Page 58 of Forged By Malice (Beasts of the Briar #3)

57

Rosalina

T he monster lifts its head, shaking off the blow Kairyn dealt. But if Farron’s magic can’t stop this thing, what can?

Kel releases his hold on Caspian and me. His sword moves at a rapid pace as he blocks a slash from the rat’s tail. Blood seeps through my bind around Caspian’s shoulder, but otherwise he seems unharmed.

“Can you do it to this creature?” I ask.

He blinks at me.

“That magic with the green flames?”

A strange expression flashes across his face as he says lowly, “Aren’t you terrified?”

My hand closes over my thorn bow. “Right now, I’m more terrified of that thing.”

Caspian gives a reluctant cough as black coats his lips. His eyes look hollow. Whatever source of magic he called on, it’s now depleted.

Kel dodges another lunge from the rat and casts a look at Caspian. “You need to go back to the Below. And take her with you.” Kel inclines his head toward the Nightingale, who huddles at the edge of the lake, clutching her leg.

Caspian shakes his head. “You don’t understand. You won’t be able to kill this thing, not as your magic is now. With Castletree so weak.”

“And whose fault is that, thorn boy?” Dayton sneers, shifting a tunnel of water from the lake to strike the monster.

“You need to retreat,” Caspian says slowly, and the intensity of the words fills me with an unsettling fear.

Ezryn holds one of Dayton’s swords and slices the end of the tail. He whirls to us. “It’s too close to Florendel. I can’t risk it making its way there.”

“I won’t leave you,” I yell back at him, standing. “And I won’t leave the Spring Realm in danger.”

“We stand with you, High Prince Ezryn,” Farron says lowly, his eyes flashing as a column of fire singes one of the monster’s front legs. But he can’t burn it fast enough before the creature regenerates.

“I am always with you, Ez,” Kel barks, then gestures at the bow in my hands. “Ready to show me what you learned with that thing, Rose?”

“Right.” I draw my bow and pluck a crafted arrow from my wrist, nocking it. Slowly, I inhale, letting the breath flow through me. Then I shoot. The arrow sails true and embeds into the creature’s left eye. It rears, shaking its paws and hissing.

“Stand together, fall together,” Caspian says, coughing as more black goo trails out of his nose.

But he hasn’t left either.

We surround the rat, keeping it at bay with our magic and weapons. Though this thing seems tireless, with all of us together, I know we can defeat it.

There’s a shriek, and I turn. Kairyn has made his way to the edge of the lake, and he has the Nightingale held up by her throat, her legs kicking wildly.

“You almost killed the High Prince of Spring,” he snarls.

She kicks violently, clawing at him like a wildcat.

“Don’t touch my sister,” Caspian growls, and weak as his magic is, a torrent of thorns sprouts from the ground. They strike Kairyn in the chest, spraying blood and hurtling him back against the bark of the willow tree. The rest of the thorns wrap around the Nightingale and drag her down in a familiar cast of shadows and briars. “Fly away while you can, Birdy.”

“Kairyn!” Ezryn roars and rushes toward them. For a single moment, he pauses by the sword of his mother embedded in the tree. Will he take it? But he tightens his grip on Dayton’s blade and charges.

Charges toward Caspian.

Of all the …! My frustration grows. I throw my bow over my chest and let vines grow from my bracelets and burrow into the ground, feeling each one as an extension of myself.

“Enough!” I yell. The thorns sprout up, creating a barrier between Caspian and Ezryn. “We have enough problems with the giant rat!”

Something sharp grabs me around the waist, and I’m flung into the air. The rat’s tail. I yowl in pain as the serrated edges rip my dress and pierce my skin. Blood blossoms from the wounds. The ground swirls until I’m hovering right above the creature’s gaping maw.

“Rosalina!” five voices yell.

An explosion of magic hurtles toward me. Salt-crested wind knocks the creature back, followed by a whirl of fire, a slash to its gut—and then it’s like we’ve been transported to the Winter Realm. A torrent of hail and ice spreads over the creature’s tail. It shrieks and I fall.

Then a thorn wraps around me, holding me up. Gritting his teeth, Caspian leads the vine down toward him, and instinctively I wrap my arms around his waist, grateful to be on solid ground again.

