Kaelan dug one of his own wasters into the sand. “I hadn’t really thought about it.”
“Well, now is the time,” she said, wiping the sand from her arm and the back of her pants. “And I have an idea.”
“Of course you do,” Damion said.
She stepped forward, catching sight of Honey again. “Is she—?”
“I can hear you,” the nymph said in a strangely melancholy voice.
“Good . . . I guess,” Magda said, frowning.
Honey certainly wasn’t the ebullient nymph she had been before they’d flown to the island. But Magda would worry about it later. First, she had to deal with Kaelan.
“You need to look like a Prince and you’ll need a convincing backstory to explain where you’ve come from.”
“You do seem to have a bit of a propensity for finding lost Princes, Mistress,” Damion remarked, flinging some sand over at Kaelan with the end of his stick. Kaelan swiped some back.
Magda ground her teeth. “Are you two done?”
They both straightened up, suppressing grins.
“Go on, Mistress,” Damion said, waving one of his sticks at her.
She marched over and grabbed it from him, breaking it in two.
“Someone woke up in a bad mood,” he said as she pitched the sticks away. “Are you always this cheerful in the morning?”
Actually, early mornings always left her grumpy, but she wasn’t about to admit it.
“Your aunt Flor, does she still live at the meadow by the gulch?” Magda asked him.
He lifted a shoulder. “Last I heard, but what do you want from that mad old lady? She has no pull in the family anymore. Ever since...” His eyes widened. “Oh.”
“That’s right,” she said, backing up and giving Kaelan a once over. “He’d be about the right age, wouldn’t he?”
“He’s a few years too young.” Damion cocked his head at Kaelan, swinging his stick up onto his shoulder.
Kaelan looked from her to Damion and back again. “What are you two talking about?”
“I had a cousin,” Damion said. “On my father’s side. A Prince. Caden. He was killed in an accident when he was fourteen.” Damion glanced over at Magda. “He liked to climb.”
Magda’s heart twisted. The image of Caden, body contorted and bloodied sprawled at the bottom of the cliff, rose up from the trenches of her memory. One more loss amongst many. Even though Caden had been six years older, he’d been one of the few people she’d ever considered a friend.
“But what if he didn’t?” Magda said to Damion. “What if... he’s been in hiding?”
Damion bounced the stick on his shoulder. “Why? How?”
“Everyone always knew my mother wanted me to claim Caden eventually, right? But the age difference made things difficult. He was going to come of age long before I would. So my mother decided that he needed to be hidden in the human world, but she never told anyone, except... Flor.”
Damion puttered. “I don’t know, Magda.”
“We have to convince her.”
“But he’s not Caden,” Damion said. “It would be cruel.”
“We won’t lie to her about that. But she’s the key. If she says it’s him, everyone else will believe.”
“Why would she do that? She’s been in mourning for thirteen years.”
