Keldarion
“Ididn’tthinkI’dfind you up here.” Ezryn’s voice echoes through the empty chamber. I don’t turn to him, my gaze completely focused. Briars crunch beneath his heavy footsteps as he walks toward me. “Kel?”
“Do you know how many times,” I murmur, “I’ve come up here and hovered my hand over the petals? Pictured crushing it in my fist? Ending it all by my choosing.”
I trail my finger over the stem of a sapphire blue rose. It’s planted in a row of dirt that falls loosely in the center of the room. The Enchantress’s magic lingers everywhere. Three other roses grow along the same plot: one with pink petals, the other with turquoise, and the last with orange.
Ezryn walks over to the pink rose and stares at it. “You speak of the temptation to destroy your flower and become a beast forever.”
“Is that not better than to live in this in-between world? When are we not men masquerading as beasts, but beasts masquerading as men?”
Sparkling magic radiates from the petals. How easy it would be to put useless dreams aside forever. With a single crush of my hand, I could destroy this object of derision and free myself of the pain of hope.
“It’s madness really,” Ez says, “that we should suffer so much from such a fragile thing.”
“Or that something so beautiful creates such monsters.” I tear my gaze away from the flower and pace to the middle of the chamber. “What do you want from me, Ez?”
Ezryn tilts his helm to look around the room, the dying sunlight reflecting off the polished metal. As is the honored custom for all Spring Realm royalty, no one outside of blood family or mate-bonded may see their face. Despite being friends since childhood, I have no idea what the color of his hair is, or what his smile looks like. Yet, I know him so well, I can practically see the searching gaze he gives me beneath the mask.
“Do you remember what this place used to look like?” Ezryn asks. “The golden-leaf along the moon-white walls? There was a chandelier right above us. Perhaps it’s still there. Hard to tell what’s beneath the thorns. And if I recall, there was a mural on that wall of the Queen’s creation of the Enchanted Vale. I remember thinking it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.”
I narrow my eyes at Ez. He’s stalling. A strange sensation of melancholy shifts between us. When was the last time we were in the High Tower together? The Queen’s Tower?
Though it had been left vacant for the last five hundred years since the Queen left the Enchanted Vale, it had always been maintained. A space of history. Of immense beauty. Of an ancient and visceral magic.
No wonder it was here the Enchantress cursed us and planted the four objects that sealed our doom.
I ignore Ezryn’s comments, knowing he is delaying what he is truly here for. But no matter. If he wants to reminisce, then I shall indulge him. “Tell me the truth, brother,” I rasp. “Did we deserve it?”
Ezryn stills. “Of course we did, Kel.”
Did I think he would offer me amnesty for the evils I brought? No. Ezryn would never forgive himself; I could not ask him to forgive me.
“We never found out who she was,” Ezryn muses. “The Enchantress.”
I can see it as clearly as I did twenty-five years ago. It was impossible. She was a stranger, a mortal. We had all but chased her from the castle when she…
She transformed. Into something beautiful and terrible: a vision of light so brilliant, it turned everything else to shadow. And I knew in that moment that this being saw me to my very bones and understood what lingered in my heart, and she would not stand for it.
We were wicked beings. All of us had taken the mantle of High Prince with the responsibility to lead our people and wield our magic in a way that upheld the honor of the Queen.
Instead, Dayton fell to drink. Farron hid in his keep. Ezryn gave way to sorrow and rage. And I…
I rub the aching bargain that wraps around my wrist. I betrayed the Vale and everyone in it.
“Some things are better left unknown.” With a sigh, I turn to my brother. “Ezryn, why are you here?”
The small shift in his gait alerts me he’s uncomfortable. “Kel, we need to talk about Rosalina.”
I walk toward the door. “What is there to speak of? You can’t find her presence displeasing. You’re barely around.”
“Why did you take her to your chambers last night?”
My voice comes out a husky growl. “To keep her safe.” My fists curl. I had smelled it, even deep within the Winter Wing: her arousal. It was like a tether, drawing me toward her in a fevered trance.
And to see it wasDaytoncausing such a reaction…
I had wanted to rip his throat out with my teeth. I needed to shelter her away.