I let out an agitated breath. “I’d rather not.”

“Remind me why, exactly, you picked her.”

I let my eyes roll over to Blaise slowly and deliberately. “You act like you weren’t hiding behind that suit of armor during the entire conversation.”

She shrugged, her eyes lighting with mischief. “But I wanted to hear your side of the story.”

She looped her arm into mine and dragged me toward the doors. “Oh, come on,” she said as I protested, digging my feet into the ground like a pouting child. “I won’t make you talk to her. But I’ve been out all night, and I won’t be able to stay awake for your tragic tale if I don’t get some coffee in me.”

The kitchen was probably Blaise’s favorite place in the entire castle, if not the entire world, and if she was shirking her responsibilities, this was likely where you could find her.

Unless it was her day to clean the kitchens, in which case your best bet was to search for a pair of boots sticking out from underneath the garden shrubs.

“So, let’s get this straight…” Blaise shoved a pecan tart into her mouth, pocketing it in her cheeks as she twiddled her thumbs. “You, Prince Evander Thornwall, Heir to the Throne of Dwellen and suitor of many a courtesan, fell in love with a mysterious stranger, a human woman, quite literally at first sight.”

I picked the last pecan tart from her plate, and she pouted. “It wasn’t at first sight. We danced and talked all night.”

Before I could bring the tart to my mouth, she grabbed it from me and licked it.

I grimaced. “You’re disgusting.”

“And you’re glossing over some important details,” she said, as if this were far greater a crime than infecting the last pecan tart with her saliva. “Also, it totally counts as love at first sight if it’s the first time you meet someone.”

“I’m afraid you’re wrong about that, young lady. It only counts if you love them the instant you lay eyes upon them.”

“Would you say that you’ve seen her a second time yet?”

I didn’t answer, which Blaise took as response enough. “I’ll take that as a no. Now, I know my education was cut tragically short, but I’m pretty sure if it comes before second, that makes it the first.”

“So you’re going to drag me down to the kitchens, make me smell the pecan tarts, not even let me taste one, then tell me how wrong I am?”

She nodded. “Pretty much.” But then her face softened, as it so rarely did. “I’m sorry it didn’t work out the way you wanted.”

I swallowed. I knew almost every one of Blaise’s maneuvers. Earnest was not one she plucked out very often.

“It’s really my own fault,” I said. It had been stupid to convince my father to let me place a bargain onto those shoes. He’d known that, and that’s exactly why he’d let me do it.

Not to mention the fact that Cinderella had been lying when she told me the shoes were glamoured to fit only her. As a fae incapable of lying, it was the one thing that made me wary about most humans, the one power they boasted over us.

But then again, she probably just came from a lowly family and worried I would have cast her to the side if I’d realized she had no name and no money.

Could I blame her?

“Your fault or not, it still stinks,” Blaise said.

“Yeah.”

“You wanna tell me what you loved about her?”

Her voice was so gentle, so soft, it sounded unnatural. I furrowed my eyebrows, then took the back of my palm and placed it over her brow. “Are you feeling ill?”

“No, it’s just that I’ve never seen you really care about any of them before. It makes me worried, that’s all.”

I cocked my head, puzzled. “You know I’m never going to let anyone take your place, right?”

At that, Blaise jerked out from underneath my hand and pushed it away, grumbling. “You’re coddling. It’s overbearing.”

“Fine,” I said, unable to help but smile at her reaction to my sap. “To be honest, I didn’t think she was any different from the rest at first. But she was gorgeous, and I thought, who better to dance the night away with than the most stunning woman in the room? But when we danced, it was almost like… almost like she knew me.”

Blaise looked about ready to gag with revulsion, which kept me from mentioning the tiny detail about me being pretty sure a mating bond had snapped into place, but she motioned for me to continue.

“I don’t know, Blaise. Ever since Jerad…” I trailed off, still unable to say the words, as if they would somehow make what had happened a reality, rather than the nightmare I’d been trapped in for the past year. Blaise reached her hand across the counter and took mine in hers. Her hand was cold and trembling. For the first time today, I noticed the dark circles underneath her eyes.

My subjects were none the wiser, but my late-night rendezvous had only increased in frequency since the accident.

For her, that’s when the late night rendezvous had begun.

“I miss him too,” she whispered.

I cleared my throat. I could hardly get a word out about Jerad, much less admit out loud how much I missed him. How empty this eternal life felt without him. “All the women I’ve met since…” I took a breath, and Blaise squeezed my hand. “They’re always so quick to bring up that I’m the heir. What a glorious kingdom I’m going to run when it’s my turn to take the throne.”

Blaise nodded, understanding creasing her pale forehead.

“She didn’t bring it up. Not once.” My throat went dry. “She just told me she was sorry. That she knew what it was to…to lose someone very dear. To have a life thrust upon her that wasn’t the one she’d envisioned for herself.”

Silver lined Blaise’s brown eyes before the tears began to spill down her sleep-deprived, sunken cheeks.

“We should both get to bed.” Dying inside from the pain in her expression, I tousled her raven-black hair. “Some of us were up all night and are in desperate need of a nap.”

She swallowed and nodded, pushing herself off the kitchen counters. As we left, her eyes narrowed in question. “What’d you say her name was?”

“Cinderella.”

“You know that has to be a stage name, right?”

CHAPTER 7

ELLIE

I had to admit, I’d half expected Orvall to send me to the dungeons for that little act of defiance I’d pulled back in the prince’s presence. So when he brought me to a cozy suite with a soft bed and a smoldering fireplace instead, I tried to act pleasantly surprised.

You know, as pleasantly surprised as one can be when they’ve accidentally sworn their life away to a twelve-year-old in an immortally twenty-five-year-old body.

“I suggest you rest,” Orvall said as I examined the room. “There is parchment on the desk should you wish to write your family.”

I nodded, the motion more a reflex than anything. I mostly wanted him and the guard to get out. Thankfully, they cleared their throats and shuffled away, shutting the door behind me. I watched the door handle as they did, noticing just the subtlest of jerks in the wood.

Subtle enough to be caused by a key in a lock.