“My boy was very concerned he would not be able to heal you,” the imp said to Magda.
“You’re Kaelan’s...mother?” she asked, ignoring the way Kaelan’s face hardened and Damion’s showed amusement.
“Yes, yes! Poppy. Call me Poppy.”
“Is this your home, Poppy?” she asked, gesturing up to the towering tree.
“Yes.” Poppy clasped her knotty fingers together before her, exposing her multitude of dagger-like teeth in what Magda assumed was meant to be a smile.
“Thank you, Poppy,” she said, “for your gracious hospitality.”
Poppy launched up into the air. “I will bring you food and water. You must be very hungry. Yum, yum! Wait here!”
She darted away again.
Kaelan stared fixedly at the ground, jaw working.
“Your mother is very kind,” Magda said to him.
His gaze cut up to her, as if he thought she were teasing.
“Thank you for healing me,” she said to him.
The hard expression on his face softened.
She pressed her hand against the tree as she rose to her feet.
“You don’t need to stand,” Damion told her as he stood too, hands out to catch her if she fell.
“Yes, I do,” she said. “How long have I been sleeping?”
“Three days,” Damion reported.
“Is that all? It feels much longer,” she said, leaning her shoulder heavily upon the tree. “What’s happened?”
“Nothing,” Damion said. “You’ve been healing, and I’ve been doing my best to get thisPrince”—he struck Kaelan’s chest with the back of his hand, causing Kaelan to stumble a few steps—“up to form.”
“Lavana?”
“She’s left the forest,” Kaelan said, rubbing the spot where Damion had hit him. “Gone west.”
“Towards the Spire,” she said.
“We don’t know,” Damion said.
Magda shoved her bangs back from her face. “She will attempt to lay claim—”
“Even if she does, the window remains open,” Damion said. “The year is not done.”
“But the Crown is ill,” she said. “Isn’t she?”
Damion’s shoulders sagged.
“In such circumstances, Lavana could make a case to have the matter settled sooner.”
“Only if it is known the Crown is dying,” Damion said. “Right now it’s only a rumor.”
Magda plucked at her lip with her teeth, lost in the brume of her thoughts, until the weight of Kaelan’s gaze drew her out of herself.
