Chapter 74
CHAPTER 74
Rosalina
“R emember to block.” Dayton’s wooden sword slams against my shoulder.
Hissing, I bring my two swords up to guard my face, and he taps them with a satisfied smile. “I prefer the bow,” I say.
“Then maybe don’t snap it in half so I’m forced to watch your pitiful excuse for swordplay. Again.”
The midday sun beats heavily down into the open-air training pit. Grainy sand shifts beneath our feet. Knocking wood sounds in the air as other gladiators train around us. Though, I notice their gazes constantly drift to Dayton.
Tilla’s right: his presence is igniting. There’s been a change since the last match where Dayton defeated his brothers. It’s reminded his legionnaires and the other gladiators that he’s not just the third-born son. He is a High Prince.
Dayton puts me through a few more rounds, mostly practicing footwork and building on the defensive techniques Justus taught me. He starts wielding a spear, showing me how to block and how far away I have get in order to be out of its range. We’ll be fighting the Bronze Knight and his Lance of Valor in the next battle.
A few more hours slip by, and I take a break to eat dried fruit and bread and sip some lukewarm water. But Dayton doesn’t stop, instead choosing to spar with a spear wielder.
Dayton disarms him in a moment. The man begins to apologize, but Dayton just wipes his forehead and shouts. “Can anyone here offer me a challenge?”
A few more legionnaires face him, and he downs them in moments. Pairs, then triples, attempt to face the High Prince. Dayton sweeps them away, each landing flat on their back, clouds of dust rising up around them.
His chest heaves, a red sunburn scalds his shoulders, and sweat coats his skin. His eyes almost glow, and for a moment he looks more beast than fae. No one moves to challenge him, and he stalks off to the wooden pell, hacking at it with his swords.
A match begins in the arena, and most of the gladiators leave the training pit to watch, while the rest are chased away by the afternoon sun. Dayton and I are suddenly alone.
Still, Dayton makes no move to stop training. I ladle a fresh cup of water and bring it over to him. “You should drink.”
“Not thirsty.” He doesn’t turn to me. Doesn’t even look at me.
I stalk away, put the cup of water down, and pick up my sword instead, stomping back over to Dayton.
Intercepting his sword with my own, I glare up at him. “Are you going to tell me what’s wrong or are you just going to take it out on this wood?”
His eyes are cloudy. He backs up from the pell. “Nothing’s wrong.”
“The way you treated the other gladiators isn’t like you.”
We shift over the open sand. He’s barely listening, his concentration fully on sparring with me. I can barely keep up.
“Are you upset with me?” I ask, just barely blocking a hard blow. “Because of Cas?”
A low growl sounds in his throat, and he sweeps my feet out from under me. My swords go flying and I tumble back. Dayton catches me and lowers me to the sand, pinning me there.
His golden hair is a halo, face soft for the first time all day. “I told you to watch your footwork.”
“I know.”
He shakes his head, and that near-void look returns. “No, Rosie. I don’t care. You’re free to fuck who you want and so am I.”
He straightens and turns, not offering to help me up. Nausea roils in my stomach, and I scramble after him. “What do you mean?”
He chucks his swords across the sand. “We’ve trained enough for today.”
I reach out for his arm but hesitate before grabbing it. “Dayton.”
“I need to talk to you, but not here.”
“Okay.”
In silence, we walk to my room. The moment my door closes, he says, “Wrenley’s coming down later. We’re going to break my curse.”
The room spins. My vision fades in and out. Steadying myself on the wall, I open my mouth, but find it empty of words. There’s no sentence in all the world that could describe how I feel.
“We both know I can’t face the Bronze Knight as I am now. Everything is ruined if the match is lost. I can’t overthrow Kairyn, free my people, or protect … protect you.”
I always knew this was coming, that this was where his path would lead. But now that the moment is here, I’m not ready for it. Not ready at all.
“Rosalina,” Dayton says.
Power ripples out of my body, and my siren disguise fades. I squeeze my eyes shut, forcing it all down. I can’t let what happened to me last time happen again. That power destroyed an entire wing in Castletree.
Surprisingly, I find my eyes are dry. “I understand. But I can’t stay here.”
“You’re leaving? Our fight is tomorrow.”
