Page 37 of The Prince and His Stolen Groom
Just my luck. I didn’t really want to discuss love potion mishaps with the Good Wizard, but I did have somethingelseto talk about—they might even be tangentially related. “Is there any way to change the Kingdom Defense Spell?”
The Good Wizard took my non-sequitur in stride. “Not for this generation. Since the other three kingdoms have already married, three-fifths of the conditions have been met. If you wanted to go on a quest or perform a sacrifice instead, it will have to wait until next time.”
Wonderful. “What happens if we cancel the wedding?”
“The spell will break, and every evil mage of our age will know how prosperous your kingdoms are.”
“Is there anyoneelseFranny can marry?”
“Prince Brendon is the only candidate from Bane. You and Francesca are the only candidates from Woe.”
Dammit, back to square one— “Wait, what?” Something about the way he’d phrased that sounded odd.
“Prince Brendon is—”
“Yes, Iheardyou, I just wanted some clarification. If Prince Brendon is the only candidate from Bane, how can I be a candidate at all? Doesn’t his gender kind of disqualify me? Or were you just making a general statement?”
The Good Wizard blinked at me, owlish and befuddled. “Why would gender have anything to do with it?”
“Well, marriage traditionally involves both a bride and a groom,” I explained slowly.
The Good Wizard’s lips pursed as he said, “I expected a kingdom as prosperous as Woe to be more progressively inclined than to illegalize same-gender marriage—”
“Oh, it’s not illegal!” I rushed to say, waving my hands in the air. “It’s just … not common. And no one’s done it, have they? For the spell, I mean. All of those marriages have been both a man and a woman.”
“A personal choice, I assure you.”
“You mean that I could …”
“Marry Prince Brendon to complete the spell? Of course.”
I’d been trying to think of a solution this whole damn time and it turned outIwas the solution? It would free Fran, and I didn’t mind—thinking of Brendon’s body pressed up against mine, I blushed. ‘Didn’t mind’ might be a bit of an understatement.
But there was no way Brendon would agree. I had kidnapped him, locked him in a tower, and even tied him up. If I were him, I’d choose the sibling who had ignored me rather than the one who had semi-tortured me. Groaning, I put my head in my hands.Can I just go back to a few days ago and start over?
“Your Highness?” the wizard murmured. “Are you alright?”
“Oh, it’s nothing,” I replied, the words muffled by my position, “just questioning all of my life’s choices.”
A beat of silence followed before he said, “Then I will leave you to it.” Without another word, the Good Wizard left his own room to give me a safe space to wallow in the misery of my own dumbassery.
Chapter Sixteen
I had no idea how to fix the mess I’d made for myself, so I decided on the only possible course of action: procrastination. Besides, I had to find out why Franny had spiked my tea with love potion. Or worse, why someone else might have.
I found Franny and Kit in one of the sitting rooms, chatting happily away, two books open between them.
That certainly didn’tlooklike wedding planning. I narrowed my eyes at her, wondering again why she’d dumped the letters on me. But I couldn’t ask her in front of Kit.
“Fred!” Franny exclaimed when she spotted me. “I need a favor. There’s a book I wanted to loan Brendon, but I can’t find my copy. I know I bought one for your tower library. Could you go get it for me?”
So much for my procrastination idea. It felt like she and Kit were both purposely pushing me away with all these errands and I didn’t know why. “I’ll do it later,” I muttered, slumping into one of the chairs.
“What happened to your face?” Kit asked.
I scratched at one of the lingering heart-shaped bumps. “Love potion gone wrong, apparently.”
“Love potion?” Franny gasped. “Who would feed you alovepotion?” Then she exchanged a look with Kit and an entirely wordless conversation followed.
