Elora hung close to the wall as she took small steps backward. The queen kept stirring her soup without lifting the spoon to her lips.
The fae nearby continued to treat Elora as if she were in their way when they nearly trampled over her. It didn’t matter if they bumped her arm or stepped on her foot. But if another fae managed to feel her sword, she might not get away as easily as she had the first time.
Using the bottom of her forearm, she pushed the pommel of her sword upward, so the blade hung more vertically. That would make it easier to keep fae from running into it, but it took a fair amount of maneuvering to move the sword without looking suspicious. Since the fae could only see her glamoured servant clothes, she couldn’t very well reach for the sword’s hilt.
Elora’s breath hitched as the queen finally brought the silver spoon to her mouth. After parting her lips, the queen took one bite of soup. And then she went back to talking.
So much sword training had left Elora with a few awkward quirks. Unfortunately, one of those was grunting when something frustrated her. She let out the grunt without taking a moment to consider her surroundings.
Right when the noise left her lips, the same fae who had hissed at her earlier happened to be walking by. He turned on her with a glare, seeming to remember all at once how angry he had been when he first bumped her sword.
She curtsied. It probably didn’t make any sense to do so since he wasn’t a member of royalty, but the years under her mother’s roof had apparently taught her something. As she rose from the curtsy, she wondered if fae even knew what a curtsy was.
The fae snarled, showing off sharply pointed teeth.
Her throat bulged with a gulp. It was probably a good time to run.
One last glance went toward the queen. She had abandoned the silver spoon altogether, but luckily was now tilting the bowl upward to pour the soup straight into her mouth. Did she not need to chew the meat and vegetables before swallowing them?
With the angry fae closing in on her, Elora shook her head. The queen’s eating habits were the least important thing to worry about at the moment. And either way, she had finally eaten the soup, and with it, the memory elixir that would make her forget Prince Brannick.
Elora pranced behind a fae wearing a heavy green brocade gown. While the angry fae still moved after her, she quickly jumped behind another fae wearing a heavy red coat and a thick fur hat.
She continued to jump and prance behind guests until the angry fae had lost sight of her. Considering how heavy her breaths came out, it probably wouldn’t take him long to find her again. Leaving the party for a few minutes to catch her breath seemed like the only reasonable thing to do. She’d look for the prince soon after.
The large ballroom doors opened into a hall with white sparkly walls and ornately framed landscape paintings. A red and white patterned rug covered the polished wood floor. Only a few steps down the hall, a door stood ajar.
When she heard a familiar hissing sound from that angry fae, Elora jumped into the room and slammed the door closed behind her. The hissing had seemed to come from inside the ballroom, so hopefully the fae hadn’t seen her hiding spot.
It soon became apparent that the room wasn’t empty as she had assumed. A man lounged on a sofa upholstered with gray and white brocade. His face turned toward the back of the sofa, but she could still see a pointed ear on the side of his head. He wore the same white brocade with shimmery thread as the guard who had been speaking to the queen.
Even more telling, a leather breastplate of armor had been draped over a nearby chair. At least this wasn’t the prince whose father the queen planned to poison. Still, it was clearly one of the queen’s guards. Just what Elora needed.
He lazily tipped a goblet to his lips as he turned to face her. Maybe if she had moved quickly, she could have left the room before he noticed her presence.
But when he faced her, her heart stopped.
The other fae were beautiful, but him? His light brown skin had copper undertones. She had seen people with darker skin, but only travelers, not anyone who lived in her village. His radiant eyes might have been every color or no color at all. They seemed to change depending on how she breathed. Except she couldn’t breathe.
Black hair hung from his head, landing just below his shoulders. He ran a free hand through it, mussing the straight part down the middle of his head.
A smirk lifted one corner of his mouth, and that was it. She could die right there and she’d be happy because she had just witnessed the most beautiful thing in the world.
He let out a chuckle before sipping from his goblet again, which only proved that he perfectly understood the effect he had on her. Sweat broke out on her palms just thinking about it.
If only her father could have found someone who looked like this fae for her to marry. She would have agreed to it gladly.
