He looked away, shaking his head. “I don’t know what I want. I thought I did but...”
“But what?”
“I keep wondering,” he said, as if thinking aloud, “what it would’ve been like to be him. To have been born first. To be the one who was kept. Would I be like him? A warrior, a true Prince? Would he be the one standing here, hiding behind a dead man’s face? I wonder how it was I escaped. Who was the sylph? And about my mother... Do you know anything about her?”
She sighed. “No, I’m sorry.”
He leaned in. “Maybe you can ask Endreas the next time you see him. That is, if you spend any time talking.”
Her back stiffened. “What do you—?”
“I’m not really surprised that you’re attracted to him, Magda. After all, he’s a real Prince,”—he stepped back, holding out his arms—“I’m just an imp pretending to be one.”
He couldn’t have known about Endreas, could he? How? Had Meer told him?
“You didn’t... while I was...” she stammered, trying to come up with a way to ask without arousing suspicion. “After they untied you, you didn’t try to come into my room, did you?”
Everything had been such a blur. She had no idea how long Endreas had been with her or when he had left. Could Kaelan have entered her room and seen something? If he hadn’t been tied up the entire time, he could’ve used the Shadow Realms...
Her heart leapt into a gallop.
He folded his arms and cocked his head, gazing down at her with flat silver eyes. “You look worried,” he said. “Do you really think you’re so irresistible?”
“I was in my Shine—” she said through her teeth.
“Oh,” he said. “And if I had come into your room during your Shine, then what? You wouldn’t remember?”
She chewed her lip. Was she unnerved by his hard attitude? Or was it because she feared he might find out she’d been with Endreas?
“Kaelan—”
“It’s Cae,” he said sharply. “Caden. I am a Pixie Prince, and I have been in exile for the last fourteen years, waiting, for you. And since I went through all that trouble, you can do me a favor and forget about the imp and the Elf. You need me and I’m here. Try to remember that, puppy.”
“THIS IS ALL VERY EXCITING,”Flor said the next morning as Damion reached down and helped her onto Anqa’s back. “I’ve never flown before.”
Magda stretched her neck and rolled her shoulders, attempting to loosen the knots.
“How do you find the armor?” Meer asked.
“It’s fine,” she muttered distractedly.
She watched Hero and Honey mount Anqa. She’d hoped that Hero would return to her, but he’d remained with Honey the whole night and it appeared he was content to stay with her. Magda missed the familiar warmth and weight of him on her shoulder.
“Fine?” Meer repeated. “It took me nearly two hours to mend your horrendous lace-work and then I had to clean—”
Magda dropped to a crouch next to Meer, lowering her voice, as Kaelan and Gur strode towards her. “Why was Kaelan released early? I asked you to keep him tied up.”
Meer’s tiny lips puckered. “Your Shine burned out after two days. The rest of the time, you slept. You were quite exhausted.”
She ignored the archness of the brownie’s last words. “Then you know—”
“I did as I was instructed,” the brownie said, crossing her arms tightly. “Fair winds. We will meet you at the Spire.” Then she popped away.
If Meer had done as Magda had instructed, then why did she still feel this unease? Perhaps it was because every time she closed her eyes, flashes of Endreas intruded. She hadn’t slept even a few minutes the night before.
Kaelan and Gur stopped a few feet from her. Flor laughed, sandwiched between Damion and Honey as Anqa lifted off the ground.
Once they were in the air, Kaelan gripped Gur’s mane and hoisted himself up. The brownies had done a spectacular job of outfitting him in a Princely fashion: long sleeveless cloak, brown jerkin cinched at the waist over a silvery tunic and fitted trousers, scintillating Pixie-cloth greaves, and tall boots. But the clothes and his utterly convincing disguise as Caden weren’t as compelling as the way he moved. As though by donning Caden’s visage, he’d also acquired Caden’s fluidity of grace—so relaxed as to be on the verge of uncontrolled. Why was it so disturbing for her to think that he’d grown accustomed to living in Cae’s body?
