Page 41 of Once Upon an Enchanted Kiss

“Right,” he agreed and pushed her reins into her hands. “We need to go.”

He was in the saddle and riding off before she managed a foot in the stirrup. Hurrying to catch up, she quickly mounted the horse and turned to follow him.

“You were right, Rose,” he said as the trotted away from the cabin.

“Right about what?”

He jerked his head back toward the cabin but said nothing.

“It was a spell, wasn’t it?” She didn’t know why she whispered it, but it seemed like the thing to do. As though the forest might have ears. “Was she a witch, you think?”

He flattened his lips as skepticism flickered over his face. “I don’t believe in witches.” He paused, then glanced her way. “But I do believe in faeries.”

“Faeries?” she repeated and almost laughed.

“Yes,” he said, emphatic. “Dark and evil ones.”

Her brows drew together. “You think Olga was an evil faery?”

“What else would she be?” he asked.

He sounded so convincing, she wanted to believe him. “I don’t know.”

Silence stretched between them until he finally said, “Have you never heard of one?”

“No,” she replied. “Have you?”

“Yes. I heard a story once about an evil faery who cursed a baby girl.” He gave her a surreptitious glance.

“Why would a faery do such a thing?” she demanded, clutching the reins in her hand until her fingers cramped.

“Because she was angry she wasn’t invited to—” he paused, pressing his lips together again and then finished with, “—a party.”

“Sounds petty,” she said. “What sort of curse?”

“A death curse,” he said. “That if the baby girl pricked her finger on a thorn, she would die.”

As he said it, a strange sensation came over her, almost as though she had heard this story before. But she hadn’t. Her skin prickled with gooseflesh as the strange sensation went over her.

“How awful,” she muttered.

“No one has ever told you that story?” he wanted to know.

She shook her head. “Did the baby die?”

“No,” he said. “Another faery came along and changed the curse. Instead of dying when she pricked her finger, the girl would fall into an eternal slumber.”

“Well, that’s not much better, is it?” Rosamund said. “How is the curse broken?”

“I don’t know.”

He had a strange look on his face. One she was unable to read. As though he were telling this story for a reason, yet had not revealed that reason.

“So, you think this…evil faery created the cabin for us and lured us there. For what reason?”

“To give us the map to the dragon’s treasure,” he said, as if he were speaking of nothing serious.

“And put us in the path of peril on purpose? Again, I ask for what reason?”

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