Page 59 of Queen of Ever

‘Gone!Not again.’He hiccupped, touching a hand to his mouth.‘Forgive me, your lordship, but you need to keep better track of that girl.’

‘Are you drunk?’

‘I may ‘av had a few sips.You know, for creativity.’

Grabbing him by the scruff of the neck, I pulled him to his feet.‘You’d better sober up fast.I need your help to find her.’

He waved a hand at me.‘Oh, don’t you worry, your royalness.Give her a bit and she’ll come trotting right back.If I had a coin for every time my Agnes has gone running—’

‘No, Haddock.’I shook him a little, frustrated.Why did he have to get himselfdrunk?‘We were attacked by a whole tempest of furies.They took her.’

‘Furies,’ he repeated, squinting.Then his eyes widened and he smacked a hand against his forehead.‘Oh, Iknowwhat they are.Wings and fiery eyes and vengeance.I met one at a pub once.She liked to sing.But shouldn’t sing.’

Releasing him to support his own weight on wobbly legs, I looked around, fixing on the pool.Maybe a quick dunk in cold water would sober him up.

‘They’ll have taken her to the lesser fae court,’ he continued, hiccupping again.‘They’ll be wanting her pretty bad.’

The last statement caught me.I turned back to him.‘Why?’

‘Oh.Well, it’s, ah, let me see.’He crouched down, losing his balance and catching himself with a hand on my leg.

I immediately drew back at the contact but replaced the support with a fist on his shirt when he wobbled again.‘For fuck’s sake, Sloan, get yourself together.I don’t know if it came across when I said Imogen was taken by furies, but we need to find hernow.’

‘This’ll help.Trust me,’ he slurred, patting the air where my leg had been.‘See, it was just here… ah!’He pulled a rumpled piece of paper from the flurry on the ground and held it triumphantly aloft.

I took it.‘You’ve handed me a drawing of a circle.’

‘Or an egg,’ he corrected.‘Or a seed… I’m not right sure, to be honest.There’s another…’

‘What does this have to do with finding Imogen?’I snapped, thrusting the paper back at him.

‘Her stars, your greatness.I’ve been reading them, as you said.Not an exact science, that, but the same imagery sort of keeps coming up.’He picked up more pages and handed them to me one at a time.There was a lotus, a spray of dots, a spiral, a repeating design of interlocked circles and crescents, twin stars joined at the points.

‘Haddock, if you don’t explain to me what this is about right now, you’re going to be seeing stars again,’ I growled.Maybe I should just leave him behind, try to find her on my own.But he’d been able to use our bond to find her once before, and if I couldn’t focus on it alone, surely he could.

‘Magic!’he burst out.‘The symbols.Took me a bit to sort out what it all meant, but they’re creation symbols!That’s why they want her.’

I pinched the bridge of my nose.‘Imogen wields water.’

‘No, no, shecreateswater.But she could create more if she directed it right and saw it for what it really is.And it’s creation magic.Just like—’

‘Oberon,’ I finished for him, stunned into a stillness that barely even registered Haddock was clutching at me for balance again.Creationmagic.It was madness.Impossible.But if it wasn’t… No, there was no point even considering it.I wasn’t going to put a revelation like that down to the word of a sober Haddock, let alone a drunk one.

‘Creation magic?What are you talking about down there?’The words were echoed by a familiar voice behind me, and when I turned it was to find Ethan scampering down the stairs, staring around him with raised eyebrows.When he caught my eye, his expression changed to one of irritation, mouth curling down at the corners.‘Do you have any idea how hard it is to chase after you when you’re off winging your way around the countryside?’he said, pausing at the base of the steps with a hand on his hip.‘Imogen wasmyfriend before she was your mate, you know.I want to find her too.And you just took off without even a word.AndnowI find you in some cave, not even looking for her, hanging out with—’ he turned his gaze to Haddock, who wobbled again.

‘This is Haddock,’ I said bluntly.‘He’s an oracle.’

‘His lordship’spersonaloracle,’ Haddock slurred, finger once again waving through the air.‘We’ve an alli… an allian… an oath.’

‘A drunk satyr,’ Ethan continued.‘Imogen wastaken.What the hell are you going to do about it?’

‘I’m fucking trying to figure that out,’ I retorted, fear and frustration cracking my composure.‘I don’t know where they’ve taken her.Hence, the fucking oracle.’

‘Oh please, don’t yell at me,’ Haddock moaned, sinking down onto his heels with his hands over his head.‘Erryone’s always yellin’ at me.’

‘I’m not yelling at you.’I took a breath, hauling Haddock back onto his feet, before turning to Ethan again.‘He thinks she’s been taken by the lesser fae rebels.’

‘Creation magic,’ Haddock mumbled.

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