With each step of my massive paws, heat radiates from me. I run to the ruins of the library. My warmth thaws Keldarion’s frost. A crack sounds, and the soldiers and horses frozen by his attempt to save me shudder forth from their icy binds.
Flames flicker from my paws, and I direct my power up to the alder tree. Water drips down the trunk as the frost melts. The tree begins to breathe once more, leaves unfurling toward the sun.
One day, I will rebuild its sacred library. But I have to do something else first.
I run toward the keep. As we approach, a near-painful sensation tugs in my chest.
“Over there,” Rosalina says, but I don’t need her to tell me. I can feel him too—mate of my mate.
Keldarion.
He’s not in the dungeon.
I change course.
A large chamber lies within the grounds of Keep Oakheart, a place I’ve long avoided, one of justice and decision. But now, I charge toward it, heart beating with purpose. Rosalina tenses atop me as if she too steels herself.
Great mahogany doors lead into the building, and I rise on my hind legs to push them open with my huge paws. Rosalina gives a yelp but hangs on.
The doors burst open, and I enter the Autumn Realm’s throne room.
The large chamber bristles with nobles dressed in their finest attire. Smooth, dark wood makes up the walls, but the ground is a tapestry of foliage. At the far end, the throne looms atop a platform: a seat carved into a massive tree, its bark polished to a shine and engraved with runes. It rises up into a canopy of vibrant leaves, the branches covering the ceiling.
Upon the throne sits my mother, adorned by the golden ram’s crown of the High Ruler. My father stands off to the side.
Familiar smells assault my nose: pine and steel and salt. The princes are on their knees before my mother, hands chained. A guard with a pointed sword stands behind each one. In the corner of the room is a small cage stuffed with a plump racoon and shivering white hare.
My feet land firm against the ground. I know I have but a single moment to decide before the guards are sent after Rosalina and me.
Do I attack to free my brothers like the beast would?
Do I run as Farron has before?
But I’m not the beast. And I’m no longer only Farron.
I am Rosalina’s mate. A receiver of the Enchantress’s gift. A scholar, a brother, a son.
I am High Prince of the Autumn Realm.
It’s time for me to act like it.
With a powerful surge, I leap over the screaming nobles and land in the space between the princes and my mother. Fear and anger flash in her eyes, and she raises a hand to summon the guards.
But Rosalina’s calm strength flows through me. She slides off my body, and I turn to stare at my mother. I want her to see me like this: not the rabid beast from before, but a guardian. Can she recognize her son’s eyes within the wolf?
Then I look at the crowd, holding each gaze in turn. Fear makes way to curiosity, slowly growing to…
Awe.
I feel for the connection between my fae self and the wolf. It’s so clear, I wonder how I never found it before. With a shiver, my body shifts back to my fae form. Instead of standing before them in nakedness, I reach into my magic reserves. A majestic robe of leaves rises from the ground and drapes over me.
The crowd gasps as their High Prince stands before them.
But none are so shocked as Keldarion, Ezryn, and Dayton.
Rosalina laces her fingers through mine as I meet their gazes. They sense it, our mate bond.
But more than that, they can feel that I’m free.
A single tear streaks down Dayton’s face. He lets loose a smile as radiant as the very sun itself. He’s so happy for me.
I’ll have to explain all of this to them soon, but first I need to do something I should have done long ago.
Rosalina squeezes my hand three times and peers up at me through her dark lashes. “You can do this,” she whispers.
I take a deep breath and step forward, the focus of the entire throne room on me. My mother regards me with a mix of curiosity and skepticism. My father beams and looks as if he’s about to rush to me, but mother slaps a hand on his arm. I cannot let her break me with disdain. My words will be my armor.
“Princess Niamh, Prince Padraig, and nobles of the Autumn Realm,” I begin, voice ringing across the chamber, “I stand before you today to ask for something I have been undeserving of in the past. I have failed you, and for that, I am deeply sorry. But the man who stands here now is different from the boy who first received the honor of being crowned your leader.”
The room is silent, tension and doubt swirling in the air. But I press on, my voice growing stronger with each passing moment.
“The man before you now wields a heart filled with hope. Because I have seen what we can do when we stand together.” I look to Rosalina. “When we are united.”
She shines up at me, breathtaking in her beauty.
I stare at my brothers. My heart leaps as my gaze meets Kel’s, mate of my mate. “The man before you today has learned to stand for what he believes in, no matter the cost. To trust in his own resolve. To take action.”
I drift my eyes over to the shining visor of Ez’s helmet. “The man before you today embraces the fear. Honors it. Welcomes it. Lets it pass through. And rises from the dark trail it blazed.”
I look to Dayton. A tremor shakes through my chest, and I try to keep it out of my voice. “The man before you today stands here because he knows what it means to love. And I will fight for that. Today and every day. I will never let it go.”
I turn to my mother. “So, I ask for something the boy was undeserving of. Trust. Trust the man. I will stand with you. Fight with you. Lead you with honor and valor. And I will not rest until our enemies are vanquished and our realm is safe once more.”
A thundering silence fills the throne room, the only sound my pounding heart.
Then my mother walks toward me, her steps echoing. Her eyes shine as we stand nearly chest to chest. She’s so much shorter than me, yet I feel like a child beneath her gaze. But I hold myself steady.
Princess Niamh takes the ram crown off her head and places it on mine. A great weight settles over my brow.
“I bestowed this crown to you many decades ago,” she says. “I always knew you were deserving of it.”
Then she falls to one knee in a deep bow.
One by one, the throne room joins her. My father, the guards, even the princes bow their heads. Rosalina flashes me a wink as she drifts to one knee.
Everyone here… They’re offering me their trust.
I hope I am worthy of it.
72
Rosalina
I take a few deep breaths outside of the throne room, staring up at the late afternoon sky. The princes are still inside, finishing up a discussion with Princess Niamh. After Farron’s proclamation and his mother’s endorsement, we freed the princes—and poor Astrid and Marigold, who’d been captured in a tiny cage before they could turn back into their fae forms. We warned the Princess of the army preparing to march at dawn.
I also connected with my father and Farron’s brothers. They escaped capture by hiding in the alder tree and are still there now, trying to see if any spells survived that might help Farron against Perth’s army. Papa was overjoyed when I told him about my mate bond with Farron. But there’s no time to dwell on celebration while the city needs protecting.
Anxiety riots in my chest. Tomorrow, Coppershire will be under attack. Farron called for a war council meeting this afternoon to devise a strategy. I know there is great magic in the Autumn Realm, but Perth Quellos rose the dead. His minions can create a frost that can freeze any living thing. There’s no time to ask for reinforcements from the other realms.
I squeeze my eyes shut. I have faith in Farron. In the strength of Autumn. I have to hold on to that.
The doors creak open, and the four princes file out, faces grim. But Farron softens as he sees me. “Rosalina.”
A sense of peace floods my nervous body as soon as he wraps an arm around my waist. I lean against his chest.
But I feel their gazes like a spotlight.