Page 12 of Crown Me (Immortal Vices and Virtues: All Hallows’ Eve #3)

Adeline

“ B ron!”

The ground erupts around us, tree roots shooting up like spears, wrenching the soil apart mere seconds before a coiling, blue rope wraps around my chest, winding and winding around me even as I fall.

My mind struggles to catch up with my body, trying to make sense of the shattering landscape.

Tree roots writhe and shriek as I plummet into a new darkness and now, all I can make out is the jagged rocks we’re falling toward.

And then, Bron’s form comes back into view, plummeting toward the sharp spears.

In a heartbeat, I extend both of my hands, my power over air raging across the space between him and me, jolting him to a stop mere inches above the sharp spikes.

At the same moment, the rope around me pulls taut and I, too, wrench to a stop, dangling horizontal to the sharp spikes beneath me.

They extend in every direction across the floor of the new cave we’ve fallen into, except for a small patch of solid rock, a platform slightly off to my right.

I could maybe try to reach it, but I can’t risk taking my focus off Bron.

Desperately, I keep my hands extended, keeping him suspended above the deadly spikes, turning him so I can see his face.

Relief floods me to find him awake.

“Can you bring me to you?” he calls.

I can do better than that.

Carefully, I draw him toward me and then around, skimming him above the rocks and toward the safe platform on my right.

The moment he touches down on it, he jumps back to his feet, reaching for me across the air, his hands closing around me, tugging me toward him.

A moment of fear passes through me that the rope won’t let me go, but it unravels at his touch and I find myself in his arms, trying to breathe again.

While his arms remain around me and his pounding heart eases, he growls. “Whosever fate that is, it snatched you from the air and I can’t decide if it was trying to help you or harm you.”

Now that I’m not struggling to breathe, I can identify the sapphire-blue thread. It’s definitely the same one we saw earlier.

My heart sinks as I wonder… Is it mine?

Or…

Is it Bron’s?

Has his fate been leading us here because the past can never truly be over?

I don’t have time to voice my new fears before the thread moves again, trailing through the air toward the cave wall next to the platform.

It settles across a ledge at Bron’s eye-height, revealing an object resting there.

I gasp. “The crown.”

Glittering and silver, it’s wrapped in tree roots that somehow snake in and out of the rock wall, defying the laws of nature by penetrating the rock to pin the crown in place.

The blue thread curls along the roots, wrapping around them, twining between the crown’s spokes, tugging the tree roots tighter.

Bron opens his arms so that we can stand side by side only two paces away from the crown, either of us able to reach for it.

His growl is low but sharp. “Is it possible this thread of fate stole the crown?”

Before today, I wouldn’t have believed it, but I’m looking right at the magical thread hugging the crown so tightly.

His murmur now is soft. “When I lost my House ring, there was a flicker of blue light. I didn’t think anything of it. A trick of the light. Later, when the sand tripped you, I thought I saw something rise out of the ground.”

“Fate weaving itself,” I say, sadness rising up within me. “Bringing us together. Leading you here.”

It glows brighter as he leans toward it.

With my heart in my throat, I force myself to ask the question that scares me. “What will you do with it? The crown.”

Bron’s focus flashes to me, a faint crease in his forehead, a searing gaze before his expression smooths out. “You think I’ll take it.”

I try to breathe past the constriction in my throat. “I think your fate brought you here for you to make this choice.”

“You won’t try to stop me.” It could be a question, but it sounds more like a statement.

It’s my duty to protect this crown at all costs. To keep it from the wrong hands.

Before today, I would have snatched the crown up already. So determined to prove myself, to keep proving myself, over and over. Proving my duty. My loyalty. My perseverance.

I wouldn’t tolerate my own hesitation right now.

But now…

“Will you bring back your mate?” I ask him. “Your real mate.”

He exhales heavily, his eyes narrowed at the crown, his focus pinpointed on this glittering object that can grant any wish and mend any regret.

Slowly, he reaches for the crown.

At his touch, the sapphire thread retracts and so do the tree roots, leaving the crown free.

The way the thread retracted confirms my theory.

His fate was leading him here.

My heart is breaking, but it won’t be for long.

I’ll go back to my life without knowing Bron ever existed. Our paths will never have crossed, and I tell myself that’s for the best.

His fingers finally close around the crown and a heartbeat later, the cave walls disintegrate, leaving us standing in the flower field again.

But this time, it’s on fire.

Flames lick around us in all directions while a safe circle of space exists right where we stand.

For how much longer, I’m not sure.

I’m not certain if it’s the crown’s magic or the tree’s magic or some other magic that created the tunnels and the caves and even this flower field. But that hardly matters now.

Once the crown’s magic is triggered, everything will change.

Bron doesn’t seem to notice the fire.

His focus on the crown appears unshakeable.

“Make true what is false.” He gives a soft snort. “A white rose can be red.”

I guess he’s recalling the example I gave him when I explained the crown’s power, pointing out the white roses trailing along the walls back at the castle.

