Page 94 of Fae Crown

Dashiell shook his head; the bells tinkled. “No. The madness has infected the royal bloodline for centuries. A punishment from King Spiro. Just not for his beloved Prince Borromeo.”

“What, is it not possible for magic or one of Braque’s many wicked potions to cause the same kind of madness? Or one that imitates the hereditary sickness?”

“No, it’s not possible.” But Dashiell was blinking rapidly.

“You’re not sure, though.”

His head kept shaking. “It can’t be… That would be…”

“Awful. Avoidable. Devastating,” I supplied. “And exactly the kind of thing the queen would do. My mother was all that stood in the way of her rule, correct?”

The shock slackening Dashiell’s features told me all he wouldn’t.

“By the Ethers,” he finally whispered. “How could we have all missed that?”

“Maybe you knew Talisa before she was evil.”

“She was always evil,” Edsel snarled.

“Wawaa.Waawaaa.”

Dashiell and Edsel spun to face the door and the hallway beyond.

“Wawaa, wawaaa, wawaaa,” came the croaks.

I didn’t need to ask what they meant.

Edsel shoved medicines into a satchel with such haste there could be no doubt it was a warning.

“Wawa, wawa, wawa, wawa.” The croaking arrived nonstop.

“Promise me I’ll get to meet her someday,” I urgently told Dashiell.

He didn’t.

“Promise me.”

“Go now,” he said.

My heart squeezed, plummeted, and thudded, all at once, making me a bit lightheaded. “Then tell her I love her,” I breathed, thready. “Tell the mother I never met that I wish I had, more than anything, and that I love her anyway.”

Edsel didn’t wait for Dashiell’s reply. He grabbed me by the hand and led me too quickly to the door. He pulled it open, jostled me through it, straight into a giant frog.

Just like the huge ones from the arena. I gaped at it.

Apparently beyond words, Edsel guided me roughly onto its back. Startled, I could do nothing but hang on as the gargantuan frog bounded away, out the open-air hall and into a courtyard.

“Wait,” I cried.

Neither the frog nor Edsel did.

“The parvnit.”

“I’m here,” she said from somewhere in front of me.

Though I searched, I couldn’t spot a single sign of her.

And then the jostling made doing anything beyond holding on and keeping myself from puking all over the frog’s back my only possible focus.

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