Chapter 77
CHAPTER 77
Rosalina
“Y our plan isn’t going to work,” I snarl as Wrenley—as the Nightingale —snaps steel manacles around my wrists. Her prismatic thorns erupted me upward into what must
be her private room somewhere in the Serenus Dusk Chambers. Tall windows show a perfect view of the arena. Chains attached to the stone wall snake down across the floor, leading to the steel manacles that clasp my wrists. I stand, tugging on the shackles, pulling the chains taut, but it’s no use.
Wrenley laughs. “Isn’t this such an adorable coincidence? We both figured out each other’s disguises at the same time. Too bad I’m just a tad swifter. The siren ears were a nice touch though. I figured you would be too precious for our chivalrous High Prince of Summer to drag into the arena. I should have known nothing stops the indomitable Rosalina O’Connell!” Her tone is mocking, condescending.
I’ve let my siren disguise drop, coiling every bit of my magic deep inside. With a sneer, I say, “I guess spending all that time with us didn’t teach you anything about what it means to care for other people. To have a heart.”
Wrenley’s laughter dies. “It’s a privilege to have a heart, Rosalina. Count yourself lucky for possessing one for as long as you did before I tear it out.”
Even disguised in the white and gold acolyte robes, I can’t unsee the frenzy in her eyes. We led a snake right into our nest and fed her with our secrets.
It all makes sense now. Wrenley posed as an acolyte who served Kairyn because it allowed him to keep the Nightingale close. I’d never seen the Below’s assassin at the same time as the acolyte and there were all these little inconsistencies in her story. No wonder I could never shake the feeling that Wrenley hated me; even she wasn’t that good an actress.
But it was those eyes that finally gave it away. That look of frantic intensity, completely set sail from any sense of peace.
“So, what was your plan?” I spit at her. “Kairyn and Perth Quellos not good enough company? Couldn’t make friends in the Below so you had to masquerade as one of us?”
“See, that’s the thing about you and all the other puppets playing house in Castletree. You’re so eager to believe everyone wants to hold hands and sing songs together. The world doesn’t work that way, Rosalina. Trust is why you’re in chains and I’m not.” She shakes my steel manacles.
“Fine. You wanted to trick us. Well, you succeeded. But why pretend to be mates with Dayton?”
As the words fall out of my mouth, a ridiculous feeling overcomes me.
I’m imprisoned by an assassin who’s tortured me and threatened my life. Yet, I feel relief.
She’s not Dayton’s mate. It was a lie. He doesn’t belong to anyone else. He could still be mine—
My joy fades to fear. If that’s true, he could have unlocked his true power. Would have had a chance in the arena tomorrow.
“You’re asking why I went to all the trouble of seducing Dayton?” Wrenley blinks her eyes.
“You didn’t seduce him,” I snarl. “You tricked him with a fake mate bond. It’s different.”
“One of the simplest concoctions I’ve ever whipped up.” She taps the golden nautilus shell still around my neck. “The Friar’s Lantern did it all for me, truly. It was so simple; it almost makes me sick to think how easily he fell for it!”
“You played on his desire to save his realm. That’s not weakness.”
She rolls her eyes. “Ugh, don’t you ever tire of being so righteous? You’re so similar, the two of you. Honestly, the hardest part of the last few months was keeping that doe-eyed look around him when he was acting like such a heroic fool.”
“Was this all because you hate me?” I whisper. “You wanted to take him away just to hurt me?”
“Everything’s not about you, Rosalina.” She says my name like it burns her mouth. “This is about something bigger, about the realms. They’ll soon all belong to us, and your princes will be nothing but memories. Your precious Spring Prince was the easiest target. Kairyn was his only heir. Would have been easier to kill Ezryn outright, but so it goes, the ending was the same.”
“Don’t talk about Ezryn like that.” I jerk forward, the steel manacles biting into my wrists.
Wrenley smiles and pats my head, despite the fact I’m taller than her. I step back against the wall to get away from her. “Simmer down,” she says. “You’re lucky Kairyn’s soft. Now, Daytonales proves a different challenge. If we kill him outright, the Blessing will pass to his sister, which would just pose another problem. The only option is to have him pass the Blessing willingly. But who would he trust to receive such a precious gift?”
“His mate,” I whisper. “Well, you’re stupider than I thought. Dayton will never pass the Blessing to you, even if he believes you’re his mate!”
