Page 39 of The Serpent Prince

“I need the protection potion. One for sexual diseases and other ailments.”

“Of course. Do you want the pregnancy one, as well?”

Esa shook her head. “He’s not my heartmate, so no need to waste ingredients.”

Imani nodded. She understood. The ingredients for the pregnancy potion were harder to find and expensive.

Before Imani could reply any more, Esa walked away.

It was then that Imani remembered that Esa had murdered her own heartmate, and Kiran knew something about it. Interesting. Esa had her own nefarious deal with Kiran. Imani would uncover the details as soon as she had the chance.

CHAPTER 14

For the rest of the week, thoughts of Nida constantly ran through Imani’s head. It wasn’t guilt. It had happened, it was in the past now, and she didn’t feel remorse for running away. Imani had deadened herself to that type of emotion long ago.

No, selfishly, Nida’s dead corpse made Imani think more about herself than anyone else.

She worried about being one herself, but she also puzzled over why some people lived without their heartmates and others didn’t.

She had heard about people who had killed themselves after the death of their heartmate, but she hadn’t known any of them personally. In fact, the three people she did know who’d lost their heartmates appeared unaffected—Esa, herself, and her grandmother. It was dizzying to think about why, and all Imani could guess was that it came down to either rearing or breeding, or both.

That morning when she arrived in Zadie’s rooms, she learned her teacher had added another student to Imani’s daily routine—Esa. Now the nymph could sit back and watch them spar while barking corrections. As expected, Esa proved to be another challenging opponent.

Imani and Esa had always been good fighters, but Zadie’s training was pushing them both to their limits. Still, Imani couldn’t deny Zadie’s effectiveness—not even two weeks into training and Imani was semi-reliably able to call and disband the shadows on command. Esa could wield multiple types of elemental magic simultaneously now.

Today, they were to work on examining the potential of letting her shadows absorb Imani’s body to see what might occur. Imani felt a pulse of anxiety at the exhaustion she knew would come with such practice. Each day, her entire body was achy and tired. So tired she could barely muster up the energy to search for the royal vaults and the Drasil.

Last night, she’d finished searching the upper floors of her tower, and earlier this week, she’d raided the palace’s public bookcases, sprawling the tomes all over the floor and chipping through words she hardly understood.

Nothing. She needed more evidence, more clues.

Tanyl hadn’t let her read the copy of A History of Royal Bloodlines, and she had a feeling she might need to start there, but it was nowhere to be found in the library. Anywhere she searched put her in danger, as well. As the only high-bred Norn elf in the castle, people’s eyes were on her everywhere she went.

There was only one more day to search before they left with the emissary group. Kiran and his soon-to-be mate would be accompanied by his slew of master witches, including Esa and Imani, as they toured the country and spread goodwill for the throne, especially with the elves. There would be little time or opportunity to search for much, and thinking about the other Norn elf still smarted. But the aching feeling felt different today.

Deeper. Heavier.

She knew she needed to feed again but hadn’t thought it would be this soon. The hunger could have been caused by any number of things—the root binding digging deeper, more training, or both. Either way, now that Tanyl was physically out of her life, she didn’t have much time to figure out a new solution.

At first, Imani had tried the other Norn elf, Luvon. With both their needs, and no heartmates here, it made perfect sense. But as she’d stood outside his door to knock, she could hear him with someone. Her cheeks had flushed, feeling ashamed for not having solved this like he had.

Saevel wasn’t in the palace at the moment, and asking Esa to help her, much like Meira used to, seemed like a bad idea. Imani had to be careful who she opened her mind and soul up to, even if it was one-sided. If she knew a memory spell, she’d use prostitutes like Kiran did, but until then, she’d have to find someone new she could trust.

But who?

The walk back to her rooms was painful after her training. Her muscles protested every step, and she felt like she would vomit at any moment.

Just as she turned the corner down her small, dark hallway, a man—a shifter—appeared standing by her door. Imani whipped her head around. Her rapidly beating heart settled when she found the hallway empty with no one else nearby.

Imani knew this day would come. In fact, she had been waiting for this shifter—Ren—to show up at her door before they’d left since Tanyl had told her he’d be her covert contact between her and the Essenheim Kingdom. How Ren passed information undetected to Tanyl was a mystery to Imani, but he would leave here empty-handed.

Days ago, Imani had decided too many people controlled her, and she wouldn’t have Tanyl move up that list anymore. While she cared about what happened to her siblings, Tanyl was weak. He wouldn’t really truly hurt a pretty young elf like Meira, and he sure as fuck wouldn’t touch an innocent teenager like Dak. Despite what he wanted people to think, Tanyl had honor.

While he probably would hang her for treason, she’d rather die than go back home disgraced without the Drasil. Without it, she was nothing but a doll to be played with and tossed away by two dangerous princes. Without it, magic would never return, and she’d become powerless again. Without it, she’d be … no one.

There was nothing in it for her to continue this deal with Tanyl except risk her own hide, which she wouldn’t do for him.

Ren watched her intently as she approached, his brows wrinkling. It was at that moment, her maidservant, Rosalynn, hustled out of the room. Before either of them could speak, Rosalynn’s eyes slid to the shifter, aware of his stare on Imani, and she cleared her throat.