Kel gives the equivalent of a wolf’s shrug. “I couldn’t leave him unattended. What is the meaning of this?” His bright eyes find Rosie. “Are you alright?”
Her expression softens. “I’m fine.” Then she turns and points a finger at Dayton. “It’shimwe need to talk about.”
Dayton looses an exasperated groan and pushes away from the table. “Look, you can all go back to bed. It’s nothing. Rosie thought she saw something, but I’m fine!” He stares at her owlishly, eyes bugged out. “See? I’m me! Can we go to sleep now?”
“I’m not letting you push this to the side, Daytonales,” she snaps. Then she turns and looks me in the eye, then Ez, then Caspian. “What happened after Dayton died?”
A silence yawns between us, tension heavy as a Winter snowfall. A pit opens in my stomach, and I’m frozen to my chair. No one speaks. No one moves. No one?—
Dayton barks a laugh, then slams his hand down on the table, making me jump. He’s laughing so much, he has to wipe a tear away. “Rosie! I didn’t die! Sure, that shot took me down for a bit, but I’m the High Prince of Summer! I’m made of tough stuff. Trust me, I know it’s hard to believe, but we Summer folk are truly remarkable?—”
“Dayton. You were dead. Ifeltit. In here!” She slams a palm over her heart.
Dayton’s too-big smile falters. His voice lowers and trembles. “N-no, I wasn’t dead. I didn’t die. There’s nothing wrong with me.”
Everything within me feels ice cold. I did what I had to do. Without me, Dayton would be gone. The blessing would have passed to Delphia. My love, Rosalina’s love, would be lost, just as my mother is lost?—
Thrand fills my mind once more, that panicked, horrified expression, his bleat of fear. What if Rosie is like Thrand? What if she doesn’t understand?
I open my mouth, but no sound comes out.
Ezryn steps forward, heavy paws echoing on the floor. His eyes drift between Rosalina and Dayton. “Dayton, I held your body in the Autumn Realm the night of Caspian’s revelry day party. You were pierced by three arrows, but there was still a glimmer of life within you, no matter how faint. After you were shot by the Bow of Radiance, I did everything I could to feel for that glimmer.” His voice lowers, softens. “It was gone. There was nothing left.”
“No,” Dayton whispers, then yells, “No! I’mhere. I’m…me. How could I be here if I died? That’s impossible?—”
Ezryn’s gaze drifts over to me.
He’s going to tell them that I brought Dayton back. In my mind’s eye, Thrand’s eyes shift, changing into Rosalina’s lightbrown ones. The vision shifts out to her whole body, of her screaming in fear, running from…
From me.
Without you, he’d be dead, a comforting voice whispers in my ear.They should all be thanking you. Down on their knees, heralding you a hero. But that will never happen. They are too simple to understand how great a power you possess. You mustn’t tell them, lest they shun you.
Lest they shun me, I agree.
I look at Ezryn, his wolf’s eyes keen and watching. It’s okay. He couldn’t comprehend what happened. He has no conception of the power of the Green Flame…
“A man does not simply return to the living,” Keldarion growls. “Rosalina, what have you seen?”
Rosalina looks at Dayton, expression a mix of pity, fear, and love. “He wasn’t acting like himself. And his…his eyes, they…”
“They what?” Kel urged.
“They turned green,” she says. “Not just any green. A glowing green, like fire. Like the Green Flame.”
We all look at Caspian.
A chill burns through me. The Son knows the truth. He could see the threads as I wove them back together.
They will fear your power. They will betray you. You must act first. Burn them before they burn you?—
Caspian’s gaze flicks to mine. A strange expression crosses his face for only a moment before he masks his features once more.
What was that look? Fear? Pity? Something I cannot name?
“I did it,” Caspian says.
“What?” Rosie breathes.
