“You have my sword. Now let Rosalina go,” Kel says.
But I can feel her hatred like I feel the pierce of the briars. She’ll never let me go. I will my heart to still, my mind to focus. Hers may be different than Caspian’s, but I can control the briars. I just need a little time to unravel it.
The Nightingale crosses her arms. “Sometimes I play this game where I try to figure out which of you is the most stupid. It’s truly a hard challenge. You all keep vying for the top prize. But I have to say, you are the winner today, Keldarion. And that says a lot, figuring your little Spring mutt willingly gave up his Blessing to the man who’s been conspiring to steal his throne.”
Ezryn has stopped twitching now. The blood around his head has formed a large pool. If he doesn’t receive medical care soon, he’ll die. Tears spring to my eyes, but I force my breath to steady. I have to figure this out.
“You sure have a lot to say, don’t you, sweetheart?” Dayton jeers. “Maybe you should keep a diary instead of boring us with your monologues.”
Her piercing gaze levels on him. “Perhaps you should work on not being a slovenly parasite. Maybe then you could finally find a mate.”
Dayton stumbles back.
“Too close to the heart?” Laughter sounds in her voice as she turns to her knights. “Bind them.”
“We gave you what you wanted!” Kel roars.
“You have no idea what I want.”
Dayton and Kel exchange looks as the Sapphire Knight unclips two steel manacles from his belt and strides towards them.
The Nightingale waves a slender hand through the air. “Resist and I’ll kill her, so on and so forth.”
The Sapphire Knight pushes Kel and Dayton to their knees, hands bound behind their back. His helm tilts toward Ezryn’s body, bloody and broken. “What of the Spring Prince?”
“Leave him for the wolves. I got in enough trouble with Kairyn last time.” She points to the Bronze and Sapphire Knight. “Deliver these two to Kairyn, with regards from his little bird. I’m going to the monastery.” With bouncing steps, she walks over to me. I shudder, surging my magic through the briars, trying to get something to catch, to spark. “I want to have some fun with my new pet.”
Then all I can hear are Dayton and Kel’s screams as I’m whipped away beneath the earth by briars beyond my control.
Part Five
Vengeance
91
Ezryn
The darkness is retreating.
No … No. I must hold on to the shadows.
Without it, the pain comes. The remembering.
There are voices drifting through the edges of my mind.
“Where’s that salve?”
“I’ve got it. Here’s the poultice, made just as you said.”
“Good, good. Now, pass me the waterskin, dear. Thank you.”
Light glimmers and ripples on the fringes of my vision. These voices are familiar.
“I think he’s waking up.”
“You’re all right, chap. Bit of a tug on your brow as I stitch it. Don’t move.”
“Heart rate is stronger, isn’t it?”
“His breathing, too.”
“Hang in there, Prince Ezryn!”
Who … Who could say my name without disgust? Who is left that can bear to look at me? Not my father or brother. Not my people. And after the shame I brought upon her, not my mate.
My mate.
Gone.
My eyes open.
Three blurry faces waver above me. I blink until they come into focus.
Eldy. Marigold. Astrid.
With my vision comes the rest: blaring pain in my skull, my ears, my shoulder, my leg, my ribs. Every piece of me aching and raw. The memories come next. Armored gloves and boots pounding at my bones. Divine weapons in the hands of thieves.
I should be dead.
I force myself to a sitting position. The three of them take to fussing: hands on my back, the clucking of tongues.
There’s no time for this.
“You should stay lying down,” Astrid says. “You were in rough shape when we found you.”
I put a hand to my brow, feeling the sutures. Eldy has always had a steady hand with a needle and thread. Then I touch my ears.
The skin is rough and hot. Cauterized. Another healing trick of the majordomo.
My honor—my helm—wasn’t enough for Kairyn. He had to mutilate me, too.
“How did you find me?” I ask, voice raw.
“We weren’t going to stay in that city without you.” Marigold crosses her arms. “Not with the boy-tyrant running the shop.”
“Where are we?” I put my hand on Eldy’s shoulder to hoist myself to my feet. Astrid gives a cry of alarm and immediately runs to my other side, helping to steady me.
My head clears a little as I look around. I don’t recognize it—it’s a barren wasteland. Dead grass wilts over dry soil. A waterfall roars, running into a black lake. And a bone-white willow tree stands sentinel in the middle of the grove…
“This is my doing,” I whisper.
“Lie back down, dearie,” Marigold says softly. “You’ve been through enough.”
Eldy looks at his feet. “We didn’t know where else to take you. All of Spring is under Kairyn’s watch. And Prince Daytonales and Prince Keldarion are being held captive. There is no word on the location of Prince Farron.”
My voice is low, controlled. “Where. Is. She.”
Their wary glances at one another are all I need to know.
They took her. The witch and the knights. They took her from me.
I push away from the group.
Marigold runs beside me. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“To save her.”
“Sire, you’re still injured!”
Though my bones are bruised, my skin torn, I have breath in my lungs and my heart still beats. I don’t even bother to look at them as I find my footing and stride forward. “You three have seen me well tended. You have my gratitude.”
Now, it’s Eldy who stands in my path. His eyes waver, a pained expression on his face. He was my father’s most loyal advisor all these years, a mentor to me as I grew. He was always more family than servant. And now he stands before me in defiance. “Ezryn, you have no weapon.”
“I will make do.” I push past him.
His voice rings out true, honest: “You have no Blessing.”
The reminder rips through my body like fingers plucking at the empty part of me.
Stupid, trusting fool, Kairyn laughs in my head. You always had to be perfect, didn’t you? The perfect son. The perfect leader. The perfect brother. Your self-righteous honor led you to giving up the one thing that may have been able to save her.
Rosalina’s face flashes in my mind: the look of horror as I marched out on to the dais. The defiance when she leapt before me and faced my brother.
When she first looked at me—truly looked at me—in the grove. For the first time in my life, I was seen. A sacred witness. My mate, our bond forged from the stars…
And they have her.
My steps thunder as I storm toward the willow tree. There’s something cracking inside of me, all the barriers I built crumbling down.
I accepted when he broke his banishment.
I accepted his punishment on the dais.
I gave him the stewardship.
I gave him Spring’s Blessing.
Because I believed it was what was best for the Spring Realm.