The days had come and gone, and with each passing season, I had grown comfortable in my new way of life. I had to stop taking wolfsbane and became accustomed to using my death seeker gifts. Now unhindered by drugs, I traveled from town to town and frequently found myself helping solve unexplained deaths.
In Vearin, a cow was found dead in a valley, and two farmers almost came to blows blaming each other for its murder, but it turned out to be nothing more than an accident. In another town, a young child had died of what everyone believed to be natural causes but was actually poisoned by the wicked stepmother.
In the beginning, I was helping solve the crime after the death. But then I accepted my gift and it changed, and I started to save lives. My gift came full circle when my death vision brought me to a young boy who had fallen into the lake and couldn’t swim.
I was paralyzed in the vision, unable to move, but then I broke through the magic barrier and instead of watching, I was able to jump in and pull the little boy out. Drenched and shivering, I carried him out of the river and passed him to his crying mother. I couldn’t help but think of young Renard and Magda. I couldn’t save them in the past, but I could help those in the future. The mother turned to thank me, but I was gone, pulled back from the death vision and into my bed, my mattress soaked in water and covered in weeds. It didn’t matter. I went to sleep with a smile on my face.
But when it became too hard to travel, I chose to settle in Celia—maybe because I wanted to be near a place where we had shared a few happy memories together.
It wasn’t so bad being a hedge witch. I moved into the same cottage Xander had taken me when I was injured by the arrow. I used all of my power to keep it protected, and the more I dug deep into the land searching for magic, the more it came. First it was like a little seedling, but the more I used it, the more it grew until it became a fountain. I wasn’t sure, but I believed I was witnessing the birth of a new ley line, right through the land of Baist and under my cottage.
This was exciting, because it meant I could use magic and not be plagued with headaches or have to take to using stored magic from sacrifices like Allemar.
A few days a week, I would travel into town with my charms and sell them at my stall, earning enough to make a decent living. The people of Baist were hungry for the basic necessities that were readily available in other kingdoms: matches that would never get wet, stones that would always stay warm and could be used as bed warmers, candles with enchanted wicks that wouldn’t blow out with a strong wind, jugs that could keep milk cold for hours. All of them were simple spells that I had easily mastered as a child and took very little energy to conjure into an item.
When the magic would fade, the villagers would return the item, and I would recharge it for them for free. The scar across my face had lightened, no longer an angry red but a silvery white like a spiderweb. It still made people uncomfortable to look directly at me, however, so I took to wearing my dark hair over one side of my face.
At first the villagers were frightened of me, and I could feel myself getting angry, hardening my heart toward them, but then something miraculous happened and they accepted me as one of them.
The time was drawing near. I had heard the rumors in town about the new princess’s sudden disappearance. How I left as suddenly as I appeared. Prince Xander has had plenty of time to declare me officially dead. I found myself making more trips into the village to hear news, waiting on pins and needles for the new marriage banns to go out where he would announce his engagement to Yasmin. Of course, with each passing day I had darker thoughts, a shorter temper and was very irritable. I was even barking at Lucinda, one of my best customers, who was having issues with one of my lighting charms.
“Well, have you tried turning it off and on again?” I snapped, rubbing my knuckles into the small of my back.
“Rosa,” she said calmly, using the name I had adopted with my new lifestyle. “Maybe you should head home early and put your feet up.”
“I don’t have time to put my feet up. I have to work hard to prepare for the coming months when I can’t make it into town as often.”
“Well, you know you can always send me a message through the mirror and someone will get it to me,” Lucinda said, pointing over to the newly installed mirror vendor two stalls down from me.
“How? When?”
“Just yesterday. I’m surprised you didn’t notice the hammering and construction. The prince has ordered one in every town in Baist and Florin. I’m not sure if I trust it yet, but I’m excited to receive my first message. The prince is here to give a demonstration on how they work. Promise me you’ll be the first to message me?” She patted her hair, which was neatly pulled back into a bun.
“What? The prince—here?” I craned my neck, searching for his tall, dark form among the crowd. The market had been busier than usual, and sure enough, I hadn’t noticed the royal guards coming in two by two. I instantly recognized Xander leading the troop, though his face seemed more worn and tired, his chin unshaven.
“I need to go,” I said while I hastily tried to tie up the tablecloth with all of my charms. “If anyone needs me, tell them I’ll be back in a few weeks, or send them to my cottage.”
“Is something the matter, dear?” Lucinda asked, holding my bag as I dumped my possessions inside.
“No, nothing. I’m just needed at home.”
“Don’t you want to stay and meet the prince?”
“No, I definitely do not,” I snapped out a little too harshly, instantly regretting it. Taking the bag from her, I pulled the hood of my cloak over my face and kept my head down as I tried to shuffle through the crowd that was already gathering.
He’s here! I was an idiot for not paying closer attention. I couldn’t let him see me like this. There was no way I could answer his questions; he would feel betrayed.
Trying to make a hasty retreat, I didn’t notice the horse-drawn wagon before I stepped out into the street.
