Page 62 of Reign

I gaped, as did Blue. She turned her attention back to me, her eyes comically wide and her cheeks slightly pink. “Okaaay.” She missed B’nar’s slight smirk at me.

I grinned and nodded enthusiastically. “It surely does.”

“Thanks, but this is only temporary.”

“What do you mean, temporary?” B’nar snapped before I could ask. I scowled at his interruption to our catch up.

Blue looked him in the eye. “Your father has managed to find some kind of cure for whatever Hell poison was on that arrow, but it’s temporary. He tried it once before. I remained awake for a week, then went back into the land of nod.”

“How long will you stay awake this time?” I asked, trying not to let my fear for my friend show.

She shrugged. “He seems to think it has something to do with the Faerie moons. When they are high in the night sky, the cure he found is activated and will work until they wane; so about a week.”

“Will that count in this world? Won’t you just stay awake now you are here?”

“That’s not how Faerie magic works,” B’nar replied gruffly. “It will still sense the magic of our world, and much is based around the cycles of the moon.” He peered down at Blue, his expression grim. “The cure will still fade, human. You will fall again, and my father will return you to Faerie—where you belong.”

Blue scowled up at him. “Damn, for a minute there, Prince, I thought you’d grown some feelings, you know compassion and the like.”

He cocked his head, his face expressionless, but I could see the worry in his eyes. I knew him far better than Blue by now, and he wasn’t immune to her plight. But for some reason, one known only to him, he was intent on hiding it from her.

“No. Why would I have compassion for the woman who helped kill my brother?”

Blue paled and swallowed hard, the hurt on her face immediate, but she rallied just as she always did. She shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know, Princey, maybe because you’re fighting alongside the other woman who was in cahoots with me; and living in the same building as the shadow fae, one of your own kind, I’ll just point out, who sent us there to sell Digitalis for him.”

B’nar’s nostrils flared. “Just because I’m required by the High King of Faerie to work with them, do not for one second think that my benevolence stretches to you. You are mine.Myprisoner, and when this curse takes you again, you will still belong to me, not my father, and definitely not anyone else. You will be atmymercy, not the High King’s. Remember that.”

Blue glared daggers at him, and for a moment, I thought she might kick him right in the balls. Her foot twitched, so I placed mine over hers to stop her. Such an attack, satisfying though it might be, would only make things between them worse.

“I’m going to get a drink,” he muttered, turning away, but he hesitated and looked back at us, his eyes focused only on Blue. “I will bring you something.”

“I don’t want anything from you,” she snapped.

A snarl curled his lip, but he remained quiet and walked away.

Silence fell between us. Blue met my gaze, her deep brown eyes, which had been dull, now glittering, and her cheekbones highlighted with colour.

“Why does he hate me so much?” she whispered. “I can’t even remember sellingDigitalisto anyone who looks remotely like him. Can you?”

I pressed my lips together and shook my head before I decided to speak my mind. Who knew when my friend would be taken from us again. Her time to listen was short. “He doesn’t hate you.”

“Really?” she interrupted. “He reminds me at every opportunity that I killed his precious brother and that I’m his prisoner.”

I gave her a small smile. It was unlikely she’d listen to my words, and I had no idea what was going on inside the prince heir’s mind, but I could see he’d never hurt my friend. He’d saved her life, and, yes, he’d been gruff and hard with her but never violent, not even when he easily could have harmed her. “Yes, that’s true, but I have never seen him smile more than I have this morning, and the only thing different in this world for him today is that you are in it.”

Now she did laugh loudly. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me? I made the ice prince smile with my mere presence?” She lifted her chin and affected a snobby royal voice. “Me, a mere dirty human, who even dares to breathe the same air as him?”

I grinned. “Yeah, you, you silly cow. Now forget about B’nar and tell me how you really feel because you really do look awful, and I’m worried about you.”

Any levity in her face disappeared, and she sighed. “I’m so tired I could curl up on the floor and sleep right now, but I refuse. I’ve been doing nothing but sleeping in between these rare days of wakefulness, and I’m not wasting a moment. Don’t worry. If I eat and drink and refuel my body, I’ll get back to more or less my full strength.” She cocked her head. “And you have some demon arse to kick by the sounds of it, so I’m going to help you.”

“What? You’re strong enough to fight?” I hadn’t meant to sound so sceptical, but she looked like a stiff wind would blow her over.

She grinned. “Fuck off. ‘Course I am. Or I will be. I only woke up yesterday, so give me a chance. And I’ll be with you for at least seven days, so let’s make the most of it.”

“Here,” said a gruff voice. We both gaped as B’nar, Prince Heir to the throne of Faerie, placed a tray piled high with sandwiches, fruit and tea on the table next to Blue. “Replenish your body, human. You need to survive to return to Faerie as my prisoner.” He looked at me. “There is some for you too. You need to eat properly.”

Blue opened her mouth to give some kind of snarky response until I kicked her and glared meaningfully.

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