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He staggered into view, his form bent, rot leaking from his mouth and nose. His dark hair was tangled. Sweat beaded his brow, and his breath was heavy.

“Did you take Castletree?” Sira asked, eyes never leaving Aurelia.

“N-no,” he rasped, half a man, swaying. “There’s still too much power in it.”

Sira shot her son a withering glare.

“I’ve covered it in my briars,” he continued. “I’ll suck the power out, drop by drop.”

Aurelia studied him. Even through this haze, she saw the truth.

He wasn’t draining magic from Castletree.

It was draining him.

He had rooted himself in the ancient place willingly, letting his thorns pierce deep, weaving his own magic with the structure. He took its weakness—her weakness—into his own body to hold Castletree together by force of will alone.

Castletree required an incredible amount of magic to maintain, all the power of the realms. Without her or the high rulers to sustain it…

It was going to devour him.

And he was letting it.

Why, Cas? Tears flooded Aurelia’s eyes, and she gripped the stone.

But she already knew. It was the same reason she was here and her daughter was in the human realm. Why she had an iron ring and he a bracelet of frost and thorns.

Love.

If it weren’t for him, Castletree would have fallen. The roses of the Above crushed, magic lost to the realms forever.

The Prince of Thorns, as they called him, cursed and broken, had saved the Vale.

Sira clapped her hands, a slow, satisfied sound. “The realms shall soon be ours, and we will rule them…as a family.”

Aurelia closed her eyes, but not in surrender.

A spark had lit in her chest. Small, flickering, but alive.

If he could change…

Then maybe there was still hope.

She pressed a hand to her heart. I must have faith. In my daughter. In the princes I cursed. If they can overcome the chains that bind them, then perhaps, when she’s grown, she will find her way here.

It was up to her.

The Enchanted Vale could never fight back unless the four princes were whole again. Without their blessings, the Vale had no chance.

But the only way to break their curse…was to find their mate.

And the hope of the Enchanted Vale now lay in one girl, born on the edge of both worlds. Human and fae. Wild and wondrous.

Rosalina O’Connell.

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Caspian