He’s not like that anymore,a part of my mind argues.He asked me to marry him.
“Is everything alright?” Astrid scoots up closer to me and runs a tender hand over my hair.
“It’s all a bit overwhelming,” I say. “A few days ago, I was working in a bookstore. Now, I’m a prisoner in an enchanted castle.”
Astrid gives a sad smile. “If it makes it any easier, we’re so excited you’re here. Nothing exciting has happened in the last twenty-five years.”
“Is that how long you’ve been trapped here?” I ask.
She nods and clasps her hands on her lap. “We could leave, I suppose. But where would we go? There’s no home to return to for the cursed.”
“Cursed,” I whisper. “Everyone in here… is cursed?”
Astrid walks to the window, the dawn light painting her pale body orange. “Fae by day, beasts by night. I suppose us servants should count ourselves lucky. You get used to turning into an animal. I don’t think you ever get used to… what happens to the princes.”
The hideous, twisted wolves fill my mind, their wild gazes and giant bodies sending my heart skittering in my chest. “What happened here? Why are you all cursed?”
Astrid looks nervously to the door. “Someone’s coming.”
The door swings open and Marigold comes in with a tray of breakfast. She looks over at me and I can tell she’s displeased with my blood messing up the clean sheets. It turns out, I don’t have to recount last night. Everyone in the castle already knows what happened. Those eyes I’d felt peering at me had been the staff.
I nibble on my breakfast, opting for plain toast on account of my queasy stomach. Marigold and Astrid tell me the type of animals the staff turn into. Marigold is a raccoon, and there’s a bear, and a penguin, and a couple dogs, and the gardener turns into a great owl. When I askwhythis is all happening, they dodge the question like a freaking border collie in an agility show.
A solid knock sounds from the door. I suck in a breath and straighten. “Come in.”
The door slowly creeps open, revealing a towering metal figure.
The masked knight from the bridge. The dark gray wolf who dripped soil and had little bones tangled in his fur.
Ezryn, the Spring Prince.
19
Rosalina
Astridgivesadeepbow. “My Prince!” she squeaks and darts out the door with Marigold in tow.
My heart sinks; I want to scream at them to stay, to not leave me alone with this… What is he? A monster? A beast? But my throat seizes, and it’s all I can do to scramble back against the headboard.
And the damn Tin Man does not care to put me out of my misery. He stands there in the doorway, his face completely hidden by that metal helmet.
Breath comes ragged from my throat, and I realize how vulnerable I am, pinned against the headboard as he holds me hostage with an unseeable stare. I’m still wearing the nightgown from last night, and honestly, the thorns shredded most of it. The thin pink fabric clings tightly to my chest and generous hips, the long sleeves billowing but tight at my wrists. My dark hair falls over my shoulders, mussed from my flight through the castle and my restless sleep. I must look like prey to him.
“What?” I finally spit because my pounding heart can’t take it anymore. “What do you want?”
The large metal plate of his armor rises and falls with a deep breath. He steps forward.
With each clang of his metal boots against the floor, more fear sputters through me.Danger, danger, danger,my logical mind screams. And yet…
There’s something in my chest scratching against my ribs, yowling for release. Something that wants me to move closer to him.
He’s going to kill me. Why am I okay with it?
In a second that feels like an hour, his shadow falls over me on the bed. I stare up at the unreadable mask, knowing fear marks my face.
“I’m Keldarion’s prisoner,” I manage. “You can’t hurt me. I’m his—Ah!”
The masked prince sits down on the end of the bed, the weight of his body and armor sending me bouncing on the mattress like a trampoline. Then he snags my ankle and yanks my leg up in the air.