Chapter 77 Rosalina
Rosalina
Caspian’s face wavers between horror and nauseated, but I’m not surprised at all. I witnessed when Kairyn removed his helm for her, how he kissed her. How he gave up Spring’s blessing so I would rescue Wrenley.
My sister and Ezryn’s brother… The stars have woven us all together.
“Regardless,” Sira says as she waves a flippant hand, “Faustrius would like to see the boy. Retrieve him.”
“The turning of fae into an Elderblood has not been completed in thousands of years,” Faustrius says. “If he survived—”
“We do not answer to your whims,” Keldarion growls.
“Point your arrow at the Autumn Prince,” Sira says.
Wrenley raises the bow. Faustrius stiffens.
Dayton moves in front of Farron, but Fare steps aside and glares at Sira. “You will not like what happens if you shoot that arrow at me.”
A smile curves on her lips. “You may have stolen a piece of our magic, princeling, but you’ll fall as easily as any mortal to the Bow of Radiance.”
“I’ll retrieve Kairyn,” I say, then to my mates in our minds: Trust me. I have a plan.
“Be quick, little dove,” Sira sneers. “If you tarry too long, you might return to one fewer high prince.”
I run. A guard, no doubt sent by Keldarion, trails me as we descend deep into the dungeon.
Kairyn stands in his cell, knuckles wrapped tight around bars. “She’s here, isn’t she?”
“Yes,” I say solemnly.
I thought my mind would clear when I laid eyes on Wrenley again. I’d feel justified in my righteous anger or be flooded with forgiveness. Instead, my heart feels like it’s thumping with a thousand different rhythms. Is that even my sister when she’s being controlled so cruelly?
But the emotions that play across Kairyn’s face—his strange, new face—are easy to read.
Confusion, pain, relief, but most of all…love.
“Is she okay?” he asks.
“No, none of us are,” I tell him. “But if you trust me, I have a way we can save your mate.”
Kairyn and I return to the throne room, his hands chained before him. He drew a hood up to cover his horns.
He didn’t believe it at first—that they could be mates, that there is great power within that connection. We only had the short walk up from the dungeon for any explanation.
I hope it’s enough. We have one shot.
“You do know how to take orders.” Sira raises a brow and gestures for Wrenley to lower the bow.
I stay close to Kairyn as we approach the throne, studying my sister’s expression, looking for a flicker of any sign she realizes Kai is in the room with us. Faustrius walks toward him.
“Remarkable,” he murmurs. “He survived. So strong. I sense the power radiating within him.”
“Alright, you’ve seen your new pet,” Sira says. “Back to what’s truly important.”
Gently, I nudge Kairyn. It’s time.
“What would you have of us, Sira?” I say, drawing her attention.
“Finally, someone with reason.” Sira claps her hands together. “Did blowing a hole through the Summer Prince get you to understand how precarious a position you’re in?”
“I’m listening,” I say.
Sira stands, the ends of her dress melting into smoking shadows that roll down the stairs in a fog. “You can watch one by one as your mates are killed by the Bow of Radiance, or you can kneel and swear fealty to me.”
“Even if we kneel, our people will never accept you as queen,” Farron spits.
“Well, you’ll have to try hard to make them.
I’m not so naive as to trust any of your words.
Those of the Below know all too well how the surface dwellers will never accept us.
” Sira casts a look at Faustrius. “This is how it’s going to go,” she continues.
“You kneel and swear a bargain to obey and worship me as queen of all the Enchanted Vale. Any treason would result in the death of your mate, Rosalina, who will be the first to bind herself to me.”
“You’re mad,” Keldarion growls. “That is a fate far worse than any death.”
“I’ll kneel,” I say.
Immediately, my mind is filled with my mates’ protests, but I reply, Trust me, before I block them out.
I flick my gaze up at Kairyn. From beneath the shadows of his hood, I see his brow focused in concentration. Hurry!
“You’re much more like your mother than I thought,” Sira says. “She did always value individuals over the Enchanted Vale. Yet the people worshipped her while she bartered her subjects away for the life of one silly human.”
I bite my lip. It makes me sick, the way she twisted the words of my mother’s bargain, the bargain she now uses to control Wrenley.
All we need is a moment. One single moment to break through…
I walk before the Queen of the Below. It’s eerie how many features of Caspian I can recognize in her: the large eyes, the tilt of her smile, her full lips. A face I’ve loved, but there’s no mercy in her expression.
“Kneel.”
I fall to my knees, hear my mates rush closer, but don’t turn around.
Sira’s voice turns honeyed, dripping with a dark, musical lilt as she speaks.
“Repeat after me, little dove. I, Rosalina O’Connell, do solemnly swear to serve Sira, Queen of the Below, without question or condition.
I pledge my life and the very marrow of my soul to thee, to be claimed and unraveled at thy whim.
