86. Rosalina
86
Rosalina
T his… This is what it’s all led to?
I heave in a shaky breath and spin in a circle. Lucas’s magic encases us on all sides, Autumn’s blue sky shut out behind the thick ice.
He stands before me, changed and mutated from the man I once knew. But he’s not unfamiliar. It’s like his outside finally matches the inside.
My princes are trapped in here with us, their bodies frozen, their pain and fear visible even within the ice.
It really has all led to this.
I’m exactly where I was eleven years ago, trapped beneath the ice, with only Lucas.
“I didn’t want it to come to this,” he says, his voice all jagged edges. “But that crazy ice faerie gave me a second chance. So, I saved you from those beasts. Saved you again.”
I glare at him through my tears. “You didn’t care about me then. You don’t care about me now. It’s always been about what makes you feel powerful.”
He gives a cruel laugh. “I don’t need to feel powerful. I am power.” He flexes his fists, green fog lacing through his fingers. “I’ve always known it, and now I’ve proven it. Even those beasts couldn’t defeat me. Is this what you wanted? To play the role of adventurer, of princess? Fine. Stop fighting and play pretend with me.”
Stop fighting. It would be so easy just to follow him, to be his shadow once again. To give up this foolish idea that I have any say in my world.
But that’s not who I am anymore; my princes taught me that. And I proved it to myself. My men stand around me, silent sentinels of ice. I rise, trying to feel for the connection of the briars on my wrists. When I saw Lucas, the magic seemed to ebb away from me, lost within my wild fear.
But there’s no other choice but to find it now.
Power surges through me, and two thorns break free, tearing through the hard earth and striking up at Lucas like hissing snakes. The sharp briars tear at his arms, ripping past fabric. Black blood leeks from the wound. Black blood like the goblins.
He grimaces at me. I take careful steps, not taking my eyes off him. My briars are alive, coiling up my arms.
I send another thorn-shot up at him, aiming for his head. But this time he’s ready, catching it with fingers covered in ice claws. The entire briar crystallizes then shatters.
“What foul magic is this?” I spit. In all my research, I never read of magic that could rival the High Princes of the Enchanted Vale. A sinister smile creeps up his face. Green mist curls around the crown. I need to break that damned thing.
I place my hand behind my back and grow a single sharp thorn, then launch myself at Lucas. Vines wrap around my legs, propelling me higher. I scream, bringing the thorn down on the green crystal.
Lucas doesn’t have time to react, and I strike true. The thorn connects. For a single heartbeat I’m suspended in the air—my thorn pressed to the crystal—and my vision fades to black. The world spins upside down, and an image appears before me.
A woman, writhed in shadows, black hair swirling around her like tendrils of smoke. She kneels in a cavern made of massive green crystals. Her hands are splayed out, and her voice echoes in a terrible incantation. She’s calling something…
A sense of profound wrongness fills me, something so evil and terrible I can barely grasp it. My whole body goes cold, and the thorn splinters on the still intact gem as time speeds up. I collapse to the ground.
“Now, Pumpkin.” Lucas’s rough hands grip me around the waist, and he hurls me across the icy cave. “That wasn’t very nice.”
I slam against the frozen wall, landing in a heap. My head rings. Distantly, I register that he didn’t freeze me, not like the princes. Not because he can’t, but because he doesn’t want to. I can’t squirm in terror if I’m frozen.
Groaning, I try to push myself up, my hands slipping in blood. Where did that come from? I don’t get a chance to think before his boot connects with my ribs, and I roll on the ground, crying out in agony.
“I don’t mind breaking you,” Lucas says. “I’ve done it before.”
I force myself up, crying through the pain, using the frozen body of one of my princes to help me. Farron. Tears stream down my face. I’m just as trapped as them.
Lucas lunges, and I desperately throw out a briar to stop his advance. But it won’t hold him for long. Red coats the icy wall as I run my palm along it, trying to steady myself. Distorted silhouettes waver outside the ice cave—soldiers trying to break in?
Lucas’s footsteps echo behind me, and I turn, struck by my reflection in the ice. Broken, frightened, helpless. Human.
“There you are,” Lucas says.