But… I’m not sure why he’d think of that right now…

He finally looks up at me, giving me a small smile, lopsided, before he exhales deeply, focuses back on the crown and, with a stern command, he says to it, “You are a red rose. Beautiful. Simple. And that is all.”

My eyes widen.

The crown transforms before my eyes, its intricate metal parts elongating in places, widening in others, changing color from silver to green and red until it resembles a red rose.

It is a red rose.

Just as he commanded.

“Adeline,” he says, “the world could be burning down around us and I wouldn’t fucking care. All I care about is you.” He extends the rose toward me, it’s delicate fragrance filling my chest. “Will you accept my gift?”

A sob bursts out of me.

“Adeline,” he says. My name on his lips is quiet, vulnerable. “Will you accept me as your mate?”

It’s all I can do to reach for the rose, wrap my fingers around its stem, and accept it, bringing the light back to his eyes. “Yes.”

Without hesitation, I step into his arms, closing my eyes and listening to his heartbeat.

He lowers his head to mine, engulfing me in his arms, and that’s where we stay, the heat beating in on us, a fire that I should be worried about, but it’s nothing compared to the fires I’ve walked through to get to this point.

Excited squawking brings me back to myself and I startle to remember the chicken whose life could be in danger right now.

Except that… the danger is gone.

Opening my eyes, I find myself standing in Bron’s arms outside the bar he owns, the hot sun beating down on us, although it’s now descending toward the horizon.

The rose is crushed between us, its fragrance rising up through the heat of the sand dunes.

Chickens cluck around us, pecking at the ground.

From out of nowhere, Bessy launches herself into view beside us, her ungainly flapping taking her into the center of the other chickens, her sudden approach sending them into disarray.

The chickens scatter, some of them spreading their wings and rising higher off the ground than I expected, sending a new flurry of feathers into the air.

I narrow my eyes at two black objects swirling in the middle of the fray.

Calling on my power, I snatch the objects out of the air and pull them toward us until they float in front of us.

Two black envelopes, each with a golden seal.

One has my name written on it. The other has Bron’s.

“What are they?” he asks, although his arms remain wrapped around me and I’m certain he isn’t going to end this embrace any time soon.

Nothing is tearing me apart from him right now, not even some mysterious envelopes.

Continuing to use my power over air, I flick my fingers, slipping open my envelope without touching it.

I pull out a piece of translucent parchment featuring a serpent logo at the top and glittering, black text in the middle that reads:

A night of mischief, magic, and mayhem awaits you.

You are cordially invited to the first All Hallows’ Eve Ball at Crossroads.

Arrive by the stroke of ten, dressed in your finest enchantments, or forfeit your place.

Masks are optional. Secrets are not.

See you soon, Adeline.

No sooner have I read the words than the Crone appears around the side of the building, patting down her black pants and smoothing out her hair.

She gives our surroundings a cursory glance, squinting into the glare. “Well, I trust you found the crown, then?”

Without waiting for an answer, she says to Bron, “I sent your patrons on their way. I imagine you’ll be happy to have the whole place to yourself for a few hours.”

A sly smile passes across her face and she winks at me before she strides past without stopping. “So happy you survived the tunnels. But I never doubted you would. Oh, good, you found your invitations. I do hope you enjoy your night…”

I narrow my eyes at her, replaying her breezy speech within my mind.

Survived the tunnels?

Wait a minute…

Nobody creates illusions like she does.

What’s more, the couples I saw in the tunnel were at a ball and if it’s the same one we’ve just been invited to, then it hasn’t happened yet. Which the Mother would know from her tapestry of fates…

I spin to the Crone, ready to demand answers from her, but she’s already disappearing into the passageway she created, vanishing from view in an instant.

Bessy clucks up at me and I find myself glancing down, which only brings my attention back to the invitation still floating in front of me.

The old me would have scrunched it up and ignored it. No time for parties when I have to spend every waking moment proving my loyalty to those I care about.

But now, I cast a hopeful glance at Bron, finding him grinning at me, the hint of his bear’s ferocity in his eyes.

“Want to get dressed up?” I ask.

“With you? Yes.” He drops a kiss to my lips. A kiss that slowly deepens, making my toes curl.

He rumbles against my mouth. “Or… what about…?”

Well, the bar is empty, after all.

I welcome the heat his hands evoke as he strokes my arms, threading his fingers through the wayward strands of my hair, and I shiver with anticipation.

“ Un dressed first,” I say emphatically. “And then we’ll get dressed up.”

Maybe. If we emerge in time. And if we don’t, that’s okay too.

I’m ready to live my life, accepting all the good, all the light, and all the love without any of the limitations or walls I once built around myself.

Inhaling the scent of the red rose he gave me, I pull his mouth to mine, crushing my lips to his and accepting every second of the love he wants to give me.

And all the love I’ll give him in return.

If you’d like to know more about Adeline before she met Bron, check out Corrupt Me , where she first appears in the Immortal Vices and Virtues world.

If you love dark fae heroines, wolf shifters, and spicy romantasy, check out the next novella in the Immortal Vices and Virtues final season, Consume Me .