6. Rosalina
6
Rosalina
I s… Is this real?
Is Ezryn, High Prince of Spring, actually in front of me right now? The glowing light shimmers at the edges, but the middle is clear as a window. Looking down, as if peering at me from above, is Ezryn.
“Ez…”
He tilts his head, and though I can’t see his true face behind the silver helm, I feel his confusion. “R-Rose?”
The sound of my name in his raspy voice—tinged with the metallic reverberation of his helmet—is all too familiar. All too right.
I pitch forward. “Ez!” My fingers grasp the shining light—and scrape against the image. An invisible barrier blocks me from the fae realm.
“What’s wrong with it?” I turn to my father. “It’s supposed to be a portal.”
My father only gulps and shakes his head. “I-I don’t know! Could be the moonstone isn’t a strong enough conduit now that it’s cracked. Or the magic isn’t right—”
I fling myself to the window, palms flat on the unseen barricade between us. Home. Home, home, home, it’s through here. And Ezryn is right in front of me, and I can smell him, and I know what it would feel like to have his warm hands caress my skin.
“How is this possible?” Ezryn’s voice grows more frantic, and he looks back and forth, grasping for me. His gloved hand bangs against the barrier. “Where are you? Are you in danger?”
“No,” I cry, eyes welling with tears. “I’m safe. I’m home.”
Ezryn gives a shaky laugh, a sound I’ve never heard from him before. “You’re home? Stars. Okay, wait for me. I’m not far from Castletree. I’ll head straight there. When did you get back? Doesn’t matter. I’m coming—”
“No.” My heart rages within my chest. “I mean, I’m home in Orca Cove.”
His fingers scrape down the barrier and his head falls forward, as if his helm is suddenly too heavy. “Oh.”
Images flash through my mind: his warm hands healing my ragged flesh, him sneaking chocolate muffins underneath the table, his steady presence as he named me Lady of Castletree before Kel’s vizier. For so long, I thought he’d been avoiding me. Or that he hated me. But the night of the ball, I swore… I swore I was so wrong about everything.
“Why are you tormenting me?” he whispers, his voice a broken rasp.
“Tormenting you?” My hands fall from the barrier. Tears stream down my face, but I don’t care. “Why didn’t you come for me? I thought you would keep me safe.”
His whole body shudders. “You left. Keldarion said—”
“Keldarion banished me,” I half-sob, half-snarl. “He wouldn’t even let me say goodbye. He sent me away. I’ve been trying to get back to you and everyone at Castletree, but I can’t figure out how—”
Ezryn goes still. Stiller than I have ever seen him. For a second, I think the image beyond the window has completely frozen, and I’ve lost all connection to the Enchanted Vale. But then a rumble more beast than fae erupts from him. “Keldarion did what ?”
“Ezryn.” His name on my lips is the only thing keeping me together. I feel like I’m in the Briar with him, the rain pounding upon my skin. “I want to go home.”
“Rosalina, I—” Ezryn reaches forward, and for a second, I clutch the tip of his leather glove. Then a sputter sounds, and the light bursts into blinding white, before fizzling out altogether.
Mist trails up from the cracked moonstone, and my body suddenly feels weak.
But I look at my hand, wet with rainwater. And I know something deep within that smoldering place inside me.
I will tear apart the veil between our worlds to get back to them.