The Summer King and His Winter Bride-Chapter 31: Message

The moment Caroline returned to her chambers, her composure fell like a mask from her face. She closed her door with trembling fingers, leaned against the cool wood and allowed the weight of what she had learned from Cyrus crash down on her.

She could not believe Felix Gray had turned out to be a traitor, he had lied to her from the beginning and twisted the truth so as to appear to be her ally instead of the instigator of the rebellion that he truly was.

She could not cry, not properly. For Queens did not cry when kingdoms hung in the balance. Her breaths came out shallow, her fingers bunched her skirts, her body ached from carrying so much and holding everything together. She refused to fall apart at this time.

She moved slowly to the writing desk, her silver headpiece now resting beside a discarded goblet. Casimir. She whispered his name like a prayer, tracing her fingers along the edge of the quill.

She pulled out a small snow glass pendant from a her silk pocket in her dress. It had been an heirloom from her mother it was enchanted with a thread spell meant only to be used when in dire need.

Please let this be enough, she thought as she clutched the pendant tightly.

She breathed in and focused on the faint warmth in her chest the tether between her and Casimir. The same thread she had felt during dinner like a flicker of fire in her soul.

"Casimir.....if you can hear me," she whispered, "I’m safe, but I don’t know for how long. They’re are trying to keep us apart. They say....if we consummate the marriage, the magic dies. Yours. Mine. Everyone’s. Leaving us vulnerable to our enemies."

She paused for a moment her voice thick with emotion.

"I didn’t want to leave you, I never would have. But Cyrus..."

"Be careful, Felix Gray is a traitor..."

A cold wind then blew strongly through her chamber extinguishing the candles. Her pendant pulsed with light and then flickered and died.

"No," she gasped, shaking it as if desperation alone could revive it back to life.

"Please....." she whispered.

But the magic was gone. It had been blocked and intercepted. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

She closed her eyes and leaned back slowly as her hands trembled. She wanted to scream, to break something. Instead she stared at the glassy stone for a long while then stood up.

The silence broke when a voice behind her said.

"You are always the strongest when you think you are breaking."

Caroline whirled around. Her breath caught.

For standing in the center of the chamber, cloaked in soft green light was Queen Lysandra, her step mother.

She no longer wore her crown, her hair fell in brown waves and her green eyes still held the same knowing warmth they always had.

"M-Mother," Caroline whispered, voice catching on the word.

Lysandra smiled gently. "You remembered how to call for me."

"But you’re here.....how?"

"Shhh," Lysandra stepped forward her arms opening.

"There’s little time. But I came because you needed a mother more than a queen tonight."

Caroline had promised herself she would not cry but she moved into her mother’s outstretched arms and let herself fall into them as a single tear escaped her eye.

She didn’t brush it away.

Caroline held onto her step mother like a child who had been brave for far too long. Lysandra’s hands moved slowly along her back, stroking her hair with the patience of a woman who had comforted a little girl through scraped knees and sleepless nights though neither spoke just yet.

"I didn’t think I would ever see you again, when you left after my coronation," Caroline whispered finally.

"I told you once, when the snows part and the stars fade, I will always find you," Lysandra said gently. "I keep my promises."

Caroline let out a soft laugh, her breath hitching.

"You sound just like you always did when you used to read me stories at night."

"I am who I was, only lighter now. Less burdened by the weight of crowns and courts."

She said as she pulled a strand of hair and placed it behind Caroline’s ear.

"You always made it look effortless, even when you agreed to sending me off to the Summerlands, but I understand now how much you carried and how much you sacrificed."

Caroline murmured as she blinked away tears that threatened to spill from her eyes.

Lysandra’s gaze softened, but a playful smirk curved her lips. "Yet, you didn’t even invite me to your wedding. I am wounded."

Caroline let out a half-laugh, half-sob. "I didn’t think I’d have to. I didn’t think it would happen this way."

"Tell me, my snowflower. What has happened?" Lysandra asked as she stepped back to observe her.

Caroline hesitated, then found herself sinking into the nearest chair, her hands clasped tightly in her lap.

"They took me by force from the Summerlands," she said slowly. "The Spring Court. King Cyrus. He said he did it to protect me from Casimir. He says that if Casimir and I consummate the marriage, magic will cease to exist.

Felix Gray wants Casimir dead. He using this truth to tear us apart before we can unite our lands."

Lysandra’s eyes flickered with recognition at the mention of Felix Gray.

"I never trusted that man, his manners were too polished and his countenance deceptive."

"I trusted him," Caroline said bitterly.

"He made me feel like I had an ally in him and like I wasn’t alone."

"Casimir does not know where I am and I have tried to reach through the thread spell but something is blocking it. I do not know what."

Lysandra nodded slowly, her expression grim.

"There are old wards around the Spring Palace. Wards written in blood and grief that will not break easily."

"So he will not come for me then because he does not know where I am?" Caroline asked hesitantly as she couldn’t bear to consider it.

"Oh my dear, he will surely come." Lysandra said with a look of amusement.

"Summer kings have been known to burn through cages, especially for love."

"I don’t even know if he loves me in that way. We did not have a wedding night. I think he would have waited forever had I talked him out of it to protect him but I didn’t have a chance." Caroline admitted sadly looking away.

Lysandra knelt before her then taking her hands gently, saying "you chose Caroline. Every day you have chosen to protect him and shield your kingdom. To rise when others would have fallen and that my dear is love too and I am sure he knows that."

Caroline looked at her step mother then with fear in her eyes.

"What if the prophecy is true and what if we are together in every way and magic ceases to exist? Will I doom us all by loving him?"

Lysandra smiled at her then the kind of smile that came from old pain and wisdom.

"There is no magic stronger than love, child. Not even the kind that lights the skies or shakes mountains. What you and Casimir are building is the kind of bond that the old world fears because it cannot be controlled.

She touched Caroline’s heart then with her fingertips.

"Do you remember what I told you the night we heard the frost wolves howl?"

Caroline blinked back tears. "You told me I was made for more than survival and I was meant to reign as queen one day."

"And so you shall, not as a pawn or a broken girl but as a queen who knows her heart well and knows how to choose."

"But I am scared," Caroline whispered softly.

Lysandra stood up slowly, stroking Caroline’s head, she said, "good, only fools aren’t. Courage is doing something that must be done while feeling afraid."

The candles in the room then began to flicker back to life as if stirred by Lysandra’s presence. The pendant on Caroline’s desk gave a faint shimmer once more before going dim.

"I must leave," Lysandra said urgently.

"No, please stay a little longer," Caroline pleaded with her.

"I cannot," she said as her form began to grow hazy.

"You are not alone, Caroline. I will always be with you and Casimir will come for you. He already knows you are missing and something is wrong. You must know what to do when he arrives. Be wise, daughter."

Caroline tried to reach her hands stretched out but Lysandra kissed her forehead.

"I am so proud of you," she whispered before disappearing from her chambers entirely.

Caroline stood there in the flickering candlelight, her heart full of ache and warmth all at once.

She took a deep breath and for the first time in days, her spine straightened with purpose.

She would not be a broken woman.

She would fight like a queen.

For she was her step mother’s daughter as well.