Page 133 of Crowned By Roses

I see he’s drawing these three elite warriors toward the briar bridge. Three blasts of water shoot from Dayton’s hands, crashing into the shadows. They sail into the chasm below. But he’s attracted attention from goblins across the bridge. One of them gives a rallying cry, then the bridge is swarming with them. Dayton’s trident flashes.

Where’s Caspian? I turn in a circle⁠—

He appears amid purple briars beside my mother. Placing a hand on her shoulder, he says, “What do you need, Anya?”

She looks to me. “You’ve got to get up there?”

I nod.

“Then we’ll get you up there.” Her face sets in determination. “Wrenley, Caspian, we’ll have to trap her arms.”

Wrenley backs up toward us, crossbow at the ready for any attackers. “We could briar them. Hold them down.”

“More than that,” Caspian says. “We’ll need to weave our briars within the branches and stones that make them. Can you do it?” His violet gaze burrows into Wrenley’s.

“I can try,” she says.

“That’ll leave you free to fly,” Mom says, looking at me.

“What about you?” I ask.

“I have the most important job of all.” Mom gathers her hair and ties it into a ponytail. “Distracting Sira.”

“Alright, O’Connells, let’s cause some havoc,” Caspian says, then without another word, he sprints to the right.

“Don’t die. Either of you,” Wrenley grumbles, then tears to the left.

I give my mom a smirk. “I think she’s starting to like us.”

Mom smiles, and it is easy to see why the Enchanted Vale was always filled with so much light. Even her smile is pure magic. “Go, Rosalina. Don’t look back.”

With a flutter of my wings, I burst into the sky. Wind tears past me as I ascend. The bow upon my back seems to pulse with its own heartbeat. Up, up, up, I pass the twisted, living parts of Castletree, Frankensteined into this monstrosity. There: the mossy stone that lined the hallways in the Spring wing, making up the creature’s left leg. And there, like arteries and veins, are pieces of coral running up its right. As I pass its torso, I notice the ice-white glass that decorated Winter, forming a spine. And red and orange leaves are the blood pumping all the way…

To the heart. Where Sira awaits.

Gritting my teeth, I will my wings to fly faster, faster⁠—

The monstrosity goes very still. Sira has spotted my mother.

“Who are you?” Sira bellows.

“You know who I am.” Though my mother’s human voice comes from far below, it is loud and strong and queenly. “You don’t have to do this, Sira. Let Castletree go.”

Against my better judgment, I look down. On one side, Caspian’s on all fours, connecting with the earth. His purple briars grow upward, weaving into the arm, pinning it down. To the left, Wrenley stands with her feet digging into the ground, hands up. Luminescent briars answer her call, lacing their way up the monstrosity’s other side. Her briars are slower and thinner, but they creep steadily around the tree’s left arm.

“Why should I release your precious castle? You have so many beautiful things, Aurelia,” Sira rumbles. “And you never liked to share.”

“Perhaps it was because you always loved to destroy my beautiful things,” Mom says. Standing between the monstrosity’s legs, one would never know she was powerless. Everything, from her stance to the shine of her gaze, radiates with regality. “We were friends once, Sira. I’m sorry your life was so filled with sadness. I’m sorry you were hurt. I’m sorry you were never able to fly. But⁠—”

“And you never let me forget it, did you, friend?” Pain cuts through Sira’s words. “You gave the horses wings and the cats wings and the godsdamned flowers wings, but you liked me helpless, didn’t you?”

“Don’t twist this. You wouldn’t accept my help⁠—”

“Your pity! Looking down on me as always. Now who’s looking down? I rule the Vale! I control your pathetic subjects! And I will have your daughter’s blood!”

A roar unlike any fae or beast riots through the monstrosity. There’s a great ripping sound, then Sira’s left arm swings upward, Wrenley’s briars tearing free. The right arm pulls and pulls, one by one, Caspian’s purple briars coming loose. He cries out, flinging more upward to barely keep hold of the arm.

I gasp and try to preserve my height, but the left arm is too big, too quick. It smashes into me, and I go spinning, flipping through the air. My stomach loops over and over itself as the sky becomes the earth and the earth becomes the sky.