Claiming the Prince: Book One (13 page)

“I must go after Kirk—”

“You have another problem,” Tamia said.

“What?”

“Guests.”

Magda pushed up to her feet. “Who? Endreas? Lavana?”

“No. Good luck, Magda. We’re counting on you.” Tamia’s face sank into the earth, the pool swirling and then rejoining the trickle flowing down the belly of the gulch.

Hero scampered up her leg and onto her shoulder again. At the same moment, the bramble across the way coiled apart, creating an opening. A golden-haired nymph with a rose-leaf complexion stormed between the bushes and glared down Magda.

“You!” She leapt down gracefully into the muck. White gown fluttering, she charged up and, with a dainty nymph hand, slapped Magda across the face.

A
LTHOUGH A
nymph-slap was about as painful as a mosquito bite, it was far more irritating.

“What was that? And who are you?” Magda asked, glaring down at the glowing beauty.

“Don’t act like you don’t know! Stay away from him!” She raised her hand like she might strike again. “You’re not going to take him from me!”

Magda unleashed her finger-knives, sweeping the blades up between them. “I wouldn’t.”

Then in the gap above, Kaelan appeared. He leapt down.

“You think I’m scared of your shiny little toys?” the nymph sneered.

“Hon, don’t,” he said, seizing the nymph’s shoulders and pulling her back.

“Don’t protect her!” the nymph said, thrashing against his grip.

“I think I can protect myself just fine.” Magda lowered her knives, but kept them out, backing away from both of them. She raised a brow at Kaelan. “What are you doing here?”

“It’s not my fault,” he said. “She smelled you.”

“That’s right! All over you!” the nymph cried, wriggling free from him. “You cheating, lying, imp-hole!”

Magda chuckled.

“You think this is funny?” the nymph shouted at her. “You may be a Rae, but if you think that I’m going to step aside as you steal Kaelan from me—”

“Honey, I told you,” Kaelan said in a strained, but patient tone. “She wasn’t the one who stole me. She helped me escape.”

“Yes, I can tell how she helped you. You stink of her.”

Magda held up her hands, drawing back her blades. “All right . . . whoever you are.”

The nymph folded her arms over her chest. “My name is Honeysuckle.”

Magda’s throat squeezed, forcing the laugh back down.

“Honeysuckle,” she said, in a measured tone. “I have no interest in your . . .”—she fluttered her hand at Kaelan—“him.”

The nymph’s huge cornflower blue eyes wavered. “You say that—”

“I’m not just saying it. I’m living it, right now. I’m leaving. And I won’t even cut off your hair for striking a Rae,” she said, giving them a wide berth as she headed for the opening the nymph had made in the brambles.

“You don’t fool me,” Honeysuckle snapped. “I will not allow you to drag him back into your nasty Pixie world after everything that’s been done to keep him safe.”

Magda rolled her eyes. “Wonderful.”

She shot Kaelan a black look that she hoped he understood.
Get this nymph out of here
. But he just stood there looking exasperated.

She jumped to catch a root at the top of the gully’s edge, but before she could fix her grip, Honeysuckle grabbed her waistband and heaved her back, into the mud. Hero flew from her shoulder before impact.

Honeysuckle squealed, leaping back. “Keep that filthy thing away from me!”

Magda landed with a grimace, the breath knocked out of her, and her clothes, once again, caked.

She stared up at the clouds, now turning indigo as the last of the sunlight melted away. “Why?” she asked the heavens, but as always, received no response.

Then Honeysuckle screamed again, a full, real scream. Magda pushed up on her elbows in time to receive a face full of mud as Honeysuckle splashed by into Kaelan’s arms.

In the gap above, Damion appeared, glaring down at the scene, sword in hand.

“Damion,” she said, extracting herself from the goop. “Are you all right? I was afraid you’d been killed. Riker was taken.”

Damion leapt down, sneering at Honeysuckle. The nymph squeaked and buried herself deeper into Kaelan’s arms.

“I know,” he said. “I’m sorry. I sent him ahead while I fended off the ogre. I managed to escape, but I couldn’t find him. I went back and tracked him down into the portal, back here. I lost his trail. I was headed home when I picked up your scent.”