As he took another lazy swig from his crystal goblet, his other hand reached for the knife hanging on a belt in his leather armor. Elora’s senses sharpened to a point while her hand automatically went for her sword hilt.
By the time the fae touched one finger to his knife, she already had her sword drawn and pointed at his chest. Her heart refused to stop racing at the perfection of his appearance, but that wouldn’t stop her from defending herself.
The flutters had stopped her from noticing something important though. She had assumed her sweaty palms were strictly a consequence of his striking features. But the wrist on her left hand was much warmer than the right.
The necklace from Kaia was warming up.
This was the prince she was supposed to rescue, and she was pointing a sword at his heart.
Without warning, a black-furred creature jumped over the sofa. His snarling teeth and spit made his form difficult to distinguish, but Elora recognized the shape to be a wolf just as the creature’s paws hit the rug. His jaw snapped together as he growled at her.
Now her heart raced for a whole different reason. She reacted without thinking and threw her body in front of the prince. The blade of her sword swung at the wolf, but the creature dodged each blow.
With so much emotion rushing through her, she reached for a tactic her father had often used during tournaments. Intimidation. “Stay back, beast!”
She whirled the sword down, attempting to slice through the wolf’s neck, but he moved too quickly for her. She edged herself in a more protective stance in front of the prince and spun her sword in a circle while maintaining eye contact with the wolf.
The creature took a step back. He continued glaring at her but didn’t step forward again.
From behind her, the prince burst into laughter. It sounded like stones rolling around at the bottom of a wet bucket. Rough but still sweet.
The prince tossed his long hair out of his face as he got to his feet. He gestured toward the wolf. “Blaz was trying protect me from you.” He narrowed one eye at her. “Neither of us expected you to jump in front of me like that.”
Her eyes slowly wandered back to the gray and black wolf. He no longer snarled, but he still glared at Elora like he wanted to rip the flesh from her bones. “That thing has a name?”
That earned her a nasty glance from the fae prince. When he looked back at the wolf, the creature padded over to him and stood directly at his side.
The prince rubbed his fingers over the fur on the wolf’s neck, but now he turned to look at Elora. His eyes moved up and down her entire body, which would have been strange under any circumstances. It was doubly so with a glamour of strange clothes hiding her true self. One of his eyebrows lowered as he stared at the spot where her sword had come from.
He seemed to be able to see the sword now that she held it in her hand, but he clearly hadn’t seen it before. Maybe he guessed that she wore a glamour.
With fingers still stroking the wolf, the prince said, “A mortal who is a master with a sword.” He glanced down at the wolf, who was already staring back at him. “Interesting, isn’t it?” The wolf almost seemed to nod as the prince turned his eyes to Elora once again. “I might need to borrow you.”
There her heart went again, racing like she’d never seen a man before. She fumbled with her sword, trying to fit it back into its sheath. It clattered to the ground. “I’m here to rescue you.” She blurted out the words before plucking her sword off the bearskin rug that covered the floor.
The stupid glamour must have caused her to miss the sheath. That had to be the cause.
“Rescue me? How exciting.” The prince blinked his darkened eyes while the faintest hint of regret passed through them. “Sadly, I cannot be rescued. I have already attempted every conceivable loophole.”
She gripped her sheath with one hand as she forced the sword inside. This time, it went in with no trouble. Somehow, her eyes wandered over to the wolf’s. He eyed her suspiciously, which didn’t even seem possible for a wolf. But at least he looked less eager to chomp through her bones.
“I am trapped by a bargain.” Prince Brannick looked off in the distance and plucked a white feather from a hidden pocket of his coat, then swiftly returned it. “I must follow any order the queen gives me, and she gives me new orders each dawn. The first order is always that I must not leave Fairfrost. Even if I waited until dawn to run away—which I have tried—she’d just order me back to the palace, and I would have to obey. I have tried everything to get away.”
Elora allowed her eyes to flick back to the prince. Bad idea. Her stomach twisted into a knot immediately. She jerked her head away and went to a window at the edge of the room. “Why doesn’t the queen give you orders that last longer than a day? Why does she have to give you new orders each dawn?”
“She does that with her other guards.” The fabric of his coat swished as he moved behind her. “But I’m a prince. I’m harder to control, even with a bargain. My magic sets me free each dawn, but once she gives me new orders, I’m imprisoned again.”
