Chapter 88
CHAPTER 88
Keldarion
“W hat do you mean, Rosalina will take your place?” George cries.
The Queen of the Vale kneels before us, head down.
I slam my hand against the glowing green barrier that cages her within. “So, you truly did make a bargain, didn’t you?”
She sighs and holds up her hand. There’s a single black band around the ring finger of her right hand. It has no design, no etching. Metal plain as prison bars.
The circular manifestation of a bargain.
I tear away from her cage with a growl. “What could ever possess you to involve your daughter in a bargain?”
“I didn’t mean to!” she cries. Her eyes dart to the entrance. “I’ll tell you quickly, but then you must leave. Promise?”
“No, I don’t promise!” George says. “I’ve been searching for you for nearly half my life. I won’t leave your side again.”
“Oh, sweet George, it hasn’t been nearly half your life. Not even close.”
I storm back to the barrier. There’s no way we can just leave, not when we have no answers and no direction. How could the Queen of the Vale have made a bargain without understanding the consequences? She’s the bloody Queen . She created the realms, Castletree …
All this time, I thought with certainty that I was cursed because it was what I deserved. Now as I stare at Aurelia—at Anya—I wonder if she’s as fallible as the rest of us.
“You’ll understand when I explain.” Anya touches her hands to the barrier and George places his against hers. “I had ruled the Vale for generations and I was tired of it all. Tired of war and noble squabbling and having to know the proper answer for everything. I was exhausted. I couldn’t do it anymore! And I didn’t need to be there. I left my four most trusted confidants in charge of the realms, assured that they would pass their power down to the worthy. Then I left.”
“So, it’s always been true,” I growl. “You abandoned the Vale.”
“I didn’t abandon the Vale. The fae I left in charge were better suited to rule than I ever was,” she snaps. “I had done my part. Suffered through wars, pushed my magic to its limits, sacrificed my happiness for the good of the people. It was my turn to live! And I did. Oh, I lived. I watched Shakespeare’s plays at the Globe Theatre in London, sipped tea with Anne Boleyn in the gardens of Hampton Court Palace, marveled at Leonardo da Vinci’s inventions in Milan, and sailed on the HMS Beagle with Charles Darwin.” Her eyes shimmer. “I got to witness the rise of civilizations without having the pressure of designing them myself! To experience the world as it came to me … that was magic.”
“What of your people?” I ask.
“I left them in the best hands I could,” she says, voice short. “It’s not my fault their descendants passed the Blessings down to those who refused to live with conviction.”
The words find their mark. She did think me unworthy.
“Maybe I would have been more ready for the Blessing if my father hadn’t died in a war, one you left us to fight alone,” I say darkly. My anger surprises even me. This is the creator of my home, my way of being. The magic she saved flows through my veins. Yet, all I can think is whatever bargain she made threatens Rosalina.
Though … I suppose that doesn’t make us so different.
Anya glares at me, then softens. “Fine. You’re right and you have every reason to hate me, Keldarion. But I would not change my past. Not for anything. Because it led me to you.” Her gaze drifts to George.
“I thought you were a fool when we first met,” she says.
“I know. You told me all the time.”
“I didn’t expect to fall in love with you, George. I’d lived over a thousand years without falling in love. But this was greater than any adventure I’d been on. I was no stranger to grief. I’d mourned countless visionaries who’d inspired me, many leaders I admired. But not so many friends. I knew better than to get attached to someone whose life would vanish in a breath of mine.”
Her voice gains strength as she speaks. “My fae life was far behind me, but I still remembered magic. I could turn fae to animals or some mixture of the two, but I’d never been able to create faedom. So how was I to keep you with me forever? How was I to cheat death?”
George’s fingers curl against the barrier, as if he could wrap her hand in his. “I would have been grateful to have one lifetime with you, Annie.”
“I know you would, darling.” She smiles and a tear trails down her cheek. “But you know me. You said it all the time. ‘Nothing’s ever enough for you, is it, Annie?’ One lifetime with you would never do me. Never ever.”
A pit opens in my stomach. There was only one fae in the Vale who ever rivaled the Queen’s power. If there was something Aurelia was incapable of—
“So, I did the only thing I could think of. I went to the one person who I thought might have been able to master this power. My enemy, Sira.”
I knock my head hard against the barrier. “Thank the seven realms Rosalina got your looks and not your rashness.”
She glares at me. “Are you one to speak of poor bargains, Keldarion? If so, please come and join me within my bars. We could pass another twenty-five years with the discussion.”
“Enough, you two.” George glares at us both. “Anya, go on. I need to know.”
“I asked Sira how to extend a human’s life, but some things are impossible for even the two of us. However, she did have other arcane knowledge. She offered to teach me how to tie your life force to an object. In return, I would make a bargain with her.”
