Loving you was as easy as the first fall of snow.
I shake my head. But how could I cull such a wonderful new addition to the collection? I will keep him here, my pet.Mine.
Rosalina tears her gaze from Kel and grabs my arm. Her nails bite into my flesh, unnoticeable to anyone else but sharp and painful. “What is this place?” she hisses under her breath. “It’s horrible. You would hate this.”
“Beautiful things hate the dark,” I answer back. “So this is where we keep them until they learn to love it.”
She bares her teeth in rage. My own little beasty. “Set them free. All of them. Kel included.”
“I can’t do that, Princess.” I yank out of her grip and stride away from the cage, waving a dismissive hand. “Enjoy your new abode, Keldarion. Tomorrow, you and I will play. And I will teach you the true meaning of pain.”
34
Keldarion
My spine is aching and stiff, but I refuse to move from mycurled position in the corner of the cage, arms wrapped around my legs, head buried in my knees. It does not matter what they throw at me, the words they jeer. I will be as uninteresting and immobile as a rock.
The scum of the Below will not get their pleasure at the expense of my pride. For I feel no shame in my ragged appearance or state. I went to the aid of the mate of my mate, and I would do it again, regardless of the outcome.
There is no day or night in the Below, just the ever-shifting purple and gray sky. I assume it must be what surface realms would call the small hours, for the crowd that had gathered around my cage has wandered off. Finally, there is silence, punctuated only by the occasional whine of another trapped beast.
I may be near naked, covered in blood and filth, humiliated and shamed, but nothing they can do to me is worse than seeing Caspian like this. He begged me not to let him become the monster he’s spent his life fighting. I failed him.
Is there a part of him left, crying out within? Caged as I am?
I am exhausted, my chest heavy with sorrow, but there is no sleep to be found here. Moving as little as possible, I lift my head and blink. I was right. All the onlookers have left. The menagerie is lit with the soft gemlight that punctuates the Below, captured in iron lampposts and glowing naturally from the ground. In the nearest cage, I can only make out a mound of icy-blue feathers. One of Winter’s rare frostbirds that live on glaciers?
Everything about this place feels sick, a macabre imitation of the surface.
It wasn’t always like this, I remember. Decades ago, when I lived here with Caspian, Sira never walked the streets of Cryptgarden. Caspian kept many friends, some of which were goblins, and though he loved and craved the seasonal realms, he would never have allowed the imprisonment of creatures this way. His collections were limited to plants, which he tended to like they were his children.
There is beauty here, glimpses of it, caught in the gemlight. But there is no sense of hope like there once was. The people have given in to the darkness.
“Kel?”
I nearly leap from my skin. That voice! “Rosalina?”
I peer through the murk but can’t see her. There’s a shuffle beside a nearby cage, and Rosalina steps forward, shedding the cloak I gave her. Beneath, she’s dressed in black pants and a matching top with billowing sleeves cinched at the wrists, the bodice tied with a loose bow.
“Rose.” I seize the bars, heedless of the ache in my muscles. Immediately, she places her hands over mine and looks up at me with such sorrow, my heart breaks.
“Are you okay? What have they done to you?” she gasps.
“It doesn’t matter.” All I want is to stroke her face, wipe away the tears threatening to fall, but my manacles make it impossible. “What are you doing here? It’s not safe.”
“I’m safer than you are,” she says in typical stubborn Rosalina fashion.
Pride washes over me. My brilliant girl. She said she could break free of the thralldom, and she did it. Even now, dressed in darkness and sorrow, there is a ferocity to her.
I could stay here forever, just staring at her.
But we don’t have forever. “How did you get away from Caspian?” I ask.
Her eyes shine with steely purpose. “The Prince of Thorns is not as infallible as he pretends. I think having you here has put him in a mood. He’s stalked off somewhere alone. And I’ve learned how to get around this city unseen. That cloak you’ve given me has come in handy.” She shakes her head. “Listen, Kel, I don’t know what Caspian’s planning for tomorrow. Your magic is weakened in the Below, so far from Castletree, but surely you can summon a frost cold enough to break these bars. There are places to hide?—”
“No, Rosalina.” I kiss her fingers through the slats. “I’m not leaving. This might be the opportunity we’ve been looking for.”
She gives me an exasperated expression. “What are you talking about? He’s going to torture you!”
