Chapter 83 Farron
Farron
Burning, burning, burning. How good it feels to be engulfed in such glorious heat. To hear the sizzle and crack of living things around me. To smell the bark char. For only from ashes can the world truly be reborn.
Nestled in my cocoon of fire and bark, I close my eyes and breathe deeply. Soon, I will be free of this wooden prison. How stupid he is, to think any structure could contain me. That’s why he must die. My master commands it.
Kill the metal one.
A piece of tree falls away, and I peer through the flames to see Dayton encased in wood. How glorious he was, fighting beside me. A true warrior of the Green Flame. Though no flames flicker from his tree. He is new. Unused to these powers. I will teach him. He will learn.
First, I will break free and turn every rock and root in this place to ash. When it melts, Spring steel smells like how one might imagine starlight smells. Twinkling and shining on the tongue.
“Stop, Farron!” the metal man’s voice pleads. “Come back to yourself. This isn’t you!”
It is me. Reborn, as the world shall be. And his ashes will fertilize the new world.
But whose new world?
A voice cuts into my subconscious. A friend’s voice. Not Master Caspian’s.
Is this what you want, Farron, Autumn blood? To be under the Son’s command?
Flames pop and flash in my vision before it all goes dark.
I’m standing in a great abyss, the void so dark it is as if all the shadows of the world have collapsed in on themselves.
A curtain of darkness pulls back, revealing a bone-white throne and a man sitting upon it.
A fae, but not fae. Skin of moonshine white, with hair the same.
Sharp cheekbones. Ears too long, too pointed. And eyes of emerald fire.
Yes, my friend. Malekai Furiondemius, the Baron of the Green Flame.
“I gave you a gift, Farron, Autumn blood, and this is how you repay me?” His voice rumbles through me, pulling on the threads of my life essence.
I open my mouth to respond, but he interrupts me. “Don’t bother to speak. What use are the words of a thrall? I thought better of you. Helped you breathe life back into the dead and take vengeance on those who have wronged you. And yet here you are, in service to another.”
A wave of nausea roils through me. I look down. “But I must obey my master’s commands—”
“You have no master,” the Baron snarls. “My son pulls on your strings because you let him. He is a youth with no control. I will see that rectified. But I will not have him take what does not belong to him.”
“Everything belongs to him,” I say, not knowing where the words come from.
The Baron’s lip curls. “Sira has deluded him with visions of grandeur. There can only be one ruler of the Enchanted Vale.”
Distantly, like a scream echoing from across the sea, my own voice thinks, This is important.
“So, Farron, Autumn blood, will you betray the friendship I offer you? Or will you fight?”
“Fight?” I repeat, confused.
The Baron, his face so handsome it verges on uncanny, levels me with a withering stare. “Fight. Fight, Farron, Autumn blood. Do not give your mind to him.”
I clutch my fingers in my hair, squeezing my eyes shut. A hand, Caspian’s hand, feels clutched around my heart. “I have to—”
The Baron gives an exasperated growl. “I will help you break free of his clutches. But remember: I am the one who saved you. I am keeping you from murdering your friend. And in return, you will show me the same kindness. You will kill someone for me. Yes, Farron, Autumn blood?”
“W-who?”
A smile appears on his lips. “The Queen of the Below. And our son, if needed. For I have a new son now, don’t I, Farron, beloved child?”
I can’t manage words. Pain surges through my head, as if my brain is being torn asunder. I can only waver in this void, staring blankly.
“Listen to me. You must find your way past his clutches. To do this, tether yourself to reality. Think, Farron, Autumn blood! What is true? What is known?”
What is true? What is known?
I know the High Prince of Spring is standing before me. His name is Ezryn.
And I know he steals chocolate muffins. I know his hands are calloused but gentle. I know he’s screaming my name as if it’s precious to him.
And he’s standing in a throne room. A throne room that’s destroyed but was once beautiful. A high prince rules here. His name is Keldarion, and I have held him in the highest regard since we first met.
And lacing across the floor are golden briars. They look and feel like home. Because they belong to Rosalina. My mate, my sweet mate, who needs me to protect her.
And that’s what I do. What we do. Dayton and me. He’s waiting for me, safely trapped within the bark of a tree. When I think of him, pain pierces through my skull, white-hot. He wants to kill Ezryn. But is that the truth? What is?
The truth is I met him in Summer, many, many years ago. And I loved him from that first instant, loved him so strongly I brought him back from the dead.
These things tether me to the earth, but I can still feel it, squeezing my heart like a vise. Caspian’s commands, keeping me buried within myself.
Fight, Farron, Autumn blood! What is true? What is known?
What is true…is that whoever that was in the throne room wasn’t Caspian. Not like I know him. The one who I snuck under the covers with in Cryptgarden. The one who faced his mother with bravery. The one who would give his life for his sister.
That Caspian is out there somewhere, and he would never do this to me.
