Chapter 23 Rosalina
Rosalina
The workshop air feels as cold as outside. Several windows were broken during the fight, and there’s a hole in one of the walls from a rogue briar. I don’t remember doing that.
I’d felt out of control, wild with fear when I saw that strange fae with his icy white skin, curled horns, and dual knives. If it weren’t for Caspian—and the magic he inherited from his mother to manipulate shadow—we might all be dead now.
One assassin took on the five most powerful men in the Enchanted Vale and the heir of the queen and nearly defeated us. How is it possible?
I shiver, and my father tucks me closer to his body.
He’s got his arm over me, and I relax, knowing he’s safe.
His workshop, however, is a mess. Broken wood, shattered glass, and bits of the stone flooring litter the ground.
I’ve already removed all my briars though.
If Wrenley decides to show up again, I don’t want to give her easy access inside the keep.
Kel, Ez, Day, Fare, and Cas are all gathered around Papa’s worktable, which is now being used as a makeshift autopsy bench. The man—the fae? the creature?—lies upon it, his strange robes soaked in that putrid goo. It’s like his insides exploded into a swamp.
The princes are whispering to themselves, but I can only concentrate on one question: “Why would someone want to kill my father?”
They all turn to me.
“Nobody even knows who he is!” I continue. “Or that he was connected to Queen Aurelia. It doesn’t make sense.”
“Maybe it wasn’t about George,” Kel murmurs, then his eyes flick to one of the remaining benches that survived the fight. “Maybe he was seeking what George had.”
I follow his gaze. Atop the bench, gathered in cloth, are the remnants of the rose. Papa’s been working tirelessly on it. It’s starting to take shape.
“Who knows we found this?” Papa asks.
“No one. Only those in this room,” Kel responds.
Now all the eyes shift from the rose to…
“Don’t look at me!” Caspian cries, hands to his heart. “I didn’t know you had it until this very moment.” His face softens to a curious expression, and he drifts over to examine it. “All these years, I thought it was lost forever. Kel, I swore we destroyed it.”
Papa looks from Caspian to Kel. “Some things can never be destroyed.”
Kel grunts and turns back to the body on the table.
My boots click on the floor as I step between Farron and Ezryn to get a better look. “So he wants the rose. Why? Who even is he?”
“The words he spoke at the end…the inflections sounded ancient, almost like he was speaking a language from the Above,” Farron says, stroking his chin. “I don’t know it myself, but perhaps there’s someone who could translate it.”
Dayton does a little jump. “I know someone! George, you got paper in here? Farron can write it down, and I’ll send it to Justus!”
Papa makes a grumbling sound about how we’ve destroyed all his paper and his tools too but finds a piece that only has the tips singed—probably from a rogue Farron fireball.
Farron takes it and begins to write, mumbling the words aloud. “Vemrís thu’ren calas.” He looks up, catching Dayton’s gaze. “You want to send this to Justus, your trainer? I understand you idolize him, Dayton, but I’m unsure if a goat herder will speak the most ancient language of the fae—”
Dayton snatches the paper. “Justus isn’t just a goat herder. He’s the first High Prince of Summer.”
A collective gasp passes through the room, but I only cross my arms. “Dayton, I think Justus was keeping that a secret.”
“Oh well. Secrets take lower priority when we’ve got murderous horned men trying to kill an O’Connell.” Dayton licks the paper to stick it together, then dangles it in front of Ez. “Do your fancy letter-flying thing.”
Ez rolls his eyes, but a glimmer of magic sings around us. The letter flaps into the air, looking like a little white bird, then soars out the broken window.
“The first High Prince of Summer,” Kel muses. “Justus must have known Aurelia.”
Dayton leans on the table, poking the horned man’s foot. “Oh yeah, he knew her. Went on hundreds of adventures with her! He spoke very fondly of her.” He raises a brow. “I wonder if they were ever lovers.”
“Hey!” Papa and I say at the same time, and Dayton has the good sense to look abashed.
“He’s nothing special, is he?” Papa murmurs, looking at me.
