Chapter 42 Ezryn
Ezryn
Since the day my mother passed Spring’s blessing, I have lived with shame. With fear. With grief and malice.
But I have seen how grief tormented my father. How malice drew my brother underneath its inky waves. How shame and fear turned the one my mother chose to protect Spring into the Prince of Blood.
I won’t let these dictate my life anymore.
Rosalina told me I was filled with forgiveness. I didn’t want to believe her. Or maybe I couldn’t. But she’s right. I forgave Kairyn. I forgave Caspian.
Now, I forgive myself.
Rosalina looks like a goddess, swept up in cherry blossom wind and bespeckled with snow. Holding her in my arms reminds me of my strength.
Our mate bond, consummated long ago, has waited patiently for me.
It is time.
I hold Rosalina as tight as I can against my chest and squeeze my eyes shut. In my mind’s eye, there is only darkness. Then I spot a shape, sitting politely, waiting for me to join him.
I walk over. The wolf is hideous and terrifying as always, the bones tangled in his fur, the poisonous mushrooms sprouting around his ears.
But his eyes are kind. They’re my eyes, and though I never saw them, somehow, I know they’re my mother’s eyes too.
And hideous and terrifying as the wolf is, I know he’s only ever wanted to keep me safe.
I stroke a hand over his snout, between his ears. “Thank you.”
He nuzzles his head into my shoulder. I wrap an arm around his huge neck and lean against him.
We stay in our embrace as the flowers come.
It washes over me, a gentle drizzle. First, sprigs of grass sprout up, followed by patches of clover.
The rain comes down harder. When it hits me, it sounds like it’s pinging off metal, even though I’m wearing only fabric and leather.
Flowers spring up in every color. Red and blue and purple and yellow as the flecks of gold in Rosalina’s eyes.
But the flowers don’t stop blooming at our feet.
They start to blossom on the wolf. The bones fall, clattering to the ground.
The rotted moss on his paws turns a verdant, healthy green.
I step away and spin in a circle. This place—this place that lives inside me—is vibrant and blossoming and alive. I’m not afraid here.
“I’ll keep this safe, just as you kept me safe,” I tell him, my friend.
The wolf looks at me. Then he throws his head back and howls.
My eyes shoot open, and I’m back on the bridge. Rosalina’s staring up at me. My skin is…glowing.
I’m the same and not the same. My chest feels full, my body brimming with power…but I am in control.
Told you, you needed to have a little faith. Rosalina smirks.
I smile down at her. “The curse is broken.”
“And the High Prince of Spring has returned.” She rises up on her toes and kisses me.
I kiss her back hard, then pull away and stare out at the bridge. “I’ve got a plan for the underfae, but you need to get us out of here. Can you briar us back to Frostfang?”
A pained expression crosses her features. “My own magic is depleted. I can’t even grow a briar, let alone transport all six of us.”
I grab her hands and feel this fresh surge of power running through me. It’s familiar and new all at once. The hole that’s ached in my chest ever since I gave up the blessing of Spring finally feels filled, but it’s more than that. With my curse broken, it sings unbridled through my blood.
And what is Spring’s power if not rejuvenation?
“You are stronger than you think, Petal.” I squeeze her hands hard. “The wells of your magic run deeper than you know. They flow down into the very depths of the Vale. Will it to be yours.”
She closes her eyes. Spring’s essence flows over her, the way the river courses from the top of Mount Lumidor into Sylvanita Lake. I can feel her magic responding to mine, then bubbling, like a dam about to burst.
She’s doing it. Coaxed by Spring’s rejuvenation, she’s soaking in the magic that lives in every stone, root, and speck of dirt within the Vale.
“That’s it, Petal,” I urge. “When you ask, the world answers.”
She pulls away from me and holds her hands out to the sides. Twin briars crack upward and snake around her arms. Her eyes snap open, and she smiles. “Oh. They’re in trouble now.”
A matching grin crooks up my face. “I think I’m about to do something crazy.”
“You don’t have to ask me twice.”
I give Rosalina the locations of where I last saw Cas, Dayton, and Farron.
