Page 76 of Prince of Never

‘I don’t ever want to do that again,’ she choked out.

‘I don’t think I’d let you.’I pulled her in against me, held her close as I chafed at her arms against the tremors wracking her body.‘She’s freezing.’

‘Well, she was mostly dead for a few minutes there,’ Haddock said, immediately cringing away at the glower I shot him.He jumped to his feet.‘I’ll stoke up the fire!Bring her here, bring her here.Agnes, blankets!’

Imogen tried to struggle to her feet, but I swept her into my arms.‘I can walk,’ she said weakly.

‘That doesn’t mean you should.’

Haddock heaved kindling onto the smoky little fire he’d used for purifying his saucepan higher up the bank and I settled Imogen close to it.She was shaking so hard her teeth were chattering as she held her hands out to the flames.Agnes appeared a moment later with a thick patchwork quilt.

‘You’ll be wanting to get out of your wet things,’ she said, flinging a towel around Imogen’s shoulders.‘Or you’ll not get warm.’

‘Here.’I took the edges of the towel and held them closed around her.‘Slip your arms out of the dress.’

‘But I haven’t got anything on underneath,’ Imogen whispered.

Haddock was on his knees, blowing into the coals, and I poked him with the toe of my boot.When he glanced up, I jerked my head in the direction of his house.

He dusted off his hands and stood, his goat legs plastered with mud and his hair still dripping.‘Right.You warm up.Love, have you got any of that ginger soup leftover?It would be just the thing for a near death experience.’The two of them bustled off, Agnes whispering a steady hiss of admonishments as they went.

I returned my attention to Imogen.‘Dress off.Before you freeze.’

The fact that she didn’t protest spoke to how cold she must have been.I kept the towel around her shoulders as she wriggled out of the over-sized nightgown, and it dropped to her feet in a sodden heap.She clutched the towel as she sank back to the ground, and I bundled the quilt around her before stirring the coals and feeding the fire a little more kindling.

‘What about you?’she said as I sat beside her again.‘You’re wet too.’

‘I wasn’t unconscious.’We sat in silence for a few moments as her trembling slowly lessened and some of the colour returned to her face.‘You scared me,’ I admitted.

‘You looked scared.I didn’t know you did scared.’She pulled the quilt a little tighter.

‘What happened?’

‘I don’t know.Haddock just disappeared.The whole place was so strange.’

‘Did you learn what you went looking for?’

‘Yes.’The firelight curled around her face, falling into the curves of bitterness I could see there.‘I’m not who I thought I was.’She didn’t elaborate, and I didn’t push her.I didn’t think I had the right to.‘Did you do the same sort of ritual once?’

‘It wasn’t quite like that.But the basics were the same.’

‘So, you have a fiorainm too?’

The question immediately set me on edge, even though it shouldn’t have.It was a natural question to ask.‘All fae do.’I could sense her waiting for more, but I couldn’t give it.‘You have to protect yours now.In the wrong hands, it could do you a lot of harm.’

‘Of course.’She was disappointed.I could see it in the way she dropped her eyes to the grass.She’d wanted more from me, wanted me to reveal more of myself, to share in her experience.I’d just learned what it would be like to lose her, I had to do better than disappointing her now.

‘What you’ve got to understand—’ My sentence was interrupted by the sounds of Agnes and Haddock returning, and the quiet intimacy was gone.Agnes had Imogen’s clothes, and she beckoned her off to dress in the house, while Haddock tried to force a bowl of soup on me.By the time she returned, she was dressed and clean, her hair brushed, and her skin returned to its normal colour.But I wanted an excuse to carry her again, to bundle her close and keep her warm, and that was gone.

‘Thank you for helping me, Haddock,’ she said graciously as the satyr scrambled to his feet.

‘Course, mistress.Anything for my patron here.Your servant, anytime.’

‘And don’t forget your oath to me,’ I growled under my breath to him.‘Not a whisper to anyone.’

‘I’m a fae of my word,’ he swore.Like he had any kind of choice with the rune on his arm.

We left them at their cottage, heading around the lake as I scanned the skies for Melaie.

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