Free The Firethorn Crown by Lea Doué Page A

filament of silver.
    Sorcery. Her skin tickled as if the spiders who owned the webs were crawling to inspect his handiwork.
    Gently, he coaxed a dewdrop from a silken flower and touched it to the silver strand, where it stuck and twinkled delicately, like a liquid diamond.
    “May I?” He held the pendant to her throat.
    There was no other option. She swept her hair to the side, and his arms circled her neck to clasp the chain with the watery jewel. She expected it to feel sticky and wet, but it felt as any other pendant, lying cool against her skin.
    “There now,” Prince Tharius said, adjusting it at her collarbone. “Your sisters have matching ones, and they are linked to yours. This will keep you safe for me.”
    Shrieks sounded from the clearing.
    “Lily! What have you done?”
    Ivy?
    All of the girls dashed along the snaking path, around hedges and topiaries, winding their way to the gazebo. Ivy led them, with Melantha and Mara just behind. The gentlemen had been left under the oaks, and the shadow-people returned to the edge of the clearing.
    Ivy bolted into the gazebo and threw herself into Lily’s lap, clawing at the pendant around her sister’s neck. “Take it off!” She sobbed and pulled until Melantha wrestled her into a corner, where she collapsed in a heap of storm-grey skirts.
    Lily shook, and her neck stung where the chain had bitten into it.
    “What’s going on?” Gwen quieted the girls, squeezing them onto the bench, and then joined Ivy in her nest.
    “What are these?” Melantha tugged at her pendant, chin tucked down, eyes crossing as she tried to see it. The chain was too short. She gave up and sat next to Mara.
    Lily cleared her throat, trying to untangle the words in her head. She twisted her hands in her skirts to hide their trembling.
    Prince Tharius had no problem choosing his words. “The pendants are your way home. A gift from a fellow prisoner.”
    “Prisoner!” Melantha stood, but Mara tugged her back down, where she landed with a thump and poof of sparkling skirts.
    “May I explain?” He addressed Lily, who was squashed against him, a twin on either side of them.
    Better that he explain what she wasn’t sure she understood.
    He walked to the entrance and turned to face the girls. Wren scooted closer to her.
    “I can’t begin to tell you how much pleasure your visit has given me, a captive in this realm of darkness. I’ve never known such light as you have brought with you.” He leaned against a pillar. “Unfortunately, the sorcerer was more devious than I imagined. When you entered the undergarden, you tangled yourselves in the curse that holds me here.”
    Other than a few quiet gasps, the girls remained silent. Ivy watched Lily intently.
    “The prince has found a way for us to return home during the day.” A small reassurance, if somewhat conditional. “We only need to visit the undergarden for a few hours each night.”
    “We have to come back here?” Ruby said.
    “Every night?” Wren asked.
    “You said you would show us the way out.” Melantha tugged on a portion of her gown that Mara sat on.
    “I said I would explain what you need to know.”
    “You should have said there was no way out.”
    “You would have me lie?” He raised an eyebrow.
    She stopped tugging and looked at Lily. “What’s he talking about?”
    “There is a way out permanently—for all of us—if I marry him.”
    “What!”
    “No way!”
    “Father would never agree!”
    Not since the Dragon Wars had a sorcerer worn a crown. They couldn’t go back to those days.
    In the commotion that followed, Prince Tharius was forced out of the gazebo and Lily’s feet got stepped on at least five times. Finally, she joined him and whistled long and loud.
    The girls stilled. Not for the first time, she was glad Riva had taught them a great many things Mother didn’t approve of.
    “Sit.” Mother had taught them how to give orders. At least Ivy was off the floor, cradled in Hazel’s lap.
    Lily