With a swift nod, Elora stared out the window. Even though she had entered the palace at ground level and hadn’t gone up any stairs, the window appeared to be two or three stories above ground. It must have been a fae trick.
Her voice came out soft while her brain tried to work. “I just gave the queen a memory elixir that will make her forget everything she has ever known about you. As long as she doesn’t see you between now and dawn, the elixir will make her forget you.”
“Ah, a memory elixir, clever.” He joined her at the window with the wolf still at his side. “I did have that idea early on, but the bargain prevented me from obtaining one.”
Snow covered the ground beneath the window. If the window wasn’t really as far from the ground as it seemed, then maybe they could jump out. The snow wouldn’t offer visual protection from anyone outside the palace, but maybe it wouldn’t matter if they ran fast enough. A forest with frost-and-ice-covered trees stood somewhat nearby.
The prince had closed almost all the space between them, which caused her to take in a sharp breath. The shimmery fabric covering his arm nearly brushed against her shoulder. He tilted his head toward her.
“Memory elixirs are known for being difficult to obtain. How did a mortal like you get your hands on one?”
With narrowed eyes he pinched at the red scarf wrapped around her head. He seemed pleasantly surprised to have grabbed a lock of her light brown hair instead.
She forced herself to take in deliberate breaths to calm her beating heart. Fae clearly had very different customs for personal space than the ones she had been taught. A hard swallow grated down her throat before she stepped away.
Ignoring his question, she gestured out the window. “We could run across that lawn and hide in those trees until dawn. I don’t know if the window is really as high up as it seems, but we could test it by measuring the length of time it takes for an object to reach the ground. If it really is this high, we can tie the fur rug and a curtain together to make a rope. The fur could also keep us warm until dawn.” She spun on her heel, thinking out loud. “Kaia said there might be trolls.”
“Kaia sent you?” The prince had grabbed her forearm and started when he felt skin instead of cloth. But the surprise disappeared a moment later as he stared off across the room. “Tricky dryad. I should have known she’d be the one to get me out of here.”
His hand fell away from her arm. Where it had touched, a flash of cold swept over the skin but heat lingered under the surface. The prince raised a knowing eyebrow at his wolf. “Soren will be mad it wasn’t him.”
When he chuckled, the wolf tilted its head, as if amused. Since when could wolves look amused?
Through the closed door, footsteps sounded down the hallway. As Elora reached for her sword hilt, she noticed the wolf’s ears perking up at the same time. Long strides took her to the door. It only took a few moments with her ear against it to hear the worst noise of all. A familiar voice.
“The queen is coming. If she opens this door and sees you, the elixir won’t work.” The words bit on their way out.
The prince shook his long hair and lowered himself onto the bearskin rug on the floor.
Elora’s fingers twitched as she gripped her sword hilt. “Did you hear me? You need to hide.” The sofa offered the only hiding spot, but if the queen came far enough into the room, she’d see the prince anyway.
“Stop playing with that rug and move.” Panic gripped her words.
He raised an eyebrow at his wolf before turning to her with the same look. “Why are you so concerned about whether I get caught?”
She glared at him before turning around to face the door again. “I have my own bargain.”
“Of course,” he said through a chuckle. But she could still hear him playing with that rug.
With her ear close to the door, she could tell the queen was definitely close. Too close. The steps sounded deliberate too. If she intended to enter the room, she’d be there very soon. With lips parted, a shuddering breath went through Elora.
She gripped her sword tighter and scolded herself. Such a sound had given away her fear.
When the prince laughed, it only confirmed that he had recognized her fear. “Worry not, mortal. Bravery is easy. Instead of considering all the ways things could go wrong, just try to have fun instead.”
She was suddenly struck with the urge to punch his arm.
“Come dance with me. The queen will not think twice if she sees us like this.”
That urge returned with greater force. Elora spun on her heel to explain in detail how ridiculous the prince’s plan was. But when she turned around, the prince was gone. The bearskin rug had been taken off the floor.
A tall, brown bear stood in the prince’s place. It looked suspiciously like the rug that had been on the ground only a moment earlier.