Page 46 of The Winter Prince

Enlo lunged, leaving his side wide open; Revi scampered back against every martial instinct to go in for the kill. He had no desire to hurt Enlo.

“This has nothing to do with Kienna specifically. She’s just a human. She doesn’t matter compared to the Court as a whole. None of us do.”

Enlo’s words made Revi want to snarl, but still he retreated. He couldn’t fight his cousin, the closest thing he had had to a brother, his loyal—no, not loyal, apparently, but his constant companion through every year of Revi’s life. The fact that Enlo did not hold the same qualms tore something foundational in Revi’s body. Something broke in him. Something that could probably never be fixed.

“You wanted me to fall in love with her, and now you’re angry that I did?” Revi asked.

“I wantedherto fall in love withyou,” Enlo said. His axe buried into a nearby doorframe. He ripped it out with a grunt. The brief hindrance gave Revi time to put more distance between them, but then Enlo resumed his purposeful stride toward Revi, coming in for another swing once he closed the gap.

Revi anticipated the movement and dodged to the side, swiping at the axe shaft and sending it spinning from Enlo’s grip. He couldn’t hurt Enlo, but it would be much easier to talk sense into his cousin without a sharp edge between them.

“She doesn’t deserve to die with us, Enlo.”

“You are the only one who has given up and decided that we are dying at all.” Fire lit Enlo’s gaze as he leaned in. “You may have surrendered, but I never will.”

Revi’s sides heaved as he struggled for breath. Adrenaline still coursed through him, but it wouldn’t last forever, and beneath it, he could still feel his weakness from his previous injuries.

“When did you lose faith in me?” Revi asked, weariness seeping into his very soul. It was a deep ache, far more than physical. He wanted to groan under the weight of it. “You’ve always stood beside me. Always supported me.”

Enlo scoffed and threw out a hand. “When I realized you would never do what our Court needed to break this curse. But I will, even if it means I have to take your place as Winter Prince. You may have doomed us, butIcan save us. I can do what you refuse to.”

Revi shook his head. “I’ve tried, Enlo. I tried to find another way to break the curse. I even tried to get closer to Kienna. But it was doomed from the beginning.”

“That—that belief is why I must do this.” Enlo squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head away as if to hide his pain from Revi, but it stabbed into Revi anyway. Every word cut him as deeply as it probably cut Enlo to speak them. “You gave up long ago.” Enlo swept a hand out at the castle around them. “No one else saw you as the beast you see yourself as. You’ve always just been our Winter Prince. But you saw yourself as a beast, and you acted as such instead of doing what we needed. You took that on as your identity, wrapping it around yourself and tying your pride to the concept. Andthatis what has doomed us.”

Revi studied his cousin—the way his chest heaved, the way his eyes blazed with the passion of his words, with the truth he felt in them, and Revi wanted to weep.

“You’re right,” he whispered. “I am a fighter, a warrior, a protector. With the curse, it became so easy to blend that identity with the forms I was trapped in. But you have always been there to remind me of the importance of being more than just a beast. Of caring for our Court in other important ways. You have always been better with people than I.”

Enlo watched Revi warily, as if waiting for some trick.

Revi closed his eyes briefly and exhaled. He looked at Enlo. “And in recent times, even with this betrayal, though it shreds my heart, you have proven that your love for the Court is greater than mine.” He stepped forward. Enlo leaned back as if to retreat. “If you truly believe you can fix it, then do.”

He hesitated only a moment before he closed the gap between them and pressed his nose to Enlo’s hand. “I give our Court to you, Enloras. I trust you. I forgive you.Em Reviam krestolla presnyv y pocheska vannost tu Enloras.”

This would probably be the end of him, but it felt right. Perhaps Enlo was right; perhaps he could do what Revi could not.

Enlo’s eyes widened as a shock of cold zinged between him and Revi, and then, with a great shudder, a wave of heat rolled through the air, followed immediately by a blast of cold, as if Winter had come all at once.

Revi locked his knees to keep from collapsing. Unbearable agony arced through him, sharp and hot. The most he’d ever felt, at least since—

Thought shut down as it overtook his mind, tearing away every rational part of him for a moment that felt like an eternity.

And then it was over as quickly as it had come, and Revi collapsed to the floor, palms hitting the cold stone of the entryway. He stared at them, his mind too stunned to make sense of what he was seeing.

“Revi?” Enlo’s voice brought him back to his senses; the shock in it mirrored his own.

Maybe he wasn’t imagining things. He raised one hand, and his throat tightened. Tears sprang to his eyes. He hadhands. He turned it over and curled his fingers, savoring how the movement felt.

“You’re... you’re back to normal,” Enlo whispered. “You broke the curse?”

Revi gave a helpless shrug. Wherever she was, had Kienna vowed to marry him? The idea was preposterous, and he quickly discarded it. It made no sense. Behind them, a cold wind blew through the open door.

Revi and Enlo locked gazes before Revi lurched to his feet and dashed for the entrance. Enlo was faster, darting ahead of Revi, but he drew to a sharp stop on the threshold. A grin burned its way across Revi’s face as he stopped at Enlo’s shoulder. Thick, fat snowflakes drifted down from the sky, swirling in little eddies in the air on the cold winter wind.

“The curse is broken,” Enlo whispered. “You broke the curse.” His expression was unreadable. “How?”

“If I had known there was a way I could break the curse without a beautiful woman before now, you would already know.” Emotion made it difficult to speak without Revi’s voice cracking on the words.

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