I snap open my eyes. The void falls away, and thenI’mfalling, cascading out from the bark of a fir tree down to the hard stone floor. Green flames hiss, then extinguish, as if caught in a rainstorm.
“Farron?” Ez says tentatively.
I roll my shoulders. “Yeah, it’s me.”
“Thank the fucking stars.” He runs over and helps me up. “I thought I was going to have to kill you.”
“He thought he was going to have totryto kill you. I told him I’d be peeling that armor off his charred corpse.” Kairyn shrugs, the act too casual for a seven-foot, curved-horned underfae.
I raise a brow, examining his broken manacles. “So are you just, like, out and about now? Never mind. We’ve got something bigger to deal with.” I turn to the tree encasing Dayton. A green glow emanates through the fibers of the bark. “I may be free, but he isn’t.”
“Think you can teach him how you did it?” Ez asks.
“Not before he burns my face off.” I rub my chest, right where my heart is. That’s where I felt Caspian’s fingers, crawling all over everything that makes up me. But he couldn’t destroy the truth. What Iknewin my heart. Like the love for my family. Like my mate bond with Rosalina.
Like a bargain.
“Set him free,” I say lowly.
Kairyn pulls back. “Are you crazy? Ezryn, don’t do it!”
Ezryn stays perfectly still in that way he does. “Something you’ll need to learn, Kai, is we trust each other around here. Wholly and completely. Whatever you’ve got planned, Farron, make sure it works.”
I step forward toward the tree. “It’ll work.” For Dayton. Not sure how I’m going to fare.
With deep, reverberating breaths, Ezryn reaches out his hand. The bark enwrapping Dayton pulls away. He leaps out, twin green flame blades drawn, eyes wild with intent.
I open my shirt and clutch the golden bargain bracer that wraps my bicep.Through every season and every storm.
Then I unfurl the bargain magic over him like a net. I see it, golden threads, weaving through his essence. I can pluck him like a string. There’s the blessing of Summer, strong andvibrant, his beautiful mate bond with Rosalina. A tangled ball of darkness, hidden behind his heart. And rivers of Green Flame running up and down.
“I’m sorry, Dayton,” I whisper.
Once, upon the battlefield where my mother died, Dayton made a bargain with me. That his power should always belong to me, to come at my command. The words ricochet through my mind:
“Farron, son of Autumn, I pledge my magic to you. May it always be at your disposal. May you take my power and make it yours. May I be a vessel and conduit. May you siphon my magic and let it flow through you. Through every season and every storm, may I belong to you. In return, vow to me you will never forget this moment. Who we are now. When you loved me. And when I fucking loved you.”
Now, I summon that bargain, tugging every shred of power from his body, Summer magic and Green Flame alike.
I am standing on his shore, facing a tsunami. It crashes into me, green waves choking and drowning me. His powers smash against my own, trying to fit within my body. It’s too much?—
“T-talk to him, Ez,” I gasp. “Remind h-him what is true. What is known.”
Ez rushes over to Dayton, who’s collapsed to the ground. I can’t focus on what he’s saying, barely staying afloat in the deluge.
Yes, Farron, Autumn blood, good. Channel it. You are stronger than you know.
The voice fills me with confidence. I squeeze my eyes shut and ball my hands into fists. Channel it. In my mind’s eye, I see myself tossing in the waves of Dayton’s immense power. I must harness this. Green flames appear over my legs, my torso, my arms. They burn so hot, they evaporate the water around me. I take a gasping breath.
Yes, yes, these flames aremine, mine to control. Not like when Caspian stole my body. These flames are thegift.
The Baron is my friend. The flames he gifted me are mine and mine alone. And I gifted them to Dayton. Icando this.At all costs.
“What’s happening to him?” Kairyn’s voice. “Ezryn!”
There’s a blank face in front of me. A helm. “Farron, calm yourself. Breathe.”
I am fire and the dark spaces between the stars. My power is otherworldly. I have no skin, no hair, no bones. Only flame.
