Page 2 of The Mirror and the Curse

She heard Beatrice sigh. “Call and tell me about the race and everything, okay? When are you heading to Faraway Castle?”

“Mid-July. And I promise to call. Hope those kids are treating you well. It’s still weird to think of you being someone else’s nanny.”

“Well, you grew up. Besides, you’ve got a stepmother now. How’s your baby brother?”

“He’s super cute, but he’s got a temper and a powerful set of lungs.”

“Family traits?”

“Ha ha—right?” Eddi rolled her eyes, smirking. “Uh oh, now the guys are coming after me—I’ve really got to go. Love ya! Bye.”

It was mid-morning the next day when Eddi jogged along a private path to the luxurious racing stables located on a hillside south of the palace. At least some things were going according to plan: clear blue skies, light breeze off the sea, and by using this back way, she could avoid the worst of the crowds.

Winning the Sangiovese Stakes? That plan seemed less realistic now. So many magnificent winged horses. So many experienced riders. Her one race, and win, last summer on a borrowed horse, prestigious though it had seemed at the time, now looked rather piddly. A fluke.

As she pelted up a set of built-in steps, a magical loudspeaker announced the second race of the day, and ringing whinnies echoed off the hills. Plenty of time before her race, but she should have been at the stables hours ago. And she would have been if her annoying stepmother hadn’t begged her to join her and Dad for brunch with the royal family of Auvers. “Princess Marielle didn’t come, Eddi, so you’ll have her handsome brother all to yourself.” Meaning Prince Briar, one of Eddi’s oldest and most enduring crushes. He’d always been part of the “older” crowd, but maybe this time he’d notice she wasn’t a child anymore . . .

Okay, so Jakinda didn’t beg; Eddi had swallowed the bait whole.

Of course, brunch was a complete dud. Not the food; as far as she could recall, it was good. But even though the two parental couples mostly discussed the absent Princess Marielle’s unfortunate romantic attachment, allowing Eddi ample opportunity to chat with the prince, she’d been too nervous to converse like a normal person.

Recalling how she’d rattled off the whole story of how her dad bought White as her eighteenth-birthday gift, she tripped up a step and bruised her shin, then sat down right there on the path and dropped her forehead to her knees. “Ugh.” Prince Briar had been polite and friendly, wished her luck in her race, and then excused himself early, leaving her with a twinkling smile that made her heart flutter but meant exactly nothing at all.

Sitting upright, she scowled at the view of rolling hills, thumped both fists on her thighs, and mumbled, “Idiot! Get over it.” Why would she want the hottest prince on the marriage mart anyway? He didn’t know anything about flying horses. He couldn’t compare to Prince Fidelio.

Not that her Vetrician prince seemed much more attainable. The foremost of Eddi’s fantasies about how this weekend would go—spending hours of one-on-one time with Fidelio—had crumbled into ruin the moment she stepped out of the airport limousine and saw her chosen prince in the company of his two younger brothers and a smug-looking Raquel Cambout.

Nearly a year had passed since Eddi first realized Prince Fidelio was the perfect man for her. A year of smiles and laughter and deepening friendship . . . in the rare moments when Raquel wasn’t plying her wiles to steal him away.

On the bright side, Raquel was her only competition now. Last August, both of Faraway Castle’s mean girls had doggedly pursued Fidelio. Now, Lady Gillian, the gorgeous strawberry-blonde mantrap, was off the market, thanks to Fidelio’s billionaire cousin.

The craziest thing about all this? Fidelio remained blissfully unaware that either Eddi or Raquel was in love with him. But then, he was half right. Raquel didn’t love him. She had decided to pursue him because Eddi wanted him.

What a mess.

Shewas a mess. And with a race to fly in just a few hours!

Setting her jaw, she jumped to her feet, brushed off her backside, and ran.

The Royal Vetrician Racing Stables included a network of beautiful barns and paddocks. But the main stable, which housed only the twelve entrants in the Sangiovese Stakes, was an architectural work of art in Eddi’s opinion. Its palatial proportions and state-of-the-art equipment boggled the mind. Each roomy box stall was part of a suite including comfortable lodgings for two grooms and an upstairs dressing room for a jockey. The pristine flagstone-paved aisles running between the rows of huge box stalls were wide enough to accommodate a horse’s full wingspan. Its equine washroom included horse-sized hot-and-cold showers, sun lamps, a sauna, a therapeutic whirlpool bath, and heated floors. Despite all this opulence, it still smelled comfortingly like a stable and echoed with hoofbeats and whinnies.

White greeted her with pricked ears and a soft nicker as she slipped into his stall. “Sorry, bud. I got delayed this morning. How are you doing? Ready for the big race?” He lipped a peppermint from her palm and bunted her gently with his whiskery gray nose while she straightened his long forelock. “We’ll be fine. You did great in practice. We know every turn of the course, and you’re in top condition.”

As if he needed convincing. She knew her horse’s mild demeanor would vanish as soon as the starting gun cracked. When it came to racing, White was all business. She was the worried one.

About an hour before start time, she slipped upstairs to her dressing room. But as soon as she saw her flight suit and helmet hanging on wall hooks, she felt slightly queasy. What had possessed her to agree to wear the Royal Bilbao Stables colors? She’d been thrilled when her dad offered to have the equipment made for her, but now . . . She dressed quickly, then regarded her reflection in the wall mirror. Deep purple with white-and-gold accents flattered her coloring, and the fit was perfect. But no one would notice her anyway; everyone would be looking at White.

A face flashed through her mind, and her heart constricted. Kaiwould notice her; he always did. But there was no way in the world he would see this race, not from Faraway Castle, where there were no cell phones or computers.

Firmly putting Kai out of her thoughts, she picked up her flight jacket and parachute pack and hurried back downstairs. Leaving her gear on the bench just outside White’s stall, she stepped inside.

The two grooms, a married couple, worked together to prepare White, combing out his luxuriant mane and tail, polishing his coat to a pearlescent sheen. The colt submitted without protest, but the sidelong look he gave Eddi communicated his disapproval. During the seven months they’d been together, she had always cared for her horse personally. She gave him a little shrug. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t explained the situation to him already . . .

With a wry huff, she stepped out of the stall to pace. If she were to mention to anyone here how she sometimes believed White could read her thoughts, they would laugh in her face. But did this necessarily mean she was wrong? Winged horses were magical creatures. They could be a lot more sentient than humans realized.

Kai would know, but she hadn’t really spoken with him in . . . well, since she found out he was a dwarf in disguise and things got awkward, which was probably why he’d never told her. But that was still no excuse for keeping his identity secret all those years. Best friends don’t do things like that.

Beh. Forget him.

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