“Oh no, not at all, Papa. Nothing to worry about,” I respond, choosing to leave out the fact that Justus is a super buff silver fox who can turn into an eagle on demand.
Ezryn clears his throat, drawing our attention back.
“This…entity may have spoken a fae language, but he’s certainly not fae.
Don’t look only at his expulsions but at his skin.
There is mulch and bark growing from his flesh.
Rotten plant matter woven through his hair. If anything, he’s like the goblins.”
A shiver trembles down my spine, and my breathing quickens. “Then he was another tool of Sira’s.”
“I can think of nothing else,” Ez says.
Sira’s name stings me like a poison. The thought of her harnessing more weapons, hunting us here in Keldarion’s home…
White-hot rage boils up my body. I slam my hand down on the table, making the boys jump. “That’s it! I’ve had enough! We can’t keep waiting here for Sira to send assassins and armies. We need to act.” My breath is ragged, hands shaking with each word. “We need to attack the Below.”
Silence echoes through the workshop as the princes all exchange looks. Kel crosses his arms. “I understand you’re upset, Rosalina, but we can’t be hasty—”
“This isn’t haste!” I point a condemning finger down at the corpse. “This is justice. Sira isn’t afraid. She attacks our cities, sends her minions to manipulate and break us. Are we going to keep waiting for another one of us to die?”
Dayton makes a pained sound and steps away from the table.
“Rosie,” Farron warns.
“No,” I interrupt. “I won’t be silent about this. I won’t tiptoe around the truth. And I won’t hide in a castle for twenty-five years because I’m afraid!”
All their eyes focus on me, and I find strength. Each of the men in this room ran away at some point. The princes from their realms, Cas from his love, Papa from his family. But they’ve found their way here, and I won’t let them run again.
“She’ll keep sending assassin after assassin, army after army, unless we show her we’re a united force. Castletree is the heart of the Vale, and we are the heart of Castletree. We won’t be quelled.”
Kel sighs. “It’s not so simple, Rose. We can’t just attack the Below. There are limited access points, ways to move soldiers—”
“We can figure it out,” I urge but stop when I notice Farron rummaging through the assassin’s robes, finding a bundle of parchment.
“Ah!” He pulls a pair of glasses out of his vest pocket. One lens is cracked from the battle; an adorable pout falls over his face as he notices, but he puts them on anyway. “Our friend may have left us some information after all.”
He unfolds the parchment, and we all crowd in to get a look.
Somehow, I’m pushed to the back. In my Orca Cove life, at five eleven, I always felt like a mountain of a woman wherever I went.
But around these guys, I’m getting used to feeling short.
I stand on my tiptoes, trying to spy over my father’s shoulder.
The papers are filled with diagrams of landscapes and tunnel systems.
“Look, Kel,” Ez says. “This can only be one thing.”
“It’s a mapping of Mount Rhuvenmark,” Kel responds.
I turn and glance out the window. I can’t spot it from here, but I know from my room if I looked in this direction, I could see over the wall and the city of Frostfang to the horizon beyond, where the jagged, clawlike mountain lies. Mount Rhuvenmark, the dormant volcano.
“Why would they need a map of that?” I ask.
“Or this,” Caspian muses and nicks the paper from Farron. He wanders away, staring wide-eyed at the paper.
Kel walks over to him, brow furrowed. “What is it, Cas?”
Cas leans against his shoulder, trailing an elegant finger along the diagram as he explains.
“This is a map of the Great Chasm. I recognize these tunnels. They’ve even mapped the elevator system your uncle put into play.
But this here…do you see? This web of tunnels?
” He stares at Kel, concern across his features.
“I’ve never seen those tunnels before. And I know every damn footpath in the Below. ”
“See?” I cry, running between them. “This is all the proof we need that somehow, this is Sira’s doing. We must act now!”
Kel pinches the bridge of his nose. “How, Rose?”
“The access point. It’s right in front of us.” I grab the map from Caspian and thrust it at Kel’s face. “We attack from Voidseal Bridge.”
“That was created for defense, not as an offensive point,” he says.
