It’s all I can do to flash her a wink before Rosalina moves toward Konreth. “Rosie, stop! Don’t get too close!”
But she doesn’t listen—she never does. She raises her hands, golden briars sprouting from the earth between Caspian’s purple ones. They wrap around the bison, but not in an aggressive way. They’re gentle. I slow to a jog, noticing the briars have no thorns.
The bison snorts, his glowing eyes narrowing in confusion. His muscles coil as if readying to charge again, but Rosie’s briars hold him still. The tension in his massive body eases, breaths coming slower, less ragged. He lowers his frame to the ground.
I stay close, my fingers twitching. If the beast so much as flinches toward her, I’ll be ready.
Rosalina kneels, her skirts pooling around her until she’s face-to-face with the bison. She moves with a steady grace. Her dark curls spill over her shoulders as she presses her forehead against the beast’s broad snout.
“I know who you are,” she whispers, her voice so quiet I almost miss it.
The bison freezes. His eyes widen, and I swear something shifts in them—recognition, perhaps, or guilt. The golden briars glow.
“You’re not lost,” she continues. “You’re not a monster. You’re still you. Konreth of Winter, come back to us.”
I feel the weight of her words in my chest. Her compassion, her strength—it’s what saved me and Fare. There’s rustling around me, and I see some of the other staff have poked their heads out of the doorways. They’re watching Rosalina with a strange expression. Almost reverent.
The bison exhales a shuddering breath. The air shimmers, and the bison’s form shifts. Fur recedes, horns shrink, limbs reshape, until a man is kneeling before her, pale and trembling, light hair sticking to his brow.
“Steady on, lad.” Eldor of Spring walks up and wraps a cloak around Konreth’s naked form, helping him to his feet.
The young man mumbles something to Rosalina, who touches his cheek before she heads toward me. Eldy leads him up the stairs, but I hear him mumbling over and over, “I couldn’t change. I couldn’t change back. I was trapped. Trapped.”
Rosalina looks between me and Marigold. “What’s going on?”
“Konreth and I were tidying the entrance hall when he shifted,” Marigold explains. “No warning. There wasn’t a shred of the boy in there.”
I cross my arms, jaw tightening. “Marigold, what aren’t you telling us?”
Marigold hesitates. “It’s been happening more often to the Spring and Winter staff,” she says. “We’re finding it harder and harder to hold our human forms during the day.”
“What?” Rosalina says.
“The first time, it was Mandaria,” Marigold said. “She was a little penguin. We locked her in the Winter wing, let her slide around, and she snapped out of it after a few hours.”
“You should have told us,” Rosalina says.
Marigold shakes her head. “What good would it have done?”
And she’s right. Kel refuses to break his curse, and who the fuck knows what’s happening with Ezryn.
“There’s another problem,” Marigold says, her voice trembling. “Something you need to see.”
Rosie turns to me, and for a moment, neither of us speaks. The entrance hall is too quiet, the air too heavy. Whatever this is, it’s not just an overly excited bison.
It’s much bigger.
11
Rosalina
Ididn’t want to feel it when we first arrived at Castletree,but it’s almost impossible to ignore now. The trembling in the castle’s bones, like the death rattle of a dying animal. Castletree is not well.
Even Marigold seems off, only making a few of her usual jokes. Slowly, I trudge behind her.What could be worse than what happened to Konreth?
“Rosalina!” Astrid runs toward us. Her short, ice-white hair is pulled back with a blue ribbon.
“It’s so good to see you.” I take her hands in mine. They’re freezing. “Where were you?”
