87. Rosalina
87
Rosalina
T he woman in front of me is very beautiful.
And familiar, too.
She’s got dark eyes like mine, though hers are framed by joyful lines. Long, brown hair flows in gentle waves down her back, with a few white strands. Her skin radiates like a thousand diamonds.
Her ears… They’re pointed.
Who are you? I ask.
She only smiles and looks down into her hands. A golden rose blooms from her palm. Slowly, she tucks it behind my ear. Seek below the surface, Rosalina, and may the hidden beauty of the world be yours. Love is your greatest strength.
Then I’m surrounded by darkness.
I need to open my eyes. There’s a battle… And the princes. Did they get out of the ice? Are they alright?
But I can’t wake up. Not yet. Something is different about the world.
Or maybe the world is the same and there’s something different about me.
“Rosie? Rosie, come back to us!”
Farron’s voice soaks into me like a balm, and his soft hands run over my face. My chest hums at his touch, and my skin seems to bloom beneath his fingertips. Perhaps this new world is not too bad.
“Rosalina!” Rougher hands grab me, shake me.
“Stop it! You’ll hurt her!”
I’m pressed to a cold chest, and a strange, keening wail sounds. Keldarion. I inhale a deep breath, and the air feels alive within me, cleansing and cool.
“I can’t find any wounds.” Another worried voice: Ezryn’s. His hand is on my forehead. I have no idea how I can differentiate between each of their touches, yet it’s like my skin quivers and heats all at once. I smile inwardly, a strange sense of peace fluttering in my chest.
“Then why isn’t she waking up?” Dayton for once sounds serious. “Can you hear me? Open your eyes, Blossom. Come on.”
I don’t want them to be worried. Though I’m not sure I’m ready for this changed world.
But they’re with me. My princes.
I blink, gaze met with the beaming Autumn sun. It’s so bright, each ray sparkling like starfall.
Oh. The world is beautiful. The clear sky, the rustle of the cool breeze through the grass, the rich smell of the earth.
And most beautiful of all are the four faces peering at me.
“Hi,” I whisper, voice raspy.
Farron breaks out in the biggest smile I’ve ever seen. Ezryn shakes his helmet in disbelief. Dayton stares down at me with a fervent gaze. And Keldarion…
Keldarion is crying.
“What happened—” I start to sit up but stop.
I feel buoyant. Like I’m less tethered to the earth, a part of me mixing with the air.
“Rosalina.” Farron muscles Kel out of the way and takes my hands to help me sit up. I hold on to his gaze to keep my breathing steady. Have I never noticed how many colors swirl in his eyes? Amber and gold and flecks of bronze. “You did something. Awoke something.”
My hand shakes as I bring it to my face. Up my cheek.
To the point of my ear.
“Rosie,” Farron says softly, “you’re fae.”
I clutch my chest. That thing inside of me, the embers I’d kept smothered. It no longer feels like embers now, nor the burning inferno as it did when I unleashed my magic. Has this been lying dormant within me all this time?
I turn to Kel. “Did you know?”
He shakes his head. “No. I knew there was something about you because of your connection to Castletree and ability to use the mirror, but I never imagined…”
“Perhaps there is more to learn about your mother than only her location,” Ezryn says.
I heave in a shaky breath. The princes didn’t know…
But someone did.
Listen carefully, Princess. Trust your own instincts above all else. The world will tell you that you don’t belong. That you are a mere human. That you have no dominion over the sway of destiny. They are wrong.
Caspian’s words from our dance months ago drift over my mind.
My fingers dig into the earth. What else has he kept hidden from me?
Then I’m being lifted by my waist, tugged close to a warm body, and shaken from my thoughts. “Whether you’re human, fae, or goblin for all we care, you’re our Rose. And you just saved our fucking lives.”
I collapse against Dayton’s chest, letting him hold me up. Nearby lies a massive briar patch of golden roses. And speared by a thorn is Lucas Poussin. His crown is cracked, no longer shining with green light.
I meet Farron’s gaze and nod. He murmurs the death incantation, enough magic within him to pass one more. Lucas’s body drifts away like ash in the wind.
Now you’re free too, I think.
I look around the battlefield. Beyond us, a cluster of Autumn soldiers stare concernedly. Others work with the Winter riders to carry injured into the city or marshal with their commanders. There are no more wraiths, no more ice storms.
“Did we win?” I whisper.
Kel pulls me into his chest. “Yes. The frost is gone, and Farron has sent the dead to their final rest.”
Ezryn places a hand on Kel’s arm. “And the High Prince of Winter showed that there are still those in his realm who will fight for him.”
I reach my hand out. They come to me and Kel, and the five of us embrace.
For right now, I hold on to them with everything I can, with every piece of my new fae-born heart.