25. Kienna
Kienna woke in her cottage, but something felt wrong. Wrong was too strong of a word, her mind told her. Nothing was wrong. But something was undeniably different. The pressing sense pushed in on her again.
She set about making tea, and her pulse quickening at the thought of seeing Revi again. She’d been turned away by his healers each time she’d tried to visit him during the day. And with how he’d left the night before, she didn’t know what to expect from him today.
Instead of a knock at the door, a voice called out, making Kienna jump.
“Kienna, won’t you let me in?”
She moved to the door and swung it open. Her smile froze in place at the sight of the man standing there.
Icy blue eyes, tall and lean, short hair that flopped across his forehead in a disheveled, charming way. He was familiar, but he looked wrong. This was not Revi. This was the other man, the one from the waking world.
She couldn’t believe she’d ever mistaken them before. Her memories of her dream prince were always hazy during the day, but seeing him here, now, when she remembered her dreams perfectly, the differences were clear. They looked so alike they could have been brothers, or at the very least cousins. But this man was too lean, his hair too short. His eyes lacked the strange glow to their blue hue.
He didn’t wait for her to greet him. He moved forward, pushing her back a step, his smile warm and his gaze intense. “I’m sorry I haven’t come recently. Things have happened.”
“Come in.” She took another step back, allowing him entrance so she could shut the door, and cleared her throat. She wasn’t sure how he’d ended up here instead of Revi, but she would do her best to take advantage of the opportunity. “Things? Have you learned something to do with the beast’s injury? Or with those monsters we saw outside the wall? Is it something to do with the drought? Please tell me; I want to help.”
He nodded. “My magic is... connected to the beast’s. He rules this Court currently, but for me to take my rightful place, the curse must be broken.”
Kienna’s heart thrummed in her chest. At last someone was giving her answers. But… were they true answers, or was he twisting his words like he had before?
Her mind raced to parse through his words, trying to pull the facts from the rest.
A curse would certainly explain things—namely the drought.
“How do you break the curse?” she asked, her voice breathless. She hoped he assumed it was from excitement, not the tension that coursed through her.
He shook his head. “You break the curse.”
Kienna blinked. That certainly wasn’t the answer she had been expecting, but it would explain her presence in the Winter Court. But… it didn’t fit his previous words. Alarm bells rang in her mind. Something didn’t fit. “If I can break the curse, then why would the beast bring me here?”
“If you break the curse for him, he will continue to rule the Winter Court. But if you break the curse for me...” The man stepped forward, bringing his hands up; one wrapped around her waist, the other moved to cup her cheek. She tried not to startle at the sudden contact. “I need your help, Kienna. I need your help gaining my rightful place.”
This man, who looked so like Revi they could have been brothers… wanted to steal Revi’s throne? Was what he implied true? Did the throne rightfully belong to him, or had he just deluded himself into believing that to justify moving against Revi?
She didn’t want to believe Revi had stolen the throne. He… couldn’t have, could he?
But if he hadn’t, this man was trying to pull her into a betrayal of the worst kind.
She was going to be ill.
“What will happen to the beast?” she managed to ask.
Something flashed across Enlo’s face. “Don’t fret over his fate. It’s inconsequential compared to all the innocents of the Court.”
She held back her questions. She was most definitely fretting over his fate. Someone had to, if his own family would betray him.
“I don’t understand how I can help you win back your throne,” she said, biting her lip.
“Just trust me.” He brushed a thumb across her jaw. The motion sent shivers through her.
Trust him, he said. Just like Revi had asked her time and again.
The question came unbidden. “What’s your name?”
He gave her a bemused smile. “Enlo.”
Something twisted in her. How easily he gave it to her. Why hadn’t Revi been so quick to trust her with his name?
“How do I break the curse, Enlo?”
Delight gleamed in Enlo’s eyes. “You break the curse by marrying me.”
Kienna swallowed. The cottage suddenly felt too hot. “I... What?”
“The curse can only be broken by love,” Enlo said. “You declare your love for me and vow to give your life to me, and the curse will break.”
It seemed so simple. Was that why Revi had never told her anything? Did he believe she couldn’t love him?
“What if my feelings are not strong enough?” She turned from Enlo, breaking eye contact and moving away from his hands. She needed space from him.
She needed Revi.
“Love is a choice, Kienna. If you choose to love me to the point of self-sacrifice, the magic will recognize that.”
“But then...” She twisted her hands together. She didn’t have to feign her anxiety. “Then I would have to stay here forever.”
“Yes,” Enlo said. “But wouldn’t staying here be better than going back to loss?” The words were casually spoken, but they slammed into Kienna’s chest with the force of a hammer.
She whirled to look at him. “What do you mean?”
His eyes widened. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to...” He shook his head. “No, it’s better that you know. It’s better that I show you. When your father plucked that rose and made that bargain, he tied himself to this Court…”
He trailed off, grimacing, and stepped toward the window. He passed a hand over the glass, and it frosted instantly; a hazy image began to appear. Kienna followed as if pulled on a string. She was absolutely certain she didn’t want to see what he was about to show her, but she couldn’t draw away. She had to know.
The frost crystalized and changed into a new image—her father, frail and weak in his bed at home. His skin was sallow, his cheeks gaunt.
Kienna stared at the image as her world crumbled around her.
“If you won’t do it for me, Kienna,” Enlo murmured, “if you won’t do it for all the innocents in my Court, do it for your father. There’s not much time left.”
If this was true… the Court’s internal strife felt distant in comparison. She couldn’t let her father die.
And yet… this man had to be deceiving her. She couldn’t bear to think any of his words about Revi were true. Revi had proven himself to her, time and again. She hadn’t earned his trust enough to hear the truth from him, but his actions had earned her trust. He at least deserved her faith in him until she could verify all of this with him. If he would tell her anything.
She closed her eyes. Pain consumed her heart. She just needed to know who was true here. Was it Revi, with his proud yet kind manner? Or was it Enlo, who begged for her help with his honeyed words?
She’d find a way, somehow. She’d get truth from Revi. He wouldn’t tell her about the Court’s curse if history was anything to go by, but if she asked him about her father, surely he’d give something away. She just needed something to verify Enlo’s story—or prove it false.
How she hoped it was false on all counts.
She opened her eyes to Enlo’s keen gaze pinned on her. She stepped back and rubbed her arms. “Make the preparations. I’ll find you tomorrow.”
If he noticed that she hadn’t actually sworn her hand to him, he didn’t press the issue. Instead, he beamed at her, taking her hands in his. She forced herself not to rip them away.
“Together we will save the Winter Court, Kienna.”
She shared a smile with him, even as her heart twisted in her chest.