here. And whatever happened after the picnic...”
“It would make you happy?”
“Yes,” she said.
Something shifted in his expression. “It is so simple to please you?”
She reached out and touched his hand. “It can be.”
She could see, for just a moment, emotion in his dark eyes. “I will arrange it.”
He stood, and made his way quickly back to the castle, and Tinley laughed at his retreating figure. He wanted her. It was a wonderful revelation. Just then, something caught Algernon’s attention, and he sat up, his ears facing forward. The little cat was never that alert, and Tinley thought it was odd. He was staring into the woods.
“All right,” she said, “let’s get you back—”
The cat sprang into action, and then ran into the forest, disappearing from view before Tinley could grab him.
She stood, staring after him. He couldn’t have gone far. He was only capable of short bursts of speed. She sighed heavily and took a step toward the forest. Dread crept over her. She knew that she wasn’t supposed to do this. Knew that she wasn’t supposed to go here.
Alex would be furious.
“And I’ll be back before he is.”
And on a deep breath, Tinley slipped into the trees.
CHAPTER TWELVE
WHEN ALEX RETURNED from the palace, he found the garden empty.
Tinley wasn’t there. Her cat wasn’t even there.
A wash of dread went over him.
And he knew. He knew exactly where she was and what had happened.
He had let his guard down.
And it happened again.
Fury rose up inside of him, and he charged headlong into the forest without thinking.
It was dark here under the trees. Completely black.
It was evening as it was, and here beneath the canopy of trees, there was nothing. Panic ate at him.
For he knew exactly what could happen here. And so did she. She knew better than this. She knew better than to play around with this.
Perhaps this is it. The end of the curse.
Everyone who touches you dies.
He gritted his teeth. There was no point in thinking that way. Not with Tinley lost in the woods, and with nothing to be done for her except find her.
He pushed through the trees, listening intently for anything he might hear.
He heard the howl of a wolf, and the hair on his arms rose on end.
He took two steps forward, found a large tree branch and held it like a club. An entire pack of wolves would be no match for his fury. Anything that dared touch Tinley was already dead. Man or beast.
There were no paths in the wood, and the trees reached out to grab him, and he elbowed his way through. Listening. He didn’t want to call out, for some reason. Something inside of him prevented it. And he felt the need to trust that sensation.
For he always did.
The kingdom of Liri was an ancient one, and the only thing more feared than the wood itself was superstition of what might happen if it was destroyed. That sense of old-world magic was something he still carried inside himself, though he was pragmatic in many ways.
He felt the weight of the mystical here.
And if nothing half so fanciful as old magic lived here, then many animals did. Trees. A delicate ecosystem that scarcely existed anywhere in the world before. It was for men to be respectful of it. Careful of it. Not to destroy that which they could not dominate.
Even he believed that.
He heard another wolf howl, and that was when he knew the silence had to end. He growled in response, and pressed forward quickly, bursting through the trees and into a clearing. Tinley was sitting there, clutching her cat, looking wide-eyed.
“Get up,” he commanded, reaching his hand out.
She looked up at him, a mixture of gratitude and fear in her eyes. “Come with me,” he said.
She didn’t need to be asked twice.
He hauled her up off of the ground and brought her up against his chest. “What were you thinking?”
“Can we get out of the terrifying forest, please?”
“Nothing will touch us.” He looked around. “You’re with me.”
He propelled them both back through the woods, back toward the palace, and when they were on the grounds again, free of the oppressive darkness of the trees, he rounded on her. “What the hell were you thinking?”
“Algie... He went into the trees. I was sure that he was only just a little bit away, but then he was gone. I found him and that clearing, and I have no idea how he covered so much ground so quickly. But I