She smiles. “He will if he thinks there’s no other choice than to pass it to me or burden his beloved sister. See, there’s this thing called ‘subtlety,’ dear Rosie. You don’t seem to understand it, but trust me, I’m a master at it. These last three months I’ve reminded Dayton that passing the Blessing of Summer to his sister would not only be a horrible burden on her, but also her death sentence. I’ve told him how all his enemies will converge on her if she were to bear such a responsibility. Trust me, Dayton’s too soft a man to let that happen to her.”
“You’re insane,” I breathe.
“I’m efficient. The Summer Realm will be mine. Pathetic Perth Quellos may have failed his takeover of Winter and Autumn, but with Kairyn controlling Spring, myself controlling Summer, and Mother’s new plans for Winter, it will be all too simple to make Autumn fall in line.” She sticks out her bottom lip. “Though, I doubt you’ll be around to see it.”
Panic rises in my chest. The thought of Castletree’s dark lines of rot fill my mind. If the princes lose control over two Blessings, what will become of our home? Of all the people who live in Castletree?
I look around for something, anything, to help me get out of here and warn Dayton. But there’s only a bed with rumpled sheets, a vanity messy with makeup and hair accessories, and a dresser, though a few robes are scattered on the ground and not properly put away.
Then something catches my gaze tucked into the corner: the hovering golden orb with the rings around it. Dayton called it the Orb of Ancestors … It’s what brought the warriors of light to life in the arena. The Nightingale has it constrained in a tangle of her prismatic thorns. Dark lines leech into the glowing surface. Is this how she corrupted the memory of Damocles and Decimus?
The door swings open and Kairyn’s huge black frame takes up the whole doorway. His helm turns to me, chest heaving. “You did it,” he breathes and looks to Wrenley. “You found her!”
He slams the door shut, and a joyous laugh bubbles up from Wrenley’s throat. Kairyn crosses the distance between them in two steps and grabs Wrenley in his arms, swinging her around. The most genuine smile I’ve ever seen plays across her face. It’s so big, the pink of her gums shows, and if she hadn’t just told me I’m imminently going to die, I’d almost think it was cute.
“I’m so glad my presence pleases you both,” I say dryly. “Now, if we could finish this interrogation so I could begin my escape, that would be great.”
Kairyn drops Wrenley and stomps over to me. I can feel his grin behind the helm. “Do you know what these handcuffs are made of, Dandelion?”
I do. I recognize it from the Spring Realm. “Spring steel.”
“Exactly. Try to use your briars to take you away and your arms will rip from their sockets before these chains break.”
“Knowing her, she’s stupid enough to try,” Wrenley spits. She walks over to me and snatches my chin with one hand, while popping the cork off a small vial with her other. I try to thrash out of her grip, but she forces a thick, floral-tasting black liquid down my throat. “Say goodbye to your magic,” she purrs.
“You can’t keep me here!” I scream. “Dayton will realize I’m not there. He’ll come for me!”
But they both ignore me, instead focused on the other. Kairyn smooths the hair back from her brow, his gloved hands so large compared to her delicate face.
“I can’t believe you found her,” he murmurs. “Everything’s going to be okay.”
She smiles up at him, then flicks her gaze to me and notices how intently I’m staring at them. Giving a tittering laugh, she pushes away from Kairyn and waltzes over to the vanity. “Of course I found her. It was only a matter of time.” She puts a dab of rouge on her lips. “Now, for the next stage of our plan. Breaking the gladiator.”
I don’t care that I’m in chains, that there’s two of them and only me. Primal instinct shoots through my chest. “I will kill you if you touch him.”
Again, it’s as if I’m nothing more than a nattering fly to these two. Kairyn rests a hand on Wrenley’s shoulder. “I’ve got my knights at the ready. I’ll have him brought to a cell and—”
“No!” Wrenley wheels around and glares at him. “I have the Summer Prince right where I want him. He’s finally ready to trust his little mate.” She looks at me with a self-satisfied smile. “How does it feel, Rosalina, to watch someone you love slip away? Now, do you understand what it feels like to be alone, to be left behind?”
The way she’s speaking, it’s like this has been her goal all along: to make me feel alone. Though I know it’s not true. What she really wants is control over Summer. Yet still, there’s a glint in her eyes that tells me she knows all too well the feeling she’s describing.
“I’m not alone. Dayton isn’t doing this for his mate. He’s doing this for his realm,” I say. “Even if Dayton sleeps with you, he’ll never love you. Not how he loves Farron.” I suck in a breath. “Not how he loves me.”
