Chapter 17 Rosalina
Rosalina
The scents of pine and cranberry cling to the air as I perch on the edge of the worn stone stool beside Caspian’s bed.
Faint light filters into the healing ward through frost-covered windows, casting long shadows along the floor.
The silence in the room is only broken by the soft crackle of the fire and the wind howling outside, rattling the shutters.
Caspian lies beneath a woolen blanket, his hair tousled against the pillow.
His face, pale and still as marble, looks like something out of a forgotten legend—angular jawline, sharp cheekbones, and lashes so dark they cast shadows on his skin.
He could almost be mistaken for dead, if not for the shallow rise and fall of his chest and the faint crease of pain that lingers at the corner of his lips.
He collapsed as soon as we got inside the keep.
It unnerves me, seeing him like this. Caspian is usually so confident, so powerful. Right now, he looks fragile.
I pull my knees up, wrapping my arms around them to stop myself from reaching out to touch his face. What’s even more unnerving are Ezryn’s words after he checked Cas over. Physically, he’s fine, but it’s as if there are a thousand wounds within his mind.
Ezryn. My stomach flutters at the thought of him.
After all this time, all the animosity between them, he saved Caspian.
Perhaps there is hope that old wounds can mend.
As soon as Cas was settled, I’d gone to find Ez, but he’d retired for the night.
Knowing Ez, he needs some space right now to make sense of his own actions.
I don’t know if I’ll ever find the right words to express how—grateful?
Proud? Loved?—I feel, thanks to him and his gentle heart.
A low sound rumbles in Caspian’s throat, and he blinks up at me. “Flower.”
I reach for a cup of water beside the table and let him sip from it. He takes it, movements slow and cautious.
“Caspian,” I whisper, my voice barely audible.
He tilts his head. “Miss me, Princess?”
“I didn’t want to leave you.” Tears spill down my cheeks. “I didn’t want to leave you.”
He sits up, the woolen blanket falling to his waist, and pats the spot beside him. “Come here.”
I crawl in next to him, and he circles his arms around me. “Is this alright? Is there anywhere I shouldn’t touch, where you hurt?”
Caspian pulls me tighter. “Your touch could never hurt me.”
I let my head fall to his chest, resting my hand over the soft linen shirt he’s wearing.
“It’s not going to happen,” I say.
“What’s not?”
“You dying.”
Caspian gives a rattling breath. “I’m not scared of dying. The worst part is knowing the pain it will cause you. Your other mates will take care of you.”
I shift so I can look up at him. “I like it when you say those things. Mate. You’re my mate.”
“I meant what I said, Rosalina. There’s nowhere I’d rather be.”
“No, Cas,” I say, laying my hand over the moonstone necklace above his heart.
I’d found it in his pocket, laced it through a new chain, and slipped it back over his head so he’d have a part of me, even if he was lost in nightmares.
“I’ve been able to heal the other princes.
I could pull seaweed off Dayton’s wolf and calm Farron’s beast. I’ve even stopped Kel from changing into a wolf at night. ”
“Flower, I’m not cursed. It’s my blood that’s bad.”
“There’s nothing stronger than a bond between mates,” I tell him. “Remember how sick you felt at Castletree? But I convinced you to sleep beside me, and you felt better.”
“What’s your theory?”
I tilt my nose up and brush my lips against his. “Our love is magic.”
His hands weave through my hair, and his mouth meets mine, soft but insistent, as though he’s afraid I might vanish if he lets go. The world melts away—there’s no howling wind, no cold stone walls, no Wolfhelm. Just us.
And then I feel it—a faint flicker deep within him, a fragment not of the Enchanted Vale. It’s slithering and dark, something other carved into his very essence. My breath catches as our bond trembles.
But there’s something inside me too. The blood that made this land, that created the very realms themselves.
I am the Enchanted Vale. It’s in my veins, my soul. Its magic pulses through me, aching to protect him.
I let the feeling flow, a golden thread unfurling from my heart and weaving itself through our bond. The warmth rushes through me, spilling into him. He shudders against me, his lips breaking from mine with a sharp inhale. His breath catches, and for a moment, his whole body stills.
Then he blinks. His eyes, so dark and full of shadows moments ago, brighten. “I’m glowing,” he whispers.
I brush a hand along his cheek, my fingers trembling. “This happened with Farron before,” I murmur. “Our bond…it’s special, Caspian. It’s woven in the stars.”
“What did you do?”
“I am a part of the Enchanted Vale. And you are a part of me. You belong here too, Caspian. I can feel it.”
He doesn’t respond—not with words. Instead, he tilts my face to his, his lips finding mine again in a kiss that feels like the first breath of spring after an endless winter.
“Guess I’ll have to keep you close,” he says.
“Yes,” I whisper, “but you need more sleep.”
“Rosie,” he pleads.
It breaks my heart to leave him. “Cas, your job is to rest. And I need to let the healers care for you.”
A resigned sigh is all that lets me know he agrees with me.
There are footsteps outside, then Dayton bursts into the room, blond hair wild.
“Consider this your thirty-second warning to impending doom.” He takes a long, deep breath.
“I love you, baby, I do. I’d fight a thousand skeletons in the arena for you.
But this is a battle you’ll have to face on your own. Even I’m not so brave.”
I sit up, smirking at his playful mood. “Day, what’s going on?”
“Kel’s back.”
