His hand fits perfectly around mine, and for this one song, this one dance, there is nothing else.
“You’ve helped me come to an important decision, Rosalina,” Keldarion says. “Having decided, it makes me feel… lighter.”
I tilt my head. Now that he says it, there has been something different about him today. Like a weight has been lifted off his shoulders. “What is it?”
“After the ball, when we’re all together, I’ll tell you,” he says lowly. “How do you like the Winter Realm?”
“It’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen,” I say. “It suits you.”
“And you.” His eyes drip over my body. “Do you like the dress?”
“Of course. And this necklace! I have no idea where Marigold got it, but—”
Keldarion gives a small smile. “I sent for it. It belonged to my mother.”
“Oh! Oh.” My jaw drops open. “I promise I’ll give it back right after the ball! Right after this dance. And I definitely wasn’t eating truffles and then touching it. Okay, I was, but only a little—”
He laughs richly. “The necklace is yours to keep, Rose. Think of it as a gift.”
“For making you attend a ball?” I snort.
“For waking us up.”
Our bodies press together, closer than the dance entails. Boldness swells in my chest, and I ask, “Am I still your prisoner?”
“Oh, Rosalina, you’re reading my mind now,” he murmurs. “On the contrary. You were never my prisoner, and I was always yours.”
My words are a breath: “What do you mean?”
The music rises and I spin under Kel’s arm. He pulls me close, then dips me low. “You are the cove of which our storm-struck ships moor. The beacon of light in the darkest night leading us home. A candle whose flame flickers against the coldest wind. You’ve given them hope.”
He draws me up and I follow his gaze around the room. Ezryn, Farron, and Dayton. Staring at them, one wish burns brightest against all else.
“I want to break the curse,” I say, falling back into the dance. “I want you all to be able to protect your realms again. Get your true magic and save Castletree from the briars. To have the freedom to be who you truly are.”
“I want that for them too,” Keldarion says.
I stop dancing and put my hands on either side of Kel’s face. His eyes shimmer as he stares down at me. “But Kel… What about you?”
He places his hand over top of mine and leans into the touch. “Time is running out, Rosalina. I’ve lost so much of it to the cold and the dark. For what time I have remaining before the beast takes over… I want to spend it doing all the things I wish I could have more time to do. Finally doing what is right.” He swishes me into the dance again. “And that means I will take no other dance partner but you, my rose.”
No other dance partner but me…
No. No. No, no, no, no, no.
Kel can’t do that. Heneedsto find his mate. Heneedsto break the curse. As much as it kills me inside to think of him with someone else… I can’t lose him to the spell. I won’t.
I pull away. “Kel, what are you saying? Stop. You have totryto break the curse. Why won’t you try?”
“Breaking the curse will not bring you the freedom you seek,” he hisses. “Only I can give you that, and I will.”
“No. I help you break the curse and we’ll both be free.”
“Rosalina,” he mumbles, “lower your voice.”
“Kel,try.”
His gaze is intense as he snarls, “I would rather die than have this curse broken.”