“Valor, are you alright?” Elwin asked softly. “I think you had a bad dream.” Elwin wondered if they could convince the boy to go back to sleep he would forget about whatever it was he just heard.

Valor gave them a wry little smile. “Always. But what does that have to do with anything?”

Okay, so fat chance that would happen. Elwin looked over at Prin, suddenly nervous. What would he do? Would he see this as a threat? Or just ignore him?

Prin’s face was stricken. He sat down on the end of Valor’s bed. “There are some things . . . you really don’t want to know.” He said.

What if he did want to know? Elwin looked back and forth from one to the other.

“Oh, shut up.” Valor said. Then, softer. “My curse has killed people too.”

Prin exchanged looks with Elwin. His eyes said: Should I? Should I?

Elwin shook his head. He didn’t see what good telling a temperamental teenager a secret that could get the both of them thrown on a pyre would do.

“It’s not the same.” Prin said simply.

“We’re supposed to be helping each other!” Valor said. “I mean, you said you would help me, much as I doubt it’s possible. Don’t you think maybe I can help you too? Or do you not think I’m capable . . .”

“No! That’s not it!” Prin insisted. “It’s just . . .”

“Then, you don’t think I can keep a secret.” Valor nodded his head sagely, and petted a cat with each hand, like some stately royal villain.

Elwin decided they may be a match for each other stubborn-wise. Whatever happened, happened. There wasn’t much he could do about it.

“In that case, I already know too much.” Valor said. “You’ll just have to kill me too.”

Prin laughed nervously. “Don’t be absurd.”

Elwin chewed on his lower lip. He had to wonder if Valor could feel in the air the realness of how his life hung in the balance. How true his words had just been. And he was calling Prin’s bluff in the ultimate game of chicken. Or, just didn’t care all that much what happened to himself.

Either that or he had slightly misjudged things in his childish arrogance and simply thought there was no way Prin would harm him. That they were too good of friends, somehow, after this short time, for that.

Prin crawled across the bed and settled in beside Valor. The look on his face said resignation, tiredness but maybe, a little, relief?

“To start with, I am a prince.” Prin said. “If that hadn’t been my circumstances of birth, none of the rest of it would have happened.”

The prince took his time in the telling of his life story. Even if it did focus heavily on the last few weeks, the only time when anything happened really.

Elwin went to get them breakfast after a while but, other then that, sat quietly at the foot of the bed listening. Checking the hallway once in a while for nosey nellies, but there was never anyone there. No one disturbed them.

Eventually he got up to the part that covered the events from the night before. He told Valor about hurrying down the private hallway to talk to the witch, then paused, remembering something he had not yet told anybody.

“They were talking, Freya and her assistant. About the big surprise, I think.” Prin took a drink of water and picked at the pastry Elwin had brought him. “Something . . . about a room or hall of curiosities? And everyone would love . . . the bug. That’s what they kept saying, something about an insect or a bug, that was supposed to be a part of it. And Freya was supposed to be bringing it out with her. But, the assistant, or whoever she was, kept saying it was dangerous, and Freya shouldn’t keep it.”

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“Hmm, the plot thickens.” Valor said. He had remained mostly quiet this whole time but then said the one thing truly a book reading nerd would say. Maybe, in some ways, he and Prin were two of a kind after all. Besides the obvious.

“Judging from what people were saying, no one seems to know what the surprise was supposed to be.” Elwin said.

“Except the assistant.” Valor said thoughtfully. “It would be interesting to talk to her.”

“I don’t know how we would manage that. But at least she didn’t see me.” Prin said.

“So, after the overheard conversation?” Valor prompted.

“Oh, right. I hid in the shadows, like the snake I am.” Prin said miserably. “When the assistant came out and went down the hallway.”

“It was good instincts.” Elwin said.

Valor frowned in Elwin’s general direction, obviously wishing him to keep his mouth shut so he could forget he was there.

“Then, I went into Freya’s office.” Prin said.

“The bug?” Valor wanted to know.