“I would hug you, but I’m covered in mud.”

A small smile pulled at his lips. “I see that.”

“I’m just glad you’re alive. Now we can get out of here.”

“Who are they?” Damion asked, demeanor hardening again as he turned to Kaelan and Honeysuckle.

“We were just leaving,” Kaelan said.

“You fought an ogre?” Honeysuckle said, gazing at Damion over her slight shoulder as if he were the ogre.

“Why is that Prince hanging onto a nymph?” Damion asked Magda like Honeysuckle hadn’t spoken. “Who is he?”

“I’m no one,” Kaelan said before Magda could respond. “Honey, we must go.” He started to draw her away, but she didn’t move, staring down at the ground with tears in her overlarge eyes.

“It’s no use,” she said. “You’ve been found, Kaelan. Just as Ouda said.”

“You can’t listen to Ouda,” Kaelan said.

But the nymph had her face buried in her hands, sobbing now. Damion leaned away as if she had a disease. Kaelan looked to Magda. She didn’t know what he expected her to do. She didn’t have any experience dealing with weepy nymphs.

“Go with them, Kaelan, just go. They’re your kind. You belong with them,” Honey said through choked, snotty sobs.

“He’s not invited,” Magda said.

“Where are we going?” Damion asked her in a soft voice. “My father’s people will assist us if we—”

“We’re going to the Spire,” she said. “I sent Kirk ahead with the Enneahedron.”

“Python’s brownie?”

“He serves me now.”

Damion didn’t look reassured. “And then?”

“And then . . .”—she heaved a deep breath—“I will vie for Radiant.”

Damion smiled. “I knew—”

“You said you didn’t want to be Radiant,” Kaelan interjected.

“Didn’t I tell you to leave?” Magda said to him. “Take your twig and go.”

Damion drew his sword. “What’s that?” He pointed the blade down. Two gleaming black eyes peered up at the curved length of gild-silver.

“It’s Hero,” she said, scooping him up. “Sorry about all the falling, friend.”

“Is that the rat from Lavana’s dungeon?” Kaelan asked.

“Yes. Would you like to give him a kiss to thank him for saving us?” She held Hero out, but he squirmed free and clamored up her arm.

“No, thanks,” Kaelan said. “Let’s go, Hon.”

“You have to listen,” the nymph said, peering up at Kaelan. “Ouda told me—”

“You can’t listen to—”

The nymph pressed her dainty fingers to Kaelan’s lips, silencing him. “I know what some say about Ouda. But she spreads those frightening rumors herself to keep people away from the Elder Tree. She is the Hylde-Moer.”

Kaelan shook his head as if in disbelief, but Honey pressed on.

“When she saw that you were pursuing me, she called me to her tree and told me the truth. Why you were hidden among us. Why you were made to appear an imp until you were of age—”

“Ha!” Magda barked. “That
was
you!”

He scowled over Honey’s head at her.

Damion leaned in to Magda. “Let’s go,” he whispered.

“I know why,” Kaelan said. “My mother was killed. My father didn’t want me to suffer life with a Rae.” His gaze fixed on Magda as he spoke.

She made a face at him and gestured for Damion to lead the way out of the gully.

“That’s what your imp parents told you, but that’s not what happened,” Honey said. “You were brought to Ouda by a sylph, a spirit of wind. You were not hidden by your parents. You were hidden from your parents.”

Damion leapt up to the top of the gully.

“Why didn’t Ouda tell me this—?”

“She planned to—”

“But why did she tell you?”

Magda set Hero next to Damion’s foot. He reached down for her.

“She warned me not to fall in love with you, because one day you’d have to return to your rightful place as a Prince. That was why she took you in, because the sylph told her that the Elf King was hunting for you. He was afraid of you. That’s why you were stolen away.”

Magda pulled her hand away from Damion’s before he could help her up. “What did you say?”

Honey glanced back at Magda, her face like a marble sculpture, hard yet glorious. “I said that my Prince has a greater destiny than he realized.”

