Page 68 of Healing Elixirs & Wicked Crows

"We found you covered in magic.Powerful magic.It felt like Rosemary," Briar said, studying me intently."I think she saved you, but the way it feels here, the residual emotions, I don't think she knows what she did.I think she believes she failed you."

"It took us three weeks to find you," Darius added.

Three weeks.Terror flared as pain seized my chest."We need to go now.What if she’s already dead?What if Mother took her back to make an example of her?"

"If you'd secured your bond, you'd know without a shadow of a doubt whether she lived or not," Darius said quietly.

“How?”I asked, already placing a palm against the fast thud of my beating heart.

“Focus inward and find the bond.It will feel like her.It will either be there warm and alive, or it will feel like an icy pool of slowly spreading acid.You’ve been under some powerful healing magic, so there is a chance you haven’t felt the pain yet if it has been numbed under the enchantment,” Darius explained.

I focused inside myself, feeling around for the bond.Soon I felt it, there humming within me connected over a long distance to my mate.To Rosemary.I caressed it and promised her, I'm coming, Rosie.

"She's alive," I breathed."Barely, but alive."

Briar spread the map on a fallen log, her finger tracing potential routes."The castle has been reinforced since we were children.Your mother's paranoia has grown."

"Security checkpoints here, here, and here," Darius pointed out locations."New guard rotations every four hours instead of eight.And she's added something else, echo sentinels at key passages."

My blood chilled."Echo sentinels?"

"Bound echoes.They can't move from their posts, but they'll alert every guard in the castle if they detect unfamiliar minds."

"That’s why we need the distraction, just like we planned," Briar said, her voice taking on the tactical tone I remembered from strategy lessons."Something big enough to draw attention away from the dungeons.

"This is war," Briar announced suddenly, standing straighter."A war that should have been fought over a century ago."

As if summoned by her words, figures emerged from the forest.Seelie scouts, their armor gleaming despite the shadows.Behind them, Queen Mab materialized in a shower of pixie dust.

"Your Highness," the lead scout said, bowing to Briar."The seelie army awaits your orders."

“The seelie army?”I asked, hardly able to keep up.“Rosemary made it seem like her people had been lost…”

“They were under the same sleeping curse as Briar, deep within the seelie lands.They made their way to the border of the Everland Forest when they awakened, and the pixies informed them of the state of things,” Darius explained quietly while Briar addressed the pixies.

Briar's transformation was remarkable.The uncertain young woman became a queen before my eyes."Send word to all our allies.Once the signal lifts, we follow the plan.Tonight we end this."

Queen Mab fluttered closer, her expression grim."There's something else you need to know.The queen isn't just holding the princess prisoner.She's been using her for experiments."

"What kind of experiments?"I demanded.

"Curse refinement.She's using torture to test ways to siphon power from the princess—building stronger curses, ones designed to spread beyond individual targets to entire bloodlines, entire kingdoms."

The weight of this revelation settled over us like a funeral shroud.This wasn't just about saving Rosemary anymore.Mother was planning something that could destroy every magical bloodline in existence.

"She's building an army of the cursed," Mab continued."Using the princess's power to fuel curses that could turn allies into enemies with a single touch.If she succeeds..."

"She won't," Briar said with steel in her voice."We won't let her."

As we prepared for the assault, each of us grappled with our deepest fears.

I pulled Darius aside."What if I'm too late?What if by the time we reach her, there's nothing left of who she was?"

"Then we love whatever remains," he said simply.

The thought was a knife to my heart, but I knew he was right to voice it.

Nearby, Briar checked her weapons with methodical precision, but I caught the tremor in her hands."Hey," I said softly."What's really frightening you?"