“Whoa!” the driver cried out too late.
Turning, I saw the horses and grabbed my stomach.
Strong hands pulled me out of the way of the horses. My hood fell back, and I looked up at my savior in surprise.
“Rosalie?” Xander said in shock as he stared deep into my eyes, but I quickly turned my head to the side, refusing to look at him.
His hands were like iron bands on my arm that tightened when he looked down. His jaw clenched, and his eyes turned dark and foreboding.
I didn’t wait, just pushed him away, running as fast as I could toward the woods while pulling my hood up to cover my raven hair, but I couldn’t run far. Soon, I was out of breath and stopped by a creek. I sat on a rock and waited, tears running down my face. I could use my magic to disguise my scent and trail, but that wouldn’t be fair. He was a wolf, and he would find me, especially now that he had seen what I had stolen from him.
I was scared of Xander’s wrath, for I had sinned greatly against him, and there was nothing I could do to seek his forgiveness.
The snap of a twig alerted me to his presence, and I waited, sitting on the rock and soaking my feet in the water, the cold easing the swelling. Another twig snapped, and when I looked up, there he was, staring at me from across the creek. Xander’s wolf had indeed followed my scent. His ears were back, his nose sniffed the air, and his amber eyes bored into mine accusingly. His lips curled, and I heard his bark of admonishment.
Ignoring him seemed the best option, so I continued to look at the water until I felt the change in the air as the wolf shifted into my copper-haired prince. He stepped through the creek and stood before me, his boots now in the running water next to my bare feet.
“You swore a blood oath,” Xander said angrily.
“I did what you asked,” I replied humbly. “Your kingdom is saved. I kept my end of the bargain and left, leaving you free to wed another.”
“Rosalie, that’s not what I meant.” His voice was filled with emotion as he kneeled on the embankment and reached for my hands. Grasping them between his, he put one on my protruding stomach and felt for the life within. At Xander’s touch, my baby kicked back in excitement, and fear took hold of me.
“You promised me that you would not take my firstborn child.” His hand balled into a fist so tight his knuckles were white, and he became very still. I was afraid of him and what I had done.
“I swear I didn’t know,” I cried out, keeping my face low. “Not until weeks after I’d had already left.”
“Goodness, woman, I thought something had happened to you. I searched high and low for you. Your mother refused to tell me where you were and accused me of losing you.”
“You looked for me?” I gasped.
“I have spent the last few months installing those stupid mirror centers in every city and town I visited, just in case you sent word to me. Look.” He pulled out a small mirror in a case. “I even keep one on me at all times, in the hopes you would ream me out like before. But nothing. You dropped off the face of the known kingdoms.”
“I was only following our agreement, Xander.”
“That’s Prince Xander to you.”
His words hurt and felt like stones in my stomach as I corrected myself. “Prince Xander.”
He reached into his vest pocket and pulled out the chess piece king. “Then you had the gall to have your sister send me this. That’s when I knew what you had done. That you had abandoned me.”
“No, you abandoned me. Traded me for Earlsgaarde—er, Allemar to save your kingdom. You’re holding the wrong piece, my lord. We should have used a pawn instead of a king,” I said bitterly.
“This is what I think of our bargain.” Xander stood and tested the weight of the chess piece before chucking it into the creek bed. It slowly sank to the bottom, leaving only rings upon the surface.
The tears were flowing freely now. “Where did you go? You could have stopped Tipper from arresting me, sending me to Florin.”
“I didn’t know until it was too late. You ran away from me, and I needed time to cool off. When I had calmed down and returned to the manor, I learned you had left with Earlsgaarde. Tipper said you went with him willingly, that you admitted to murdering all those people.”
“That was a lie.”
“I know that now. Pru was the one who told me the truth. I was a fool to believe the woman I loved was a monster. She couldn’t have done those things, and I was ready to risk everything to get her back.”
“You love me?” Tears welled up in my eyes.
Xander reached up beneath the hood to touch my face, but I shuddered, pulling back. “You cursed me, Rosalie, to marry for love. I should be angry, furious even, if I hadn’t already started falling for you hard.”
“I thought you hated me.”
“No, I hated how much I thought about you.”
“You couldn’t possibly, because you didn’t know me.”
“Rosalie, I’ve known since the night I kissed you that you were mine.” He grinned. “I just needed time to come to terms with the fact that my enemy, the woman I married, was also the woman I loved. The woman I needed more than the air I breathe.” He leaned forward, pressing his face into the crook of my neck, and took a deep breath. “Remember, I knew the night I saved you from the thieves, who you were.”
“But why play along?”
“Because I didn’t like how fast I was falling for you. It was as if you really did put a spell on me, and I hated it. I hated myself and took it out on you.”
His admission made me laugh, and I hit him in the shoulder. Xander pulled out the rose pin I had lost and attached it to my cloak.
