Page 7 of The Never Queen

Another step closer. Kas and I keep our position. We are not the type to back down.

“I was…” He casts his gaze out to sea where the last bead of sun is rolling at the horizon. “I was out of line,” he finishes. “Perhaps also unfair.”

I don’t like this.

And I don’t have to look at my twin to know he also doesn’t like this.

“What changed?” I ask, because sometimes I too can stop beating around bushes.

His gaze cuts back. “A new vision for the future.”

That smile again.

Now I really don’t like this.

Kas and I, fae kings banished from our people, have grown accustomed to speaking our fae language to one another with the knowledge that no one could understand us. Pan might understand a few words, sure, but Vane has never bothered to learn, and Darling would require several years of study to understand it.

So it annoys me now that I can’t speak to Kas in the chiming language of the fae without Doren also understanding.

“Will you accept my apology?” Doren asks.

One of the men behind him shifts, catching my eye. There are two men, one woman. No one I know or recognize. But I can feel their hatred for me radiating across the Rock.

I know we have some damage to repair to our reputation within the fae court, but we helped save the fae from our undead mother, Tinker Bell and the hellish dark magic she dragged out of the lagoon with her. Do we not deserve some respect?

Kas folds his thick arms over his chest. “What’s the catch? What do you want?”

“Nothing.” The smile thins on Doren’s stupid fucking face.

“So just like that?”

“Of course.” Doren spreads out his arms. “I bow to you now and in the future, so long as the crown is on your head.”

Why do I get the distinct impression he is playing with words?

So long as the crown is on my head, as if there exists a possibility it will not always be.

I need Doren gone so Kas and I can figure out our next steps. We should probably also tell Pan and Vane.

“Great,” I say, clapping my hands. “What’s done is done. We accept your apology.”

The smile is stretching to his ears now. “I’m glad that’s settled.”

I don’t rattle easily. But the way he says this, it lifts the hair along the back of my neck.

Doren turns to his line of dutiful fae soldiers and together they jump off the Rock and fly off.

I turn to my brother and open my mouth to shit talk that son of a bitch, but Kas gives me a quick shake of his head.

Not yet, is the implication.

I roll my eyes.

“Fine. Race you back home.”

He gives me a shove, and I make a show of stumbling backwards towards the cliff’s edge, arms pinwheeling. “Oh no! Kas! Dear brother! How could you be so cruel to push me over acliff?!” Then I tip backward, laughing, sailing toward the ground, hair snapping in my face.

At the last second, my wings open, back drafting before I hit the ground.