“Jokes?” With a grunt, Dayton heaves himself up. “What jokes? I told you I’d always come back to you. I meant it, Fare.”
One hand on Farron’s neck, Dayton drags him in and kisses him, fierce and trembling.
And it’s like I can see the life return to him, the color in his cheeks, the strength in his arms. Life, woven between all of us.
He pulls away from Farron and turns to me, looks me up and down with those teal eyes, and gives a shy smile. “Just when I think I’ve figured out all your tricks, Blossom.”
I touch the side of his face. “This is a new one, Day. I sort of bound the three of us together. Forever.”
“Hmm, forever with you two?” He smirks. “I can live with that, preferably for a long time.”
Then he kisses me, soft and slow and golden.
64
Rosalina
The wooden stairs are slick as tree bark beneath my bare feetas I ascend the winding staircase up to the High Tower. It’s deep into the night, and the castle is quiet besides the soft swish of my dressing gown.
I’d been unable to sleep, tossing and turning alone in my bed. Farron and Dayton are escorting Dom to Autumn where Billy’s body will be laid to rest. Kel, Caspian, and Ezryn had all said they’d come to bed soon, but I’d heard them in the dining hall, laughing and reminiscing like three old friends in a bar.
Reuniting with my friends was sweeter than even walking the familiar halls or eating the delicious food here. Seeing Astrid for the first time since I broke my mate bond with Kel, freed from her curse, filled my heart until it was overflowing. They’re all free, everyone in Castletree.
My mother faded into sleep after we brought Dayton back, and Papa carried her himself to the medical ward. Last I saw them, she was sleeping peacefully, looking like a princess from a fairy tale, while Papa sat vigil at her side.
Even the staff have settled down. Our return has sent them all into a fit. I’m not sure any of them recognize my mother, having been too young to have served during her reign, butMarigold couldn’t take her eyes off her. Thankfully, she seemed distracted by her newest charge: Heidigog. I asked her and Astrid to take the little goblin under their wing. I’d overheard Heidigog going off about the bloomies in the Spring Wing, so her memories must have returned after we broke the crystals, as have mine.
The moonlight drifting through the slanted windows reflects off my ring. Kel’s vows sing through my mind, and I can practically smell the cranberry and fir boughs from the wreaths that decorated our arch.
For now, we’re safe. We’re home.
Yet I could not sleep. Just like that fateful night after the winter solstice ball when I felt called to the High Tower, I feel a similar tug. I picture myself looking something of a ghost, white nightgown wafting in the breeze that sneaks through the windows, drifting up the stairs, drawn by a secret purpose.
I crack open the door and step into the circular room at the top of the High Tower. It’s cool up here. Golden briars flush with flowers surround four blooming roses: dark blue, pink, turquoise, and orange. They have never looked so beautiful?—
There’s someone standing in the middle of the room, amid the roses. She could be my ghost’s twin: long waves of dark hair, brown eyes, white nightgown, bare feet. Except she feels different.
Power rolls off her like the warmth of the sun as it breaks through the clouds: radiant, warm, and very, very ancient.
My mother.
I try to take her in, to truly soak in the fact that she’s here before me. But even though I know she’s real, it’s like looking at a painting in a museum I don’t comprehend the meaning behind.
Who is she?
Aurelia? Anya? A queen, an anthropologist, a wife, a leader, a coward, a deserter?
A mother?
Questions so endless I could fill a book with them have tumbled through my mind all the years I’ve been alive—so many things I wish to ask her, to understand about her life. But now that she’s right before me, my throat is tight.
“Hi,” I whisper. The word feels like an enormous feat.
“Hi,” she whispers back.
“You’re supposed to be in the medical ward resting.”
She shrugs. The creator of the Enchanted Vale,shrugging. “I woke up.”