“Do you expect me to just sit here while you’re fucking her next door?” I gesture to the wall, hating the jealousy tinging my words.
The anger seems to ignite something in the Summer Prince. The void expression on his face fades to a smug smile. “Well, you said you understood. So why not?”
“I’ll lock my door and make a small thorn portal to Castletree. I’ll be back by the morning.”
“That’s it then?”
“No.” I kneel beside my bed and crack open the small bushel of thorns. Inside sits Dayton’s seashell necklace. Delicately, I take it in my hands and stand. “You’ll need this for tomorrow. Your trident will be invaluable once I take control of the bow and we confront Kairyn.” I drop the necklace into his palm without touching him. “Once you defeat the Bronze Knight with your newfound power, of course.”
I move to turn, and he grips my wrist, tugging me back toward him. “You understand there’s no other way. If I don’t do this, I will be a wolf forever. All the fae of Summer in Castletree will be cursed forever. I have to do this.”
“I know.”
My heart clenches with a sorrow so profound, it feels as though the very earth beneath my feet mourns alongside me. Dayton stares down at me, his eyes a storm-swept sea, silently pleading with me to say more. The ache in my chest intensifies with every passing moment, a part of me desperate for him to leave. The other part wants to cling to him for every second we have left before …
Before …
Memories crash against my mind: the first moment we met, every time he made me laugh, the dreams that he could be mine. They feel like glass shells, shattering against the rocks, each piece bleeding my heart.
“This is how it has to be,” I whisper, ripping my hand away. “You are bound to do right by your realm. My destiny led me to Summer, as well. To help my mother’s people. My people. We are bound by duty to walk separate paths.”
“Unless …” Dayton says, and his voice is hoarse, cracked.
Unless. A stupid star shower of hope fills my heart at the word. Tears blur my vision as I look up at him.
As if my gaze was the only invitation he needed, he crosses to me and takes my face roughly in his hands. “Tell me not to do it.”
“What?”
We stagger across the room until he slams me against the stone wall. His face lowers closer, a tangle of blond hair brushing my cheek. “Tell me not to and I won’t. Help me, Rosie, I’m barely holding on. Tell me now, and I swear to the gods, I’ll never look at her again.”
My heart blazes. Tell him not to do it. Keep him . Stop him from doing this terrible thing.
“I know it’s hard, Blossom.” His lips brush my cheek, and I close my eyes. “You’re good. You’re so good and perfect. But you can be selfish. You can do the wrong thing.”
“Day—”
“No, no.” His lips are by my ear, salty tears dripping onto my cheek. “Just think about it, Rosie. Think about what I’m going to have to do before you answer.”
“Don’t ask me to do that—” I snarl and flash my eyes open to see him a breath away from me. His hands grip my jaw hard.
“I have been with no woman since you, Rosalina, and I have no care to do so ever again,” Dayton says. “You know my heart. You’ve seen it. It belongs to you. It belongs to you and Fare. So, tell me not to do this.”
“Day …”
“Every swing of my sword is for you. Every word I utter, every action I take, every beat of my damned heart.” His fingers tremble on my face. “Rosalina, I love you.”
The earth seems to go out from under me, and I gasp in quick, short breaths. He loves me. He loves me.
“My love for you is deeper than all the depths of the sea.” His forehead dips to mine. “I will do anything you ask. Please tell me not to do this.”
The stones below my feet should be covered in blood with how his words pierce my heart. I break away from his touch. “I can’t.”
“Why?” Hurt and anger tremor in his voice. “Don’t you feel this ? Don’t you love me?”
It’s that question that destroys every piece of hope in my heart. “It’s because I love you that I can’t ask you to do this.”
Tears fall down Dayton’s cheeks, and he straightens. He leaves my room, closing the door behind him. But he opens it a moment later and he’s holding his seashell necklace in one hand and the golden token of the Queen in the other.
“Farron made this necklace for me,” he says, voice hitched. “It’s the most precious thing I own.”
“I can’t take that.”
But he’s already stepping toward me, tying the shells around my neck. “Please. I want you to have some part of me forever.”
“Until tomorrow, Day.”
“Until tomorrow.”
This time when he leaves, the door stays shut.