“Fighting for freedom. For what’s right,” I snarl. “Something you know little of.”
“Trust me. I had nothing to do with this.” He gestures vaguely at the battle.
“No, you led a different attack on Coppershire with your goblins.” The memory of that night is still vivid in my mind. He’d manipulated Farron, nearly killed Dayton…
Caspian gives a long sigh. “What does a guy have to do to get a little thank you?”
“Not be a betraying dick?” I smack him on the chest plate. “What are you wearing, anyway? You look ridiculous.”
“Had to blend in.” He taps the side of the Autumn helm. “Didn’t think I’d be welcome.”
“Well, that sort of happens when you attack a city with a goblin horde.” My eyes catch on something between the plates of armor. It’s the grimoire, the one Farron stole for him from the alder tree. He brought it here, even to the dangers of battle. “It was never about us attending the party, was it? Or helping Farron? It was always about stealing that book.”
A sly smile crawls up Caspian’s full lips. “I suppose the stupidity of the princes hasn’t fully consumed you.”
Slowly, I reach into my bag and flash my own book, a fae fairy tale I borrowed from the Autumn library. “I also brought a book into battle. But what’s so important about that one? Why go to such lengths to trick Farron?”
Caspian checks that we’re still concealed, then leans down. “I didn’t trick him. I offered him a bargain. Control over his wolf were my terms. It pays to be specific in bargains, Flower, something our dear Autumn Prince learned the hard way.”
“Don’t speak about my mate that way,” I spit.
“Right, your mate.” Caspian flicks my hand off his chest. “At the very least, you should be thanking me for helping you unlock that bond.”
“Shut up.” The breath is heavy in my throat. “Why are you here?”
“To offer you a bargain of your very own.”
“Like I’d ever trust you.”
“You don’t have to.” Caspian raises his hands. Two small thorns coil around his wrists as if they were wriggling snakes. “Remember how powerful you were when you helped that great oaf out of the ice? I’ve brought the briars to you. With these bracelets, you can keep the magic of the thorns with you always.”
My heart pounds in my chest as a terrible but beautiful image passes through my mind. If I had thorns on this battlefield, I wouldn’t be at the whims of the wraiths or need anyone’s protection.
“I can summon the briars myself,” I say, raising my chin. “I’ve done it before.”
“Try.”
I place my palm on the earth, trying to sense the sorcery of the briars like I did in the Below. I grit my teeth, willing to feel anything, but all I sense are the two thorns around Caspian’s wrists.
He kneels and lightly raises my chin. “You’ve been able to use my briars. Perhaps some day, you’ll be able to call them all the way from the depths of the Enchanted Vale. But while you’re trapped in that human skin, the source of your magic is too far away. I’m the only one who can help you.”
I look from the thorn bracelets to the battlefield. Distantly, I feel a tug in my heart pulling me to Farron, but he’s so far away. Why had I felt like he was close? I need to get this scroll to him.
Gritting my teeth, I snarl at Caspian like a wild cat, “What do you want for them?”
“A kiss,” he says, dark eyes sparkling. “From you. Lip to lip. It pays to be specific, you know.”
My heart rages in my chest. Keldarion will hate me for this. The others will, too.
I know better than to make a deal with the Prince of Thorns. I sense there’s a trick in here. Maybe one neither of us sees.
But I will do everything in my power to save my mate, to save the Autumn Realm. So, I grasp Caspian’s palm. “Deal.”
His eyes widen in surprise, then he softens, letting out a long sigh. The bracelets encircling his wrists uncoil, slithering forward. Only one vine remains on his wrist while the others wrap around each of mine, forming tight circles. A bargain.
I let out a small gasp as I sense the magic coursing through me. The thorns feel like an extension of myself, tapping into a deep well of power within. Testing their strength, I use the thorns at my wrist to cause vines to burst forth and slither over the ground.
“It works.”
“Of course it does.” Caspian hasn’t blinked. He’s just staring at me.
As I continue to test the power, the new vines detach from my wrist and weave through the earth. I feel a deep connection with each thorn. Bursting forth with even more energy, I create small vines that wrap the book I’m holding in my hand, hovering it above the ground.
“It’s your turn to fulfill the deal,” Caspian says, and there’s a peculiar rasp in his voice.
My heart beats at an odd cadence. I send forth more briars, continuing to explore this magic, letting the vines playfully wind up his thighs.
“Now, that tickles.” His smile shouldn’t be that beautiful.
“I would know,” I say, leaning forward. “You did that to me. Remember? The first day we met?”
He chuckles darkly. “I could never forget. But that wasn’t the first day we met.”
No, it was when I first passed into the Enchanted Vale… He was the shadowy figure who had saved me from the goblins and delivered me to Castletree. “Why do you insist on rescuing me?”
“That was one time.”
“But you spoke in my head the day I ran away from Castletree. You told me to run, that you couldn’t get to me. I think… I think you wanted to help me.”
Caspian examines his clean, well-trimmed nails. “Yes, well, your mate had created quite a predicament for me at Castletree. I couldn’t exactly step away.”
“Ugh!” I drive my fingers into my hair. “You’re so frustrating! Do you betray friend and foe alike? Is there anyone you’re loyal to?”
“Like any good citizen of the Enchanted Vale, I am loyal to the Queen.”
“What, is there a Queen of the Below I don’t know about?”
His eyes flash darkly, and he grasps the back of my neck, fingers running through my hair. “Are we going to continue to chat in the middle of a battlefield, or are you going to fulfill your bargain?”
But the battle feels far away, the shouts and cries distant, and I force myself to focus. Caspian looks so curious, dressed in the golden armor of Autumn. It makes him look younger, softer. I let him pull me close, so I’m in his lap. I take off his helm, and a tumble of dark hair frames his elegant face.
“A little kiss for such power?” I say softly, letting my thorns continue to weave up his body and through the plates of his armor. “You must have been thinking of this for some time.”
His eyes close, long lashes sparkling in the golden light. “You have no idea, Princess.”
Warmth blooms inside me, and I try to ignore the rush of feeling through my body. I lower my lips, a breath away from his. “I made a bargain to kiss you, Caspian.”
Lightly, his fingers graze my spine. “Yes.”
I pull back, taking my briars with me and stand, quickly shoving the book into my satchel.
Caspian opens his eyes, blinking, confused.
“I made a bargain to kiss you, but I didn’t promise it would be now. It was you who failed to say where or when. It pays to be specific with bargains, you know.”
For a moment I think he’s going to be angry, but he only laughs, a dark rasp. “Ahh, Princess, you really were made for this world, weren’t you?” His laugh turns into a cough, and black stains his lips.
“What—”
He wipes a finger through the dark ooze coating his mouth. “Use the power well, Rosalina,” he says, then falls to the ground, as one might fall into ocean waves. Briars encircle him, and he vanishes into thorns and shadows.
But the vines encircling my wrists remain. It might be the magic of the Prince of Thorns, but it’s mine now.
Mine to do with as I wish.
81
Farron