were in the same room.
My mouth pressed tightly together, I glared at Aura, who quit talking when she saw my expression. She handed the mirror back to Eden and quickly escaped, her shadow moving out the door and down the steps to, I would assume, spread the news to the others.
It was Eden I needed. She was the one who understood me the most. When my nightmares were too much, she was the one who crawled into my bed and held me until they subsided. She would take an acorn or a thorn and transform it into a wolf, then place it by my bedside, telling me it was my protector and would chase away the dreams. Though it was never the wolf who kept me safe but my family. Now my fears and uncertainties about myself and my bloodline came flooding back to haunt me.
“Who tried to kill you?” she asked.
“I don’t know.”
Eden’s face turned red with anger. “How dare they touch a hair on your head? Do they not know how powerful we are? That we are the daughters of Eville? To harm one of us is to ensure the wrath of us all.”
“I’m not sure if it was me they were aiming at,” I said, then explained the adder that appeared in the maze to harm Ameline, how Prince Xander’s mother had mysteriously been poisoned, and how I was accosted by two kidnappers and woke up with no memories of how I got back in my room, covered in blood.
“Do you think…?” I hesitated. “Maybe my dreams, my blackouts… I’m…?”
“No, never, Rosalie,” Eden replied. “You would never harm someone unless they were trying to harm you or your family.” Her blue eyes sparkled with unshed tears. “You are not a killer. But I do have one thing to say, dear sister. Your magic is strong, and you’ve got a good head on your shoulders. Use both to your advantage.”
Hearing it from Eden calmed my fears. It was good to speak to her and hear how my other sisters were doing in my absence. Mother hadn’t told them anything about my departure, and it made me unhappy that she could drop me off with little fanfare and then not speak of me. Raised and then discarded to fit her means.
We talked until my body grew weary. I fell asleep on the bed holding the mirror, letting Eden’s voice speak reassuringly to me as I dreamed.
Chapter Twenty
A whinny of a horse awoke me from my slumber, the mirror slipping from my fingers to drop on the floor. Picking it up, I felt its cool surface and knew my sister must have closed the spell. Going to the window, I saw the party was back. I watched as Gaven took Xander’s horse and led her to the stable, while Xander stretched and looked about the yard thoughtfully. Their hunt hadn’t been unsuccessful. He glanced up to my window, and I stepped back into the shadows. Had he seen me? Did he even know which room was mine?
I was drawn to him: his strong muscular shoulders, his brooding eyes, and his angular chin. He was a fine specimen of a man. A smile befell my lips.
He is mine, and mine alone.
The dark thought came suddenly, and I turned and clutched my chest. What was that? Where did that thought come from? Startled by my sudden obsessiveness over him, I quenched those feelings and calmed my heart. He wasn’t mine. He’d declared it many times.
My door opened, and one of Prince Xander’s attendants was standing there next to a grinning Pru.
“Yes?” I asked at Pru’s beaming face. Her lips were pinched together as if she were holding onto a secret.
“Prince Xander has requested you attend him for dinner,” the man said.
“If he thinks I’m going to serve him, he has another thing coming.”
“Miss.” Pru had gone to the wardrobe and pulled out one of my new dresses. “Not serve him dinner. He wishes you to be at his side.”
“Why now?” I asked suspiciously.
“Why not? You are his wife,” she answered.
“No,” I said shrewdly to his attendant. “You can tell him I refuse. I will not be hidden or paraded about for his every whim.”
“My lady, I won’t tell him that. I can’t.” The attendant’s face paled.
“Fine!” I snapped and moved toward my hand mirror. Lifting it, I repeated my demands to the reflection and then handed it to the man. “Give this to His Highness and you won’t have to say a