Magda gazed down at the bottom of the gully, where the shadows thickened as night rose. “Get out of the way. Move.” She herded Honey and Kaelan back from the trickle. “Tamia. Please, return. I must speak to you.”

“Who is she talking to?” the nymph said. “Is there a water spirit here?”

“I can’t believe this,” Kaelan was muttering. “I have to speak to Ouda myself.”

“You don’t believe me?” Honey pouted. “Why would I lie?”

“You wouldn’t,” Kaelan said. “But . . . so I was stolen from whom? And why? Why would the Elf King want me dead?”

Magda gazed down at the tranquil trickle. Tamia would not return, she knew. Not before strangers.

“Because you’re the one who will signal the end of the Crown and the Throne,” Magda breathed. “The child whose birth portends the unification of Alfheim.”

“How do you know that?” Honey asked.

“That’s why the Elf King of old began to wipe out the oracles,” she said. “Because they foretold this.” She chewed her lip as she thought. “But I don’t understand why the Elf King would want to kill you if Endreas intends to be the one to take over and bring Alfheim under Elven rule.” She scowled. “I hate prophecies.”

“Endreas?” Damion jumped down again. “Who is that?”

“We have to go with you,” Honey announced.

They all stared at the nymph. All three began to protest at once.

“No—” Kaelan said.

“Travel with a nymph?” Damion sneered.

“That’s a really bad idea,” Magda said.

“No. It’s the only solution, I see that now,” Honey said. She clasped Kaelan’s face in her hands. “I thought I could keep you for myself, but I have to think of you and the other small folk. You will only be safe with your own kind. You are a Prince. The Raes will be drawn to you”—she threw a cold look over her shoulder at Magda—“like this one was.”

“No, no, no,” Magda said, holding up her hands. “I have enough problems—”

“The nymph might be right,” Damion said grudgingly.

“Please,” Magda said to him, putting her hands together. “I beg you. Don’t say that.”

“If Lavana has Riker, then you are without a Prince. Even if you have the Enneahedron, so long as she has a Prince, she has a chance to challenge. But if you have both the Enneahedron and a Prince, the family will have no grounds to support her. A challenge will not be accepted. You will not have to fight her for it.”

“I’m not being claimed,” Kaelan said.

Honey’s eyes began to leak again.

“I don’t want to claim you,” Magda said. “Remember? I promised. And I keep my word.”

“You don’t have to claim him. You promised your mother wouldn’t claim one until you became Radiant anyway. The family knows this,” Damion said. “But so long as you have a Prince by your side, the family will have no choice but to support you.”

“There are ways, Damion, you know that,” she said. “If they really don’t want me—”

“Do you think anyone really supports Lavana?”

“I don’t know. God, I hate this. I’ve been back home less than a week and I’ve already been tortured and starved and stalked . . . and nymph-slapped.”

“I’m not agreeing to this,” Kaelan said.

“You must,” Honey said. “She can protect you. And if she becomes Radiant, then she will have a chance at the Crown. The Elf King wants you dead. The only way you’ll be safe now is with your own kind.”

He clasped her hands between his. Magda bit her cheek and turned away. If the Elf King really was hunting Kaelan, for whatever reason, then it was all the more dangerous for him to be with her. Combing the brambles as the sunlight gave over to starlight, she saw no movement except for ghostly fairy flashes. But she hadn’t seen Endreas before either. If he was eavesdropping now, it was too late. He would already know Kaelan was the one his father was searching for. That is, if Kaelan was the one prophesied, which she wasn’t entirely convinced was true.

“Where is this Ouda?” she asked.

“She wouldn’t see you,” Honey said, nose wrinkling.

“We don’t have time,” Damion said. “We have to find the Enneahedron.”

“I want to speak to Ouda too,” Kaelan said. “I refuse to believe that I am no longer safe. Lavana’s capturing me doesn’t mean anything. I was not being careful . . .”

Honey was shaking her head, but he grasped her arms.

“I love you. Nothing will change that.”

“You’re fooling yourself, Prince,” Damion said. “No offense, nymph.”

Magda resisted the urge to smack him. “Damion—”

“Stay out of this,” Kaelan snapped at Damion.