Wrenley begins to roll her eyes, but Kairyn grabs her shoulders. “You’re going through with it? You’re going to bed him?”
“Yes,” she snarls. “Now.”
Kairyn staggers backward. “W-why would you do that? We have the Golden Rose. We can stop these mind games. We’ll throw Daytonales in prison, use the Golden Rose as leverage. We can find a way to still get his Blessing—”
“We’ve come this far,” she hisses. “This will work.”
“Let us just kill him and be done with it!”
“What, so the Blessing passes to that whelp hiding out in the Ribs with your brother? No. We stick to the plan.”
Ah, of course Wrenley would have told Kairyn about Ezryn’s plan. I bet it’s been driving him crazy, knowing where Ez is and not being able to go after him.
Kairyn paces back and forth, hands on his helm. “It’s not going to work, Wrenley. If you sleep with him, he’ll know you’re not his mate.”
“Yeah!” I say, then realize I’m agreeing with Kairyn and shut my mouth. Doesn’t matter. Neither of them looks at me anyway. Distantly, I notice that Kairyn called her by the name she gave us. Is that her real name? Is there a piece of truth in all the lies she’s told?
Wrenley begins aggressively brushing her short hair. “He’s been waiting decades to find his mate and break the curse. Imagine what will happen to him when nothing changes? I’ll convince him he’s broken. He’s too far gone to free himself of the curse. He’ll be so devastated, he won’t have the will to fight. In the arena, your Bronze Knight will beat him to within an inch of his life. Knowing death is upon him, he’ll be greeted by me,” she bats her eyelashes exaggeratedly, “his mate. I’ll remind him that if he passes this burden to his sister, she’ll be hunted down just as his brothers were. So he should pass it to me, an unassuming acolyte who will keep the Blessing safe until the Queen’s eventual return.”
“You’ll never break Dayton,” I say. “Not his body. Not his spirit.”
She gives me a smirk. “Oh, I suspect he’s already broken, and I think I have you to thank for that.”
My legs weaken, and I nearly collapse to the floor. Dayton begged me to tell him not to go through with this. I let him walk straight into this trap.
Kairyn slams a hand against the wall. “There has to be another way!”
“Stop it, Kairyn,” she snaps. “You said you were fine with this. You said you understood what’s at stake.”
“Of course I said that,” he growls. “But now that the time has come, I cannot bring myself to let this happen.”
“Well, you don’t have a say.”
“Give me more time.” The distance between them vanishes as he sweeps her into his arms. “I will find another way to deliver you Summer’s Blessing, I promise. Do not do this.”
She shoves off him. “Just as you said you would deliver the Golden Rose? As always, the only person I can count on is myself.”
“You wanted the monastery; I gave you the monastery! You wanted the Spring Realm; I gave you Spring!” Kairyn’s voice hitches. “Yet, you still do not trust me,” he adds.
Wrenley barks a laugh. “Those weren’t for me . Those were for you. Do you remember how you were when I first found you? Miserable. Banished. You would never be content until you proved to your damned brother that you are the deserving ruler of Spring.” Her steps echo through the chamber as she paces before him. “I made you into what you are. I took you to the Fates to see your destiny. I showed you the truth of Ezryn’s curse. I turned you from a monastery boy into an Emperor!”
My heart thunders with the passion of her words. They’ve completely forgotten my presence now, so wrapped up in themselves. I test the steel again, knowing it’s futile to try and break it. And Kairyn’s right. Even if I could use my magic, I’d have to take the whole wall with me if I want to use my thorns.
Kairyn falls to his knees before Wrenley, clawing at her robes. “I have given you everything. All that I am. There’s no part of my soul that hasn’t been painted by you. This is the only thing I ask in return. Do not do this. Do not give yourself to him. You don’t love him!”
Wrenley grabs Kairyn’s wrists and flings them off her. “Love is poison.”
Kairyn collapses to the ground, cape pooling around him. “I have nothing left. Would you have me rip out my heart and throw it on the ground before you? I will do it. I will do anything you ask.”