George’s face crumples in anguish. “Say this isn’t all for me.”
“I’m selfish, I know it, George. What can I say? Well, I asked her what this bargain was. We were friends before she stole the rose from the Gardens, did you know that? I’m sure you didn’t. You don’t remember any of my stories, do you, George?”
He clutches his hair. “I don’t know what I remember. There’s bits and pieces falling at me, but I can’t line them up. It’s like I’m standing in a meteor storm just waiting to get hit.”
Anya gives a sympathetic smile. “I’m sorry. That’s my fault, too. But I’ll get to it.”
“The bargain,” I growl. “What bargain did you agree to?”
Her voice takes on a dark resonance. “The bargain was thus: if I were ever to love anyone more than George, that person would belong to Sira completely: mind, body, and soul.”
George and I both swear at the same time.
“It was a fine bargain!” Anya exclaims. “I’d lived a thousand lives and never loved anyone except George. I never thought it would be possible!”
“Until you had a child,” I say.
“Well, yes. That comes later. You’re moving too fast. I made the deal and felt quite chuffed about it, thinking I’d gotten exactly what I wanted from Sira without any sorrow. Of course, now I had to decide what I was going to do with George’s life force. What object would live as long as I did?”
George’s life-thread springs into my mind, his illness getting worse every time the High Princes were away from Castletree … “You tied it to Castletree.”
“It was quite clever, if I do say so myself.” She crosses her arms and tilts her nose into the air.
I pound a fist against the barrier. “Except you cursed us princes and now Castletree is dying!”
She puts her hands on her hips and glowers at me. “You have a lot of expectations of me, Keldarion. I didn’t want to be Queen, did you know that? I only wanted to help my people. After I saved the roses from the Gardens and made the new realms, everyone proclaimed me Queen, and I just had to deal with it. I’ll have you know that it’s one thing to be a hero and another thing to be a Queen. I didn’t always get it right.”
I take a step back. That’s exactly what she is. A hero. She saved the Gardens of Ithilias and traveled around the realms, rescuing fae who needed help.
Her restlessness simmers beneath her skin even now, her spirit undamaged even after twenty-five years in prison.
So many of the fae in the Enchanted Vale look up to her, thinking her a goddess. The army at Queen’s Reach pledged their life to her.
But she’s only a fae who saved the world and had to live with the consequences.
She sighs and looks away from me. “So, I tied George’s life to Castletree and returned to the human realm. We went on all sorts of adventures. Do you remember them?”
“Yes, I think so,” he says. “But they’re only now coming back to me.”
“You knew everything back then. What I was. Why you never aged. But our greatest adventure began in Orca Cove.” She looks down and splays her fingers across her belly. “I had made the realms, grown Castletree from a sprout. But this was the greatest life I ever created.”
“Did you not think of your bargain? Did you not ever consider you would have a child?” I exclaim.
“Of course I did! Sira led me to believe our bargain only included romantic love.”
“You’ve got to be explicit in the wording of bargains,” I mutter.
She glowers at me. “Thank you for such a helpful observation. Obviously, having time to reflect on everything, one could say I was a tad … optimistic about my deal.”
I begin to interject that “optimistic” is far too optimistic of a way to view her mistakes, but she waves her hand to silence me and continues speaking. “At that point, I knew my adventures in the human realm were coming to a close. A half-fae daughter should be raised among her people. So, when Rosalina was one year old, I journeyed back to Castletree for the first time since I’d tied George’s life to it decades ago.”
“And you found us,” I say solemnly.
Her face turns into a snarl. “I discovered a coward, a layabout, a menace, and … and you! You who were the Protector of the Realms. You who had so much potential. You who broke poor Caspian’s heart!”
I throw my head back and laugh. “Poor Caspian? Broke his heart? Has this cage rotted your mind?”
“Keldarion!” George snaps.
I get as close to her face as I possibly can. “When did you first meet Caspian?”
She gives a wicked grin. “Offer still stands. Come and join me in here, Keldarion. I’ve got hundreds of Caspian stories.”
“Another thing to thank the seven realms for! That Rosalina didn’t get your twisted sense of humor!”
“A shame,” Anya says. “Would you like the rest of my story or are you ready to leave?”
“The story,” I growl. “Continue.”
“I could have possibly forgiven the fact you four were useless at keeping the realms stable, protecting your people, and upholding everything Castletree stood for, but you committed an even worse sin.” Anger flashes in her gaze at the memory. “You were my daughter’s mates. I can feel these things, you know. Many from the Above can feel the deep magic, like mate bonds. For my daughter to be mated to such pathetic, pitiful, ineffective, futile, disappointing—”
“I get it ,” I growl. “We weren’t good enough for your daughter. Finally, something we agree on.”
