Page 21 of Prince of Never

‘He was being an arse,’ I grumbled.And I had been so angry I’d gone into one of those weird trances where my emotions took over and I could barely remember what had happened.That hadn’t happened to me since I was young.The last time it had been after I’d seen my teacher’s face change right in front of me, his teeth growing pointed, his smile feline.I’d screamed a bloody fit until someone had taken me out of the room and called my mother.She’d come to collect me from school, her face the picture of a concerned parent for the world to see, but the façade had dropped away the moment we’d entered the car.I’d begged her to believe me, hysterical until the sting of her slap cut across my cheek.I didn’t know what happened next, could never remember what happened once the rage took hold of me.All I remembered was waking up on the side of the road, the car half sunk in the river, my mother shrieking on the phone, calling me a demon.

When the priests assured her I wasn’t possessed, my parents tried to medicate the evil out of me, but none of the drugs seemed to do anything.Eventually, I learnt to control my emotions and my environment so carefully that it couldn’t happen again.I thought I’d grown out of it, but there I was, like I was just an angry child again.

‘I can’t believe you did that!No wonder Madam was so furious,’ she said, but there was a smile on her face just the same.

‘She’s going to give herself an aneurism if she doesn’t pull that stick out of her arse,’ I said.

Sarah’s eyes widened and a giggle burst from her lips before she slapped a hand over her mouth to stop it.‘You can’t say things like that.You’ll get yourself into trouble.’

‘My mother used to scold me for that, too,’ I said almost absently.For bad language, for having opinions she didn’t approve of or asking questions she felt I had no business even thinking about.Sarah was exactly the kind of girl my parents always wished I would be; quiet and polite, sweet-tempered and not crazy.

But I simply couldn’t fit into the mould they kept trying to stuff me into.No matter how hard I tried, my true self always found a way to escape and disappoint them.

‘So, what is it we’re supposed to be doing, exactly?’I asked, pulling my mind away from its depressing musings.I wasn’t exactly keen to do any more work for the day, but the sooner it was finished, the sooner I could lay down.

She handed me an apron.‘Come on, this is the last chore for the day and then you can rest.’

We began on the ground floor.She led me into the first room, which had a huge window looking into the gardens.I approached it, drawn by the lure of looking out into the castle grounds.What I’d seen of the gardens had appeared so wild and strange during the day, but now they offered up hundreds of white flowers to the night, and they almost seemed to soak up the starlight, pulsing with a gentle glow even when clouds passed over the moon.It made the darkness seem less terrifying, somehow.As if the glow of the flowers was lulling me into a sense of peace and security.

‘Hypothetically, if one was to escape this place, how might they go about it?’I asked.

Sarah quickly looked around her, as if she was afraid someone would hear.‘You can’t say things like that.’

‘Why not?I’m already a prisoner here, and God knows whatPrinceTarian has planned for me when he’s done with his existential crisis.’Or whatever the hell it was that meant he couldn’t kill me like he wanted to.‘Please, Sarah.I need to get back to my world.’

‘The Shadowmire is dangerous, especially at night.You have no idea what’s out there,’ she said, a pleading tone in her voice.

‘I’d rather take my chances out there than with Tarian.At least out there I have a chance, but here?I’m just waiting for him to hand out my fate.’

She let out a heavy sigh.‘Along the East wall, there’s a vine that grows.It’s concealing a narrow opening.I don’t think the master even knows it’s there.’

‘Thank you, Sarah!’I hugged her tight, hope blossoming in my chest for the first time since I’d been captured.I hurried to the window, pushing it open.But then I stopped.‘Come with me.I can show you the human world.Yourworld.I can help you get on your feet.My apartment is small, but you can stay with me.’

She smiled warmly at that, but there was a strange sadness in her eyes.‘My place is here.’

‘But it doesn’thaveto be,’ I said, hoping that she would say yes, hoping that she would take my hand and run with me.She deserved so much better than this place.

She shook her head.‘I’m sorry, Imogen.I can’t,’ she said, taking a step back.

I hated the thought of leaving her, but I didn’t have time to try to convince her.Who knew when the crow would come to check on me?I couldn’t waste this chance.

I stared into the strange darkness, the one filled with luminescent plants and insects that drifted lazily through it as if they were floating on water.That fear began to stir in me, and the darkness seemed to shift as I stared out at it.The thought of being out there alone made my stomach churn and my hands gripped the windowsill a little tighter.

But I couldn’t stay here.I had to hope that whatever was out there was better than the Unseelie Prince.I swallowed hard, mustered all my courage and lifted the window.It slid up smoothly, making hardly a sound.When I glanced back at Sarah’s anxious expression, I offered her one last smile before hoisting myself up onto the sill and running into the night.

Chapter 11

Tarian

Asfarastestingtheories went, that hadn’t exactly been conclusive.I’d wanted to see how well I could ignore Imogen in a room full of others, if I could shunt her off to the side and pretend she wasn’t there.But her defiance made her almost impossible to ignore.And so did the wine she’d poured into my lap.How could one human woman be so infuriating?

I flung my shirt to the floor in disgust.Even before the wine, it had been impossible to silence my awareness of her.I noticed every time her weight shifted from one foot to the other, every time she reached up to brush a persistent lock of hair behind her ear.It had made me slow and stupid, because I’d been far too fixated on the way having that hair tied up exposed the curve of her neck to notice what she was doing until it was too late.

Pressing my forehead against the doorframe, I closed my eyes and reached for calm.This...affliction...made me feel like a fucking animal.Like my mind was no longer in control of my body.

It made mehateher.

By the time I’d pulled away from the doorframe, it was crumbling with rot.I stared at it, repelled.My magic hadn’t slipped my control in decades.When I’d been young and full of rage, angry at the world and my place in it, it had been something that had happened all the time.It had earned me a reputation as volatile and dangerous, one that followed me even now, when I had long since learned how to compress my wildest emotions until they were hard, cold and sharp.

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