She gives that sad, joyless laugh once again. “Oh, you’ve given me everything, have you, Kai? I told you to kill Ezryn and you left him alive to ravage the Summer sands. Those are destined to be my lands he’s hunting! But is this how you play it in your mind, Sweetling? Everything all for darling Birdy girl?” Her blue eyes shimmer and her lip curls in disgust. “I fight for your attention with a godsdamned ghost. Someone who never existed! A brother who’s scorned you since the first! You couldn’t win his love, so you chose his hatred instead. Well, good luck trying that with me.” Her whole body trembles and she turns away from him, stalking to the edge of the room. “I can’t love you, but I won’t hate you. So, what are you going to do about it?”
Kairyn stands, appearing as a looming shadow. I hold my breath, wondering if they’re going to try to kill each other.
Then he moves. He rips off his helmet. It falls to the floor with a thud. Long black hair flows behind him as he rushes to Wrenley. In a single movement, he sweeps her into his arms and kisses her. Kisses her with the passion of a man undone.
Her eyes widen, shock registering on her face. Then she closes her eyes and melts against him, kissing him in return with the same passion.
Kairyn’s helm lies on the floor, as discarded as I am. I narrow my eyes, hardly able to reconcile the usurper Prince of Spring with the … the boy in front of me. His hair reaches his shoulders, wavy and dark. He has the same tawny skin as Ezryn, and his brown eyes, too. I’m struck by how young he appears. Younger than me, even.
I suck in a breath. It hurts to see how alike he and Ezryn are. How young and handsome he is. I can picture the two of them beside each other, laughing.
Wrenley pulls away from him, her face shifting from bliss to horror. “What were you thinking? Your creed!”
He grabs her hands and brings them to his lips. “I don’t care. My honor was forsaken long ago. You are my creed now, the temple that I worship. I have nothing else to offer you, to make you stay with me, but this.” He places her palm on his cheek. “Please take it.”
My heart catches. This … this is the most vulnerable a member of the Spring royal family could possibly be, to offer their face to someone who is not of their blood or fated mate. Kairyn must be truly desperate to forsake everything he knows for her .
Wrenley’s chest heaves. Slowly, she takes a few shaky steps away from him. “I-I have to do this. I need the Blessing.”
Kairyn falls to his knees. “It won’t help you.” He touches his chest. “It won’t fix anything, Wren. It will only burn. Like there’s a dagger digging deeper and deeper at every moment. If only Ezryn—”
“Ezryn!” she shrieks. “I’m not weak like you, Kairyn. You had your chance to kill him. Now, I have my chance to get Summer’s Blessing. I’m not going to squander it.”
Kairyn’s stare turns inward. Those beautiful dark eyes glaze over. “There’s nothing I can say to stop you, is there.” He doesn’t ask it but says it. A statement he knows in his heart.
“No.”
Kairyn stands, movements stiff, jerky. He turns toward the door. “So be it. I will be taking my leave of Hadria presently.”
“What?” She raises a brow. “Where are you going?”
He picks up the helm and puts it on, hiding the boy. “You want me to kill my brother? Fine. I’ll kill my brother. I’ll take my men to the Ribs and destroy him once and for all.”
The words cut through me like arrows. No, no, no. I thought Kairyn had a chance of stopping Wrenley from hurting Dayton, not taking both him and Ezryn down! I thrash against the steel.
“You can’t go to the Ribs,” Wrenley breathes. “I need you here.”
“Apparently not.”
“I want you here.”
“You don’t know what you want,” he growls.
I jerk forward, thrashing against the chains, but only manage to fall hard to the floor. “Leave Ezryn alone! You’ve taken enough from him!”
Kairyn tilts his head to me as if he’s only just now remembered that I exist. For a moment, I think he’s going to say something, but then he just opens the door and leaves, closing it softly behind him.
Silence echoes in his wake.
Wrenley stands in the middle of the room, shoulders shaking. She clenches her jaw so tight, it seems like her teeth may crack. Then with a scream, she grabs the hairbrush off her vanity and throws it against the mirror. Spiderwebs erupt across the surface, causing her reflection to turn into a hideous visage.
She runs to her bed, throws her head in the pillows and screams , a sorrowful keen. Tears spring to my own eyes at the sound. When she lifts her head, the kohl around her eyes is smudged, but the intensity in her gaze is back.
My heart thuds. This is my last chance to stop her. To have her stop Kairyn. As she walks past me, I reach out and grab her wrist. “I can see it on your face. You love him.” It wasn’t Dayton she had loved when we drank the truth wine. It was Kairyn. “Why risk that by doing this?”
She looks down at me. “Because I hate you more.”
For a woman adept at disguises, this is the least convincing thing she’s ever said.