“I mean, how are you after…the party?” I try again, as bluntly as I can bear.
Ninian drops his gaze to his lap. His porcelain pale cheeks tinge pink and he goes as still as a statue. Sadness and misery seem to pour from him until I feel as if I am drowning in the darkness.
“I’m well, thank you,” he repeats. “The court healers are proficient.” He picks up his teacup again and takes a dainty sip.
My stomach twists into a knot. He needed a healer? That’s awful. I mean, it is hardly surprising.But it is still horrendous. And this is not getting me any closer to figuring out how I can help.
“Were the healers kind?” I ask, since proficient isn’t a very comforting choice of word.
Blue eyes peek up at me briefly from a curtain of golden hair. “I have heard of your kindness.”
I swallow. He has? The idea that people talk about me is unnerving, but again, it should not be surprising. I am the human pet of the crown prince. First-born son of the most powerful human and all that.
Maybe this is how I help Ninian? Use my influence somehow to make his life better in whatever small way I can. There has to be something I can do. By the sounds of it, bullying healers into treating their patients with kindness as well as cures, might be a good place to start. And it doesn’t seem too insurmountable a feat.
“Forgive me for being direct,” Ninian says quietly. “Am I here to help you satisfy his Highness, or for your own pleasure?”
Tea nearly goes everywhere as I choke on it. Somehow, I swallow it down without making a complete mess.
“Heaven’s no!” I exclaim as soon as I can breathe again. “Neither! I just wanted to help you, or at least be your friend.”
Ninian’s sapphire eyes are sad and solemn as he meets my gaze. “You can’t help me.”
A shiver dances along my back. His words are an echo of Rhydian’s. What is it with these fey proclaiming that they can’t be saved?
“But can I be your friend?” I ask.
Blue eyes widen for a moment, and then a ghost of a shy smile whispers across his lips. I smile back at him.
He places his cup and saucer neatly on the table. “I’m afraid, if you have no immediate need of me, I must go. I have to prepare for an appointment.”
Something tells me he is not talking about seeing a doctor or a dentist.
“Someone wants to see you tonight?”
Ninian nods and hangs his head.
“Who?” I have a bad feeling about this.
“Duke Carian.”
I stare at him blankly. That name means nothing to me. Which is not surprising as I know hardly anyone’s names.
“Vizier Iestyn’s friend from the party,” clarifies Ninian, and I do not know how his voice only shakes a little.
“The silver creep?” I exclaim in horror.
The one who forced Ninian at the party and drugged Dyfri before carrying him away? No, no. No. This cannot be happening.
A sudden gust of wind whips my hair and my clothes and makes the cutlery rattle. What the hell? What is happening? I look over at the wall in confusion. It is swirling with pink and purple lights. My mind cannot make any sense of what my eyes are telling it. Or cope with the fact that everything has abruptly changed and so very dramatically. I was just having tea and now suddenly it is as if hell itself has been unleashed.
Someone steps through where the wall should be. Someone dressed head to toe in black, with their blond hair up in a ponytail that looks exactly like my mum’s ‘I mean serious business’ ponytail.
My jaw drops open in shock and incomprehension. Itismy mum. I’m not seeing things.
“Mum?” I gasp in sheer and utter bewilderment.
Her green eyes rake all over me and linger on my face. “Oh my baby boy, what have they done to you?”
