Page 131 of Across an Endless Sea

Nicnevin Titania stares across the gathered party with a dark frown across her beautiful face before returning her attention to Rose.

“Dear heart,” she murmurs. “Look inside yourself. What doyouwant to do?”

Rose mumbles something inaudible, but the ghost nods and helps her up.

“Release him.”

Rose won’t look at anyone as she delivers the order. Her posture is slumped, and defensiveness is written into every line of her tear-streaked face, like she’s bracing herself for their objections. Titania, however, glares at the rest of Rose’s court. Daring them to challenge an order from their Nicnevin.

“Give him a weapon,” Rose continues. “And let Lore take him anywhere he wants—so long as it’s outside of my city. If he’s going to die at Beltaine, then he should be allowed to make whatever he wants of the rest of his life.”

Even though she’s handing down my sentence, she still won’t fucking look at me. When she’s finished, she releases the ghost’s hand, letting her fade, before fleeing towards the stairwell, most of her Guard and the dryad hot on her heels.

Which leaves me with the knight commander, a disappointed redcap, and a stunned Prae.

My cousin doesn’t get the chance to recover before Florian turns to face her.

“Are you happy now?” he demands. “Now he has to die at Beltaine.”

“You wouldn’t have trusted him, even if he was her puppet,” she retorts. “Face it, Commander. No one in this castle would trust two Fomorians, even if Danu herself sprang up from the ground and ordered you to. There’s no point trying to pretend your plan was all an effort to spare him.”

There’s cold fury in her tone—the likes of which I’ve rarely heard from my cousin before. Florian’s own frustration is just as clear. The two of them are already chest to chest. Then, just as suddenly, he deflates.

“I was trying to spare Rose,” he grumbles quietly.

Prae tilts her chin towards the bars, ignoring the sentiment entirely.

“You have yourorders, Knight Commander. Give us weapons, and we’ll both be on our way.”

Florian takes a key from his belt and reluctantly unlocks my cell door. I twist my face into a smirk just to mess with him, but his answering growl feels like a hollow victory. Inside, I’m numb.

Rose… exiled me?

No conditions. No demands that I not go back to Elatha. Just… dismissal.

Perhaps she meant it as a kindness, but somehow it feels worse. Like an end.

Surely I wouldn’t have preferred a lifetime brainwashed next to her?

But then again, would it have been much different to how life was under my father? Elatha wouldn’t have hesitated to use such a power on me to bind me to his whims if he were in Rose’s place. If my fae weakness hadn’t been such a source of shame, I’m nearly certain he would’ve used my name at every opportunity. As it was, he never hesitated to use it to prevent me from plotting against him.

Florian thrusts my small pile of belongings against my chest with bruising force, then surprises us all when he draws his own blade.

Prae tenses, then stills when he flips it, offering her the handle.

For a heartbeat, their eyes meet, and something flashes there. I have no idea why he’s offering her his sword of all things—a masterwork of fae metalwork I’m pretty sure cost him an arm and a leg, if the golden handle and the pattern caught in the silver of the blade is anything to go by.

Prae takes it, slipping her hand around the grip and tugging.

But the fae doesn’t let the blade go.

“You don’t have to go,” he reminds her. “Rose offered you a place here.”

“My place is with my king,” she retorts, yanking the sword free.

She grabs my arm and pulls me past the high fae to the redcap. “Take me to grab my stuff, and then leave us anywhere beyond the outer wall,” she says. “We can make our own way from there.”

His red eyes glint as he examines both of us. Then, before I can blink, I’m standing on a boulder-strewn hilltop, looking out at the gleaming jewel of Elfhame in the distance. The redcap is gone, and the Call pulses painfully in my chest, protesting my sudden distance from Rose.

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