The prince had turned into a bear. Elora repeated the words in her head, but no amount of repetition could make them sink in. Wards, enchantments, dangerous sparkles. How could she keep track of all this fae magic?
The bear gestured toward itself and then spoke with Brannick’s voice. “The bargain limits my magic. I can’t create a proper glamour, but I can enhance the look of objects like this rug.” When she didn’t move, he let out a huff and beckoned her toward him. “Just come over here and dance with me or the queen will be suspicious.”
It helped considerably that the bear spoke in the prince’s voice. That didn’t change how disconcerting it was to reach for a bear’s paw only to touch a hand like her own. Well, almost like her own. Brannick had larger and stronger hands than her. Warmth seeped through her skin, causing a tingle to slip up her arm.
She forced herself to swallow. “So, dancing with a bear isn’t suspicious?”
“Stranger things happen in Faerie all the time.” He shrugged as he spoke the words, which looked very odd coming from a bear. Almost like when that wolf had looked amused.
Her eyes narrowed. “What happened to your wolf?”
The bear’s paw pointed to the far corner of the room, where the wolf sat on his haunches.
The sight of it caused her to intake a sharp breath. “He’s just standing there. How did I not notice?”
Brannick pushed against her hands with greater force, causing her to finally begin dancing. “Blaz has his own glamour that keeps eyes from looking his way. With it on, no one can see him unless the person knows exactly where to look. Or unless he wants you to see him.”
Just as he forced her into another sway, the door burst open. The queen’s gown shimmered even more in this light than it had in the ballroom. The beading down the front of her dress glimmered and sparkled with multi-colored iridescence.
Apparently, the prince had no fear; he took the opportunity to turn Elora in a complicated spin. By the time they returned to the normal steps of the dance, her heart decided to go for a little spin too.
The queen narrowed her eyes at them, seeming to take an extra careful look at Elora. Getting a better glimpse at the queen’s face would tell if they needed to worry. Whenever Elora got close to seeing more, Brannick would turn her or himself to block the view.
Though she kept dancing, she pulled a little more insistently against him to catch a better glimpse. Just when she had almost the right angle, he pulled her in close and gazed into her eyes. It successfully made her forget the queen even existed.
Even in a bear’s face, the prince’s eyes looked as magnificent as before. Better, even, since the closeness allowed her to look more carefully.
They were dark. That was the only thing she could definitively decide. One moment they looked colorless, but the next they looked colorful. They provoked her heart with their nebulous shifts. Only one word could describe them. Enchanting.
It would have felt better to be angry at him for pulling her close, except the charade had convinced the queen to leave. The heavy brocade of her dress swished as the queen reached for the door. As she moved to leave, she muttered under her breath, “I need a guard who knows the difference between a parlor and a sitting room.”
Just then, the prince tripped over something and his glamour flickered. For the briefest moment, the image of his black hair and white coat shone through.
The queen spun around to face the room again. Her eyes narrowed to slits as she stared at the two of them.
Elora might have died of fright right then, but the prince only waved his bear paw and spun Elora again.
With a shake of the head, the queen left the room and shut the door.
The sigh of relief that escaped Elora could have blown out a fire.
When the prince dropped the bearskin rug to the floor and his true image was revealed, he looked straight at the corner of the room. “I know, Blaz. That was close.”
On instinct, Elora reached for her sword hilt, as if it could provide comfort in a realm where men could look like bears. “Does this mean the elixir won’t work? The queen saw you.”
Brannick only shrugged. “She saw a bear.”
“But it was still you underneath. Does that count as not seeing you?”
The prince’s mouth twisted in a knot. “You never know with fae rules, but I think yes.”
She rounded on him, gripping her hilt even tighter still. “You think? You’re fae, shouldn’t you know?”
He waved a hand through the air, giving off a complete lack of concern. “Nothing is ever sure here.”
A grunt erupted from her mouth. His lack of reaction to it only infuriated her more. She marched up to a wooden table with gold designs painted on the front. Her fingers snatched a heavy golden candlestick from the top, and she marched to the window. Since the prince didn’t seem to be worried about his rescue, she’d just have to do things herself.
