He stands straight and walks between Dayton and Ezryn. “What fun! We’re like a little do-gooding team. Perhaps we should get matching uniforms.”
Ezryn rolls his eyes, and Dayton’s expression wavers betweenThat’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heardandabsolute genius.
Finally, I turn to Kel. He’s huge, imposing even, in this small workshop. His head nearly skims the wooden beam roof. With his arms crossed over his chest, he looks like he could break me with a single squeeze. But I know him. I know he came for me when I ran away from Castletree. Know that he summoned the Kryodian Riders to defend Coppershire. That he worked with his worst enemy to save my life in Florendel. That he would give his own to protect my father and my mother.
Steps thudding on the ground, Keldarion walks over to me and grabs my chin, tilting it so I look up at his face. White hair falls over his shoulders, and his brows are furrowed. “Are you asking me to wage a war for you, Rose?”
“Yes,” I breathe.
“Then I will wage the greatest war the Enchanted Vale has ever seen. May every star I tear down from the sky be in your name.”
We stay like that for a powerful moment, and though I am in his grasp, I feel deeply that he is in mine. This man will fight for me. Thesemenwill fight for me.
The time for peace, for diplomacy, for compassion, has ended.
The time for war has begun.
Part Two
Shattering
24
Caspian
With what little freedom I’ve earned for saving Rosalina andthe princes from our uninvited guest, I find myself in Wolfhelm’s library. It’s nothing like the library in Castletree, which is the first place I’d gone after aligning with Kel over twenty-five years ago. I’d seen a boy sitting in the corner, red-faced and peering out from behind a stack of books. Back then, I wasn’t sure if he was embarrassed or frightened by me.
The prince leaning against the wall bears little resemblance to the boy I once knew. He doesn’t even have a book in front of him. The frost on the window behind him glints like shattered glass in the pale light. Farron’s amber eyes are distant, fixed on something beyond the horizon.
I take a step closer, unsure if he’s aware of my presence. “You know, in the Below, you promised to pick out some good books for me,” I say, keeping my tone easy, though his silence unsettles me. “Doubt you’ll find any in Kel’s boring library.”
Farron shifts, his gaze sliding to meet mine. His face is unreadable. “There’s heat in Winter’s heart,” he murmurs, his words slow and deliberate. “A pulse too wild, too ancient. It stirs, like a beast in a fitful sleep. The stars shift in patterns even the ancients could not name.”
A chill creeps down my spine. “What are you saying?” I ask. “Are you speaking about Mount Rhuvenmark? You and Dayton are exploring it tomorrow, correct?”
“The day after tomorrow. I want to do some research first.” Farron tilts his head, his breath fogging the glass behind him. “I haven’t thanked you yet.”
“Like I said, I’ve had plenty of practice being the villain.” Everything I told Ezryn was true. I’m not sure why I did it. I know what it’s like to be in Farron’s position—a crowd bearing down on me for something awful. No one ever stepped in to take the fall for me. “You owe me,” I say. But the truth is I want Farron to know he still has friends…if we even are friends.
Farron snaps his gaze to me.We’re more than that now. We share the same magic.
“Stop that,” I snap at him.
“We share a mate. Is it so strange you can hear my thoughts?” Farron asks. “But we share more than a mate. Caspian, I need to ask you a question.”
“I’m not talking to you about this.” Because truthfully, my mind hasn’t been my own long enough to figure out a plan since Farron threw himself into the pool and my father manipulated him into taking a piece of his essence. I don’t have any answers. I’ve been trying to think of a way to get his magic out of me for my entire life. But how to get it out of someone else? I’m at a loss for ideas.
As for what Farron did to Dayton…
What will the Baron of the Green Flame demand for such a gift?
I bite my tongue to stop from snarling at Farron that he dare not use such power again. But what will that do? It’ll make him want to use it more. And why wouldn’t he? It brought back the man he loves.
“Caspian.” Farron steps closer to me. He still smells of cedarwood and amber, the faintest trace of smoke curling around him like the dying embers of a fire. “Why have you never accepted the gift of the Green Flame?” His voice is soft but insistent, a knife sliding beneath my guard.
The words hit me harder than I expect, and for a moment, the library vanishes. I’m back in the desert, the sun blistering the horizon into molten gold. The air tastes of ash and salt, and the sand shifting beneath my feet is hot enough to burn. There’s the flash of a dark-haired woman reaching for me, an explorer clutching her around the waist.Come back to us, Cas.
Then it erupts: the roar of fire, the searing pain, the world fracturing. The memory is sharp and jagged, cutting through my chest. I see the fire devouring everything, the sands writhing like a living thing—cold and hollow—as the Green Flame consumes me.
