Keldarion keeps a brisk pace, and I follow in his footsteps, feet stumbling in my ill-fitting boots. I always knew this day would come, the day I returned home to my old life. I never belonged at Castletree, among the fae princes and beasts and thorns.
Caspian was wrong. I am just a mere human.
Kel stops so suddenly I nearly slam into his back. Before us are the twisting brambles of the blood-red rosebush.
I’ve thought about this place so many times since I came here, but to see it again…
“I sent your father home well beyond his means.” Kel hooks a sack over my shoulders. “But since he doesn’t sound like the most responsible person, please sell whatever you need within this bag to allow yourself a comfortable life.”
Distantly, I open the flaps of the bag. Glittering inside is the jeweled necklace. “Your mother’s necklace… I can’t sell it.”
“You will do what you need to. As must we all.” Keldarion steps aside, and it’s like the rosebush has changed since I’ve been here, now framing a dark tunnel for me to walk through.
I don’t even look up at Keldarion as I step toward it. Back to Orca Cove. Back home.
But that word no longer feels right in my mind. I have never felt at home there.
“No.” I plant my feet before the roses.
“What?”
“I haven’t upheld my bargain. Prisoner or not, I made a promise to you, Keldarion. To all of you.”
His brows lower deeply, and he grabs my wrist, hand closing around the whole width. “Our bargain would never benefit you, Rose. Fulfill it and you would leave Castletree, but you would not have freedom. Only I can give you that now.”
Something dangerous simmers beneath his words. “Tell me what you mean.”
“Your duty is fulfilled,” he snarls. “The bargain is complete.”
Magic crackles around us; golden sparks fly, illuminating the pale morning. A brilliant sparkle flames around my wrist as the mark of the Winter Prince dissipates. My hand locks around his forearm, and I feel with an intuition beyond understanding that something between us can never be broken.
“No!” I cry, a roar of my own. “You don’t get to do that. I’mnotgoing back.”
“What about your father?” He doesn’t let go of my arm.
“He was never there for me!” I say, and an anger I’ve been building for twenty-five years rages out of me. “Let me go tell him I’m safe. Come with me while I tell him I finally found somewhere I belong. And then take me home. Kel. Take me home.”
“Your home is through there.” His voice wavers, hand shaking over mine.
“No, it’s not. My home is through the Briar and across the river. My home is at Castletree.” I clutch him. “Listen to me, Kel. I know this more than I’ve ever known anything.”
A deep growl echoes in his chest, and he picks me up. For one moment, I’m at peace, feeling the hard planes of his body against mine. Then I realize he’s moving closer to the rosebush.
I try to scramble out of his arms, but his hold is a vice grip.
“This isn’t a negotiation.”
“No!” I scream so loud, I swear I shake the briars and the trees. Loud enough, I swear the princes of Castletree can hear me.
And it must shock him, for his hold loosens enough I fall to the ground. “You haven’t even let me say goodbye. Farron… He can’t do all the research on his own. And there’s still so much more I have to learn about Dayton. And I think Ez is finally starting to like me. Some of the staff have library books I haven’t checked back in. And I haven’t gotten to tell Astrid and Marigold what their friendship means, and Kel—”
My voice breaks off in a sob, and I stare up at Kel through blurry tears. “I couldn’t find you,” I choke out. “I couldn’t find you when you’d fallen under the ice. But a light bloomed in my chest. A light that led me straight to you.”
His eyes widen as he stares down at me, the breath heavy in his throat. I tangle my hands in his shirt, pushing myself closer. “I can still feel it, even now. Kel, you can send me away, but I will always find my way back to you.”
“Rosalina.” His voice is as much a warning as it is an invitation as his hand reaches up to brush the side of my face.
My heart opens, as vulnerable and fragile as a snowdrop. “Am I your mate?”