Bonded by Thorns

The next morning, the briars help Rosalina¹ escape: her cell window magically widens, and thorns form a ladder down the castle wall. She climbs down five stories and sprints across the stone bridge toward freedom. A towering knight in gunmetal armor, Prince Ezryn,³ blocks her path.

His face is hidden behind a dark glass visor; his voice reverberates with metallic calm. He seizes her throat, accuses her of being a spy for the Prince of Thorns,⁶ and lifts her off the ground until she kicks him in the gut to break free. A white-haired servant named Astrid⁸ arrives, explaining that Rosalina¹ is Keldarion's² prisoner.

Ezryn³ drags Rosalina¹ back inside by her scarf but deposits her in a beautiful room in the Spring Wing instead of the dungeon. He orders Astrid⁸ to care for her, muttering that they are not so far gone as to throw a little girl in a cell.

Astrid⁸ and Marigold,⁹ a bawdy Spring servant, befriend Rosalina¹ and explain the castle's four wings correspond to the seasonal fae realms. Rosalina¹ bathes in the Summer Wing's hot springs, where she meets Dayton,⁴ a flirtatious shirtless prince with ocean-blue eyes and a crooked smile.

That night, she sneaks back to the dungeon to free Farron,⁵ removing his loose iron collar. At sunset, Farron's⁵ body contorts and mutates into a monstrous wolf with branches protruding from its fur and ember-glowing breath. The creature attacks her, slicing her calf.

She flees through the castle as three more wolves appear: Keldarion² as a massive white wolf with ice spikes, Dayton⁴ as a golden wolf with coral and sea glass embedded in its fur, and Ezryn³ as a black wolf draped in bones and fungi. Kel's² wolf bites Farron's⁵ wolf, carries Rosalina¹ to her room, and seals her wound with ice.

The princes hold a formal meeting. Ezryn,³ having removed his gauntlets, heals Rosalina's¹ wounds with Spring magic, his bare hands surprisingly gentle against her skin. Keldarion² establishes strict rules: she may explore the castle during the day with an escort, must dine with them nightly, and is forbidden from the dungeon and the High Tower.

Farron⁵ explains the curse's origin: twenty-five years ago, an Enchantress arrived, transformed from a human woman into a being of starlight, and cursed everyone in Castletree for their unworthiness. Only finding their fated mates can break the spell.

Rosalina¹ proposes a formal bargain: she will help break the curse, and in exchange, Kel² will free her. Blue magical light binds their wrists with matching tattoos of snowflakes and roses. She and Farron⁵ begin researching in the castle's magnificent autumn library, growing close as they study mate bonds among the towering shelves.

After accidentally witnessing Dayton⁴ and Farron⁵ having sex, Rosalina¹ retreats to the garden, aroused and confused. She touches herself against the castle wall, and thorny vines wrap around her legs. Caspian,⁶ the Prince of Thorns,⁶ reveals himself lounging on the briars.

He is strikingly beautiful with night-dark eyes, waves of black hair, and a silver circlet set with a blue gem. He takes her pricked finger into his mouth, sucks the blood, and murmurs that he was thinking of her the entire time. Keldarion² storms out, punches Caspian⁶ into the thorns, and shields Rosalina¹ behind his body.

Caspian⁶ departs with a warning: the castle's magic is weakening, and they are running out of time. Kel,² visibly shaken, pins Rosalina¹ against the wall and begs her to talk to him, to distract him, because his beast is rising with the setting sun.

On the full moon, the one night the curse lifts, Dayton⁴ reluctantly takes Rosalina¹ to the Summer Realm. They drink fae wine at a seaside bar, where she confesses about Lucas's⁷ proposal and her unsatisfying sex life. When she decides to find a casual partner for the night, a fae male kisses her without consent.

Dayton⁴ slams the man onto a table and severs both his hands with his sword. They flee through a portable mirror back to Castletree. In the entrance hall, Dayton⁴ kisses Rosalina¹ with desperate intensity, presses her against the stone wall among the thorns, and pleasures her with his mouth until she climaxes.

Farron⁵ and Ezryn³ walk in on them. Ezryn³ punches Dayton⁴ in the face. Keldarion² arrives, freezes Dayton⁴ in ice up to his waist, and carries Rosalina¹ to his own chambers in the Winter Wing.

In Kel's² freezing bedchamber, Rosalina¹ drinks fyrana, a fae liquor far more potent than she realizes. Drunk and emboldened, she discovers his magical ice sword beneath the bed and swings it at the briars infesting his walls.

