Wicked As You Wish (A Hundred Names for Magic #1) - Rin Chupeco Page 0,139

“I saw someone risking his life to save his friends, knowing the toads might still been hanging about, ready to attack. Don’t know what there is to want to forget.”

Ken looked at her. Nya looked back, rather solemn, though the beginnings of a smile were tweezing out the corners of her mouth.

“I am serious, though,” the girl continued. “I think that was very brave of you and your friends.”

“Says the girl who threw pepper at ice wolves without knowing who we were, or what she was getting into,” Ken countered, grinning at the memory. Then the grin faded. “You wouldn’t be thinking that if you knew what happened back in Ikpe.”

“And that was?”

“There was a girl in your village. Iniko.” Ken took a deep breath. He’d rather he never talk about it again, but there was something about Nya that made it very easy to open up, even when she was at her most annoying. “The Deathless had gotten to her. I had to…knock her out, for a little bit. Except I don’t know if she’s going to get better. Someone must have seen me dancing with her earlier, talking. She was a target because of me.”

“You didn’t know. I don’t think even Grammy did.” Nya sighed. “I know Iniko. Prettiest girl in the village. Boys always fell all over each other trying to catch her attention, so I’m not surprised she took your eye. But you feeling guilty about it doesn’t make you at fault. It just makes things really unfortunate. We all knew living with the frost had its perils. But sometimes the danger takes on different shapes we never realized. I’m sorry.”

“Yeah. Thanks. You’re not half-bad yourself.”

A blush came over the girl’s face. Ken couldn’t resist.

“But only if you get past all the stubbornness. Granted, I didn’t spot that immediately when we first met, since there was a falling basin heading for my face at around the same time, but for a girl who’s been holed up in a village for over a decade, Rapunzel, you don’t look half as decrepit as—”

Then Ken had to duck, laughing, as Nya bent to scoop up handfuls of snow to lob at his head.

“Will you guys shut up for like ten seconds?” Alex asked tartly from somewhere to their left, sounding disgusted. The boy looked thinner and paler. He had spent most of the ride to the capital without a word, his eyes closed.

“I can’t help it. I have to talk about it. If I keep it bottled up inside, I’m going to explode.”

“I can turn people into frogs,” Alex said, still sounding irritated. “I’ve had the curse since I was five, and there’s no known counterspell for it. And since it’s temporary, I don’t see why you should keep moaning about it.”

“Easy for you to say,” Ken shot back, stung. “You should see it from this side of the curse. Would have appreciated a heads-up about it too, because I had no bloody idea I was going to sprout webby toes for a good chunk of the day.”

“Was that going to stop you from giving me CPR when I fell through the ice?”

“Well, of course not, but—”

“Then why should it matter?”

“Of all of the…” Ken was ready to go off, prince or not, but Loki was tugging quietly on his sleeve.

“Just ignore him,” they said quietly. “We’ll be at Maidenkeep within half an hour.”

That was true enough. The castle was so close, Ken had wanted to race the rest of the way there, except Loki had also advised caution. There might be more nightwalkers lying in wait, and the last thing they needed were tired horses and misplaced optimism.

“He’s insufferable, is what he is,” Ken groused. “I can understand why he’s pissed about Zoe and Locksley, but that doesn’t give him the right to wail on the rest of us.”

“In shifting ice, a prince you’ll kiss,” Nya said, “and the first shall be forgiven.”

“What?” Ken asked.

“What?” Alex asked, slowly turning in his saddle to stare at the girl.

“It was something Grammy said frequently. I only remembered it now because that’s what happened, right? You kissed a prince in shifting ice. I don’t really know what’s there to forgive, though. Grammy said it was part of a prophecy, though she said she didn’t really know what it means either. How’d the rest of it go again? The sword rises twice from palace stone, and the—”

“Shut up!” Alex shouted.

Nya paused, her mouth open. The prince rounded on her, nearly beside himself