Chapter 15 Caspian
Caspian
The world is a blur of light and shadow as Wrenley’s prismatic briars yank us through the earth.
My stomach flips, my body weightless one instant, crushed the next.
I’m used to this sensation, but Wrenley’s a little less graceful than I am.
When we’re spat out, I hit the ground hard, snow biting into my bare skin.
I groan, rolling onto my back, the cold sinking into me like a thousand tiny needles.
My breath clouds the air, and I take a moment to register where we are.
Around us, towering firs stretch skyward, their branches heavy with snow.
Beyond the trees, a jagged stone wall rises, crowned with frost and flanked by narrow towers that gleam like blades in the pale moonlight.
We’re outside the walls of Keep Wolfhelm.
And then I feel it—her. The bond hums in my chest, like a string plucked just once.
Rosalina. The thought of her sends warmth coursing through me, cutting through the ache of exhaustion, the gnawing hunger, the sting of cold.
I’m battered, starving, and I haven’t had a minute of rest in days, but none of that matters.
She’s close. For the first time since this nightmare began, excitement flickers to life within me, pushing back the darkness.
I haul myself up, shivering as the chill burrows deeper, and hug my naked chest. But this cold is familiar. These trees, these walls. I’ve stood outside this gate hundreds of times before, when snowflakes didn’t sting and the cold was the best company.
Now isn’t the time for memories. But at the sight of the keep, its spires crowned with frost, I can’t stop that acute sense of loss from creeping over me.
“How did you know to bring us here?” I whisper.
“It’s where Keldarion is, isn’t it?” Birdy snaps, dusting snow off her prismatic armor. Her keen eyes peer through the fir trees. We’re in deep enough no patrols will spot us. “And where Kel is, she is.”
Ezryn straightens, his hammer shimmering into light before disappearing into the token around his neck.
I wonder how he retrieved that little trinket.
“I owe you my thanks for returning me to Keep Wolfhelm, Nightingale,” he says, then his gaze shifts to the glowing bow at her back.
“But I cannot allow you to possess that weapon.”
In a single movement, Wrenley draws the bow and nocks a radiant arrow, the point inches from Ezryn’s forehead. “What you cannot do, Prince of Blood, is take this weapon from me.”
“Birdy Girl, let’s have a moment. We’re all worked up from that fun little adventure with Emberlash, but I don’t think we need to go blasting any holes in Keep Wolfhelm’s walls, let alone dear Ezryn’s skull.
He helped rescue me after all.” I step toward her, arms outstretched, then dare a wink at Ezryn. “Thanks for that, by the way.”
Ezryn doesn’t look away from Wrenley but utters a growl I’m sure is meant for me.
“Birdy,” I say more sternly, “put the bow down.”
She clenches her jaw, a deep crease forming between her eyebrows. The bow trembles in her hands, and I notice her whole body is shaking. Her huge eyes are shiny with tears. “I hate you,” she breathes. “Do you know that?”
Ezryn flicks his gaze up to the tip of the arrow. “I’m getting that impression.”
“Everything revolves around you. ‘Where’s my brother? What is my brother doing? My brother, my brother, my fucking brother!’” Her voice shakes, each word strained. “I looked after him when you wouldn’t. I cared for him. I made him realize the man he could be. And still, all he cared about was you.”
I take a deep breath, waiting for Ezryn’s response, but he says nothing, face an expressionless mask.
Birdy’s broken voice carries on: “He was a boy! He lost his mother, and he was just a boy. But you sent him away. How could he ever forgive you? You didn’t want him.
You didn’t care. With your stupid Winter Prince and the whole Spring Realm, it was so easy to forget about him. But you were his everything.”
Ezryn’s chest heaves, and his dark brown eyes shine as bright as Wrenley’s.
“I have spent every moment of every day wishing I could change what happened between Kairyn and me. If there is any love left in his heart for me, then speak it. After everything we have done to each other, I wish him only peace.”
Wrenley’s hands tighten on the bow, and her teeth clench. Then she lowers it, the arrow dematerializing, and stows it on her back. “You’re all the same. You and the other princes and Rosalina. How could you understand?” She turns away, walking deeper into the trees.
Ezryn steps after her. “Wait! You’re a liability with that bow, Wrenley. You know it. Holding on to it puts everyone in danger—”
I grab his shoulder. “Let me talk to her.”
Ezryn stares down at my hand on his shoulder, then shrugs me off, grunting and storming in the opposite direction.
I sigh, taking a moment to collect myself.
Between the lingering pain in my body, the severe lack of food, water, and sleep, my reeling thoughts over being saved by both my sister and Ezryn, let alone being here with Rosalina so close, I’m barely able to think straight.
But I need to talk to my sister. Figure out what’s going through her mind.
