My body shakes. My muscles tense. The ice daggers shatter into deadly shards beneath my grip. And the words tear out of me in a threatening roar. “What have you done to my wife?”
Caspian takes a few strides forward, whatever pretense I assumed moments ago long gone. “Oh, Kel, do be assured, she’s well taken care of.” He strokes a hand down his chest before landing between his legs and making a lascivious gesture. “As long asI’mtaken care of.”
Rage climbs up my spine like a blade. Before I can think, I’m throwing ice shards straight at that hand. A briar leaps from the ground, knocking them away.
“Kel, manners! Though you’re so similar to your wife, aren’t you? She has no manners either. Constantly panting and slobbering over me. Like a dog. Guess you’re both beasts. Except you were easier to tame! Doesn’t matter what I do for my sweet Rosalina. She’ll crawl on all fours after me, begging for a drop of my?—”
“Liar!” I bolt forward, charging straight at him.
“Kel!” Farron yells.
Caspian flicks his gaze over my head. “Don’t kill the Autumn princelings. It was so kind of Kel to build a cage for them. Keep them in there.”
There’s the rustle of goblins and soldiers, and I hear the ting of metal and the boys crying out, but I don’t look back. My vision has tunneled on Caspian. I leap for him?—
Briars snag my wrists and pull me to my knees. Thorns bite into my skin, and I feel the hot rush of blood dripping down between my clenched fists.
“Oh, I’m many things, love,” Caspian purrs, crossing the space between us with feline grace, “but I’m no liar.”
I’m too shocked to move when Caspian grabs the back of my head and thrusts my face against his groin. Even through his pants and the surrounding stink of battle, I can smell her on his cock. The sweet scent of her mixed with his earthy musk. The combination is aphrodisiacal, sending my mind into a haze.
Caspian jerks his hips away, then grabs my head and forces me to look up at him. A line of black rot drips from his nose. He doesn’t bother to wipe it away. With a gentle smile, he says, “I am your wife’s god.”
I scream, a yell as primal as the Vale before the fae descended. Wind and snow gather around me, mixing with a torrent of green and orange flame. Farron’s voice screams my name over and over, and I know he’s fighting to get to me, but I will cover all the Briar in frost to keep the Prince of Thorns from Rosalina?—
Caspian steps back and gazes at the growing storm, a flash of apprehension in his eyes. “Well, I do say this has been a most productive afternoon. And since you’ve been served up on a silver platter”—he drags a lustful gaze over me—“I can’t resist taking a bite.”
Briars wind round and round my entire body until I’m ripped under the earth and dragged into the dark.
I could resist. Explode with power as I did when I called down the stars.
But Caspian’s taking me exactly where I want to go.
To my mate.
27
Farron
The ice barrier entrapping me and the twins shatters. Thorngate after thorn gate erupts out of the ground. The goblins and my soldiers—my Green Flame wraiths—shuffle through. Caspian doesn’t bother to look at me as he takes his army and mine and disappears.
I stagger forward, collapsing to my knees on the churned earth that swallowed Kel.
The soldiers came at my command. Keldarion came to save my life.
Caspian took them all.
And left me a survivor to ensure my suffering.
My hands knead the dirt as if I could order it to bring Kel back. The blood-wet mud swirls in front of me as my vision stops focusing. The silence that fills the empty battlefield is replaced by a mild buzzing.
I sit.
Outside of the buzzing, there are other muffled sounds. My brothers’ voices. They’re attempting to give orders to Autumn soldiers who escaped death. Ones who have crept out of the briars like goblins long living here.
Snow begins to fall. No, not snow. There is no Winter prince in Autumn anymore. It’s ash from our useless fires, now burnt out.
I shall stay here, I think, until the ash covers me completely.
