Page 66 of Once Upon an Enchanted Kiss

Regret and disappointment shifted through him. Regret for falling for the dark faery’s spell. Disappointment for not finding anything but one gold coin. He stepped toward Rosamund, falling to his knees by her sleeping form. The coin was in the dirt beside her. He picked up and tucked it in his pocket for safekeeping.

Charles rolled her to her back. She looked to be at peace as she slept. Her cheeks were flushed. The finger she pricked still had a dot of blood. He picked up her hand and held it in his as he peered down at her.

The guilt was almost insurmountable. He should have never led her here. They should have found way to fight the compulsion spell and take her back home where she would have been safe.

Then she would still be awake. Or would she? Would the dark faery find a way to make sure Rose fell under her curse anyway? He was certain she would have. She’d long harbored deep-seated vengeance.

“What do we do now?” Charles asked, his voice hollow and thin.

“How do we break the curse?” Jeffrey asked.

Phillip shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“You were there that day when she was cursed,” Jeffrey said.

“I can’t remember if the Fae queen said how to break it.” And that frustrated him, too. “We should probably take her back to her father.”

“Like this?” Jeffrey pointed to her sleeping form. “How do we explain that?”

“We tell the king and queen the truth,” Phillip said. “I will make my apologies to them.”

“It’s not your fault,” Charles said.

“It is,” he insisted. “The moment I knew who she was, I should have insisted we return her home.”

Jeffrey placed a hand on his shoulder in comfort. “The curse was unavoidable, I think. Even if you had returned her home, the dark faery would have found a way to make sure it happened.”

His friend voiced his own thoughts about the curse and the dark faery. It gave him little comfort.

“There’s a town nearby. I’ll see if I can buy a wagon or cart,” Jeffrey said.

Phillip gave him a quizzical look. “Why?”

“To transport the sleeping princess.”

He nodded. Yes, of course, they would need some way to carry her back home. And then he would face the consequences for her sleeping curse. Whatever they may be.

Though he was initially aggravated by Jeffrey’s and Charles’s arrival, he was grateful now that his friend took charge to find a way to return with the princess. He wondered, too, if his parents were still there waiting for his eventual appearance. What, exactly, would they think when he arrived with Princess Rosamund in her sleeping curse?

Jeffrey handed Charles the torch. “Build a fire and set up camp. I will return as soon as I can.”

Charles nodded to his brother as he rode away, leaving the two of them behind with the horses and the sleeping princess.

What was happening to her? Rosamund didn’t understand.

One moment she was standing near the cave inhaling the sweet scent of roses for the first time, the next she was here in this dreadful place surrounded by shadow and darkness. A surge of panic gripped her chest, each breath coming in short gasps as she frantically searched for any semblance of familiarity in the unsettling environment that surrounded her. Where was she?

“Hello?”

Silence was her answer. She moved deeper into the shadows, but still saw or heard nothing. A growing fear pumped through her, making the skin on the back her neck tingle.

“Phillip? Where are you?”

She flung her arms through the shadows as if to swipe them away. The wispy clouds broke up for a moment, then reformed around her, keeping her in that dismal place.

How had she ended up here? She tried to think back to the last moment she recalled. She stood near the cave with Phillip. The coin was clutched in one hand. Phillip held the other. She looked around for the coin but it was nowhere to be found. Neither was Phillip.

Think, think!she admonished.

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