Chapter 82 Rosalina
Rosalina
Ipull myself over the top of the icy wall, my heart racing as the wind tears at my hair and dress.
“Well, well,” Caspian purrs, his voice a dark melody. “Climbing all the way up here just to save me, Rosalina? Or is it him you’re here for?”
“Leave, Rose,” Keldarion says, though his attention doesn’t waver from Caspian. “This is what must be done.”
I open my mouth to reply, but a shout cuts through the air. Soldiers surge onto the wall, weapons drawn, their faces steeled with determination.
“Stop him!” one of them cries. “The Prince of Thorns is attacking the wall!”
Caspian doesn’t spare them a look. He raises a hand, and tendrils of green flame spiral out, engulfing the soldiers in an instant. Their screams are cut short as they disintegrate into ash, the wind scattering their remains across the endless snow below.
“Stand down,” Keldarion bellows to his men on the ground. “All soldiers off the wall. Protect the town!”
“No,” I whisper, horror clawing through me as I stare at the aftermath. This isn’t Caspian. This isn’t the man who fought so hard against this darkness.
“You’ve gone quiet, darling,” Caspian murmurs, stepping closer.
“Stop this,” I plead, my voice shaking. “You don’t want this, Cas. You’d hate yourself for—”
His fingers curl under my chin, tilting my face up to meet his glowing green eyes.
“Hate myself? Oh, Rosalina, I’ve burned away all the parts of me that could feel hate—or love.
” The warmth of his breath brushes my skin, his voice dropping to a whisper.
“You’ll come to understand. Who I am now can give you everything. ”
“Not all of it is gone. Our bond remains. I feel it, Cas.”
He tilts his head. “Why do you think your heart still beats? You shall be my queen. A queen of fire and beauty. The Enchanted Vale will worship you, as you will worship me.”
Movement behind him catches my eye. Keldarion, his expression fierce, is closing in. His blade glints in the daylight, sharp and sure, aimed straight for Caspian’s back.
A tear slips down my cheek. I should let him do it.
But I can’t.
In one swift motion, I grab Caspian and pull him away just as Keldarion’s blade slashes through the empty space where he’d stood.
“What are you doing?!” Keldarion roars.
Caspian’s eyes narrow as he realizes what happened. Fury radiates from him, and before I can react, his hand lashes out, grabbing Keldarion by the shoulder.
The green flames ignite, searing into Kel’s flesh. The scent of burning fabric and skin fills the air as Caspian pulls him close, their faces inches apart.
“You think you can stop me, Kel?” Caspian says, his voice low, almost intimate. “You think you can save me? It’s too late.”
Kel’s teeth grit against the pain, but he doesn’t pull back. His icy blade trembles in his hand, the frost steaming as the heat of the flame licks at it.
“You will watch your home burn,” Caspian snarls. “Watch your mate become mine. And then I will bleed you out drop by drop.”
Keldarion’s body stiffens, his hands curling into fists around the hilts of his blades. I see the crack in his resolve, the edge of his control breaking apart.
And then it shatters.
A massive surge of power erupts from him, a storm of jagged ice shards exploding outward in every direction. The force slams into me like a physical blow, ripping the breath from my lungs and sending me flying backward.
I hit the parapet hard, tumbling over it. My hands scrabble for purchase as the world tilts. Catching the slick edge of the wall, I cling desperately, my legs dangling over the sheer drop below.
“Kel!” I scream, but my voice is swallowed by the chaos.
Caspian too is hurled backward by the blast, though he lands in a crouch with catlike grace, the flames around him licking angrily at the ice.
“Very good, Winter Prince,” he hisses, his fury shaking the very air as he slams his hand onto the wall. “Maybe if you’d actually fucked her, you’d be a challenge.”
Green flames burst forth, racing across the ice like living veins, cracking and spreading in a deadly spiderweb pattern. The ice groans beneath me.
“First the wall,” Caspian snarls, “then all of Frostfang will be consumed by the Green Flame.”
A ball of searing green fire erupts in his palm, its eerie glow casting jagged shadows over the horizon.
With a flick of his wrist, he hurls it toward the city.
The flame streaks through the air like a comet before smashing into the nearest row of homes.
The explosion is instant—wood and ice splinter outward, engulfed in an unnatural fire that does not melt but devours, turning rooftops into collapsing skeletons of charred beams.
Screams ring out from the streets below as another fireball leaves Caspian’s hand. It collides with a watchtower, the structure groaning before crumpling in on itself, fire licking hungrily at the ruins.
Kel’s citizens—they have families, lives, homes. And Caspian, the true Caspian, would be devastated to know he was tearing them apart. He has spent his whole life searching for a home, and now, with his own hands, he’s destroying one.
Before I can even take in the full extent of the damage, a crack rattles the air. I look down, watching a fissure form, spreading to the far edges of the wall as if the ice itself is splintering under Cas’s wrath.
