Page 60 of Forged By Malice (Beasts of the Briar #3)

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Keldarion

C aspian looks at me, and his expression is so raw, it’s like I’m back at Cryptgarden all those years ago when we first said the words of our bargain.

But those were words meant for whispered breath, not to be spoken aloud.

“A deep regret I shall suffer always,” I growl, the frosted thorn bracelet on my wrist seeming to dig into my skin.

A twisted smile spreads up Sira’s mouth. I’d always known that darkness ran in her veins, but for a while I’d hoped it had not passed to Caspian. But seeing them together, it’s a wonder I ever believed that. The same inky black hair, the depth of their violet eyes, the grace of movement.

“You should have broken the curse when you had the chance, Kel,” Caspian purrs. “Now you all belong to me, instead of just her.”

Rosalina whirls, cheeks flushed and stained. “What do you mean?”

“She doesn’t know?” Sira chirps happily, looking as pleased at this news as she did when she was about to set her shadows on Ezryn.

Of course, Rosalina doesn’t know. I have never had the courage to speak of it to anyone, not even my brothers. The shame and stupidity were too great to bear aloud.

And the answer is so clear and so complex. To free myself without Caspian’s agreement to rescind the bargain, only his death would do. Even with the High Princes’ combined power, that would be a feat. How do you kill someone with his magic? How can you bring yourself to kill someone who’s lying on your bed, body betrayed by the air of the very world he wishes to conquer?

My fists close at my side, bound by shadow. A magic he’s always loathed to use.

“What was it again, hmm?” Caspian drums his fingers on his arm. “It was so very long ago now.”

“Rescind the bargain,” I growl.

“Oh, I remember now,” he purrs. His voice takes on a dark purpose. “Let me take no other but you. If one day, my vow shall prove false and I lie with another, let them serve you in repentance until you tire of them as I did your heart. And if ever there is no love between us, let this bargain melt away like snow under rain.”

There it is, the words hovering between us. I watch as they register with my brothers.

Ezryn roars and falls to his knees, shadow shackles still tight. “Kel, how could you?”

“All the fae that showed up at the castle,” Farron says slowly. “Caspian didn’t want to send them. They were forced to come after he lay with them. It wasn’t that our magic wasn’t strong enough to send them away. It needed to be Kel.”

“It was you,” Rosalina breathes, but it’s Caspian she’s staring at. “You were Kel’s great love.”

“Call it what you want, Flower.” Caspian smirks. “It’ll bring us together before long.”

There’s no anger on Rosalina’s face, only a shocked understanding and sadness. “Let them serve you in repentance …” She echoes the bargain.

The way Caspian said it … So unlike how he’d said it all those years ago. The memory floods back to me in a rush. His hair longer, falling below his shoulders and into his eyes, which at the time were streaked with tears. When no words I said would convince him how I felt, would convince him he was enough.

“Then prove it, Kel. Prove it to me,” he had said.

So, I’d spoken different words instead. “Then let us make a bargain.”

And for the first time, his eyes cleared, and he sniffed, “You would do that with me?”

The magic of fae bargains is powerful and ancient. The only thing more so is the mate bond. I was not his mate, but this I could give him.

Back then, I had no notion of Rosalina. No notion that I would ever have a mate, or that I would be cursed into needing to find one. No notion that my realm and soul would rely on her love.

Every part of me had been convinced the broken and beautiful prince loved me. And that I loved him.

“Let me take no other but you,” I had told him. “If one day, my vow shall prove false and I lie with another, let them serve you in repentance until you tire of them as I did your heart. And if ever there is no love between us, let this bargain melt away like snow under rain.”

“No one but me,” Caspian had echoed, as if he couldn’t quite believe it. As if my choice to leave everything behind and join him in the damned Below wasn’t proof in itself.

I spun him then, pushing him down to the sheets, so we were chest to chest. “Do we have a bargain, Cas?”

“Let me take no other but you,” he gasped and kissed me wildly. Kissed me as he repeated the bargain. As our clothes fell away and we made love. It was not until later that I even noticed the bracelet on my wrist, the swirling twist of frosted thorns.

Scattered moments are still etched in my memory, clearer than any painting. The dusky lavender light hitting the sapphire silver circlet that rested on his dark hair. The pearl of moisture over his full lips. His elegant fingers stroking the newly formed frosted thorn bracelet over my wrist with a quiet curiosity.

