Page 71 of The Prince and the Ice King

“N-no,” Reardon admitted with a flicker of sorrow, “but I was inside them.”

He proceeded to brashly tell them what he’d already told Zephyr, including his inane ideals over Barclay’s vision and Jack being hislove.

“I may have acted rashly, but I refuse to believe I’m wrong. Unless….” Reardon looked to Barclay, who had released him by now but had still been in contact with him for some time.

“I… can’t say for sure,” Barclay said slowly, “but it isn’t impossible.”

“See!”

Fools—all of them.

“I had to see the king straight off when I awoke,” Reardon continued, “but I came here next for more reason than just to offer you all news. The truth is, I have two missions now. To break the curse, of course, first and foremost, for everyone’s sake, including that of my kingdom. But as I work to melt the king, I also intend to find out what killed my mother, so that when I return home, I can catch whoever did it.”

He turned imploringly to each of them, saving Caitlin for last, who didn’t seem surprised.

“Will you help me?”

Reardon hadn’t spoken of his mother’s death since he first arrived, yet now he believed he could catch the culprit? None of those with him laughed at the notion. In fact, they each offered heartfelt agreement to help however they could, even Liam.

“It’s going to come down to days, maybe weeks of experiments,” Caitlin said.

“Liam’s favorite pastime,” Shayla teased, catching her lover’s eye with a smirk. “That means more foraging together, Reardon, trying as many different combinations as we can until we get it right.”

“It hadn’t occurred to me to try before…,” Caitlin said softer, wistful and sad, only to bolster herself and hold her head higher. “But I think we know enough to figure it out. Discovering the right alchemical combination for whatever the poison was, however, won’t necessarily reveal who used it.”

“I know,” Reardon conceded, “but it will help me narrow down who did if the person has used the same poison since, and it would allow us to create an antidote.”

“What of melting the king?” Josie queried playfully.

Reardon’s smitten expression was like a bright summer sun. “When we first made our deal, he asked me what my arguments would be to change the hearts of my people once I returned home. I think I know now. If love can truly break a curse, who could say that only certain kinds of love or the people experiencing it are good and others are not? I know the truth. I just need to convince him.”

Fools, Jack thought again.All fools….

But maybe he was a fool too, because it took feeling the burn of eyes on him to realize he’d been staring at Reardon so intently, he hadn’t noticed when Josie turned to look at him.

She couldn’t see him through the missing stone, it was far too hidden and dark, but she didn’t hide that she knew he was there. Her smugness made him glance away, bringing his eyes to his obvious ice trail, frost covering the stones beneath him and on the wall.

Reardon used the tunnels. He’d see Jack’s ice; he’d known he followed him, watched him, especially after Jack had admitted as much last night. Reardon must have noticed other times these past many days….

Even so, Jack stayed, unable to bring himself to retreat.

It was nearly lunchtime, so the small gathered crew only got so far as a plan for initial foraging that Shayla and Reardon would see to later. Jack followed afterward like a tether connected them, watching Reardon eat in the great hall, where he met up with Nigel, pulling him aside once the meal was done. Jack hadn’t thought much of Zephyr’s earlier mutterings, but Reardon clearly had.

“He thinks I’m bored of him?” Nigel said, stopping short in the hall where they’d found themselves alone—as far as they knew. “That’s why he keeps trying to anger me?”

“It seems so,” Reardon said with the gentle patience of a friend who’d known Nigel for years. “I wonder if he’s so worried, he’d rather push you away than have you leave him first.”

Nigel wasn’t the type to show candid emotion, more likely to grin and joke and distract, like the charlatan he’d once been. Now he dropped all pretense completely. “The truth is… I’ve been fearing he feels thatway toward me. How many lovers do you know who’ve been together almost two hundred years?”

“But doesn’t that only prove your love?”

“It does for me.” Nigel surprised Jack with his certainty, and then laughed. “Yet I still feared the same thing he does.”

Reardon’s sympathetic smile suddenly dropped, and he whispered, “What if he’s listening now?”

“No, I can always tell,” Nigel assured him. “Technically, if he wants to know something, he can still tap into the whispers of the wind, even if they’ve already faded, but I can feel when he’s active. Surprising the Spymaster requires finesse, but no one is better up to that task than the man before you.” He gave a little bow. “I am going to prove Zephyr is being a fool. Just like I was.”

“Not exactly what I was striving for.” Reardon chuckled. “But I can support that.”

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