Following her footsteps through the snow, I find her in the shadow of a fir tree, hugging herself. Pink-cheeked from the chill with snowflakes in her hair, she looks adorable, if a little uncomfortable. She’s never liked the cold or the dark.
“I wish I could bring you back to Summer,” I say. “Build you a boat and take you to a private island filled with nothing but chocolate. You could spend your days diving for sunken treasure and drinking coconut milk straight from the tree.”
“How many wishes can go unanswered before you stop trying?” she whispers.
“You answered my wish, Birdy. You saved me.” I wrap my arms around her and pull her in for a hug. With the queen’s token in my possession, the feel of the bow at her back is like warming my hands over the embers of a fire.
“Of course I saved you,” she mumbles. “Don’t be stupid. Of course I did.”
“How?”
She pulls out of my embrace and stalks away, brooding.
“How did you do it?” I say louder. “Who taught you to control flames?”
A hiss slips through her bared teeth. “It doesn’t matter. I was the one who did it.”
“You spoke with her. Your mother.” I take a step in her direction.
“She’s not my mother,” Wrenley snarls. “Didn’t want to be anyway. She abandoned me.”
“Birdy, listen to me. She didn’t—”
“You always defend her!” Wrenley shrieks, then storms over to me, eyes blazing up at me.
But tears shine there too, threatening to fall.
“You know I was the one who shot Dayton, don’t you?
Blasted a hole straight through his ribs.
” She smacks me hard on my chest. “Boom! And do you know why I did it?”
“Mother told you to,” I say, mouth dry.
I’ve never heard such venom in her voice. “Yes, Mother told me to. And what you don’t know, big brother, is when Mother tells me something, she gets in my head. Right. In. It. And I don’t have a choice. I don’t even have any fucking thoughts anymore! I’m her puppet, her instrument. Her weapon.”
My breath catches. The words hit me like a punch to the chest, stealing the air from my lungs. I can only stare at her, horrified, my mind scrambling to process what she’s said. “W-what? Why?”
“Because your beloved Aurelia, my birth mother, made a bargain. So now, Sira controls me. Anything she wants, she says the word, and I’ll fall in line.
” Tears pour down her cheeks. “I thought I could prove myself to Sira. Earn her trust and my independence. But I’ll never be what Sira wants. Never be what anyone wants.”
My lips part, but no sound comes out—there’s nothing I can say to this. Nothing that could make it better. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
She chokes out a harsh laugh. “What would you have done? Killed Sira? She’s your mother.”
“You’re my sister.” I pull her to my chest, wrapping her as tight as I can, wishing I could keep her safe with me forever. “I choose you, Wrenley.”
A full-on sob escapes her as she burrows her head against me. Wetness drips over my skin from her tears. “I didn’t want to do it, Cas. I didn’t want to shoot him.”
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Ezryn is right. Give up the bow. It’s not your fault, Birdy, but if Sira can order you to use it whenever she wants, you’re unstoppable.”
Wrenley stills in my arms, then pulls away. Her eyes are red, face set in a grimace. “This bow is my only chance of freedom. I’m going to kill her, Cas. Nothing will stand in my way. Not even you.”
I know that tone of voice. There’s no room to argue, no space for hope. She’s already gone. All that’s left is the hollow ache of knowing I’ve lost her—and that I might never get her back.
Slowly, I turn and look at the keep. My only chance—Wrenley’s chance—lies in there with the people who hate us most.
Wrenley takes a shuddering breath, then grabs my hand and brings it to her lips for a quick kiss. “Take care of yourself, brother.”
I clench my hands into fists to stop from grabbing her and never letting go. “Stars, I wish I could have taken care of you.”
Wrenley tucks a fabric mask over the lower half of her face, resuming the appearance of the Nightingale.
Prismatic briars crack through the frozen earth and wrap around her body.
But before she disappears, she reaches into her bag and tosses me something.
“Here. Aurelia told me to give this to you. Said it would help, whatever that means.”
I glance down, heart stuttering. In my hands is a small, carved wooden camel. When I look back up at my sister, she’s gone.
The last bit of energy left in my bones dissipates, and I fall to the snow.
And I don’t bother trying to hold back the sob of agony that shakes my whole body.
Pain. All I feel is pain. The burning memory of the cage, a weariness so deep, I don’t know if I’ll ever recover. Knowing Birdy’s going off alone…
I have endured and endured and endured my entire life. If Sira kills…no, when Sira kills my little sister, it will shatter what remains, and I cannot imagine having the resolve to piece myself back together.
A shadow trembles over me, and I blink up. Ezryn looks down, his face that unreadable mask.
I should tell him to kill me. To put me out of this misery, like he’s wanted to for years.
But instead, I whisper, “I have nowhere else to go.”
He stays silent for a long moment. Then Ezryn reaches down his hand.
This fight isn’t over. My mate awaits me in the keep where I first lost everything. I guess I’ll have to endure a little more.
I take his hand and rise.