Page 14 of Queen of Ever

‘I see you’re conflicted,’ Ruisin added.‘Maybe it’s not so worth it now.’

‘Don’t put words in my mouth.What do you want, a blood oath?’

With a flick of his wrist, one of his fingers shifted, elongating, growing a long, hooked talon that belonged to his dragon form.‘Would you like me to do the honours?’

I extended my arm.He struck with a blur of speed.I yanked back, hissing between my teeth, as blood immediately welled and wept to the floor from a long, deep gash in the palm of my hand.‘That was unnecessary.’

‘Do you want to make the deal or not?’

Warier now, I offered my arm again, and with quick precision he drew a rune in the blood of my palm.

‘One favour,’ I swore, clenching my hands together to staunch the bleeding and ignoring the sense of apprehension sinking through me.

‘I look forward to collecting it.’

He returned his attention to the mirror, tracing his fingers along its surface in a swirl, smearing blood and water across the glass.The image within blurred and spun until threads of colour and light began to bleed into the whirl of grey.The colours sequenced themselves, collecting, until they formed shapes, until the shadows withdrew, and we were left staring at a crowded room.

And there she was.The sight of Imogen swept me up in a whirl of emotions that I didn’t know how to grapple with.Some of it was like a sigh of relief, because she was alive.Healthy.Unharmed, as far as I could see, just as Arun had promised.She was in a glittering ball room, dressed in yards of gold.I should have expected it, but the sight of her in Seelie colours made my fingers twitch possessively.And then the yearning hit me like a blow to the chest, because she wasthere, nothere, and I couldn’t reach out and touch her, couldn’t take her hand, look into her eyes and ask her why she’d left without so much as a goodbye.

‘Surely she’s not this one,’ Ruisin muttered.‘Just let me—’

‘No!’

The vision blinked out just as I swiped my hand at the mirror, like I could snatch it out of the glass and hold it close.But my fingers came away empty.

Ruisin was cocking his head at me, eyebrows drawn up close to his hairline.‘Oh, you’re in trouble.’

‘I thought we’d already established that.’

‘You told me you had a mate trapped in the Seelie Court.That woman looks like shebelongsto the Seelie Court.’

I pressed my teeth tightly together at the idea, staring down into my empty, bloodied palms as that yearning gave way to a dark, gnawing misery.Because he was right.She had been glowing.Happy, even.And suddenly I had to acknowledge what the fog of possession and instinct and anger had been hiding from me: that if she was happy in the Seelie Court, then she was much better off there than with me.She was safe from the queen in the Seelie Court.With me, she wouldn’t be, and as much as I wanted to pretend there would be a way to change that, right now I didn’t have one.

‘You look like you’ve been kicked right in the solar plexus,’ Ruisin mused, and when I looked back up at him he was considering me with a gleam of calculation in his eyes.‘Not what you were expecting to see?’

‘No.But I should have been expecting it,’ I muttered.If only I could talk to her, ask her if she really was alright, if she was happy.If only I could ask her to explain what her relationship with Solas was so I could stop spinning my own explanations.There was too much that had been left unresolved between us when she’d disappeared, vanishing over the Sunder with my greatest rival.

‘Mate bonds aren’t always convenient, are they?’He smoothed his hand over the surface of the mirror, caressing it.‘They can cause such joy.Or such pain.If she is the one you seek, you can take a better look.’Again, the surface of the mirror whirled, clearing on the same scene.I stared so hard at the image of Imogen that my eyes blurred.She was speaking with someone.Some Seelie lord.She smiled.I wished I could hear what she was saying.

‘Touch the glass,’ Ruisin said, ‘and you can get a little closer.’

Hesitantly, I touched my fingers to the mirror.A wisp of portal magic shivered through me, dragging me from my body, through the mirror, not quite unmaking me but untethering me in that distinct way I was used to feeling.And suddenly I was standing in the ballroom, the sound of music and voices crashing down on me after the quiet of the cave.A trio of women approached, and I inhaled sharply as they passed right through me, like I was just a ghost.It made me shudder, but I shrugged off the discomfort of being so insubstantial.I was here for a reason, and I didn’t know how long I’d have.I crept towards Imogen, instinctively expecting her to look my way, to react, toseeme, even though I knew she wouldn’t.

I hissed as someone else walked through me, this one a male dressed all in whites and golds, glittering with gems.I knew only one person who dressed like that.

‘You two were looking very serious over here,’ Solas said, threading Imogen’s arm through his, leaning in to speak the words.

‘Yes, Niall was helping me to understand the court a little better,’ she replied, but I could barely hear her because blood was rushing in my ears, heat rising, possessive rage churning through me as they exchanged a few more lines with the lords they’d been talking to.I tried to breathe, tofocus, as I drew closer to her, reached out to hover my hand over the smooth skin of her arm, imagining I could feel the warmth rolling off of her, pretending for a moment that I really could touch her if I just moved my fingers a little closer.But when I gave in and tried it, my hand passed right through her arm without even raising the hairs on her skin, without garnering any reaction at all.Then she turned, and for a moment hope caught me off guard, made me believe she was turning towards me.But she was talking to Solas.He was leading her somewhere.She couldn’t feel that I was here.

They began to walk.I followed.

‘You have an awfully serious look on your face, rabbit,’ Solas said, and that little pet name,rabbit, made me want to wrap my hands around his throat and squeeze very tightly.‘Did Niall say something to upset you?’

‘Do you think we could take a break?’Imogen replied.‘I’m a little tired.’

‘Yes, of course.Let me get you a drink, I won’t be long.’And then he brought her hand to his fucking lips, kissed her fingers like she was his to kiss, and it didn’t matter if I wasn’t really in the room with them, because I was going to rip whatever magic bound the portal, step through and kill him.Slowly.Languidly.

But the scene was yanked away just as suddenly as it had appeared, and I was falling.

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