Page 78 of Queen of Ever

‘I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not overly sociable,’ I added wryly.‘It’s hard to avoid court when you have to rule over it.I’ll do it because I have to.I’m just not excited about it.’

She blew out a breath.‘I don’t think any of that is going to reassure them.They’re sort of banking on you being a better monarch than your mother.’

‘A low bar even I should be able to clear.’

‘I guess we’ll have to worry about that if we survive the next day.’She glanced at the ceiling, biting her lip.‘I don’t like the idea of fighting down here.It’s bad enough being underground when there are no battles raging.I feel like it will come crashing down if there’s magic flying around all over the place,’ she said, mirroring my thoughts perfectly.

‘Hopefully you might have an answer for that.’

‘Me?’

‘Maybe.’I picked a rock off the ground and placed it in her hand.‘Lesson number two.Creating with something that’s already there.It should take less out of you.Ithinkyou can sort of add your magic to the energy already existing in something else.You could, say, grow a crust of quartz around this stone.’She examined the stone, lip still between her teeth.I touched her chin, lifted her gaze to mine.‘You’re chewing your lips ragged,’ I chided.

‘I can’t help it.It’s what I do when I’m anxious.’

‘I’ll do anything to keep you safe.’

‘I’m not worried about me.’Her eyes flickered back to Marietta and that little group of children on the floor.She was talking to them, her face animated, gesturing with her hands like she was telling them a story.‘I just wish there was a way to ensure no one will die.’She took a breath, turned her attention back to the stone.‘A crust of quartz?’

‘Try it.Use that worry and try to wrap up the stone to protect it.See what happens.’

She took another slow, deep breath, her eyelids half closing as she focused down.It began as a pinprick of brilliance, catching the light at the top of the stone and spreading out and around in webbed veins, spindly at first, but quickly connecting and thickening, rolling together until the entire surface of the rock was encased.I picked it up.

‘Or diamond,’ I said, throwing it into the air and catching it.‘That works just as well.Do you think you could do that to brace this section of wall?’

She eyed the rock wall beside us, placing her palm against it.‘I can try.’

‘Stop if you start to feel light-headed or sick,’ I warned as she closed her eyes.Slowly, the dark rock started to shimmer as veins of crystal began to crawl out like the roots of a fast-growing tree from the point where her hand touched the wall.It crept up the wall, consuming the rough, grey rock in raw diamond, multifaceted and clear, growing and spreading like centuries were passing before my eyes.Imogen drew her hand along the wall, eyes still closed, and the diamond coating continued to spread, stretching to reach across the ceiling above, encasing the brittle cave in a hard, enduring barrier.I switched my attention from the magic to her face.Saw the trickle of blood running from her nose.

‘Imogen, stop.’

She didn’t respond, her mouth opening, seeming lost deep in her creation.I gripped her shoulders.

‘Imogen!’

The diamond was deepening, reaching into the wall, into the earth above, hardening, spreading.Her hand seemed fused to the wall.I couldn’t break the contact.But I didn’t know where the creation would end.Where the diamond would reach its limit.Whether she’d turn all the earth above to diamond and be sucked completely dry doing it.

‘Aurelia, stop!’The name in my mouth felt heavy, resonant with a prickle of magic on my tongue.

With a gasp, her eyes shot open, and her hand finally broke free of the wall with what felt like a snap.She stumbled and I caught her, a shudder running down my spine as I released the compulsion magic, leaving behind an oily feeling in my mouth and a sinking in my chest.She wiped the blood off her upper lip.Her whole body was trembling.

‘I got lost,’ she said, staring at the blood.‘I couldn’t stop.It just wanted to keep going.’

‘I shouldn’t have asked you to try that.’I was a fucking idiot.She didn’t know how to resist the pull of magic yet.I should have left her with smaller creations, things with specific limits so there was a constraint on how much magic they could suck from her.‘Don’t try anything that big again.Not for a while.’Not ever, preferably.But she was looking up at the ceiling.And so was everyone else, I suddenly registered.The whole cavern was silent, all those voices of minutes ago gone still, hundreds of eyes roaming the now crystalline ceiling, the walls, the woman who had made it so.The magic had spread even farther than I’d realised.The whole cavern was encased in a shell of diamond.

‘I did that?’Imogen asked, mouth stretching in a shaky smile.‘I want to try again.’

‘You’re not trying again.Look at what it cost you the first time,’ I said, fear tightening my tone, making me sound angry.Iwasangry.Angry she could suggest something so dangerous.

‘You don’t get to decide what I can or can’t do,’ she said, straightening up.

‘Imogen, come on.Rest.Eat something.’I softened my voice, taking her hand.I started to lead her away from the wall and through the crowd that silently parted around us as they gawked at her like she was a fallen star come to life.

‘Alright,’ she agreed, following along.‘But then I’m going to try again.’

And for a moment, I seriously considered my options for getting her out of there.By any means necessary.Because she had a look in her eye I didn’t like.She looked like she’d just discovered the answer to all her worries.

And it looked like she was ready to pay whatever it would cost.

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