I try to dodge out of his way, but he grabs me, placing a large hand around both my wrists and freezing . I scream. The ice crawls up my arms, over the briar bracelets I bargained for. The only way to defend myself… Gone.
“No!” I screech, a long terrible wail. Lucas stops the ice as it reaches my elbows, then lifts me by my frozen arms. I kick my feet, and they bang uselessly against him.
“I think your friends are trying to get in.”
Still holding me with one hand, Lucas waves his other. The ice around us dissipates, showing the surrounding Autumn soldiers. They let out a collective cheer of victory and race toward us.
A terrible understanding courses through me. Perth was right. We’ve lost.
Lucas waves his free hand, and that green crystal glows brighter. The crown… It’s funneling magic from that cursed cave I saw. And without Perth and his dead army, Lucas is taking it all. He roars, sending another vicious hailstorm into the soldiers.
“No!” I scream, feeling as if I take each blow to my own heart. Distantly, I see Billy, Dom, and Padraig racing toward me, their eyes wide as they take in the scene, spotting the frozen princes. The only people who could save us.
Now, you know that’s not true, a voice, barely audible, scratches at my mind.
Lucas lowers me closer to his frosted face. “Forget this place.”
I squeeze my eyes shut. Forget this place… How could I?
It’s so much more than a place. I have found more in this land than I could ever imagine. I’ve found a family. My loves. A purpose.
You were made for this world, Caspian had told me. It wasn’t just a jest.
To forget this place would be to forget myself.
And I won’t give up on her.
I lift my chin and heave in a breath. “I’m not your captive anymore.”
“I beg to differ.” Lucas curls his lip over his teeth, and the ice crawls further up my arms. “Look around, Pumpkin. Your princes are frozen. Your army is dead. You’re trapped, no magic, no crown. You’re nothing. Gaze upon what I have become, so much more than a mere human.”
The air seems to crackle, and my skin heats. Words spark in my mind, and I realize, I do have the answers.
They come to me, crashing down like shooting stars.
Caspian’s words.
You are no mere human.
Trapped in that human skin.
“You might not be human anymore,” I growl at Lucas, “but neither am I.”
My mother wasn’t stolen by the fae. She was fae.
Something kindles in my chest: a flash of heat next to my heart. The embers I’ve smothered to keep from igniting. My own beast within me, slumbering in the dark place I’ve been too afraid to look.
Lucas stole my trust in myself. Made me believe there was nothing inside of me worthy of the light.
But he’s wrong.
I found it when I saw the goodness hiding behind a wolf’s smile. When I forgave my father. When I peered into the dark spaces between the briars.
For a moment, it is silent. The Enchanted Vale taking a breath.
Then I look inside of myself and let the fire within rage.
Like a spark cresting atop dry leaves, I ignite. And whatever’s catching flame within me is more than my courage. It’s something beyond, something deep and ancient and powerful.
I let loose a scream. Images flash before my face: finding the rosebush, Castletree obeying my command, the briars helping me save the roses. A woman’s face, eyes filled with glittering starlight, as she smiles down at me.
I was made for this world. I am part of it. It is part of me.
I will become flame itself to protect the ones I love who call it home.
White fire explodes from my body. Lucas screams, shielding his face, but there’s no hiding from this. No hiding from me.
Roaring fills my ears: the rush of water, of wind, of earth and fire. It’s as if for a single moment, I glimpse the fabric of the universe and the threads that bind it together. The stone beneath me is like a second skin. The wind is the rush of blood through my veins
And I feel my briars. Not the ones on my wrist. The ones that have not yet been made.
My consciousness reaches into the earth, weaving them into existence the way I had in the Below. The green mist evaporates in sparks of white. One of my briars cracks like lightning, shattering Lucas’s crown.
Huge, white-gold thorns erupt from the earth, shattering the icy ground. The tangle of briars slams into Lucas, pinning him down to the dirt. Golden roses bloom along my thorns, beautiful and lethal.
A crack sounds, and ice breaks. I blink, somehow registering their faces amongst my fire and roses.
Kel. Ezryn. Dayton. Farron.
My flames shattered the ice—
I freed them—
Lucas’s body lays before me, eyes blank, chest run through by a thick thorn.
I freed myself.