But something else rises in me. A memory.
Caspian’s voice, days ago, as he carried me away from Sira.If you lay a hand on her again, Mother, I fear nothing in this world could keep the green flame from burning through your pitiful fae bargain and consuming you.
Caspian wouldneverhurt me. Some part of that lives in the Prince of Thorns. And if he would tear his own mother apart, what would he do to himself for causing me pain?
Break through the bargain?
Break through the Green Flame?
Time to find out.
The whip cracks just as I dive between Caspian and Keldarion, lashing across my skin.
Agony explodes through my body, white-hot and searing. The whip wraps across my back, fire biting into skin and silk and soul. I slam to the ground with a cry, the breath ripped from my lungs.
Everything goes silent.
I lie there, curled around the pain, gasping, feeling the heat sear through me like it’s trying to brand me. But all I can hear is Kel shouting my name.
And then?—
“R-Rose?”
It’s Caspian.
His voice is soft. Shaking.
He drops the whip.
The last of the green flames flicker around him, then die.
38
Caspian
The burning has stopped. The embers are quiet.
Locked away where they should be.
The voices have stopped curling around my thoughts. There’s only silence. Cold, aching silence.
And in that silence, I remember everything.
The destruction of Winter. Taking over the minds of Farron and Dayton. Battling Keldarion on the mountainside. Recruiting all manner of filth to my mother’s side. All the soldiers in Autumn speared by my briars. Rosalina as my thrall and then my lover.
The leash. The collar. The way Kel’s voice broke when he said he loved me.
Rosalina’s scream as the whip struck her down.
She’s not moving.
Rosalina lies on the obsidian floor, her back torn and blackened. The scents of scorched silk and blood twist in the air. Her hands twitch once, then go still.
I can’t breathe.
Kel’s chained. Kneeling. The collar has bruised his throat purple. His arms are bound.
He’s looking at her like he might shatter.
