“Careful, Sunshine,” I say. Every instinct in me screams to stop him, but we’re a team now. I have to trust them.
So I watch. This isn’t water like the Summer Prince is used to. It churns in unnatural pulses, thick and glowing, a sickly green. Hungry. It bubbles as if it’s alive.
Because itis.
Dayton clenches his fingers.
The pool reacts. With Farron’s connection severed, it’s only my father’s presence in the Vale keeping him standing now.
The water quivers, and slowly, it starts to spin. A spiral forms, the green liquid dragging itself into a whirlpool, pulling down, deeper and deeper, until there’s a tunnel carved straight through the middle. A passage.
“Day,” Rosalina chimes, “you’re incredible.”
But Dayton is barely standing. His whole body’s trembling now, and his knees buckle. My blood quickens at the way his jaw clenches, like he’s stifling a scream.
“No time to waste. It’s now or never,” I call.
Kel moves.
The Winter Prince steps up beside Dayton without a word. His hand rises, mirroring Dayton’s, and the magic answers. The swirling edges of the whirlpool hold firm, steadier now.
“You learned how to create snow for me,” Kel says. “I can help you control a little water.”
Dayton sways, but he doesn’t fall. He just leans on Kel.
“Hurry, jump through before it closes.” Rosalina turns to me. “Cas, are you ready?”
Ready to face my mother, knowing she can whisper any command into my mind? To confront my father, risk the Green Flame breaking through when we’re at the source of his power in this world?
No, I’m not ready at all.
But I’m done running. If this is a fight to end it all, then I will be here at the end of it all.
Even if it will be the end of me.
“As I’ll ever be, Princess,” I say and jump.
I land in a catlike crouch,blinking as my eyes adjust to the inky darkness. The others drop down behind me.
A green glow flickers. Then a scream breaks the silence. The light flashes again, and this time, I see it.
Two giant crystal obelisks, pulsing with green. Lightning flickers between them, as if the obelisks are reaching for each other. And strung in the middle hangs the Queen of the Enchanted Vale.
Below her sits my mother, madness flashing in her eyes as she stares up at Anya. Ropes of phantasmic green energy bind the queen’s wrists, keeping her suspended between the crystals.
“Anya!” George yells, but Keldarion holds him back.
Sira’s really doing it, draining all Anya’s power at once.Killingher. All to ensure the Baron can step through to our world…
“This is the moment you’ve been waiting for,” I say softly, stepping forward.
Sira shakes her head as if coming out of a trance. “Of course, my love. When we take the Vale, we shall do it as a family. You, myself, and your father.”
Well, now all the princes know of my cursed lineage. But the Baron isn’t my family.
And neither is this monstrous woman before me.
I raise a set of briars and strike at her.