I feel something beneath the folds of his tunic, the shape of a familiar notebook. “You keep this with you?”

He glances across the battlefield, gaze landing on Farron. “I never know when I need to add something to the ‘Things That Make Me Happy’ page. I was going to add man-eating rat weed, but—”

“Planty Ratty!” Dayton yells, slicing deeply into the creature’s back.

“Well, now I’m reconsidering my stance on Planty Rattys.” He smiles, and even crusted in black goo, it’s a beautiful sight.

His gaze drops to my mouth, then to my wrist, and I realize I still haven’t let him go.

“Now is definitely not the time or place,” I mean to sneer, but it comes out a breathy sigh.

He raises a dark brow. “But battlefield kisses are your speciality. Must be the rot on my lips. Fear it may ruin your complexion?”

The ground shakes, and we fall apart. I half land in the lake. The creature has Caspian now, wrapped in its tail. The second tail that grew after Farron’s flaming attack now has the Autumn Prince tight in its grasp.

Dayton’s chest is smeared with blood. Ez and Kel fight side by side, holding the monster back, trying to rescue Farron and Caspian. And Kairyn has not risen since Caspian struck him.

My heart pounds in my chest, and I clutch my fingers into the soft earth. Where is my power? The power of the golden roses? It saved us against Lucas, it saved Dayton in Castletree, and it can save us now.

It would be great if I knew how to summon it. Every time, it’s felt like exploding from within. The cries of the princes and horrible sounds of the monster fade away as I dig deeper and deeper and deeper. I grit my teeth, ignoring the call to the thorns on my wrist. There is another power within me. One that allows me to make briars of my own. To make the golden roses. If I keep reaching…

Darkness engulfs the grove, then the entire world. A darkness so immense it blocks out the stars and the light of the moon. It spirals inward, condensing into the shape of a woman.

Long, black hair drips down her back like spilled ink, and she wears a dress of night, tipped with spiked metal shoulder plates. Her beauty is like a moonlit graveyard, unsettling in its etherealness. There’s no color on her pale cheeks, though jewels crest all the way up her long, pointed ears. Upon her head lies a dark crown with seven spikes.

My blood turns to ice and I go completely still, afraid to even breathe. She doesn’t look my way. Instead, she walks toward the monster. Ez, Kel, and Day have all stilled their attacks, stepping backward. I see, in the careful movements, they’re trying to make their way toward me.

“Sira,” Dayton mouths.

Sira.

So, this is the Queen of the Below.

She tilts her head, regarding the situation with a look of benevolence. And when her gaze passes over me, I feel very much how a little mouse must feel when the shadow of a great owl flies above.

“Honestly, Caspian,” she says, voice dripping with disappointment, “how embarrassing this must be for you, my darling baby boy.”

Fear flashes on his face, more vibrant than when he’d stared at the monster. It’s gone in a moment, replaced with a stony expression hidden by black-rimmed lips and eyes.

The rat monster lunges for her, but she sticks her arm into its mouth, as casually as one might slip a hand beneath an ocean wave.

The creature stills instantly, then convulses. Farron and Caspian wave back and forth in its tail.

Keldarion grabs me tight around the waist, his necklace in his hand. “The moment we get Farron, we retreat to Castletree.”

Dayton has moved to the creature’s other side, close to Farron, and I see Ezryn make his way toward his brother.

Sira’s attention is only on the monster, but I have no doubt she knows exactly where each of us is. The plants forming the creature’s legs ripple before disintegrating into black rot. Darkness sweeps the rest of its body in an instant, and the entire frame of the monster dissolves into a shadowy puddle.

Caspian and Farron fall to the ground. Sira shakes her arm, covered to the forearm in rot, and waves her other hand. A trail of shadows wraps around her arm before dissipating, leaving her skin clear.

She grimaces at Caspian, who sits up, gasping for air. “Take us to the Tower of Nether Reach.” Her gaze lands on me. “The High Princes and their lady, too.”

Dayton lunges for Farron. Kel tilts the mirror of his necklace, catching the moonlight, an iridescent glimmer before he shoves me forward.

But he’s not faster than the thorns. They wrap around my legs, covering my body, and drag us under. With the last of my freedom, I urge one of my briars to wrap around Kel’s sword and hurl it into the lake.

Then we are swept into darkness.

Down to the Below.