from root to tip, but I do it anyway.
Ezryn sweeps an arm around my shoulders, and I rest my head in the crook of his neck. He smells like night air, rich with jasmine and teakwood. His other hand points in the distance. “See there? That peak? That’s Mount Rhuvenmark.”
Past the wall caging Keep Wolfhelm in, past the city of Frostfang, past the barren snowscape, I do spot a summit, white and jagged as a claw.
“Quite a trek to the summit,” Ezryn murmurs, leaning his chin on the top of my head. “When we were boys, Kel and I used to race each other all the way up. We’d tell the other lads that making it all the way was the sign of a hero.”
I snicker, and Ez squeezes me.
“Hey! Back then, it was the hardest thing we’d ever done. When you’re a boy, a trek like that feels like a godly quest. It’s a volcano, you know.”
“A volcano?” I narrow my eyes. “It’s so close to the city. Isn’t that dangerous?”
“No, it’s dormant. Though that’s not what we told the other boys. We pretended a great lava monster lived at the bottom, and only the two of us were worthy enough to commune with it.” Ez snorts a laugh, but his voice softens. “Kairyn always tried tofollow us. Every single time. But he could never make it to the top.”
My hand drifts to my chest, to the bud of magic beside my heart. Spring’s blessing, passed to me by Kairyn as he lay dying.Find someone who will do better with the blessing than I did.
“Is he dead, Rosalina?” Ezryn whispers. “Did my brother fall in Hadria?”
I turn in Ezryn’s arms and stroke a finger over his ragged ear, the tip nothing but scar tissue, then down his cheek. His dark brown eyes shimmer. “Can you feel it?”
His rough hand runs from my neck, down over the velvet bodice, before lying flat on my breastbone. “It calls me.”
We both know what he means. What once was his now lives within me.
“He’s not dead,” I say. “But he was dying. In that moment, he and I were alone. He asked me to pass the blessing on for him. With its magic, I mended his body. Sira took him back down Below. But the blessing is mine. As Aurelia’s heir, it is my duty to name the next high ruler of Spring.”
The smallest smile creeps into the corner of his mouth. “Am I mad to say I’m relieved he’s alive?”
“No, Ez.” I stand on my tiptoes and lace my arms around his neck, pulling him as tight as I can toward me. Wishing I could soak up all the years of hurt between him and Kairyn. “You’ve always had a gentle heart.”
He buries his face in my hair. We stay like that, in our comfortable silence.
“It belongs to you,” I whisper. “It’s safe with me, Ez, but it can’t live here forever. Spring needs a true leader. The blessing wants to go home.”
“There is no one more capable of choosing the next worthy ruler than you, my queen.” He pulls away, putting distance between us.
“Ezryn.”
He doesn’t respond.
“Ezryn!”
“Don’t start, Rose.”
I storm over to him and grab his arm. “Isidora choseyouas her successor. The blessing wants to return. Ifeelit!”
“Look at my legacy,” he growls. “A broken realm. Shamed and humiliated. Banished. I abandoned my people. Gave the blessing to a tyrant. I can’t even control the magic! I murdered my mother and nearly killed you?—”
“You saved Dayton’s life with this blessing,” I snarl back. “Savedmylife. You saw the princesses of Summer and Autumnacross the Ribs and earned the loyalty of the Huntresses of Aura and the Queen’s Army.” From around my neck, I snatch off the necklace, pulling the token out from where it was hidden within my bodice. A small wooden chip, carved with floral runes that resemble falling cherry blossoms. “You defeated Kairyn and retrieved the queen’s token. You are ready to lead your realm.” I put my hands on his chest, eyes pleading up at him. “Ready to break your curse.”
He shudders a breath and closes his eyes. I know him. He always has to think so thoroughly. But he’ll hear me. He knows this is his path?—
