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“What was that!” Riordan goggled at me, the crystal he’d been about to use hovering in the air. “How did you do that!”
“You can do it too.” I shoved three vials in his hands. “Now, move!”
I sprinted for the drawbridge, then veered sharply left—jumping off the edge to the frozen lake below.
“Artisa!”
Magic washed over me—warm like the rush of dipping your toe in a hot, steaming bath. I lifted into the air, flying over the angry mob. “That’s it, Riordan! Higher!”
Yes, finally! Once Riordan sets me down in the outer gardens, I’ll find Alisdair and set everything right. I know this castle better than anyone. All of its secrets and hidden corners. All I have to do is—
“Die, stunted scum!”
A hard force slammed into me, vaulting me out of the sky.
“Calli, no!”
I plummeted to the ground. My head collided with hard, unforgiving, frozen earth.
Darkness claimed me.
“What were their names?”
Alisdair leaned against the glass, tearing apart a pilfered apple, and watching me tend to its brothers and sisters.
“Caitriona, Ashling, and Nora.”A soft smile withered away the sharp edges of his features. A smile I only saw when he spoke of his children.“All so different, but in many ways, the same.”
I packed in the muddy dirt, loving the feel of living earth squishing through my fingertips.“What were your days like? Were they like this? Did you watch your girls do all the work with the horses while you kicked back munching on apples?”
Alisdair chuckled.“I’ll have you know I did all the work. My faywens told grand tales every morning of all the help they’dbe to me, and then Nora would spend all her time petting, grooming, and riding her favorite horse. Ashling, my dreamer, chased butterflies through the field, and Caitriona... well, she would sing.”He shook his head, laughing softly.“Like you, she had a beautiful voice.”
I blushed like the silly mare I was.
“Her crooning could calm the wildest stallions. Looking back, those are the days I miss the most. Not the carefree days of my youth, or causing trouble with Bradach, or galloping across the plains with the herds.
“I miss the common days where nothing really happened, because it didn’t have to. I didn’t need any more love or adventure than being with Raelina and my girls.”
I ducked my head, not wanting him to see me cry.
“That’ll be what I miss most about you.”
“What?”I frowned, raising my chin.“What do you mean?”
“When immortality takes me away from you like it has everyone I’ve loved, I won’t miss the days you bit me, rolled in manure, or announced to the court I have a hairy growth on my cock that’s bigger than my cock itself.”
I snorted, bursting into giggles.
“I’ll miss this,”he said, smiling that smile.“Listening to you sing while you play in the dirt.”
I both laughed and rolled my eyes.“You won’t miss me, my love. We didn’t start together, but we’ll end together. That I promise you.”
“...promise...” I rasped. “Alisdair...”
I peeled my eyes open, vision spinning.
Pain assaulted me—roaring through my head and ripping out a groan. Every part of me from my head to the bottom of my feet ached. I lost my boots in the fall. Whipping winds beat and froze my bare feet. How long was I gone from this world? Strolling in a land of daydreams while the world fell apart around me?
Somehow I pushed up to my knees, clutching my head. In the distance, I heard clanging swords and the rage of battle.