“You were right about one thing,” I whispered, my hands shaking as I gripped the edge of the hood, preparing to reveal myself and have him go running away in horror. “I am as hideous as a beast.” I pulled the hood back, my dark hair still covering my face, but I struggled to look at him. I couldn’t meet his gaze in case his face turned to revulsion. I couldn’t bear it.
What had I done?
Xander’s hands reached for my cheek, pulling me closer. His left hand brushed my dark hair away from my face, revealing the small white scar that marred my beauty. I closed my eyes, not willing to see his reaction. He gasped, and I shuddered, a tear squeezing out between my lashes to slide down my cheek.
His thumb brushed it away, and his warm breath lingered on my cheek as his lips claimed mine. My eyes opened in surprise and my lips parted as Xander kissed me, his hand on the back of my neck, pulling me in closer. How could I have forgotten his kisses? I missed him so. Reaching for him, I gripped his vest, my breathing becoming ragged.
He broke the kiss first, and his eyes searched my face, truly seeing me, and what I saw there did not make me pull away. All I saw was an outpouring of unconditional love.
“Beast? No. All I see is my darling beauty,” he whispered huskily, then left a trail of kisses along my scar before claiming my lips again. “Please come home with me.”
It was painful to pull away from those kisses, for they were powerful like a drug. “Hmm, have you not remarried yet?”
His breathing was as ragged as mine. “What? Why, when I have a wife already, one who, when crossed, could scorch the kingdom? I would be a fool to leave you.”
My hands went to my face, and I turned away in horror. “No, I can’t be your queen when I look like this. The people already fear me. I couldn’t take it to be stared at and called any more names.”
Xander grabbed my wrists, pulling my hands from my face. “Rosalie, those are your battle wounds, earned when you saved our kingdom from a great and terrible beast. If the people cannot see past your outside, then they can leave and go to Sion for all I care. I want you as my queen. No one else will do. I want my wife and child to come home.”
Pregnancy had made me an emotional wreck. My nose was red and stuffy, my face puffed up from the tears that never seemed to end.
“And where is home?” I sniffed, wiping at my nose. “Florin or Baist?”
“Whichever you choose, or neither. I would freely give up both and live with you in this village if that is your wish. I will become your house husband and tend to you as a doting husband and father.”
“But the country—”
“I’m sure father could be persuaded to take the throne again until Ameline is old enough to ascend to the throne and have children of her own.”
“Ameline,” I whispered, my heart hurting. I wanted to see her, my half sister.
I swallowed. “What if we lived for half a year at each court, until my brother can be found?”
“Aspen?” Xander said. “He was in league with Allemar. He’s gone.”
“Yes, but I believe he was being used by Allemar. He did try to redeem himself in the end.”
“By almost killing all of us. If it weren’t for him, you wouldn’t have the scars.” Xander gently touched my hands and traced his fingers up my arms.
“If it weren’t for him… if he hadn’t opened that portal, I don’t know if I would have been able to stop Allemar. I still don’t know if I did. I believe he’s still out there, waiting to come back as anyone, anywhere.”
“I would hate to be him, then.” Xander snorted.
“Why?”
“Because you have six other sisters, Rosalie. Six vengeful sisters who are extremely angry at what he’s done to you. He better hope he doesn’t meet any of the others.”
I took comfort in what Xander said but couldn’t let go of the nagging feeling that we would meet again. Allemar knew Mother Eville, and she knew him. I began to wonder if there was a bigger game at play here between the two, and my sisters and I were nothing more than pawns in their ruthless plan. But first he would have to come back across the plane from where I sent him, and that could take months of storing his power and strength.
“I can’t come with you.”
“Why not?” His brows furrowed.
“Because I can’t go back to the way things were.”
“Silly woman, don’t you understand why I’ve crossed the kingdoms searching for you? I’m ready for a change, a different future, one where magic is acceptable.”
“Why?” I waited, needing to hear the words I never thought he would say.
“It’s because I love you.”
“Say it again,” I whispered, needing to hear it a second time, cementing it into my memory.
“Rosalie, never again will I keep you hidden from the world. I want you by my side for all eternity. You and our child.”
Xander wrapped his arms around me, my very large belly coming between us. He looked down and frowned. “Hey, you.”
I grinned as the once notorious prince, feared for his temper, cooed to our child.
A grumbling came from the grass, and Gobbersnot crawled up into my lap wearing my baby’s christening dress. He cuddled against my big belly, giving the prince a wide, toothy grin.
“That’s one ugly baby.” Xander laughed.
Gobbersnot puckered up and made a kissing face at Xander, who looked repulsed.
“Don’t worry, he grows on you,” I said. “And he makes a great guard dog.”
Xander grinned. “I’m sure between a wolf, witch, and goblin, our child will have a completely normal upbringing.”
I couldn’t hold back my laughter.
“Thank you, Rosalie,” Xander said, his eyes misty as he leaned in and pressed his forehead to mine.
“For what?” I asked softly.
“For loving me despite my curse. For proving that even a beast deserves a chance at love,” he whispered, claiming my lips.
“I love you too. Always and forever,” I promised.