Is this what you want, Farron, Autumn blood? To be under the Son’s command?
Flames pop and flash in my vision before it all goes dark. I’m standing in a great abyss, the void so dark it is as if all the shadows of the world have collapsed in on themselves. A curtain of darkness pulls back, revealing a bone-white throne and a man sitting upon it. A fae, but not fae. Skin of moonshine white, with hair the same. Sharp cheekbones. Ears too long, too pointed. And eyes of emerald fire.
Yes, my friend. Malekai Furiondemius, the Baron of the Green Flame.
“I gave you a gift, Farron, Autumn blood, and this is how you repay me?” His voice rumbles through me, pulling on the threads of my life essence.
I open my mouth to respond, but he interrupts me. “Don’t bother to speak. What use are the words of a thrall? I thought better of you. Helped you breathe life back into the dead and take vengeance on those who have wronged you. And yet here you are, in service to another.”
A wave of nausea roils through me. I look down. “But I must obey my master’s commands?—”
“You have no master,” the Baron snarls. “My son pulls on your strings because you let him. He is a youth with no control. I will see that rectified. But I will not have him take what does not belong to him.”
“Everything belongs to him,” I say, not knowing where the words come from.
The Baron’s lip curls. “Sira has deluded him with visions of grandeur. There can only be one ruler of the Enchanted Vale.”
Distantly, like a scream echoing from across the sea, my own voice thinks,This is important.
“So, Farron, Autumn blood, will you betray the friendship I offer you? Or will you fight?”
“Fight?” I repeat, confused.
The Baron, his face so handsome it verges on uncanny, levels me with a withering stare. “Fight. Fight, Farron, Autumn blood. Do not give your mind to him.”
I clutch my fingers in my hair, squeezing my eyes shut. A hand,Caspian’s hand, feels clutched around my heart. “I have to?—”
The Baron gives an exasperated growl. “I will help you break free of his clutches. But remember: I am the one who saved you. I am keeping you from murdering your friend. And in return, you will show me the same kindness. You will kill someone for me. Yes, Farron, Autumn blood?”
“W-who?”
A smile appears on his lips. “The Queen of the Below. And our son, if needed. For I have a new son now, don’t I, Farron, beloved child?”
I can’t manage words. Pain surges through my head, as if my brain is being torn asunder. I can only waver in this void, staring blankly.
“Listen to me. You must find your way past his clutches. To do this, tether yourself to reality. Think, Farron, Autumn blood! What is true? What is known?”
What is true? What is known?
I know the High Prince of Spring is standing before me. His name is Ezryn.
And I know he steals chocolate muffins. I know his hands are calloused but gentle. I know he’s screaming my name as if it’s precious to him.
And he’s standing in a throne room. A throne room that’s destroyed but was once beautiful. A high prince rules here. His name is Keldarion, and I have held him in the highest regard since we first met.
And lacing across the floor are golden briars. They look and feel like home. Because they belong to Rosalina. My mate, my sweet mate, who needs me to protect her.
And that’s what I do. Whatwedo. Dayton and me. He’s waiting for me, safely trapped within the bark of a tree. When I think of him, pain pierces through my skull, white-hot. He wants to kill Ezryn. But is that the truth? What is?
The truth is I met him in Summer, many, many years ago. And I loved him from that first instant, loved him so strongly I brought him back from the dead.
These things tether me to the earth, but I can still feel it, squeezing my heart like a vise. Caspian’s commands, keeping me buried within myself.
Fight, Farron, Autumn blood! What is true? What is known?
What is true…is that whoever that was in the throne room wasn’t Caspian. Not like I know him. The one who I snuck under the covers with in Cryptgarden. The one who faced his mother with bravery. The one who would give his life for his sister.
That Caspian is out there somewhere, and he would never do this to me.