“I- it all happened so fast, I don’t think I saw it. Or maybe it was hidden somewhere . . . Or I just wasn’t paying attention. Because she started yelling at me and smoke, a weird smelling smoke filled the room. Is this a signature witch move?” Prin said.

“Probably.” Valor said. “Also the trick of a cheap magician trying to seem otherworldly.”

“She acted like she recognized me in some way! Called me spider boy, or something. I don’t know, because I am fairly certain – no, completely certain, we had never met before in my life. Then she attacked me, I think? This part is very fuzzy and I think I passed out. Or . . . it took over. The cursed thing, the thing that craves flesh –” Prin said, a faraway look momentarily passing over the blue of his eyes, like cloud covering.

“Don’t get weird on me.” Valor said.

Prin laughed. “I just am, I’m sorry Valor.”

“Well, me too.” Valor said. “Anyway, so, what else do you remember?”

“I remember I was – It was eating her, and then you came to the door!” Prin said. “And you smelled the blood. And you knew there was a body and said your father would help bury it?”

“That was a hallucination, or some form of trickery.” Valor said. “Although, it doesn’t sound out of character. Like it seems like what may have happened if it actually had been me at the door.”

“Do you think someone really was at the door, someone else?” Prin wondered, as though the possibility had only just occurred to him.

“How could I know?” Valor asked. “I only know it wasn’t me.”

“I know it wasn’t. You had an alibi.” Prin said in a teasing tone.

“And you were sick with drink.” Elwin said.

Valor’s eyes narrowed with a glare.

Elwin vowed internally to try and quit interjecting.

“After that, the next thing I knew I was waking up really me this time. Me like I am right now. And my head hurt a lot and I was really confused. Was it because of the drugged smoke? Anyway, the room was a wreck like a tremendous fight had occurred, that part I still don’t remember, or if anything it was more like an explosion almost. But I knew, vaguely what I had done. However, there was no Freya, no trace of her at all, except for a huge red stain on the carpet. And, I think? The door was locked? Anyway, I sort of snuck out. And I went to the bathroom and splashed water on my face, trying to come out of it a little. And I hugged Elwin and then I saw you and I hugged you too. We think that’s how the blood got on your suit. I’m sorry about that.” Prin said.

“It doesn’t matter.” Valor said. “More importantly, the disappearing reappearing blood?”

“It reappeared this morning. All over our suits, or maybe some time in the middle of the night.” Prin said. “You would think if Freya . . . but how could she? And why? But even if she had, wouldn’t the spell break when she died? She is dead, we’re sure of that right?” Prin’s eyes went as wide as pie plates at the thought.

“Judging by the amount of blood on your jacket, most certainly.” Elwin said. “And the big stain?” He had temporarily forgotten his vow not to talk anymore.

Prin put his hand over his stomach. “It feels like I ate her. I can tell.”

“The illusion could be on a time limit. Gradually wearing off after so many hours. But how, or why, would Freya put an illusion on you? And would she even have been capable. I doubt it.” Valor said.

“I got the impression she was at least somewhat real.” Prin said. “Maybe a real witch but not a very strong one, shoring up the bit of natural ability with parlor tricks.”

“Another witch could have been nearby.” Valor said. “Besides Freya. This is a skill witch’s have, it’s in the books. Making things not really so much go away entirely, but just making them temporarily appear gone. A trick of the eye but on a mass scale effecting all onlookers. It’s in the books.” He repeated. “Or, even making themselves look like someone else, that kind of thing.”

“It’s not something I can do myself, I know that.” Prin said.

“Maybe you can!” Elwin said. “The other you . . .”

“No, no, I don’t know.” Prin said.

“You know who else besides witches can do these things? In fact, they’re even more notorious for being able to cast illusions?” Valor asked. “According to books, anyway.”

“Who?” Prin asked hurriedly, practically tripping over that one simple word in his eagerness to get it out.

“Fae.” Valor said. “Fairies. Whatever you want to call them. And it’s not uncommon, according to books, to have them appear as a small flying insect or other innocuous creature. In other words, a bug.”