8. Rosalina
8
Rosalina
A t my startled breath, the man in the prison cell looks up at me.
The space between us crackles. His eyes are an autumn gold, thickly lashed, and wide. Disheveled brown hair floats in curls over his thick brows, the shorter sides sticking up. His full mouth opens questioningly as he looks at me. He’s shirtless, his torso lean and muscled, legs stretched long before him in tattered pants. But what stops me in my tracks and has my heart racing… His ears.
They’re pointed.
This man isn’t a man at all. He’s fae.
And he’s also chained to a wall. Fae or not, he needs help.
I rush toward the cell and grab the door. “Hello! Are you okay?”
The man blinks at me, as if he can’t believe his eyes. Hey, he’s the one with pointed ears and he’s looking at me like I’m the weird one?
“Who… Who are you?” he asks. He shoots a look at the window behind me. “You can’t be here. You need to get out. Now.”
I yank on his door. There’s a huge padlock. Do those monsters live here? Did they imprison this fae? “I want to help you. But please tell me. Is there a man here? A human, like me?”
The man licks his lips and sits forward. I notice now his collar is massive. He could easily lift it off. Why does he keep it around his neck like that? “It doesn’t matter. You need to leave this place right now. Listen to me, okay?”
“A human,” I urge. “Is there a human here? Taller than me, brown hair. His name is George. Please, tell me!”
The fae’s throat bobs up and down, and he digs his long fingers into his pants. “Yes. But that doesn’t matter. You’ve got to go. It’s not safe.”
A flood of relief rushes through me. He’s here. He’s here! “I have to find him, then I’ll come back and free you,” I promise. “I won’t leave you behind.”
“No, no, no!” the man yells. His voice would almost be musical if it wasn’t laced with fear. He surges forward, clutching the bars, his face a breath away from mine. He stares into my eyes so intensely, I nearly stumble back. But instead, I shift closer. “Listen to me,” he says. “You have to get out now. There’s not much time. If you’re here when the sun sets—”
His golden eyes flicker with the fading light. He’s beautiful, even though his expression is clouded in dread. “I’ll figure out a way to get your lock undone,” I say. “I just need to find my father.”
“No! No!” he screams, shaking the bars.
I turn and run. Papa’s here. He’s here and I’m going to find him.
A sickly coughing fills the hallway as the fae man’s yelling fades behind me. Papa. Empty cells line the walls, some completely crowded with thorns. “Papa!” I call.
“Rosalina? Rose!”
I rush through an orange sunbeam and skid to a stop in front of a cell. My father.
He’s down on his knees and clutches the bars, resting his head against the cold steel. His hair sticks to his forehead with sweat and he’s still wearing the same clothes he left in. Except they’re soaking wet and covered in mud. His favorite necklace, the one Mom gave him, dangles around his chest. The moonstone rose shimmers in the dim light.
My hands clutch his through the bars. “Papa! You’re so cold.”
“Rosalina,” he whispers, his voice hoarse. “How did you find me?”
I give a sad smile. “I’ll always find you.”
“It’s real, Rose,” he croaks. “All this time. I finally found it.”
With a hard yank, I test the door. Locked. “I know, Papa. We can talk about that later. I’ve got to break you out of here.”
“No!” He stands and grabs my arm. “You must leave. Now. Save yourself!”
“Not until you’re free,” I demand.
“You don’t understand. They’re monsters, Rose! Beasts!”
Suddenly, the sunlight is ensconced with shadow. My father looks up, up, up, face falling into a mask of horror.
Time stops. There’s something behind me. Something terrible and evil. And if I turn around, I’ll shatter the numbness overtaking my body.
A crackle sounds and ice creeps along the floor. It’s beautiful, a glimmering white-blue with delicate fractals throughout. It creeps up the bars of the cage and Papa lets go, scrambling back.
Sucking in a breath, I turn around. But there are only shadows. “Who’s there?” I call, willing my voice not to break.
Movement shudders in the corner and I turn to face it. Two ice-blue eyes stare back at me from the murk, bright as if lit with blue fire. “I am the master of this castle. You are a trespasser.” The voice is deep and gravelly, like the cracking of a glacier into the sea.
Sickening bursts of adrenaline surge up my body, but I straighten my back. “My father is sick. Please, free him and I will take him far away from here. We won’t ever return.”
The shadow moves so quickly, I have to spin on my heel to keep him in sight. The one thing I can make out are those ice-fire eyes. “Your father is a thief. He stole from my castle and now he must pay the price. He is my prisoner and shall remain so for all eternity.”
“My father is no thief!” I cry. He’s a lot of things, but he would never steal.
Papa stands and slams his hands against the bars. “It was only a rose!”
The master of the castle lets out a growl. “Only a rose? You are a robber and a felon. Now you will remain as my prisoner. You wanted to stay with the fae? Then stay you shall, in this dungeon, until your brief life drains away.”
Tears spring to my eyes as I stare at my father. So many years I’ve held resentment for him. Every school achievement he missed because he was researching, all the debt he put us through with his travels, the shame I felt being daughter to the village weirdo. But he’s my dad. And that rose he stole… That was for me, I know it. For my little library that Lucas ran over.
“Oh, Papa.” I grab his hands through the bars and close my eyes.
There’s no choice to be made except this one. My whole life, I’ve sacrificed for him. What’s one more? I turn back to the shadows and meet the ice-fire gaze. “I’m the one who asked for the rose. Let me serve the sentence in his stead.”
“No, Rosalina!” Papa cries.
The eyes blink and the master seems to still. “You don’t know what you’re asking for, human.”
I lift my chin. “I do. Take me as your prisoner.”
Papa screams, “He’s a monster, Rose! A monster! Run while you can!”
But I can’t hear him. Because the eyes slowly blink, and then the master of the castle steps into the beam of sunlight.
He’s taller than any man I’ve ever seen. His long white hair falls over his shoulders, part of it pulled back to reveal dark brows and those terrifying eyes, like clear pools of moonlight. He wears a black jerkin that clings to his broad shoulders and huge arms. He’s beautiful in a sharp and deadly way, an icicle hanging above your head, about to break.
Like the imprisoned man in the cell, his ears are pointed. He is fae.
And I’m in danger.
The fae man steps forward, forcing me to look up at him. I suck in a breath, all thoughts vanishing from my mind.
He tilts his head slightly as if taking me in, his eyes unblinking. Time seems to take a deep inhale.
Finally, he says in that low, gravelly voice, “I am Keldarion, master of this castle and all who inhabit it. If you make the choice to be our prisoner, that means I am now your master. What say you, little human?”
I’m trapped in his gaze. A bursting feeling erupts inside my chest and the words come out in a single breath, “Yes. I choose to stay.”
He turns and yanks on the padlock with his bare hand. It rips off in an icy flash.
“No, Rosalina, no!” Papa screams.
The fae heaves Papa up by the scruff of his shirt and throws him out of the cell. I reach for him, but Keldarion grabs me by the back of my shirt. In a single instant, he rips open the door of another cell and tosses me in. The lock clicks.
Father rushes for me but Keldarion blocks him. “I will see to it your father is returned to the human realm unharmed,” the master growls. “That is more mercy than he deserves.”
“Wait!” I scream, clutching the bars. “Papa!”
“Rose!”
But the master of the castle drags my father through the dungeon and out of sight.
And I am left in the dying light, alone.