“No!” I shout, struggling to pull myself up, but the ice beneath my hands fractures, serrated pieces biting into my skin.
With a deafening crack, the wall collapses.
I fall with it. Shards of ice shatter around me like glass in a broken snow globe. The wind screams in my ears as the world blurs, and for one horrifying moment, I’m weightless, the jagged remains of the wall tumbling toward the snowy abyss below.
No, no, no. I have to get out of here.
I have to get us all out of here.
The air tears at me as I fall, shards of ice spinning past like deadly stars. My heart pounds in my ears, but I force myself to focus.
Come on. Come on.
My golden briars spark to life, weaving through the tumbling ice and snow, threading themselves into a living net.
I stretch my arms toward the two figures falling beside me. My briars reach for them, curling around their waists and pulling them toward me. Caspian thrashes against the golden vines, his flames burning hotter as they scorch my magic, but I grit my teeth and hold on.
“No, you don’t,” I snarl, tightening my grip. “Not this time.”
The briars envelop us, their golden light dimming under the strain of Caspian’s fire. Pain shoots through me as his flames lick at my arms, searing through the connection between us.
“You think this will stop me? I’ll burn your precious thorns to ash.”
His power surges, and I scream as the flames bite deeper, but I don’t let go. With all the strength I have left, I weave the briars through the icy ground below.
The earth groans as my magic burrows downward, dragging us into its depths. The snow and ice close above us, muffling the chaos into a strange, echoing silence.
Cas twists and struggles, the heat of his power threatening to overwhelm me, but I press forward, searching for a path. Somewhere close. I can’t keep this up. My body aches, every thread of magic stretched thin.
Just a little farther.
I feel the shift before I see it—the heat rising through the cold earth, the air thinning as we climb. The briars break through the snow, and I gasp as we tumble onto solid ground.
We’re on the side of Mount Rhuvenmark. I blink against the light, breath hitching as I take in the vast icy expanse stretching out before me.
The sharp edges of the mountain glitter beneath the remaining sunlight.
Much of the sky is already covered by a thick smog billowing from the top of the volcano.
It’s just the three of us now.
Good. The only people he can hurt up here are us.
Caspian snarls, wrenching against the briars that still hold him. Keldarion rises beside me. His shoulder is burned and bleeding, but his icy eyes are locked on Caspian.
This is it.
I’ve brought Caspian to his doom. I try to rise, but the effort of bringing us here has drained me. There’s no strength left to stop what’s about to happen.
Keldarion marches toward Caspian, pain etched over his features.
“Kel, wait!” I gasp.
He shakes his head. He looks so beautiful, white hair blowing in the wind, a hero on a quest to strike down his shadowy foe.
“I’m sorry,” he says, and I know the words are for Caspian and not me.
He raises the sword above his head.
“Your wrist!” I scream. “Look at your wrist. Your bargain bracelet—it’s still there. Love remains between you.”
“It is only my love that is left, I fear,” he says and arcs the blade down.
“And isn’t that enough? Isn’t it enough?”
The ice blade hurls toward Caspian before it strikes the snow with a flurry. Keldarion screams, raw and ragged.
The sound is soon replaced by a dark, mischievous laugh. “You’re correct, Keldarion, hero of Winter. And that love will be the death of you.”
My golden briars fall away in a flash of green flames, turning to ash near Caspian.
Like venomous snakes, twin purple briars rise, lacing around Keldarion’s arms and dragging him down to the ground.
The sharpened tips spear through his wrists, sending spatters of red along the snow.
More briars rise and impale his legs, pinning him to the earth.
A broken sound tears from Keldarion, his back arching.
“Kel!” I scream, feeling the pain shudder through him as if it were my own.
Up. I need to get up.
Caspian rises and dusts snow off his clothes before sinking down over Kel.
“Oh, don’t make such horrid noises.” He gently caresses Kel’s face, who grits his teeth and glares.
“Did you know how badly I wanted to be your prince? To be saved by the glorious hero? I watched you stride the halls with your Spring consort and imagined what it would be like to hold your hand. I went to bed every night and dreamed of it.”
Keldarion snarls, blood seeping out between his lips.
Caspian tilts his head, long strands of black hair covering his brow. “Mother had commanded me to overtake Winter, but all I wanted was you. I think you were the first thing I ever wanted for myself.”
“Y-you had me, Cas,” Keldarion says weakly.
Another briar rises from the snow and drives into Keldarion’s upper arm. “I never had you. You never trusted me. Never loved me. You let your people cast me out and only came down to the shadows to lie in my bed. Now you love your mate in the sunlight. How perfect for you.”
“Cas,” I say, gripping a rock to pull myself to my feet. “We love you. We both love you.”
Caspian quirks his head toward mine, and a large, sinister smile spreads over his face.
“What do you think we should do with him, my queen? Bleed him in the snow or take him to the Below? Oh, my mother’s minions know how to draw out a torture.
We can watch from my throne while you worship my body. Your choice, Rosalina.”