Page 11 of Queen of Ever

‘I had the utmost faith that you would not.And look, here you are, perfectly fine,’ Solas said, as if I was being dramatic.

‘Yes.Thanksto Niall.But no thanks to you,’ I said.What was it about me that screameduse me?Everyone had a fucking agenda.I was nothing more than a tool, a means to an end.‘You disgust me,’ I spat.Then I turned on my heels, storming out of the room, desperate to get out, desperate to be away from these people, my hands trembling with anger, with fear, with shock.I was supposed to be safe here, but it seemed I wasn’t safe anywhere.I didn’t stop until I reached the sanctuary of my room, the one place that felt even remotely like home in this alien place.

It was only when the door closed behind me that I realised I was trembling.The shock of the night finally began to wear off, giving way to a flood of emotions too dark and tangled to decipher, leaving my knees weak.I pressed my hands flat against the top of the dresser, leaning over it as a long breath left my lungs, slowly, as if I could somehow settle the chaos if I could only settle myself.

In the moment I thought was going to be my last, I’d wished for him.

‘Imogen, what the hell have you gotten yourself into now?’I asked aloud, as if that would somehow elicit an answer from somewhere beyond my reach.I’d been so emotional when I’d left Tarian, so hurt and betrayed that I’d run headlong into the only person who could match him, someone I’d thought could protect me.But was Solas actually worse than Tarian?Was everyone in this godforsaken place only out for themselves and damn whoever got in their way?

And why the hell was everyone always trying to kill me?

A knock at my door pulled me from my thoughts.It was far too gentle to be Solas.As much as it would do for my ego to think it, I doubted my temper scared him enough to elicit any obvious behavioural changes.Which left only one other option.

‘Come in,’ I said, unsure if my legs would carry me all the way to the door just yet.

‘Are you alright?’Marietta said softly as she closed the door behind her.There was a hesitance in her voice, as if she was approaching a wounded animal and she was trying not to spook it.

‘No thanks to your brother.’

She was quiet for a moment and I knew she was wringing her hands, trying to choose her next words carefully.Finally, she spoke.‘I know my brother isn’t the most… sensitive person.I’m not excusing what he did, but you have to understand, he’s used to putting the many ahead of the one.He has to do what’s best for an entire kingdom.’

‘And that includes letting an assassin take off my head?’

‘He never would have let it get that far.If there’s one thing he hates, it’s losing.He never would have put you in that position if he didn’t think he could protect you.’

‘Why?What advantage do I give him?’I asked, but something small and dark whispered the answer in the back of my mind.Tarian.I doubted Marietta was going to say that, though, and rather than force her to come up with some vague half-truth, I decided to ask her something else.‘If he wanted to serve me as bait, he had to believe someone would take it.Who was it that attacked me andwhydid they want to kill me?’If there was a weariness to my voice, it was because I was tired of wondering why someone I’d never even known existed wanted me dead.What was the reason this time?Was I implicated in the doomed fate of some other prince?Maybe there was a whole bushel of prophecies people would be coming to kill me over.

‘There’s been some unrest among a faction of the lesser fae lately,’ she began, picking her words carefully.‘Just minor things, really, but Solas thinks they have spies in the palace.’

‘Alright, and what have I done tothem?’

‘It was probably less about you and more about what you represent to my brother.’

‘Which is?’

Her mouth twisted apologetically.‘Maybe a future queen?’

I groaned, pressing my palms to my eyes.‘Why is everyone in this place so intense?’

‘I suppose it’s in our nature.’

When I dropped my hands to the dresser again, I eyed her reflection with a frown.‘So you’re saying I should forgive him for using me as bait in a trap?’

‘I’m asking you to consider it.What happened tonight was awful and it probably scared the hell out of you, I’d be surprised if it didn’t.But Solas… he just didn’t think.And I’m sure that if you give him a chance, he’ll try to make it up to you.’

She wanted me to be open to reconciliation.Maybe she was right.After all, if I decided to tell him to stick it, where would that leave me?Not protected by the Seelie, not protected by the Unseelie, and a stranger in my own realm, what with my pointed ears and my magic, even if I could find a way back to it.Talk about a rock and a hard place.

‘I’ll consider it,’ I said finally, pushing my weight off my hands and letting out a sigh.‘But it had better be one hell of an apology.’

Marietta smiled at me, a beautiful smile full of relief but also joy.I was starting to think that she was the only person who actually enjoyed my company for my own sake.

Chapter 5

Tarian

Arun’sadvicecouldn’tkeepme at grounded for long.The Whisper Wastes were a long, long way from Dreadhold.A stretch of wasteland beyond the Brass Mountains, outside the border of the kingdom, we’d been flying for the better part of two days to reach them.I’d never had cause to cross into them before—few fae would, since they were all but uninhabitable.They were a stretch of grey, cracked land, rutted with deep canyons and stretching all the way to the horizon.It was a miserable, lifeless place, ruined by the magic of a long-ago war, the one that drove Oberon to seek a path to forced peace.There were few beings that could live there.When we touched down, Melaie was all quivering attention, head raised and eyes alert, snapping her beak back and forth and sniffing the wind.I dismounted with a hand on her neck.

‘Steady,’ I murmured as she shifted, making uneasy trilling noises in the back of her throat.I surveyed the cavernous mouth of the cave before me, feeling that same uneasiness in my blood that was causing her to dance, settling at the base of my spine and crawling its way up.There was a sense of wrong about the place, about the way the dark cave entrance gaped out of the ground like a yawning mouth.Melaie nudged her beak against my chest, pushing me into stumbling, before glancing to the sky with wild eyes, as though she was sayingwhy are we here?Let’s leave before it’s too late.

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