“Good idea, Rosie.” Papa adds some rose petals to a concoction he’s brewing over a burner.
The current plan: open our own way to the Vale. That means using all the magic and folklore the human world has available.
A boom echoes through the cottage, and a puff of black smoke envelops my father. He coughs. I leap from my chair, seeing the flash of flame on his scarf.
“Papa!” I grab my glass of water and douse the small flame.
He gives a chuckle, face covered with soot. “Why, thank you. That one got away from me.”
“What were you even trying to do—” My voice trails off as he unwinds his scarf, and something flashes in the light. “Mother’s necklace.”
“Ahh, yes.” Papa takes off the necklace and places it in my hands. “She wore this always.”
An ethereal hum flows through me. It’s a moonstone necklace in the shape of a rose.
I’ve seen this symbol before. On the door of Castletree.
My fingers carefully slide along the edges, and I think of the necklaces worn by the princes’. The glittering shell that brought me to the warmth of the Summer Realm, the golden leaf that helped me escape the rebellion to the safety of Castletree. A small wooden square, a crystallized snowflake. This can’t be and yet…
My nail grazes a hidden seam, and with a small click, it opens. Inside is a mirror.
A wave of hope and joy washes over me like a burst of sunshine in my chest. The weight that’s been smothering me lifts.
“A locket,” my father says. “I never knew it opened.”
“This could be it, Papa.” And though I try to not let it, hope quivers its way into my voice. “All the princes had necklaces like this that returned them to Castletree.”
“Can you make it work?”
I pull back my brown hair into a messy ponytail. My heart races, and everything sharpens to a new clarity. When I was in Castletree, the magic responded to me. The memory of a dangerous voice flickers inside my mind: Trust your own instincts above all else. Maybe the Prince of Thorns had some wisdom in his twisted words from the ball after all.
Carefully, I hold out the locket the way I’d seen Farron and Dayton do. Papa’s gaze widens with my every move.
A loud knock sounds at the door, shaking the whole cottage. I cry out and flinch, and the locket flies from my hands.
“No!” Quickly, I throw myself to the ground. I snag the necklace and hold it protectively against my chest. “It’s alright. It’s alright.”
The walls shake with another resounding knock. “Rosalina! I know you’re home. Open up.”
Lucas.
Papa pulls me up. “Don’t fret.” He leads me into my room. “I’ll get him to leave.”
More knocks rattle the cottage. I clutch my elbows, trying to stop myself from shaking. “I’m so stupid.” Did I really think the locket would work for me? The High Princes are the most powerful fae in the Enchanted Vale. I’m a human. “I can’t do anything.”
“Don’t say that.” My father casts another anxious look at the door.
“I don’t understand. This isn’t me.” Tears flow down my face. “I was never afraid to speak my mind to the princes. When I thought I was trapped, I never stopped fighting.”
Papa places a reassuring hand on my back.
“These fae are so powerful, but when they made me angry, I would tell them. I stood my ground out there—” I pause, gasping in air. “I don’t understand why I can’t do the same thing now. Why can’t I tell him to leave? Why can’t I tell him I don’t want to marry him?”
My father gives me a soft expression, even as the knocking grows to a frantic pace. “Because you are afraid.”
“But Lucas is only a man, and they were beasts.”
“Perhaps your heart knows what to fear and what is safe. And it’s hard to see a monster when he’s proclaimed a hero.”
My father’s words settle deep within me, and I wipe my eyes. “I just wish I wasn’t so scared.”
“Your flame may simmer now, coals in a hearth. But it is there, of that I have no doubt. Do not be afraid of the fire within.”
“I can’t let you go out there for me.”
“Nonsense. That’s what fathers are for.” He puffs out his chest. “I haven’t always done right by you, but this I can do.”
He closes the bedroom door behind him, and I let him face the battle I can’t. I reach into my pocket, touching the ring. Even the thought of it near me feels so wrong.
I can’t help but pull up my sleeve. There, carved into my arm: the scarred letters that go from forearm to wrist. The name Lucas.
I yank down the fabric, hiding the shameful secret. One I’ve kept from everyone in my life.
Only Lucas knows, and he’ll never let me forget it.
But I’m not that girl he branded. Not anymore. The locket feels heavy in my hands. Maybe it won’t work for me, but I have to try. Something led me to Castletree in the first place. Something inside me responded to the magic in the Enchanted Vale. And this locket is my best chance. Even if it doesn’t work, I’ll never stop trying.
But I can’t have him here.
Papa and Lucas’s argument drifts through the door. I know how it’ll go… They’ll fight for a few more minutes, then Lucas will storm out. Then in a few days the whole thing will repeat, like watching a play I hate, but I’m strapped to my seat. I can’t leave when the curtain goes down.
Unless somebody ends it.
Unless I end it.
I clutch the moonstone locket in my hand and leave my room.
4
Rosalina
Lucas’s eyes gleam as he takes me in, gaze sharpening, like I’m a frightened doe he’s lining up in his crosshairs.
But he will not take me down. Not today. Not when I finally have a lead on how to get back to where I belong.
“We’re busy right now,” I tell him, hating the shake in my voice. The quirk of his smile when he hears it.
“There she is. Finally.” Lucas runs a hand through his dark red hair.
My heartbeat quickens and nausea roils in my gut. I wish Kel, Ezryn, Dayton, or Farron were here.
“It’s rude to avoid your fiancé.” Lucas moves closer. My father tries to step in front of me, but Lucas pushes him.
I shove my free hand into my pocket, feeling the ring. This is it. I pull it out and stare down at the golden band, the gaudy diamond. “My answer is no.”
He snorts a laugh, but there’s no humor in his eyes. It’s hard for me to believe I ever thought he was attractive. “Don’t you see, Pumpkin? That’s not a choice you get to make.” He grabs my wrist, holding tight over my long sleeve, atop my scar. I cry out in pain as the pressure of his grip forces my hand open. My moonstone necklace falls to the ground, tinkling against the wood.
“Let her go!” Papa reaches for us.
Lucas ignores him and tugs me closer. “Ring or not, you’ve belonged to me since the moment I pulled you out of that frozen lake.”
Saving someone’s life does not grant them ownership over it. Keldarion told me that. After we saved each other. After my mate bond awakened.
“You know nothing of belonging to someone!” I snarl, yanking my arm away.
And maybe I don’t either. But I am going to do everything in my power to find out. And that means returning to Castletree. To my princes.
I step back and throw the ring at Lucas’s face.
He blinks, stumbling, but before he can regain his composure, Papa winds his fist, then delivers a sharp blow across his cheek. “Stay away from my daughter, you insufferable cur!”
“Fuck you, old man.” Lucas slams my father so hard he falls across the table.
But Lucas never takes his eyes off me. His pupils darken with hunger and desire, a hunter stalking his prize. I will never give in to him again. He approaches me relentlessly until the sharp crunch of glass sounds across the room. He pauses for a moment and looks down at the broken necklace before kicking it away, sending pieces of moonstone skittering across the floor.
My hope destroyed under the heel of Lucas’s boot.
“Come now, Pumpkin. This is getting ridiculous,” Lucas says.
As I look from the broken necklace on the ground up to the face of a man I once thought I loved, something shatters inside me too.
No…