Her lip trembles. “I know you judge me for my actions, Keldarion. You think you know the horrors of war. Of loss. I lived it all, every pain, every horror. When I finally felt like I had set things to right, I left the Vale in the hands of those I trusted most. For me to return years later to see all of that work, all of that sacrifice torn to shreds—” Her words cut off in a sharp breath, and she looks up to the sky. “I didn’t intend to leave you in such a state for long. I thought you needed to feel the consequences of your actions. But of course, things didn’t go as I planned. Just another drop in the bucket of mistakes the Queen of the Vale has made.”
I pause, musing on the tone of her voice, her choice of words. She seems … jaded. Resentful of her role as Queen. Mostly, I sense a feeling I know all too well: shame.
I have no words of comfort for her, and no defense for myself, so I ask, “The staff—did you have to curse them, too?”
Anya avoids my gaze. “Have you seen your people die, Keldarion?”
“Yes,” I breathe. “I have been to battle.”
“What of your citizens? Have you heard a mother’s scream over her babe’s dead body? A child wailing for parents they’ll never see again? Have you watched your home be destroyed, every rock, every root?” Her voice darkens, each word a harsh accusation.
“I saw Frostfang fall to the Below’s forces,” I breathe.
She sneers at me. “A home you soon liberated. I was there when the Above crumbled. When every part of my life I’d ever known was ripped away from me. Pray you never feel pain like that.”
“What does this have to do with our staff?” I snarl.
“I wanted you to fight for your people, Keldarion. To stand up for something, for someone. I planned to help you all reach your true potential, to free the innocent of my curse shortly after, but I didn’t know … I didn’t know …”
“Didn’t know what?” George urges.
“Didn’t know Sira would be waiting for me in the human realm. I think she was quite content to leave me there among the humans. Probably never would have made good on her bargain until I showed my face at Castletree and cursed all you princes. It was the perfect opportunity to gain control over the Vale. One she couldn’t turn down. So, she came to collect the one I loved more than George. She came to collect our daughter.”
The idea of Sira taking Rosalina … raising her in this place … My hands turn to fists.
George’s breath becomes shaky. “No, not our girl.”
“Of course I wasn’t going to let that happen,” Anya asserts. She twirls the ring around her finger. “But I didn’t have many options. I was trapped in the bargain.”
“So, you offered yourself in Rosalina’s stead,” I say.
“Smart boy.” She smirks up at me. “Sira was more than happy to agree.”
“Oh, Annie.” George falls to his knees. “Why didn’t you tell me? We could have figured something out. We could have—”
“Sira graced me with an extra day of freedom so I could see my daughter’s first birthday. I had just enough time to do a few last things to help our Rosie girl. I put an enchantment on her to conceal her faedom. I didn’t turn her human but disguised her a little bit. Then I planted a rosebush in the forest outside our home. In my heart, I knew my daughter would eventually discover the Vale, and I had to give her a way. I made sure it wouldn’t bloom for two and a half decades so that she could have a normal childhood. I wanted you to have a normal life, too, George.” Anya’s eyes fill with tears and her lip quivers. “It was the hardest thing I ever did, but I suppressed your memories. Changed them, so all thoughts of magic disappeared. Our adventures from the past were rewritten in your mind to fit a normal lifespan. Though with Castletree so weak, you seem to have begun aging as a human again.”
Both Anya and George are near tears now. “You see, I may be selfish, George, but you’re stubborn,” she continues. “I couldn’t have you following me or doing something even stupider, like trying to rescue me!” She gestures wildly, and somehow, all three of us laugh.
“You underestimated your husband,” I tell the Queen. “Even without those memories, he spent every day searching for you.”
“You fool,” she whispers but somehow it sounds like “I love you.”
“Here you’ve been all this time,” George whispers.
“Here I’ve been. Sira’s using my magic to power her portals to other worlds. She loves to visit me and gloat about her plans,” Anya spits.
“Anya.” I place my hand on the barrier. She places hers up against mine. “The weaker you get, the sicker Castletree becomes. It’s killing George.”
For the first time, her expression falters. Her voice is barely a whisper. “I can’t leave.”
“I know,” I say.
She closes her eyes and leans her head up against the wall. “Tell me of her. Tell me of my girl before you go.”
George’s voice hitches. Tears pour down his face, but I see he’s trying so hard to stay strong. “She looks just like you, Annie. Got your eyes.”
“And your bravery,” I add. “We princes failed you. Failed our realms. But if anyone can make it right, it’s Rosalina.”
“I thought so.” Anya quickly brushes her tears away. Then she straightens her shoulders and stares at me with eyes that have seen a thousand wonders. “You were not worthy of my daughter, Keldarion. But maybe that’s starting to change.”