“I’ll see you soon.” Her briars whip her away.
I turn toward the swarm. Underfae are running at me, probably looking for Rosalina.
They won’t find her.
For Irahn’s sake, for everything he gave his life for, I will not let the enemy take Voidseal.
The blessing of Spring—it is the magic of rejuvenation, of all growing things. But Spring has never been a place of fragility. Spring, Florendel, my home, is a land of stone and ore and the bellowing fires of a forge.
Spring is the very earth itself.
I reach out my hands and dig my magic into the foundations that make up Voidseal Bridge.
Golden briars appear at my feet: Caspian in a tangle, still unconscious. I see a flash of Rosalina’s hair before she briars away again.
This entire bridge is made of stone, but there’s metal throughout it in the many elevator lifts that dip into the chasm. Smithing is in my blood. I can feel the iron and nickel and pewter that make up the structures.
I tear it apart.
With a roar, my magic surges out, pulling at the metal, springing it from its hinges, ripping it out of the chasm. A great groan echoes, and the swarm trembles in unison, looking for the cause.
Another tangle of briars appears, and Farron lands on all fours, nude and shaking. “H-he was about to kill me—”
I can’t listen to him. My entire consciousness flows out like a rainstorm, stretching across the bridge. I lace my magic through the cracks in the stone, prying, pushing, digging.
Dayton tumbles out of a third eruption of briars, screaming in pain. He’s still tangled in an electrified net.
“Dayton!” Farron scrambles to him, gritting his teeth as he pulls off the net.
Dayton rolls away, patting at burns across his skin. “That bitch is psychotic!” I feel his gaze on me. “Ez? Why do you look like that?”
My magic has soaked through the bones of this bridge. Now I’m only waiting for one thing.
Rosalina appears at my side, supporting a nearly unconscious Kel.
My chest heaves at the sight of spears sticking out of his body, the blood that dribbles from the corners of his mouth.
I want to rush to him, heal his wounds. But if I don’t do this now, we’re all dead.
And with Rosalina here, now we’re ready.
“You shall never take Voidseal Bridge. Go back to the depths of the Below where you belong,” I growl.
And then I pull.
The middle of Voidseal Bridge crumples. I roar with the force of it, every piece of my magic sunk deep into the earth that makes up the bridge.
Irahn’s beloved bridge house tumbles as the stone shatters beneath it, falling into the chasm below.
The swarm screams, moles and underfae alike careening with the collapsing structure.
I howl, pushing harder on my magic, cracking the abutments that hold up the bridge, then shattering them.
“Ez, you know we’re still on this thing, right?” Dayton yells.
The ground begins to tremble, then full-out shake.
“They will never have Voidseal,” I say. “Their army will go down with it.”
“Rosie, get us out of here!” Farron screams.
The earth rumbles, then the stone under us gives way as the entire bridge, from east to west, collapses. Jagged shards of rock fall as we plummet.
“Rose! Now!” I call.
“I’m trying!” Briars whip out and entangle my body. Rosalina careens downward, threads of briars grabbing each of us. Then she jerks a hand toward the chasm wall, shooting an anchor for it.
I feel the moment she hits, and I jerk to the side. The movement twists me so I’m staring at the bridge.
Or what it used to be.
Now, there is only a chasm. No more warden. No more protection.
But also…no more army.
Hundreds of underfae plunge downward. How long will they fall before their bodies shatter on the stone? Minutes? An hour until they reach the bottom?
A flash of light erupts beside me, and I see the green-horned woman clinging to an outcrop of rock along the wall of the chasm. Dangling below her is the slate-skinned underfae with massive antlers. He turns his head to stare at us, eyes intent on Rosalina.
Just as I’m pulled into the earth by the briars, I catch sight of one more thing. A small flying contraption. Perth Quellos avoids the falling rocks as he ascends toward the top of the chasm. The bastard survived.
But there’s someone on the back of his contraption, stone-still, dressed in all-black armor. It can’t be.
Rosalina whips me and her other mates into the earth just as the final foundations of Voidseal shatter forever.