I understand your aversion, but we have no choice anymore.” My mother began to protest, but Father cut her off harshly, his eyes mirroring Leander’s agitation. “We will consider Leander’s new candidates.”
Carefully, as if trying not to spook me, Father handed me the papers.
Almost in a trance, I took them, my vision blurring over Leander’s handwriting.
“One of these might be the one for you, like Bonnibel was the one for Leander,” Father said. “I pray one is.”
Shaking my head, I forced my eyes to focus on the list of names, each with a title and specifications.
There was one of those aforementioned werewolves Leander had snarked about, dubbed the King in the Wild. Another candidate was an oligarch from a Campanian city-state, with a merchant prince for a father, and nymph princess for a mother. Reading further down the list, all candidates seemed to range from questionable to wildly unsuitable.
While this described Bonnie perfectly, my curse was different from Leander’s, which had only required any beautiful girl to love him despite his beastly form. I couldn’t afford questionable or unsuitable with my curse’s very specific requirement.
Then my eyes landed on a name from a kingdom in the far northeast of the Folkshore.
Though I’d only heard about Opona, a land of snow and sorcerers, in distrustful whispers, its representative was titled Grand Duke Nikolai, which sounded lofty. And his given age was just twenty-five.
Before I dared raise my hopes, I looked up at Father. “What is a grand duke?”
“It’s their version of a crown prince,” he said, the same hopeful glint in his eyes.
A young crown prince of a major kingdom was so far my best possibility since Cyrus!
As if sensing my thoughts, Leander stood up and bent to tap the papers. “So, what do you think?”
Mouth dryer than the sun-baked streets of Cahraman’s capital, Sunstone, I looked to Mother.
Thanks to my father’s unaccustomed harshness, she’d lapsed into unprecedented speechlessness. She must have realized this was happening no matter her feelings on the matter. But her fear and hatred of anyone inhuman ran too deep for her to support this endeavor, even if it meant saving me.
I moved on to Father, and my heart clenched at seeing how anxious and exhausted he looked. He’d survived the horrors of war, and had led his kingdom back to peace. He should have had some peace himself, not come home to a daughter whose days were numbered. I owed it to him as much as to myself to try anything at all to survive this curse.
Then I looked at the mastermind of this plan, who was putting all he had into the hope of recreating his salvation for me. Leander was the closest person to me in this world, and I owed it to him to honor his efforts, to do all I could so he wouldn’t live with the guilt of failing me.
Not quite hopeful, yet not entirely hopeless anymore, I asked, “How fast can they get here?”
“Within the week,” Leander said at once, giving me a forced, encouraging grin.
I had to wonder, if he looked this unnerving with normal, human teeth, how terrifying had he been with fangs?
But more importantly, how had Bonnie fallen in love with him when he’d looked like a beast? She couldn’t have known that a handsome prince lay beneath that scary exterior.
This led me to a similar observation about Cyrus, who’d masqueraded as a servant to spy on his prospective brides, deceiving us all about his identity. And neither had he known the truth about Ada.
A sudden burst of clarity almost knocked me over.
This was the one thing in common between my brother and my cousin finding their betrothed. They’d both removed their title from the equation, and all the assumptions, expectations, and falseness that came with it.
That had to be it.
Feeling my heart clattering with a hope I’d long forgotten, I hugged the list Leander had made. “I’ll do it. But under one condition.”
“Darling, it’s a little late for you to be picky—” Father was cut off by Leander’s elbow jamming into his side.
“Anything you want,” Leander promised hurriedly.
“I want none of my suitors to know why you invited them, nor would they see my face or know anything about me. Not until I have seen and gotten to know them as they really are.” I covered my face with my hands, leaving only my eyes visible. “To that end, we will hold a masked ball.”
Chapter Two
Exactly a week after I’d agreed to Leander’s new plan, the