Page 78 of Prince of Never

Imogen gasped as she craned her neck to take in the sky and the handful of sinuous winged lizards diving through the air, hunting whatever bats or owls caught their eye.They were as big as horses and speckled with bioluminescence that collected in the joints of their leathery wings.

‘Are those dragons?!’

‘A close relative.They’re night drakes.They have a nest in the valley below.’

Melaie was energetically stripping flesh off of something as she knelt by a pond formed from a trickle of water dribbling down the mountain.Probably an ashray.I peered into the pool and saw a swarm of translucent faces with wide, bulging eyes peering up at me from below the surface.A bloody infestation of them.One wriggled a set of slimy, spindly fingers towards my ankle, and I leaned closer to the water.

‘I’m too big and too much trouble for you to drown,’ I said as several of them bared their fangs at me.

Imogen stood staring out over the ledge as I felt my way around the walls of the cave, finding the smooth surfaces of the fae lights and reigniting them with a touch.She tore her eyes away from the sky to look around her.‘You really do come here often.’

It felt strange to see someone else here.Like exposing my neck to a blade.‘Not recently.But a while ago.’

‘Why?’

‘I kept her here when she was a fledgling,’ I said, nodding at Melaie as she eyed the pool speculatively.

‘An odd choice for a nursery.’

‘Maybe.But the queen doesn’t like heights.’It wasn’t an admission, but it skated close enough to one that I wanted to retreat, to add something sarcastic, to turn cruel and cold.I didn’t.I wondered if she realised.

‘She seems like she’d give my own mother a run for her money in the raging bitch department.’

I snorted a laugh.‘I don’t think she’d ever heard anyone speak to her the way you did.’

‘That’s going to be a problem now, isn’t it?’

We stared at one another as the night drakes began to sing, their calls as haunting and melodic as a choir.I wasn’t ready to think about that yet.I would have to soon.But not right now.So I didn’t answer, just knelt to the rickety chest by my feet which had sometimes stored food, often bottles of spirits, but now just a few old rugs.

‘Here.’I walked over and lay the rug down on the sandy floor of the ledge.‘You should sit.You still look a little pale.’

She did as I asked, sitting on the rug.But then she let out a heavy sigh and laid back, her golden hair splayed around her as she looked up at the sky.‘This has been a very long, very strange few days,’ she said, almost as if she was talking to herself.There was something sad in the way she stared up at the stars.Something a little lost.‘Was what I saw in the lake real?’

I sat beside her and looked out over the valley.‘You learned something more than your name.’

She was quiet for a long time as the night drakes danced around each other above us, waves of flickering light against the dark.‘There was a god, I think.Two of them, actually.They told me I’m fae.’She took a deep, shaky breath before continuing.‘Which is impossible, and yet makes so much sense it’s driving me mad.Which is ironic, since I’ve been told I’m mad for most of my life, and the realisation that I’m not is what is going to finally tip me over the edge.’She laughed bitterly.

‘I suspected you were fae.’

She pushed up on her elbows.‘What?’

‘Your mark.’I lightly touched the spot on her ribs where I’d seen it.‘It’s the sign of a glamour.A strong one, too.I couldn’t even sense it.’

‘Why didn’t you say anything?’She looked down and shook her head, exhaling her disbelief.‘Taking me to Haddock was never about my name, was it?’

‘It was.In part.’

‘You should have just told me.’

‘But I wasn’t sure if I was right.’

Sinking back down onto the rug, she returned her gaze to the stars.‘So instead of sharing a suspicion you had about my entire identity, you kept it to yourself to avoid the horrific possibility of being wrong about something.’

I didn’t want to tell her the truth.I didn’t want to tell her that most changelings weren’t given glamours that were anywhere near as sophisticated as hers.I didn’t want to tell her that there were very few fae who could perform that sort of magic.Not until I knew more, until I had anything to offer that wasn’t just more questions and suspicions.So instead, I lay down next to her and said, ‘I could break the glamour.’

She rolled her head to look at me again.‘Really?’she said, surprised.

I offered her a bitter smile.‘If there’s anything I’m good for, it’s breaking things.’

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