Rosalina storms up, then stands just below my chin, glaring. “I thought you were starting to trust him again, Kel. You worked together to save me from Kairyn. He and Farron destroyed the crystals powering the Baron’s pool. That night the three of us spent…”
I clench my jaw, trying to banish that memory. “It’s how he works, Rosalina. Everything he does is to further his own goal. When I was in the Below, I saw a clear vision of his true intentions.”
“And what are they?”
“He wants you, Rosalina. Wants you under the thralldom that would ensue if we were to properly mate.” All because of the bargain I made with Caspian so many years ago, blinded by love.Let me take no other but you. If one day, my vow shall prove false and I lie with another, let them serve you in repentance until you tire of them as I did your heart. And if ever there is no love between us, let this bargain melt away like snow under rain.
“You’re letting your fear win, Kel. That vision you saw isn’t certain.” Rosalina crosses the room to the large window where a few flakes of snow drift by, the dusky light playing over her features, casting her brown eyes a deep purple. “Bargains are not evil, Kel. The one you made with me when I was just a human felt like magic.”
“You were neverjusta human,” I say. “I wouldn’t have been able to make a bargain with you if you were. Fae cannot make bargains with humans.”
“You’re avoiding the point.”
“Fine. We can’t be so lucky that Sira would hurt him beyond repair.” I wave a dismissive hand. “She’s too proud of her creation. He’s too important to her plan.”
Rosalina stomps past me, but I grip her around the waist and push her against the wall, needing to feel her beneath my hands.
“Do you want me to describe the lengths to which I will go for you, Rose?”
Her chest heaves, and I haven’t seen her glare this hard at me since she first arrived at Castletree. I need to make her understand, to see what I did not all those years ago.
She narrows her gaze, and then the wisp of a smile tugs at her features. “Perhaps this would all be simpler if you just admit you were jealous.”
I dig a knee between her thighs. “This isn’t something so base.”
“Really?” she purrs and draws herself closer to me. “So it didn’t bother you at all, me showing up before you, naked, dripping with his scent?”
A low growl sounds in my throat. Her soft chest presses against my own. “You even sound like him.”
Rosalina threads her fingers in my hair. “He didn’t force me to do anything. I wanted it, Kel. I wanted him.”
“He’ll make you desire him until it kills you.”
Her lips dip to my neck, and her voice lowers. “Shall I describe the way our bodies moved together, how it felt when he entered me?”
My cock strains against my pants. I lift her, carrying her to the bed, and place her down. My tunic is loose on her, falling to the side to reveal a hint of her milky breasts. This isn’t jealousy, not in the normal sense, yet still…there’s a primal part of me, that incessant lingering mate bond.
Another man’s scent is on her, his seed inside her.
Every instinct in me wants to claim her.
“I missed you, Kel.” Rosalina’s voice breaks. “There were times in Summer I thought I might burn under the heat of the sun I missed you so much.”
Resting my weight on my arms, I look down at her. Tears sparkle along her cheeks like stardust. “My Rose, when you are not near, it is as if the stars cease to shine.”
She brushes her hand over my jaw, then lifts her lips to mine. My mate’s kiss spreads through me like the break of dawn. My hands close around her waist as I pull her flush against me.
“I was so afraid in that dungeon, but as Cas made love to me, it lessened, because I knew soon, I’d be in your arms.”
“I’ll never let you go, Rose. Never.”
“We have to help him.” Rosalina drops her gaze to my lips. “If we mate now, that would bring me straight to Caspian. Then, with your full magic, you could come to the Below and assist our escape. I’m certain you’re familiar with the route to the Below from traveling with my father and?—”
“Rosalina.” I push myself upright. “I have told you this before, and I will tell you again. I would see the Enchanted Vale in ashes and Castletree overtaken by briars before completing my bond with you.”
Her eyes darken. “Cas wouldn’t keep me as a thrall. As soon as I came to him, he’d let me go. Like you did.”
“That’s what he wants you to believe.” His plan becomes clear as crystal in my mind. “He made you care about him, made it seem like only you could save him. Trust me, I know, because he did the same to me. If you go to him now, he will entrap you.”