I snap open my eyes. The void falls away, and then I’m falling, cascading out from the bark of a fir tree down to the hard stone floor. Green flames hiss, then extinguish, as if caught in a rainstorm.
“Farron?” Ez says tentatively.
I roll my shoulders. “Yeah, it’s me.”
“Thank the fucking stars.” He runs over and helps me up. “I thought I was going to have to kill you.”
“He thought he was going to have to try to kill you. I told him I’d be peeling that armor off his charred corpse.” Kairyn shrugs, the act too casual for a seven-foot, curved-horned underfae.
I raise a brow, examining his broken manacles. “So are you just, like, out and about now? Never mind. We’ve got something bigger to deal with.” I turn to the tree encasing Dayton. A green glow emanates through the fibers of the bark. “I may be free, but he isn’t.”
“Think you can teach him how you did it?” Ez asks.
“Not before he burns my face off.” I rub my chest, right where my heart is. That’s where I felt Caspian’s fingers, crawling all over everything that makes up me. But he couldn’t destroy the truth. What I knew in my heart. Like the love for my family. Like my mate bond with Rosalina.
Like a bargain.
“Set him free,” I say lowly.
Kairyn pulls back. “Are you crazy? Ezryn, don’t do it!”
Ezryn stays perfectly still in that way he does. “Something you’ll need to learn, Kai, is we trust each other around here. Wholly and completely. Whatever you’ve got planned, Farron, make sure it works.”
I step forward toward the tree. “It’ll work.” For Dayton. Not sure how I’m going to fare.
With deep, reverberating breaths, Ezryn reaches out his hand. The bark enwrapping Dayton pulls away. He leaps out, twin green flame blades drawn, eyes wild with intent.
I open my shirt and clutch the golden bargain bracer that wraps my bicep. Through every season and every storm.
Then I unfurl the bargain magic over him like a net.
I see it, golden threads, weaving through his essence.
I can pluck him like a string. There’s the blessing of Summer, strong and vibrant, his beautiful mate bond with Rosalina.
A tangled ball of darkness, hidden behind his heart.
And rivers of Green Flame running up and down.
“I’m sorry, Dayton,” I whisper.
Once, upon the battlefield where my mother died, Dayton made a bargain with me. That his power should always belong to me, to come at my command. The words ricochet through my mind:
“Farron, son of Autumn, I pledge my magic to you. May it always be at your disposal. May you take my power and make it yours. May I be a vessel and conduit. May you siphon my magic and let it flow through you. Through every season and every storm, may I belong to you. In return, vow to me you will never forget this moment. Who we are now. When you loved me. And when I fucking loved you.”
Now, I summon that bargain, tugging every shred of power from his body, Summer magic and Green Flame alike.
I am standing on his shore, facing a tsunami. It crashes into me, green waves choking and drowning me. His powers smash against my own, trying to fit within my body. It’s too much—
“T-talk to him, Ez,” I gasp. “Remind h-him what is true. What is known.”
Ez rushes over to Dayton, who’s collapsed to the ground. I can’t focus on what he’s saying, barely staying afloat in the deluge.
Yes, Farron, Autumn blood, good. Channel it. You are stronger than you know.
The voice fills me with confidence. I squeeze my eyes shut and ball my hands into fists.
Channel it. In my mind’s eye, I see myself tossing in the waves of Dayton’s immense power.
I must harness this. Green flames appear over my legs, my torso, my arms. They burn so hot, they evaporate the water around me. I take a gasping breath.
Yes, yes, these flames are mine, mine to control. Not like when Caspian stole my body. These flames are the gift.
The Baron is my friend. The flames he gifted me are mine and mine alone. And I gifted them to Dayton. I can do this. At all costs.
“What’s happening to him?” Kairyn’s voice. “Ezryn!”
There’s a blank face in front of me. A helm. “Farron, calm yourself. Breathe.”
I am fire and the dark spaces between the stars. My power is otherworldly. I have no skin, no hair, no bones. Only flame.
“Farron.” The voice is weak but as strong as an anchor to my heart. Pulling me out of the flames. Out of the crashing waves. “Farron, please. Come back.”
Hands touch my face. But what hands could brave the Green Flame?
It’s him. The real him.
My vision clears. His powers settle within me, fitting into the tight spaces between mine. Dayton, pale and blurry-eyed, kneels before me.
“Hi,” I whisper.
“Hi,” he says back.
I look at my hands. They’re the same as always, a scholar’s hands, the calluses only where my pen rubs, but I know they’re different. I am infused with power. No sword could stand against me.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
“Weak. You really took it out of me.”
I tilt my head, examining him. Did I? I ask my friend. Did I take the Green Flame away from him?
No, the Baron purrs. Just as you could never remove his blessing, my ember still burns within him. It is what keeps him alive. Do not fret. It will flicker to life again once he’s rested. In the meantime, you have done very well. I am proud of you, son.