I dodge too slow.
The blade scrapes my side, burning cold where it cuts. I stumble, and Ezryn catches me, planting his feet and swinging his hammer in a wide arc, keeping the Baron back for a breath.
“We’re losing ground,” he mutters.
I grunt. “Noticed.”
Across the cavern, I see Rosalina, her hands bloodied from trying to break the black stones, her briars coiled tight around them. But they won’t move. Her mother still hangs in those cursed chains, her light growing dimmer.
And on the far side of the chamber, Farron and Dayton.
They’ve unlocked Justus’s ancient memory as well. Day shines in brilliant teal with Farron beside him, his Autumn armor burning bright. Together, they fight Sira in perfect rhythm, pushing her back step by step.
And for the first time, I believe we can win this right here, right now.
Ezryn shouts, leaping into the air and slamming his hammer into the Baron’s side with a crack of sound that shakes the cavern. The monster stumbles, only for a heartbeat, but it’s enough.
I run.
Straight at Caspian.
He turns as I slam into him, and we crash to the floor. I land on top, pinning him, breath heaving. His sword skitters out of reach.
I press my forearm to his throat, then freeze.
Because his eyes aren’t glowing. They’re as lavender as the dawn. But terrified.
“Kel,” he chokes. “I can’t—I can’t fight it. It’s in me. And he’shere. He’shere. Always has been.”
I drop my blade. My hands move to his face, cupping it gently. I kiss him.
He mutters something against my lips, broken and raspy. “I can’t fight the Green Flame, Kel. I can’t keep it caged anymore.”
“You’re not meant to fight it,” I growl. “You’re meant to tame it.”
58
The Prince of Thorns
“The fire cannot be contained.” Green flames rush out of meand blow the Winter Prince and his foolish words back.
He lands in a heap on the other side of the cavern and doesn’t rise. His new armor resists even a single scratch.
Doesn’t matter. Everything will burn beneath the Green Flame.
Tame it.The words pulse through me.
Kel’s hurt. I run to him. To help, to destroy… I scream, my mind ablaze with this magic, thispower, consuming everything I am.
“Kill him and free yourself,” my father says as he makes his way toward Ezryn.
The Spring Prince won’t be able to hold him back long, not with how fast Aurelia is fading.
My breath hitches. Who am I?
The Prince of Thorns? Caspian? Heir to the Green Flame?
I’ve been all three, but never all at once.
