Page 26 of Apples Dipped in Gold

“Why are you cursed?”

“I looked at an enchantress, and now I cannot escape her,” I said. It was close enough to the truth.

“It seems rather extreme to curse someone for staring,” she said.

Ahead of us, the fox snorted. “His Highness has cursed many for far less.”

I glared at the creature, thinking that I’d like to show him what it was to be cursed and sentence him to wear his fur inside out for the rest of his life, but I resisted the urge for vengeance. Samara was so used to horror, I did not want to become another monster in her eyes.

“Perhaps that is why you are cursed,” said Samara.

Her comment frustrated me, and I paused, turning to face her.

“Are you implying that I deserve to be cursed?”

She ceased to breathe as I watched her, growing pale. I did not even know why it mattered what she thought; she was mortal and had no understanding of the world that flourished beneath the boughs of the Enchanted Forest. Still, I desired to know.

“No, my lord,” she said.

“Then what are you saying?” I wanted to close the distance between us, but I did not want to watch her cower before me.

“Ignore me, my lord. I know not what I speak.”

“Do you dislike my name?” I asked, tilting my head to the side as I watched her.

For a second, she looked confused. “No, my lord.”

“Then why don’t you use it?”

She opened her mouth to speak, but then she closed it and lowered her head. “I apologize…Lore.”

“I do not want an apology,” I said. “I want to know what you really think.”

She watched me like prey shivering beneath the eyes of a wolf.

“I won’t hurt you. I have promised, and I cannot break a promise,” I said.

“It does not matter that you cannot break promises. I do not trust you,” she said. “I will call you Lore when I trust you.”

My chest felt tight, like she had taken a hold of my heart. I did not want to feel disappointed by her words. Lore was not even my true name, but that was not a name I would offer for the same reason, as eager as I was to hear her say it. It was a reckless thought. The gift of a true name was the offer of power. I could not deny her anything if she spoke it, though I knew I’d deny her nothing no matter what she chose to call me.

That was the danger of this curse.

I dipped my chin and held her gaze. “As you desire,” I said. “And?”

“And what, my lord?” She used my title deliberately, as if to emphasize her point, her eyes alight with challenge. I wasn’t even sure she realized it, and if I pointed it out, she’d likely crawl back into her shell, so I said nothing, only smirked, liking this peek at who she could have been—maybe who she stillcouldbe—without her brothers.

“You have an opinion on why I am cursed,” I said. “I want to know it.”

She took a breath, lifting her chin. She did notanswer my question but asked one instead “Why do you curse people?”

I had not thought much about it. I suppose people just annoyed me, but I did not want to say that aloud.

“To teach lessons,” I said.

It wasn’t untrue, even if the lesson was leaving me alone.

“What kind of lessons?” she asked.

---