Page 67 of Fae Crown

His eyes sharpened. “That does sound like her.”

“Edsel,” I exclaimed as the memory of the queen asking Pru about his “well-being” clicked into place. “That’s your name.”

“‘Tis. How d’ye know it?”

“Same way I know ‘granddoody.’ Pru.”Duh. “She told me about you.”

“What’d she say?”

“Not enough. She certainly didn’t warn me you’d try to kill me without so much as giving me a chance to explain first.”

“I thought you were a threat to my gran’gobbler.”

“And I told you I wasn’t,” I snapped, at once recalling all the additional agony I experienced thanks to him and his hard-headedness.

“I didn’t believe ye.”

“Clearly,” I grunted. I was holding a grudge when Zako always warned me against them.Resenting someone hurts you, not the other person. When you forgive, it is a kindness, not to the person who wronged you, but to yourself.

Yeah, well, I’d bet Zako had never been shredded to within an inch of his death by monsters, then assaulted by a practically feral granddoody.

“She said you’d be furious at her for agreeing to a blood oath with me,” I admitted.

“She was wrong,” he said. Several seconds later, he added, “I could never be furious with her.”

“And here I was thinking you were starting to see I’m worthy of a goblin’s friendship.”

He crossed his arms over his barrel chest. “That remains to be seen.”

I had no idea why that stung when I had so many greater concerns than being liked by this goblin. But it did.

“You could apologize to me, you know,” I said with a clench of my sore jaw.

He scoffed. “For what?”

I gaped at him. “For what?Uh, I don’t know. Maybe for hurting me when I didn’t do anything to you? For hurting me when I’m already so hurt I was half-hoping I’d die and be done with it already? For not listening to me when I was begging you to stop?”

He uncrossed his arms and tipped ever so slightly toward me, but then only glowered some more.

“You’re being paid to help me heal.”

“Not enough,” he grumbled. But his posture softened, and he slid off the stool to fill the cup, the contents of which he’d flung at my face. Water dampened my hair and pillow.

“When will Dashiell be back?” I asked.

“Don’t know. He can’t get away often.”

With a gentleness I wouldn’t have believed had I not been experiencing it, Edsel pressed the rim of the wooden cup to my lips. I sipped before he added, “It’s too dangerous. He only happened to be here when ye arrived.”

I shook my head when he offered morewater. The pang that stabbed up my nape reminded me that while I might be more alert, my body wanted nothing more than a month-long nap to recover.

My head feeling leaden atop the pillow, I asked in a thready croak, “Does the king ever come here?”

Curiosity unfurled across his craggy face. “Just once. After … she was discovered here, all alone.”

“‘She’ being…” I steadied myself with a deep inhale. “Odelia Catalina Corisande?”

He didn’t answer, so I added, “The rightful queen of Embermere?”

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