“There’s no need for that.” Even without looking, the prince sounded amused. “You were right, the height is a glamour.”
She set the candlestick on the window ledge and glanced back at him. “If we jump out the window, we won’t get hurt?”
A devious smirk broke onto his face, which enhanced his perfect features. “Only if we decide to trust you.”
He and the wolf looked at each other, which she decided to ignore. “Kaia said if I told you everything you would help me.”
The prince continued to look at the wolf. While he did, he rolled up the sleeves of his white coat until they were just under his elbows. “What do you think, Blaz? Should we trust the mortal?”
Her first instinct was to don a persuasive face, but she couldn’t decide whether to direct it at the prince or the wolf. She let out another grunt. Now she was treating the wolf like a person.
Seemingly unaware of her frustration, the prince nodded. “I agree. She smells honest.”
Before she could even process the implication that the prince had smelled her, he jogged past her and tumbled out the window.
She heard his body plop onto the snow almost immediately, but she didn’t see the snow puff out until a moment later. Looking out the window now, the ground still seemed two or three stories below. But the sound of him landing had certainly happened earlier.
Stupid fae rules.
“Oh, bring that rug down with you when you jump,” he called up to her. “I think I might keep it.”
She rolled her eyes, but for some reason, she went back and snatched the bearskin rug from the ground anyway.
After a running start, she leapt from the window. Fear clutched her from every edge, needling into even the most secure parts of her. The moment of freefall outside the window seemed to last forever. Her heart hammered so hard it might have stopped beating.
But then her body landed in the powdery snow, causing icy white snowflakes to puff out around her. From outside, she could see the window wasn’t far from the ground at all. Still, her body seemed certain she had just jumped three stories at least.
It took great effort to pull herself off the ground and brush away the dusting of snow that covered her. The snowflakes fell away, but they left a layer of icy frost in their place. The beauty of Fairfrost could not be denied, but that didn’t make the cold any more pleasant.
Once she collected herself, she noticed the wolf standing at Brannick’s side even though she never noticed him jump from the window. And then she decided to ignore that too.
When the prince reached for the bearskin rug in her hands, she jerked it away from him and wrapped it around her own shoulders. It might have been her imagination, but he seemed to smile for the briefest moment.
She stomped through the field of snow toward the forest of icy trees ahead. The sky looked the same as it had when she first arrived, gray and misty. Too dark for dusk but not dark enough for night either. Without a moon or stars, the time was impossible to tell. “When will dawn be here?”
The prince let out a snicker. “When.” He shook his head as they entered the forest. After staring at several trees, he placed his palm against the trunk of one. As soon as he touched it, the layer of ice encasing the trunk began melting away. The branches stayed frozen with the transparent, glass-like ice, but the ice on the bottom of the trunk melted to reveal dark brown bark.
He sat down against the melted part of the tree and stretched out his arms. “We can wait here until dawn. Once it comes, I’ll open a door and take us to Bitter Thorn.”
Was he going to ignore all her questions? She wrapped the bearskin tighter around her shoulders and went to lean against another tree.
“Don’t do that.” Brannick had his eyes closed when she glanced back at him. He still managed to wave toward the exact tree she stood near. “The ice will burn your mortal skin.”
With a great huff, she plopped down onto the snow instead. She shot him a rather intense glare, but since his eyes were still closed, it had little effect.
Before she could attempt to warm her fingers, a twig snapped. The wolf turned toward the noise first, but she followed immediately after. When she’d first heard the word troll, it seemed like the kind of creature that she would need a description to recognize.
Clearly, she had been wrong about that.
A solidly built creature towered above them. Its green-tinged skin nearly blended in with the twisted chunks of hair falling from its head. It had ears even pointier than Brannick’s and a matching pointy nose that turned downward. The points looked lethal. Yellow teeth with black spots peeked through its rough, brown lips.
A thin piece of brown cloth hung limply from its shoulders down to just above its knees. The massive hands and feet it sported looked terrifying enough. But they were nothing compared to the axe it swung at her face.