I step back, straightening my spine and holding my head high.
All of them turn to face me. “I will not wait around to be picked off city by city, mate by mate. I promised Sira I would get revenge for what she did. I always keep my promises.” With all the command I can muster, I look to each set of eyes: Papa’s sapphire stare, Ez’s dark as a forest, Dayton’s like a piece of turquoise, Farron’s amber gaze, and finally Kel, with those ice-fire eyes that first entranced me out in front of the prison cells in Castletree.
“The queen of the Vale is imprisoned, and as her heir, that means I rule in her stead. Will you follow me? Will you obey the Lady of Castletree?”
A weighty stillness echoes between us. My father straightens his back too and stands by my side. “My life would have been a whole lot easier if I listened to you, Rosalina. You’re wise and brave, and I’m proud to call you my daughter and my leader.” He bows his head before me.
My throat tightens, and a well of tears springs to my eyes, and all I want to do is hug my father. But I fight to keep it contained, instead turning back to the princes.
A brilliant smile breaks across Dayton’s face. “Aye, aye, Captain. To the edge of the sea and over, I’d follow you anywhere.” He walks up to me, falls to a knee, grabs my hand, and kisses it.
Again, I have to fight not to snatch him in my arms, so all I do is nod. He goes and stands beside my father.
Farron steps forward, gaze smoldering. “You don’t have to ask, Rosie. Tell me to burn, and I’ll create an inferno so bright, it will blind the sun.”
Like Dayton, he falls to a knee to kiss my hand. My heart heats at the touch of his lips across my fingertips.
Ezryn advances, shaking dark tendrils of hair out of his eyes. His tawny skin gleams with sweat from the battle. “You are my queen, in body, spirit, and heart. I will follow you until my legs give way or my lungs cease to draw breath, and even then, I will follow you in death.”
My chest heaves with the force of keeping my tears back as Ezryn kneels before me, as regal as any knight, even without his armor.
Finally, I look between Cas and Kel before my eyes settle on Caspian. I won’t ask you to go to battle against your family, your home, I say in his mind.
Birdy’s gone, he replies, and there’s so much grief in his words, I can’t stop a tear from leaking down my face. She ran away, Rose. I don’t have any family left in the Below anymore. None I would claim as my own anyway. Besides, you’re my home now.
Then he steps forward and laughs boisterously, avoiding my gaze. “Did you think I’d say no to this, Princess of Castletree? You should know me by now. I always love to do the unexpected. Of course I’ll join you, Flower. I adore a little shit disturbing.”
He sweeps low in the most dramatic bow I’ve ever seen before grabbing my hand for a kiss. His eyes flick up to mine, shadowed by dark lashes. I’ll follow you, Princess, now and forever. I followed you before I ever knew you and you were just a whisper on the wind. Let me be your darkness evermore.
He stands straight and walks between Dayton and Ezryn. “What fun! We’re like a little do-gooding team. Perhaps we should get matching uniforms.”
Ezryn rolls his eyes, and Dayton’s expression wavers between That’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard and absolute genius.
Finally, I turn to Kel. He’s huge, imposing even, in this small workshop.
His head nearly skims the wooden beam roof.
With his arms crossed over his chest, he looks like he could break me with a single squeeze.
But I know him. I know he came for me when I ran away from Castletree.
Know that he summoned the Kryodian Riders to defend Coppershire.
That he worked with his worst enemy to save my life in Florendel.
That he would give his own to protect my father and my mother.
Steps thudding on the ground, Keldarion walks over to me and grabs my chin, tilting it so I look up at his face. White hair falls over his shoulders, and his brows are furrowed. “Are you asking me to wage a war for you, Rose?”
“Yes,” I breathe.
“Then I will wage the greatest war the Enchanted Vale has ever seen. May every star I tear down from the sky be in your name.”
We stay like that for a powerful moment, and though I am in his grasp, I feel deeply that he is in mine. This man will fight for me. These men will fight for me.
The time for peace, for diplomacy, for compassion, has ended.
The time for war has begun.