“It’s beautiful,” he’d whispered.

“As long as it encircles your wrist, you’ll know I love you.”

“Or … I love you.”

High-pitched laughter draws my memories away, and I feel raw and open as Sira’s gaze rakes over me. “Even he doesn’t know the truth of it, does he, my darling?”

Caspian raises a dark brow and smirks. “No, Mother. I never bothered to tell him.”

Dayton growls low, and Farron watches me with a mixture of pity and horror. And Ezryn has removed his gloves and is clawing at the dead briars on the ground.

“Tell me what?” I ask.

“What I showed him the night before he made that little bargain with you.” Sira claps her hands together. “Or what the Fates showed him.”

The Fates. I had ventured to them only once. Ancient creatures that dwelled in the deepest depths of the Below. Perhaps they came from the Above like our ancestors, or more likely they’ve been here since the dawn of time.

Some described them as beautiful, others wizened and old. All I saw were shadows of time and space.

What had Cas gone to them for?

Caspian turns to Rosalina. “The Fates showed me you.”

Rosalina doesn’t say a word, but her eyes move between us. I know that look. She’s thinking, always thinking. But there’s nothing we can do. No way out of this. Perhaps I can find a means to petition for her safety. Why would Caspian even help me save her if this was his plan all along?

“What do you mean, you saw Rosalina? She wasn’t even born.”

Caspian shrugs. “The Fates show threads of the future. I saw your life with her. Your mate.”

“So, you crafted a bargain to trap his mate,” Farron spits out, face scrunched in agony. “You are despicable, Caspian.”

I feel hollow, wrung inside out, my whole body numb. I know how it ended with him. His betrayal. But before that … The bargain…

Hadn’t that been real?

I glance down at the frosted thorn bracelet, and I almost believe it will wither away.

“Oh, poor Keldarion.” Sira worries her bottom lip. “He truly believed the lie.”

“Idiots, all of them.” Caspian smiles. “I told you, Mother.”

“I loved you,” I growl, lunging toward him. The shadows grow taut around my wrists.

“Sure.” Caspian rolls his eyes in that infuriating way of his. “Believing that was your first mistake.”

“There are so many mistakes regarding you.”

Caspian prowls over, closing the distance between us. “And with this so-called love, you preached to your people how I seduced you, how I corrupted you and used all that dark magic of the Below to lure you into its depths. All so you could keep your precious throne.”

“You betrayed me,” I growl.

His eyes narrow to catlike slivers. “Who was the first one to bring an army into the other’s realm?”

My gaze involuntarily slides to Ezryn, still clawing at the ground, but thankfully Caspian is too distracted to notice. “It doesn’t matter. We both burned together, didn’t we?”

“Speak for yourself, Kel. I’m not the one who hasn’t had sex in twenty-five years. Was I really that hard to get over?”

I lunge, the shadows giving slightly, so I tower above him. “I would never subject anyone to the likes of you . Especially Rosalina.”

“Oh, she looks like mine right now. All wrapped up in shadows.”

Rosalina shrinks back, a look I haven’t seen on her since she first came to the castle. “P-please, don’t hurt us.”

But in my mind, another voice filters through, strong and confident. Keep him distracted, Kel.

I don’t risk a second look at her.

“It’s you who can’t let go, Cas.” I spit out the nickname. “Haunting my castle. Obsessing over my mate.”

“Of course, I would want to watch my greatest enemy fall. I’ve always loved a spectacle.”

The air is cold around us, and the shadows tighten.

“You say I am powerless to let you go, Keldarion.” Caspian’s voice becomes a whisper. “Then answer me this. Why haven’t you killed me? Why haven’t you even tried? You never loved me, but you still can’t let me go.”

Power erupts from Ezryn, and all the decayed briars at our feet burst back to life as full, living vines.

Despite the distance to Castletree, he found a path to his magic. A path to save us.

“Rosalina!” Ezryn bellows.

My mate doesn’t look scared or frightened. She just looks mad. Rosalina shoots out her hand and screams. The briars at my feet rustle and move under her command and wrap up around me.

And I’ve never been so happy to be tangled in thorns.