“A great power?” I whisper.
“A heavenly flower plucked from the Gardens of Ithilias. Sira used it to create the goblins. My parents theorized if they retrieved it, her army would dwindle. However, during the operation, the heavenly flower was lost to both the surface realms and the Below. Long had our forces searched for it. And my ambitious mind immediately thought Caspian was the perfect tool. With his knowledge of the Below, of the deep magic, he could help me find this great power. And he was my prisoner. I was so foolish.”
I clasp his hand as Kel explains how Cas cooperated with the Winter Realm as they planned an expedition to the deepest depths of the Below to retrieve this mysterious power. During this time, the two of them grew close, and in turn, Caspian befriended the other princes.
“And Cas and Ez started their board game rivalry?” I ask, smiling.
“Indeed.” Kel lowers his voice. “I was also engaged at this time. My parents wished for me to be wed before I took the mantle of High Prince.”
“I met Tilla. She works at Draconhold Forge. Gave me my own Spring steel bracer.”
Kel raises a dark brow. “You could charm a bard of his fiddle.”
“I wasn’t charming anyone,” I say. “Though she told me she didn’t think you ever loved her.”
“I didn’t. But the wedding hurtled ahead like a tidal wave until I was standing across from her and somehow knew saying that vow was wrong. Wrong all the way through me. So, I fled. In front of my entire realm, I fled. It was Cas who helped me escape. He used his thorns and took us all the way to the edge of the Winter Realm.
“And there we fought. I can’t recall how it began, only that he was always getting on my last nerve, and all the anger I felt about the wedding, our mission, cropped up. We screamed at each other so loud, I thought we’d shake the snow from the mountain. But then suddenly, we weren’t screaming anymore. My mouth was over his, and I don’t remember why, only that it was me who did it, and maybe it was the only way I thought to shut him up. I had never kissed a man before, didn’t even realize I wanted to.”
I feel it through Kel and can almost see the memory like a dream lost upon waking: Caspian with windblown hair, flecked with snow. And oh, how well I know the darkness behind those lips.
“We didn’t leave that mountainside until the next morning. When we returned to Frostfang, we found it had been attacked. And all the signs pointed the blame to Caspian.”
“But he was with you all night,” I said.
“Yes, but I couldn’t very well admit that. Not without the shame it would bring to me, my family. He told me to keep it a secret. So, I let them banish him away, even after all those months of work to help us. And I said nothing.
“Once he was gone, I found I could not let him go. I followed him all the way to the Below. And it was there I decided to stay while we continued our mission to search for this power. Much to the dismay of those above. And to Ezryn.”
“That’s when you resided in Cryptgarden,” I say.
“Yes. Ezryn came down a few times, and I assured him my personal army was awaiting my order if I ever needed assistance. But after months, Caspian and I finally found the power, a heavenly rose plucked from the Gardens of Ithilias itself. That night, in the haze of victory, we made the bargain, planning the next morning to attend a celebration in the surface world.”
I trace the frosted thorns around his wrist. “Go on, Kel.”
With shaky words, he tells me of awaking alone, of Ezryn storming Cryptgarden with the Winter army. “He believed I was in grave danger, stating Caspian was a spy all along. In the raid, many of Caspian’s personal guard were killed. Among them were a few friends whom he was very fond of. Parts of Cryptgarden were destroyed, including some of his most treasured places. I knew if Caspian learned it was Ezryn who led the army, he would hunt him down. And that would end with either my best friend or the man I—with Caspian dead. I thought if I said the army mistakenly came down at my command, he might understand.”
“Did he? Understand?”
“When I found him, he barely spoke. But he still agreed to come to the celebration. But it was there he betrayed all of us.
“In his anger, the Prince of Thorns created a great chasm that bled from Winter to the depths of the Below. And all of the Below’s terrible and ancient creatures flooded out into my realm. They marched over a frozen wasteland to the capital, Frostfang. And the Prince of Thorns attacked with such a force that the people of Winter had no choice but to retreat to Autumn for refuge. The goblins pursued, and a great battle was waged on the fields outside of Coppershire.”
The chrysanthemum fields with the grave markers … The fallen from that battle became the army I saw Perth raise only months ago.
“My mother was lost in the siege of Frostfang,” Kel continues, and his throat bobs. “And I did not escape. Caspian took me prisoner, left me hanging on the side of a mountain to die.”
“Kel,” I whisper.
“Don’t fret.” He runs a finger down my nose. “Ez climbed the whole thing, hand over hand, and freed me.
“After I returned, the forces of the four realms were able to rally and take back Frostfang. Ultimately, we defeated the Below, though many were lost. The heavenly flower we had spent so long searching for was destroyed in the fight.”
“I can’t believe you lived through all of that,” I say. My mind reels trying to place each of my princes in this sordid history.
“Now you know my greatest shame and why I was cursed. My father died during this War of Thorns, and I became High Prince. It was not long after, that the Enchantress came to Castletree, cursing us forever. Only days passed before Caspian began to wrap Castletree in his thorns and start siphoning the magic from these hallowed branches.”
I hold tight to him, not only to keep him fae, but because he needs it. A light sweat covers his body, and he shivers.
“Thank you for telling me. I’m glad to know your past and all you faced.” My mind spins with the new information and trying to make sense of Caspian within it. Was that what you wanted, Prince of Thorns? Did he love Kel all along, or is it as the Winter Prince believes and a plot of betrayal? Why the thorns and lying to the princes about the nature of it? Why save me time and time again?
“There is, of course, more than I have said, and you may ask me any of it.”
“I will,” I say, nuzzling into his neck. “For tonight, this is more than enough. But there’s something I need to tell you about Caspian.”
Kel tilts his chin. “Is it how you told Farron you think he is your mate?”
“Caspian spoke in my mind, Kel. Only you and Farron have done that and … I don’t know. Farron believes it’s a side effect of the bargain between you two.”