Slowly, I untangle myself from Caspian and stand. A strange energy flits through me. It started today when I saw what became of Castletree. “Kel should be scared to face me.”
Dayton raises his brow and gives me a slanted grin as he exits the room. “I see you’ll have no trouble, Blossom.”
I steady my breathing and clench my hands into fists.
Ice creeps from under the door. With a great shudder, it bursts open, and the High Prince of Winter steps through.
It’s as if he’s surrounded by a blizzard.
Snowflakes swirl around his body, and frost forms beneath his feet with every step.
He wears a full set of cold-weather gear, and his white hair is in a tangle.
His lips curl back as he snarls, “What is he doing here?”
But I am not the same human girl who arrived in Castletree and cowered in fear of this beast. I walk forward, summoning the flames of the Autumn Realm, melting the ice below me.
“The Prince of Thorns was injured,” I say. “So he’s here in the healing ward under my protection.”
Kel’s gaze narrows, the frost around him thickening, spiraling into jagged shards. “You’ve made a mistake, Rosalina. He doesn’t belong here. He never did. Caspian is dangerous.”
I take another step forward, my flames dancing higher, casting flickering shadows against the walls. “Dangerous? Caspian saved my life. He’s saved all our lives. He’s here because I trust him.”
“Did you even listen to what I’ve told you? Don’t make my mistake.”
I close the distance between us. “You say he’s dangerous, but he’s done more for Castletree than you ever have.”
His fists clench, the frost creeping up the walls, snuffing out the fire in a puff of smoke. “You don’t see it yet, Rosalina. The Prince of Thorns isn’t just a man. He’s a storm wrapped in shadows, and when it breaks, it will destroy everything you’re trying to protect.”
“Then I’ll stand in the eye of that storm. If you think I’m going to abandon Caspian, you don’t know me at all.”
Kel’s snarl softens, replaced by something darker. “He will destroy us.”
“Like you are?” I shout. “The people of Castletree are suffering. Your realm is suffering, because you can’t trust the man behind me who again and again has shown us he’s on our side.”
For a moment, the room falls silent, save for the crackle of melting ice beneath my feet. Kel’s storm swirls slower, as though he’s weighing my words. “He cannot stay here.”
“If he goes, I go.”
Keldarion’s blue gaze pierces mine, but I refuse to break it. I will not back down from this. I will not back down from him.
The silence stretches thin.
Caspian gives a low, rasping laugh. He props himself up against the headboard, his dark eyes gleaming with something dangerously close to amusement.
“You came to rescue me,” he says.
Kel freezes. His brows lower as his blizzard condenses, swirling tight around him.
“The dirt on your boots—that’s from the Below. And those shards of prismatic stone clinging to your cloak…” Caspian tilts his head, smirking. “You traveled to Cryptgarden. You went for me, didn’t you? Only to find your Spring flower beat you to it.”
Keldarion strides forward, his movements sharp and deliberate, and before I can react, his hand clamps around Caspian’s throat.
“If I went for you,” Kel snarls, “it was only to house you in my own dungeon. Don’t mistake my actions for concern.”
“Kel!” I step toward them, but neither of them spares me a glance.
Caspian’s smirk doesn’t falter, even with Kel’s grip tightening on his neck. “Oh, of course. Because risking the Below for someone you hate makes perfect sense.”
Kel’s jaw tightens. Frost creeps up Caspian’s throat.
“Was it Rosalina’s pleas that made you venture there?” Caspian rasps, his grin turning razor sharp. “Or something else—”
“Enough!” I force myself between them, my flames roaring to life, melting the ice spreading across Caspian. “Let him go, Kel. Now.”
Kel’s gaze snaps to me, his storm crackling as his hand lingers for a beat too long before he releases Caspian with a shove.
Did he really go to the Below for Cas?
“House me in your dungeon?” Caspian slumps back against the headboard, rubbing his throat but still grinning like a fox who’s baited a wolf. “Did you want to recreate the time on your birthday, when we slipped away—”
I turn to Cas. “Is having sex in dungeons kind of your thing?”
Caspian mockingly pouts. “Sad you weren’t my first, darling?”
At the mention of me being with Caspian, I feel Kel’s emotions roil within him. But they’re not all bad.
“He’s dangerous,” Kel says, but there’s a resignation in his voice.
I step closer to my mate. “Do you think I don’t know that? You think I haven’t seen his shadows and flame? But I also see him, Kel. If you went to the Below, then you see it too. I know you do.”
With a frustrated snarl, Kel steps back, his blizzard finally calming. “He can stay, but someone must watch him constantly.”
“I agree,” I say smugly. “And thank you for volunteering for the first shift guarding our most dangerous guest.”
Kel opens his mouth to argue, but I don’t let him get a word in.
“I was just leaving, but I think your wolf will be the perfect nighttime guardian for him.”
Keldarion moves past Caspian to the window, gaze fixed on the swirling snow outside. It’s almost dusk. Soon, he’ll be his beast. “You’re a fool to trust him. If he so much as gives me a reason, Rosalina… I won’t hesitate.”
“Then it’s a good thing you’ll never have one,” I reply.
Kel’s eyes meet mine for a final, searing moment before he sinks to the bed opposite Caspian.
I let out a breath and head to the door. “Good night, Cas.”
“Good night, Princess,” Caspian says. “I think I like you when you’re angry.”
I glance back at him, the corner of my mouth twitching into the smallest of smiles. “Good. Because I’m not done fighting for you yet.”