The thorn disintegrates but immediately regrows, and part of the ceiling crashes down. Kel² throws himself over her, shielding her with his body. Later, as the alcohol sickens her, he holds her hair while she vomits into a bucket, wipes her mouth, and stays awake all night to monitor her breathing.

She extracts a slurred promise: he will attend the Winter Solstice ball she is planning to help the princes find their mates. She falls asleep in his bed. In the morning, she wakes to find his clothes folded beside her and a snowdrift on the floor where he slept beside the bed.

Rosalina¹ organizes a grand Winter Solstice ball in the Winter Realm, hoping the princes will encounter their fated mates. She arrives wearing Kel's² mother's diamond necklace, a gift he sent to her. The four princes sit on thrones and dance with various fae, but no mate bonds stir.

Kel² refuses every partner until he takes Rosalina's¹ hand and sweeps her onto the floor. He tells her she was never his prisoner, that she woke them all from their twenty-five year stupor, and that he would rather die than have the curse broken.

Rosalina,¹ horrified that he is giving up on finding his mate, calls him selfish and flees into the snowy garden, weeping. She does not understand that his refusal masks a secret: he believes acknowledging any bond with her will trigger a far worse consequence.

In the garden, the Winter vizier Perth Quellos¹⁰ corners Rosalina,¹ calling her a whore and threatening to deport her. Ezryn³ intervenes, throws Quellos¹⁰ to the ground, and threatens to kill him if he speaks to her again. Ezryn³ then dances with Rosalina,¹ revealing his hidden eyes are brown.

Their moment shatters when Caspian⁶ strides into the ballroom. He systematically eviscerates each prince: Ezryn³ is a killer who failed his mother, Dayton⁴ abandoned his brothers to die in battle, Farron⁵ hides behind books rather than rule, and Kel² is a traitor who allied with the Below.

Rosalina¹ confronts Caspian,⁶ dances with him, and he whispers that the High Tower holds the truth the princes are hiding. When the dance ends, Kel² tackles Caspian.⁶ The Winter Realm nobles, recalling Kel's² past betrayal, riot. They throw food, overturn thrones, and scream for the traitor prince to be deposed.

Farron⁵ sends Rosalina¹ back to Castletree through his locket mirror. Alone, she begs the briars to show her the way to the forbidden High Tower. A staircase opens inside the cherry blossom tree in her room. In the tower, she finds four enchanted roses (pink, turquoise, orange, and sapphire blue), each corresponding to one prince, all drooping and losing petals.

The stained-glass windows project a memory: the Enchantress, a human woman transformed into starlight, judged each prince for his failings and cursed them until they find their mates. She warned that when the roses wilt to ash, the beast form becomes permanent.

Rosalina¹ begs the briars to help her channel life into the flowers. Vines wrap her arms, and violet light pulses from her hands into the roses, making them straighten and bloom slightly. Keldarion² bursts in, sees her standing among the revived flowers, and his face contorts with rage.

Kel² flies into a rampage, ripping briars from the High Tower walls. The castle groans and crumbles. Dayton,⁴ Farron,⁵ and Ezryn³ channel their magic to hold Castletree together while Kel² screams at Rosalina¹ to leave. She flees into the snow-covered Briar, chased by hundreds of goblins.

Caspian's⁶ voice enters her mind, urging her to stay within the briars where he can protect her, but she distrusts him and runs to a frozen river. The goblins surround her on the ice, slicing her arm and thigh with thorn blades, chanting about presenting her head to Mother.

Keldarion's² white wolf form tears through the horde, fighting them off. Bleeding and overwhelmed, he tells Rosalina¹ to run for the forest. She refuses, and he smashes the ice with his paws, plunging himself and dozens of goblins into the freezing rapids below.

Rosalina¹ refuses to abandon Kel.² She plucks a black rose blooming on the briars and commands the thorny vines to lift his unconscious wolf body from the frozen river. They reach one of Ezryn's³ supply caves, where she builds a fire and tends his wounds with labeled healing balms.

As she sleeps against his wolf form, an inexplicable shift occurs: Kel² transforms back into a man despite it not being the full moon. She wakes naked in his arms, their bare skin pressed together, his gaze stripped of its usual ice. She asks if she is his mate.

He kisses her deeply, with twenty-five years of longing. Then he walks her to the rosebush portal, magically dissolves the bargain tattoo from her wrist, and hurls her through the thorns. She lands in Orca Cove as the rosebush freezes and disintegrates behind her. The way home is gone.