In return, I take thy mercy, sparing the lives of my mates on this fateful day.
This bond, sealed in shadow, shall stretch across eternity, unbroken by time or will. ”
“Rosalina.” It’s Caspian. He’s kneeling beside me, staring up at his mother.
She tucks a curl behind his ear. “Soon, Caspian, you will return to my side.”
He sneers, and I can feel him desperately trying to get inside my head. I don’t let him. My concentration is fully on Kairyn. Gone is the pained expression. There’s an almost smile on his face, and when I turn to Wrenley, she’s standing straight and still, her eyes no longer dark as a void.
The only magic in the Enchanted Vale stronger than a bargain is that of a mate bond.
When I found him in the dungeon, I told Kairyn he could make his way into her mind.
All he needed was a crack to wiggle in and break Sira’s hold, even if only temporarily.
And by the shocked expression on Wrenley’s face, her mate has done it.
Wrenley looks at me.
I place my finger to my lips before dropping it again to my side. I can’t speak in her mind, but I try to convey everything with a look. Don’t let Sira know you’re awake.
“High Princes of Castletree, you have no choice but to kneel,” Kairyn says, voice deep and trembling. “You have no chance of escape, not when Wrenley wields that bow. Not when Faustrius can break any of your divine weapons with a single strike of his sword.”
“We rescued you,” Farron spits.
But Kairyn is only repeating the words I told him to.
“I saw the Sword of the Protector shatter under Faustrius’s blade like glass,” Kairyn says.
“There is no choice,” Sira says, then grabs a clump of my hair and forces me to look up at her. “Vow.”
“I, Rosalina O’Connell,” I repeat. The shadows in the room stir, twisting in slow, predatory spirals. “Do solemnly swear to serve Sira, Queen of the Below, without question or condition.”
The moment the word “condition” passes my lips, the magic in the air changes. It sharpens, slithering against my body like icy hands, digging into my chest. I feel it writhing beneath my ribs, searching, burrowing, claiming.
“I pledge my life…” My voice falters, cracking. My gaze falls on Caspian. He’s trembling beside me. “And the very marrow of my soul to thee to be claimed and unraveled at thy whim.”
Magic pulls at my hair, stings my skin. Shadows rise higher, clawing at the ceiling, spinning like a storm’s eye centered on Sira. Each word I force from my lips feels wrong, as if it doesn’t belong to me but is being ripped from my soul. But I know one thing.
Sira’s attention is entirely on me.
“Rosalina, stop this,” Keldarion roars. “Do not make this vow.”
“In return,” I continue, “I take thy mercy, sparing the lives of my mates on this fateful day.”
I’ve made fae bargains before, but they’ve never felt like this. The magic around me surges, probing, latching on to the vow. It coils tighter and tighter, a cold, suffocating presence that makes my vision blur and my head swim. One sentence more until I seal my fate to Sira forever.
“This bond, sealed in shadow, shall stretch across eternity—”
A scream pierces the hall, wild and feral. I turn toward Wrenley. She drops the bow to the ground. Then she seizes Faustrius’s sword from his side.
Wrenley whirls, the blade arcing through the air, and brings it down on the Bow of Radiance.
For a moment, there is only silence.
Then the bow splinters in an explosion of light, fragments shooting outward like shards of a broken star. A deafening crack resounds, and the force of the strike sends Faustrius flying back.
The bow’s light gutters, then dies.
Sira whips her attention from me, her scream like a living thing. “Nooooooo!”
Wrenley stands, her shoulders heaving, hair wild, the shattered remnants of the bow at her feet.
Her gaze finds mine, and there’s a whisper of something familiar—regret, sorrow. Sira may still be able to control her, but without the queen’s divine weapon, we can deal with any of her magic.
I stand and turn to my mates. “It’s our time now. Cas, get Wrenley out of here. Sira falls today. Don’t let her escape.”
My mates move. Ice crackles at Keldarion’s feet, and in a flash of light, Ezryn, Dayton, and Farron summon their prismatic weapons. Cas darts toward Wrenley, briars coiling around him.
Sira’s face twists in a mask of fury. “How dare you, you wretched, horrid thing? That was your one purpose!”
“You will not use me anymore,” Wrenley growls. “Find another weapon.”
“Fine.” Sira waves a dismissive hand. “I command you to throw yourself upon that blade and end your worthless life.”
Every muscle in my body freezes as Wrenley’s eyes turn black. I feel like I’ve been tossed underwater, Kairyn’s scream muffled, my mates in motion. But no, this wasn’t part of the plan. We were going to save everyone.
Wrenley twists Faustrius’s black sword, placing the tip against her stomach.
“Wait!” A cold, crisp voice rings out. Caspian rushes between his mother and Wrenley, eyes flashing wildly. “I have a bargain to make with you.”