Page 7 of The Nymph King

Esa’s hands dropped. “This is… well, this is surprising.”

Imani reached up and touched a petal. “Indeed.”

“What happened to make you leave?”

Imani blew out a breath. “A great deal.”

“Tell me.”

“I don’t want to talk about all of it.”

Esa studied her, then gave her a curt nod, a small mercy that made Imani’s chest ache.

“I let Kiran see the crown,” she said. “And he decided I was dangerous. He… he was never going to let me go.”

“That sounds like him,” she muttered. “And then?”

Rubbing her thumb over the Drasil, Imani deliberated. She could barely think about what happened between her and Kiran, let alone speak it out loud.

Esa merely waited.

“We parted ways,” Imani said eventually.

A scoff escaped the pixie’s mouth. “You expect me to believe Kiran simply let you walk away?”

“No.”

“Good.”

“What happened to you?” Imani asked, desperate to change the subject.

Esa pushed a lock of blue hair out of her eye and exhaled through her nose. “When Magnus died, the binding broke. The one tying us all to Niflheim. I felt it disappear during the attack. One second it was there, the next it was gone. Everyone was running, screaming, trying to figure out who was alive and who was dead. I decided waiting for someone to bind me again would have been foolish.”

“So, you escaped.”

“I escaped very quickly.”

“How?”

“Through a service passage, over a wall, stole a cloak, nearly froze to death, threatened a stable boy, stole his horse too.”

Imani blinked. “You threatened a child?”

“He was seventeen and extremely rude.”

“That makes it better.”

“I thought so.”

They both exchanged an amused look.

“I came south,” Esa continued. “I thought you would come back to the Draswood eventually. You always return to places that hurt you.”

“That is an offensive observation.”

“It’s also accurate.”

Imani pressed her mouth into a hard line but didn’t reply.