Page 24 of The Mirror and the Curse

“You fly together?”

“Yes, Kai has a fterotó. A beautiful filly.”

Leaning toward her, the prince gave Kai a sideward glance and spoke out the side of his mouth, loud enough for Kai to hear, “Sure you’re not being rooked here?”

Eddi’s chest felt tight, and her smile strained at the seams. “I asked him to help me, Fidelio. He gets up before dawn to fit my lesson in before his full day of work.”

At this point, Kai jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “Speaking of a full day of work, I need to finish up in here, Eddi.”

She turned to him with an apologetic look. “Sure. Thanks, Kai. See you tomorrow.”

After a nod to Fidelio and a glance her way, Kai vanished back inside. As soon as the door closed, Eddi asked, “What was that about?”

The prince gave her a perplexed stare. “What?”

With a little eye roll, she escorted him out of the barn. “I didn’t introduce you to Kai so you could give him the third degree. Teaching a non-magical person to access magic can’t be a straightforward process, you know.”

“Did he tell you that?”

“I figured it out for myself.” The words came out sharper than she’d intended, but really!

“Then I’m sure you could figure out—already have figured out—how to communicate with your own winged horse. You won the Cup last year on Ruggero!” He patted her shoulder awkwardly. “Just trying to keep my little Eduardi from getting snookered.”

“Don’t lose any sleep about it. Kai would be the last person to cheat me.”

“Nope. The last person to cheat you would be me.” The prince gave her a warm smile. “C’mon. It’s time for lunch. I’m starved.”

After meeting their extensive crowd for a rather rambunctious luncheon in the dining hall, Eddi and Fidelio parted ways since each had prior plans. “Until dinner,” he said, beaming all over his bearded face as he backed out the dining hall door while pointing from her to himself and back.

Only when she nodded did he turn around and walk away.

“So, is it just me, or is this starting to look like . . . hmm . . . maybe more than ‘just friends’?” a girl Eddi barely knew commented.

“Are you keeping something from us, Eddi?” Ianthe asked.

“No, he and I just had a fun morning together, that’s all.” Both pleased and uncertain, Eddi thought about backing out of her kayaking trip to avoid more unanswerable questions, but the outing turned out to be just the thing to keep her from rehashing and overanalyzing Fidelio’s every word and look. Bright sunshine, a sparkling lake, and competitive splashing bouts wore everyone out and kept bickering and gossip to a minimum.

Afterward, the girls all dashed to their rooms to shower and clean up for dinner. There was a movie showing that night down on the playing field, and Eddi eagerly anticipated sharing it with Fidelio. Maybe even holding hands while they sprawled in lawn chairs and watched a silly old movie on one of the big viewing screens.

Fidelio wasn’t in the dining hall when Eddi arrived, and she felt too obvious hovering out in the hallway while other people came and went, so she finally entered and took a seat with Maria and Ianthe at one of the smaller tables. Maybe Fidelio had tried to contact her while she was kayaking? What if he’d planned on meeting later, for a formal dinner? But that timing wouldn’t work as well with the movie . . . Although, he had never mentioned attending the movie . . .

Even as these thoughts passed through her head, a familiar laugh drifted across the dining hall. Setting down her fork, Eddi subtly swiveled in her chair to glance toward the main doors. “Oh no.” The bottom seemed to drop out of her world.

“What happened?” Princess Ianthe glanced around with unfocused trepidation.

“Don’t stare,” Maria said quietly. “Our Eddi is downcast because the dulcet voice of the Honorable Raquel Cambout is heard in the land, and she appears to be leading our good Prince Fidelio around by the nose, which is quite a feat, considering its size and scope.”

“Don’t be cruel,” Eddi snapped.

“I would apologize,” Maria said with no hint of compunction, “but we’ve been sighted. Brace yourself, Eddi. Don’t let her see you stew.”

“Oh, look, Del!” Raquel trilled. “It’s little Princess Eddi and her friends.”

Despite Maria’s warning, Eddi seethed as Fidelio trailed in Raquel’s wake with a fatuous smile nearly splitting his face, as if being called Del was his favorite thing—although Eddi knew he despised the nickname only slightly less than “Fidel.”

But when he laid eyes on Eddi, the silly smile turned into a real one. “There you are!” he said. “Where’ve you been all afternoon? We looked everywhere.”

“Kayaking.”

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