Farron grits his teeth, looking like he really regrets entering my room at this moment. But I hold out my hand to him and relish the feeling as his fingers weave into mine. He might still be awkward around Keldarion but having both my mates close settles an ache in my chest.
Keldarion places a large hand on my shoulder, and the other on Farron’s, then holds both our gazes. “There is a tether between the three of us now. Do you feel it?”
Farron swallows, throat bobbing. “Yes.”
“I feel it,” I say.
“High Prince of Autumn,” Keldarion lowers his forehead to Farron in a sort of surrender, “you are mate of my mate, and I swear I will protect you from this moment to my dying breath.”
Farron flushes deeply. “Uh, yeah. Same, Kel.”
Kel turns to me, and his eyes blaze. “Rose, I will never send you away again. You have saved me and saved the Autumn Realm. Without a doubt, this is where you belong forever.”
My heart sings at his words, at the devotion in them. “Kel,” I say, feeling the unbreakable tie between all three of us. “Farron broke his curse. He freed his people in Castletree. Together, we could—”
Keldarion straightens. “The events here have only strengthened my resolve. I’ll help the others to break their curses and hope that is enough to heal Castletree. But this curse will lay upon me forevermore.”
He turns to leave.
“Kel!” I yell angrily.
He waves a dismissive hand. “Do not be sad, Rosalina. Now your other mate may satisfy your base needs.”
Farron lets out a long sigh. “He really is infuriating, isn’t he?”
I loop my arms over his shoulders. “Sure you’re not regretting being my mate forevermore with all that icy baggage?”
“I’ll take you whatever way you are.” He drops his nose to nuzzle against mine. “Forever with you doesn’t sound too bad. And now I don’t have to continue my secret research on extending the human life.”
I giggle as his lips drop to my pointed ears. There’s the rustle of wind as a gale brings a tumble of golden leaves. “I love you, Farron.”
“In the starlight way,” he says.
“In the starlight way.”
Keep Oakheart’s halls are lined with Autumn nobility to bid the residents of Castletree goodbye. They whisper that their High Prince is a wolf guardian, that the other High Princes are blessed with the same magic. It’s good enough gossip to keep the curse under wraps for now.
Marigold, Astrid, and my princes wait by the door that will lead us back home.
Farron explained Castletree is still too weak for us to keep the door open, allowing the staff to come and go as they did before the curse. But it won’t be closed permanently anymore. Already these halls have been dusted and polished.
Dayton gives Delphia one last hug, spinning her up in the air while she grumbles. But when he goes to put her down, she wraps her arms tightly around his neck.
Farron groans, squeezed in the tight embrace of his father.
“I’ll be back soon,” he grumbles, squirming out, and quickly bestows his little sister Nori with a kiss to the top of her head, who bears it well.
Padraig straightens, wiping his watery eyes. “Thank you, High Princes of Castletree, for all you have done for the Autumn Realm.”
Then he gives me a broad smile I can’t help but mimic. “And here we have the Lady of Castletree, whose bravery has saved my son. Has saved us all.”
“There is nothing I wouldn’t do for Farron,” I say, “and for the Autumn Realm.”
“Ey, there it is. Because you’re not just the Lady of Castletree anymore.” He opens his palm, revealing a simple golden leaf. “Mate of the High Prince, a courageous defender. Rosalina O’Connell, Princess of the Autumn Realm.”
He drops to a knee, and akin to leaves falling from a tree, the rest of the nobility follow suit, one after another. Suddenly, everyone is bowing and I’m the only one left standing.
My princes incline their heads with the utmost respect. Farron stands and takes the leaf from his father’s palm. Delicately, he moves the hair from behind my neck and threads the leaf onto my necklace, so it falls perfectly next to the moonstone rose. “Princess of Autumn,” Farron breathes, “will you lead us home?”
I touch the golden leaf, feeling in my heart the magic of this place: the crisp nights, blazing bonfires, the forest of a thousand colors, the bravery and legends of these people.
“Woven together,” I say, looking out at everyone.
“Woven together,” Padraig and the others say. He rises. “You will always have a place in the Autumn Realm, Rosalina.”
Tears brim my eyes as I leave behind this new home for my other one. With a heavy heart, I turn toward the great door and grip the handle. I feel the magic of Castletree calling me as I pull the door open. Farron clasps my hand, and Dayton holds his. I reach out for Ezryn’s gloved hand, who follows suit to take Keldarion’s. I step onward to Castletree, to home, woven together with the princes who make it so.
90
Caspian
After all these years, I still haven’t figured out if the citizens of Winter enjoy their realm being this damned cold, or if they’ve all just lost feeling after ages of serving under the iciest bastard in the Vale.
I breathe hot air into my palms and rub them together, but it does little to chase away the chill in my bones. Ah, well. Won’t be here long.
I’m never long on the surface these days.
My feet thud on the hard stone floor of Frostfang’s dungeon. Several guards squirm and press against my thorns, which bind them to the wall. I wave a hand and the thorns grow to cover their heads, saving me from listening to their bothersome cries.
A shame, really. I don’t get much time up here nowadays, and I hate to spend it in this frozen vault. Hate spending it running errands for her.
She walks in front of me, long black hair swaying behind her like a cape. Each step radiates with the command she asserts over everything, whether it be stone tile or fae. She’s beautiful and terrible in the way a lightning storm is beautiful and terrible.
Sira, Queen of the Below.
My mother.
“I don’t want to be here anymore than you do.”
I shiver at the smoothness of her voice.
“Don’t you think I have better things to do than free idiots from this freezing wasteland?” she continues, not even deigning to look back at me. “It was the perfect opportunity for you to take Autumn. You could have swept in while they were in turmoil. You already forced your brothers and sisters to fight the night of your little party—”
“The goblins,” I snarl, “are not my brothers and sisters.”
She snorts, then finally turns to look at me. I’m caught in the serpentine green of her eyes, the sly smirk. “My perfect boy,” she murmurs. “My perfect, pathetic boy.”
She turns on her heel and we continue down the hall. Instinctively, I reach into the folds of my tunic for the book, but it’s not there. Of course it’s not there. Because Rosalina took it. My only solace is I doubt she understands the magnitude of what she possesses.
Not that it’s of particular importance to anyone but me. The only fae that could change her form, truly transform herself…
Ah, well. I’ll retrieve it soon enough. It’s always fun to pay my little Rose a visit. And I haven’t yet beheld her now that she’s unleashed her true form.
At least a part of it.
Sira stops before a cell and snaps her fingers, drawing me back to the present. I sigh and send a surge of thorns cracking through the ice, ripping the door from its hinges.
Huddled in a corner is the withered shape of Perth Quellos. His defeat has left him a husk of a man.
“Who are you?” he breathes, backing further against the wall. “Caspian? The Below has come to kill me—”
“Oh, don’t be dramatic.” Sira examines her fingernails, filed to talons. “I saw a lot of potential in you, ice sorcerer. I thought you could be of assistance to me. Who did you think delivered those crowns to your doorstep, after all?”
Quellos blinks. “T-they were gifts from the Below?”
Sira steps toward the fallen vizier and studies him with a cold gaze. “I have use of your talents. But you’ll need to be educated so as not to fail me again.” She offers me a sweet smile. “I don’t take kindly to failure, do I, pet?”