Page 75 of The Prince and His Stolen Groom
“Yeah, that was kind of dumb of me,” I muttered.
Cereal shrugged. “Mistakes happen.”
I stared at him warily, not sure how to react to his easy-going attitude. “You’re a lot less intimidating than I expected.”
“I’m on vacation,” he informed me blithely. “I assure you, if this was a serious venture, you’d be properly terrified.”
“So, you’re here to ruin the wedding for fun? Or”—I thought back on his words of advice—“save it? I’m not actually sure where we stand on that.”
“Let’s say I’m here to save it,” he replied, his lips quirked in amusement.
“By kidnapping me.”
“By preventing you from running away from your responsibilities.”
“I wasn’t—” I stopped. Explaining any of this to him would just give him the upper hand. It sounded like he’d gotten his genders swapped somehow, dubbed Kit the unofficial Princess of Bane, and decided we were the bride and groom. Which meant Brendon andFranny were safe as long as I kept the charade going. “Why do you want to save it anyway?”
“It’s my wife, you see. She wants to brag to her friends about attending a royal wedding. Which means I can’t have the groom running off with another man.”
I wondered if he might be bullshitting me, but his reason was so weird and specific it sounded like the truth.
Which meant he had no idea that the wedding was part of the Kingdom Defense Spell. Because if he did, I don’t think any amount of displeasure from his wife could stop him from destroying it. “So, you’re going to what, keep me here until the morning and give me marriage advice?” It sounded ridiculous, and yet … “Wait, are you the one who gave me the love potion?”
“It was the quickest way to make you and your bride fall in love.” He scanned me with narrowed eyes. “Though it doesn’t appear to have worked at all. What did you do to neutralize it?”
“Nothing. It failed because you accidentally dosed my sister and I, so all I got was a rash.”
Sheer horror crossed his face, and he shot a scathing look into the shadows. “Isincerelyapologize for the mistake.”
I shuddered at the memory. “Itched like hell.” Other odd events started falling into place. “You also made the forest all thorny, didn’t you?”
“Yes, though you weren’t supposed to be in the tower at the time. I simply wanted to discourage you from meeting your lover so you would spend more time with your fiancée.” He continued to scowl in irritation at the shadows. Then he perked up and said, “But she did come to save you. Wasn’t that romantic? Didn’t it get your heart pumping? She seems like quite a lady.”
I don’t know if I would call Kit a ‘lady,’ but she’d clearly impressed the mage. Think back, Kit had come to the tower in the armor, but Brendon had left in it. “And you were behind the maze.” Which is why Kit and the Good Wizard hadn’t run into it—he’d only activated the spell when he saw me and my ‘bride’ together.
“Did you enjoy it?” he asked eagerly. “My wife and I did one on our honeymoon. Though ours was much more complicated—a thousand different routes to the center, with far more pit stops along the way.” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively. “But it took us over a week to complete, and the two of you didn’t have much time, so I simplified it.”
“So, this whole time you’ve just been trying to play matchmaker to an already engaged couple? That doesn’t sound very evil. Are you sure you’re in the right profession?”
With a vaguely patronizing look he reminded me, “Vacation.”
“Right, so you’re off the clock and can do a few ‘good deeds.’”
His eye twitched, as if having ‘good deeds’ attributed to him was like catching a nasty disease. “I won’t pretend to be altruistic, but I promise to deliver you unharmed to your bride tomorrow morning.”
“What if I decide not to marry her?”
He tapped his fingers on the arm of the chair. “The first love potion only failed because of a mistake, which means you are not immune to them.” He held out his hand and one of the shadows behind him stepped forward.
The movement startled me, and I jumped backwards in my chair, the legs clattering on the floor. One of my hands came loose from the bindings and I had to hide it before he noticed and ordered his imp to tighten them again.
Cereal handed the shadow a bottle and it disappeared again. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure it’s delivered to the correct woman this time.”
‘Don’t worry,’ he said, as if he wasn’t about to force me to fall in love with someone. Alright, that felt more genuinely evil.
If I confessed I wasn’t the groom, would he stop? Maybe he wouldn’t believe me. But if he found out Franny and Brendon were the bridal couple andstillnot in love, he might force-feedthemthe potion. I pictured the way Franny had looked at Kit over the last few days, glowing with happiness and hope. Except this time she was looking at the real Brendon, and he had that soft look in his eyes he’d had right before he kissed me.
Fuck that.
