Chapter 12
CHAPTER 12
Keldarion
S altwater transforms to ice beneath my feet as I surge toward the floating prison. My mate bond riots in my chest, the reawakened tether like a lifeline. She’s no longer here, but I feel her across the horizon. Another tie calls me to this place.
Mate of my mate.
Kairyn stands on a skiff bobbing in the water, tied to the dock of the prison barge. Wrapped in sea plants is Ezryn, that unfamiliar face trapped in a pained grimace.
I haven’t seen him in three months, since he stormed out of Castletree. No one has had word of him. For all I knew, he could have been dead.
Despite the animosity between us—and the fact he’s tied up by Kairyn’s magic—I feel relieved to see him. He’s alive .
And I’ll be damned sure to keep it that way.
I raise my arms, turning the spray of water around me into icy javelins. I’m level with the dock, and they shoot directly toward Kairyn. He cowers, but one strikes his armor and breaks. Bloody Spring steel.
“Where is she?” I roar. Another spray of ice daggers shoots toward him.
Kairyn staggers off the skiff and back onto the dock. The seaweed around Ezryn slackens. The tendrils whip out to grab my arms, but I reach out with my magic, turning the water on the weeds to ice. They crack and fall uselessly to the ground.
Kairyn takes a step back, and I slow to a stop, balancing on an icy floe beside the skiff. Though being in Summer may seem like it would hinder my Winter magic, both realms’ strength lies in the water and the wind. The ocean is like endless ammunition around me.
“Not so tough when you’re not surrounded by your corrupted plants, are you?” I snarl to the usurper.
Kairyn’s breathing is audible even across the crashing waves. “I should have expected my brother wouldn’t dare show his face alone. Oh, great and powerful Keldarion, always too little. Too late.”
Ice crackles as I craft a huge, jutting spike that rears toward Kairyn. “This realm does not belong to you. Nothing belongs to you, monastery boy.”
Kairyn touches the small, brown token around his neck. A light emerges, growing until it forms the shape of a giant war hammer. He swings it over his head, smashing it down upon my ice spike. “The Vale will belong to me. It has been promised. You barely hold Winter. My Sapphire Knight sits as steward upon the Spring Throne, enacting my rule with the Sword of the Protector. Runa and Erivor would be ashamed of you.”
The use of my parents’ names sends a storm of rage through my chest. Still balancing upon the ice floe, shining daggers dart up from the sea at my command, hailing down upon Kairyn. He flinches, unable to bat them all away with his hammer. Blood runs out from between the gaps of his armor.
Ez staggers to his feet, throwing off the last of the seaweed and rolling his shoulders. He draws the sword at his back.
Kairyn collapses to the deck, then peers up through the void of his mask. “Are you going to kill me, Keldarion? Where would the Blessing of Spring go? I have no heir and it won’t go back to my big brother. It’s never happened, not in all the ages. Perhaps it shall be lost forever.”
“I don’t fucking care,” Ezryn growls.
“Of course you don’t,” Kairyn says. “You only care about the realm when it suits you.”
I step off my ice floe onto the dock. “Where is Rosalina?”
“He couldn’t keep her,” Ezryn answers. “She’s gone. Escaped upon the sea with Dayton.”
Ah, my Rose. Look at us here to rescue you. Of course you could do it yourself. In my heart, I never doubted. I knew I would see you again.
Ice crystallizes in my hand, forming a long spear. I hold it up above Kairyn. He grabs the hilt of his war hammer.
I’m quicker. My spear shoots down, pinning his cape. Then I turn, transforming as I leap over the dock and onto the sea. My body shifts to that of the white wolf. My paws land upon ice. “Get on,” I say to Ezryn.
“What?” His brown eyes flash, darting between me and Kairyn. “We have to fight him!”
“Now is not the time.” As much as I would like to think I could end Kairyn in a single blow, I know with the full might of Spring’s Blessing and the Hammer of Hope, this is no guaranteed battle. Getting to Rosalina is more important.
Besides, Kairyn’s words sit heavy in my mind. What would happen to the Blessing of Spring upon his death, with no heir?
“Get on, Ezryn,” I growl.
I see the war in his eyes as he looks from me to Kairyn. Soldiers flood down onto the dock, carrying spears, bows, and swords. Kairyn yanks my ice spear free and cracks it in half.
“Get on!”
Ezryn leaps onto my back and seizes two fistfuls of fur. I run.
With each step, I summon ice to form below my paws. The waves crack the floes quickly, the water too salty and warm.
Arrows fly past us; I hear them whizzing by my ears and feel their rush close to my paws. Ezryn smacks one away with his blade.
“Your realm will belong to me!” Kairyn cries, but his voice is far away.
Step after step, wave after wave, we break across the ocean until the arrows stop coming. Until Kairyn’s voice is a distant memory.
I dare not speak to Ezryn first. I can only imagine the hatred he’s held for me these last three months.
My pace slows. I haven’t used that much magic since my last battle with Kairyn. My body feels drained, each ice floe an effort.
The small island I left from shimmers on the horizon. Almost there.
“Are we going to find Rosalina’s ship?” Ezryn asks. I nearly start at the sound of his voice. It’s dull, emotionless. No thank you for the rescue, but I didn’t expect that from him. Rescuing each other is what we’ve always done.
“No. I won’t be able to make it that far out to the open sea. But Rosalina’s regained access to her magic; I can feel our mate bond again. Knowing her, she’ll want to return to Castletree, and she’ll be able to do so with her thorns as soon as she hits dry land. We’ll meet her there.”
Ezryn’s grip tightens in my fur. “I can’t go to Castletree. Kairyn is High Prince of Spring, not me. That’s his domain now.”
“Your brother won’t dare show his face while Farron and I still hold our realms.”
My body gives out as soon as we reach the shallows. Ezryn topples off into the sea, and I shift back into the form of a fae.
We trudge through the waist-deep water until we reach the beach. I practically collapse onto the soft white sand.
Ezryn stands over me. This new him—this one with the scowl I can now see instead of just feel—stares down at me with a look of confusion.
“Even if I wanted to return to Castletree, neither of us have our tokens. How do you intend to get there?”
I crawl up the beach. My pack sits beside a palm tree. I rifle through it without meeting his gaze, pulling out and donning a pair of trousers and a shirt.
“Kel,” Ez says warningly, “how do you intend to get to Castletree?”
“Now, now. Let’s be reasonable,” a smooth voice says. Caspian steps out from behind another palm tree, dressed in a long black coat and tight pants, far too fine for a deserted island. “We’re all friends here. Did you locate our little Flower?”
I turn to Cas. “She’s escaped on a ship bound for the Byzantar Isles. I can only imagine her first intention will be to return to Castletree.”
Ezryn staggers backward. It isn’t rage on his face but hurt. He looks at me. “You … you tricked me.”
“Ez, listen—”
“Murderer!” Ezryn draws his sword with both hands, eyes blazing. “I’ll kill you!”
Then he charges at Caspian.
“Ez, no!” I reach for him, but thorns tangle up my arm.
“I don’t have time for this. If that’s how you’re going to be, not-so-metal-man, then fine. Stay on this island. See if I care,” Caspian snarls. Thorns erupt around him and more of them tangle around my body.
Then we’re swept below the earth together, leaving Ezryn alone.