“Cas!” Rosie’s voice cuts through the wind as she darts toward us. She grabs me by the shoulders, then touches my bloody nose. “What happened to you?”
“Had a little run in with a few of the Deep Guard who weren’t so chuffed about the redecorating I did here in Winter,” I say, shrugging. “Don’t worry about it.”
“What do you mean don’t worry about it?” She glares. “Of course I’m worried about it.”
“Let’s get off this bridge and back to the sleigh, then you can fix me up to your heart’s content.” I touch her chin. “Okay, Flower?”
She chews on her lip, then nods. “Come on. We should hurry. It’s getting late.”
We left our sleigh and reindeer hidden within a cave of ice fractals at the edge of the bridge. It’s a slow walk, though Ezryn’s got one arm around me.
Surprisingly, Ezryn’s got a certain brightness about him, chattering at Rosalina about their reports in a way that is so very unlike him. I think I’ve heard him speak more in this single walk than I have in the last three decades.He likes this, I think. Being useful. Having a mission. Havingpurpose.
Well, good. As long as he’s got a new purpose rather than killing me, I’m happy for him.
Rosalina…now, she’s the quiet one. Despite how much I’ve seen my Flower grow this last year, not everything can be learned. She’s out of her element. Being a princess is in her blood, but blood does not a leader make. I see it in the curve of her shoulders, the single line between her brows. She’s starting to feel the weight of her decision. War is started in a council room but finished on a battlefield.
But she’ll only really understand the cost of her choice when it’s dripping out before her.
A part of me wants to shadow her away somewhere far from here. But she must go through the trial that all leaders do. Must bear the weight of war.
We cross the bridge and a plain of permafrost before reaching the ice caves. All around me, walls of ice show my reflection. That pockmarked man was right. I don’t look like anything. With blood caked on my lips and a limp in my step, I’m no predator.
We turn a corner to where the cave opens up. Our sleigh, stocked with supplies, awaits, as does the well-trained reindeer.
“Sit on the back of the sleigh,” Rosalina orders.
I do as she says. Determination flashes in her gaze as she runs her hands from the tip of my head down my arms, across my chest, and over my legs. Magic sings in the air, and a delicious coolness spreads through my body, like I’m being filled by a mountain spring.
“You’ve mastered the blessing of Spring already,” Ezryn muses, watching her.
“Hardly,” she says. “But most of these seem superficial. Do you feel better, Cas?”
I stretch my neck and roll my wrists. “Amazingly so. Quite the skill you have, Rosie.” Bashfully, I look between her and Ez. “Sorry for the trouble. Who would have thought the Prince of Thorns wouldn’t be a popular guest of honor at Voidseal Bridge?”
“I meant what I said.” Ezryn’s gaze darkens. “That isn’t your name anymore. It shouldn’t be at least. Not if you don’t want it to be.”
I hold up my hand, gazing at the small golden bracelet around my wrist. “I don’t know who I am otherwise.”
“We’ll find you a new name,” Rosalina says.
I pull her toward me, but her eyes catch on the horizon. The sky is only a slit through the ice fractal cave. “One day. But for now, it’s getting late.”
“How far away is Kel’s camp? He’s expecting me tonight,” Rosalina says.
Ezryn looks up, peering through the gap in the fractals to the sky. “About an hour until sunset. I’m sorry, Rose. We took too long at the bridge. We’ll have to set up camp here and leave at first light.”
Rosie wrings her hands together, bottom lip pouting in the most delicious fashion. “I was afraid you were going to say that. Kel told me there was something special he wished to show me tonight. I wanted to make it there for him. We’ve just been… I don’t know. Clashing all the time. I thought if I went to his camp, it would mean a lot to him. Maybe we could finally have a conversation without trying to tear each other’s heads off.”
Ezryn squeezes her arm. “I am sorry, Rose. It’ll be too cold to travel all the way to his camp.”
I know as well as Ezryn does, once the night falls on the Anelkrol Badlands, it’s as if the wind grows new teeth. Flakes of snow slice like daggers.
She looks at me. “You’ve got no briars out that way?”
“Sorry, Flower. Never been out to the tundra myself. I’ve got no paths for us to follow. I’ll make some when we get there tomorrow.”
She nods, but I see her eyes shining. She’s struggling not to cry. A pang of guilt tugs at me. After everything she’s gone through these last few months, these last fewdays, all I want is to grant her wish. But I had to destroy even this small joy. If only I could do something to transport her into her mate’s arms?—
