curse had been placed on her. Where magic was concerned, nothing was ever as one thought it would be.
That was why a princess who should have had everything was alone and awaiting the moment her life would end in endless dreams.
“You didn’t mean to meet me though. This was an accident?”
“Yeah, but it was a good accident. Me and Kira were running away…” He stopped. Kira. Was she all right? He gave a quick turn around the room but she was nowhere to be seen. Was there another room she could have fallen into?
“Kira?” echoed Rosamund. “Who is that?”
He ran damp palms against the leg of his trousers, willing the panic down enough that his voice didn’t shake. “My friend. She’s the daughter of the captain of the guard. She didn’t fall with me, so do you know what else might have happened to her?”
Rosamund shook her head. “I’m afraid I don’t know much. I do think she’s fine, though. My father would never keep anything bad in the castle. He has enough to worry about just with me.”
Shame had Seth lowering his head, breaking away from her too-direct gaze on him. Kira knew how to take care of herself. Taren, Kira’s father, had taught her so well she could probably beat most of the royal guard. Seth shouldn’t be worrying about someone else in front of this girl who had more problems than all of his friends put together. “So,” he said, determined to steer the conversation someplace nicer. “What do you do here?”
“Read,” she said, gesturing at the room around them, the rows upon rows of books. “And paint. I finished a painting only a few days ago.”
She rose to open a large armoire and pulled out a small canvas, the size of his hands when placed side by side. It was a scenic view of a tree by a lake, and he could almost imagine the warm sun on his face and the springy grass underneath his hands. “This is really good.”
“You think so?” For the first time she smiled, and he saw what she would look like when she was an adult. She was going to be a lovely woman, all delicate beauty and gentle actions. It wasn’t fair that an evil fairy took that away. “I’ve never seen a tree before, so I’m painting from a drawing in my book. I wasn’t sure if it could be any good because of that.”
“It’s really great.” She’d never seen a tree. The thought punched a hole in his lungs – then, the magnitude of everything she had lost hit him. She’d never seen a tree. He and Kira practically lived in the woods. They’d built their tree house when he was eight. Kira had broken her arm when a spoiled royal jerk visiting his father’s palace had pushed her out of the tree two years ago, and war had almost been declared between their kingdoms after Seth had finished beating the hell out of the little bastard.
“The lake too? I like paintings when they have the sunlight reflecting off the water. Is it that beautiful? It must be.”
He nodded. “Yeah, it is. When we’re married, I’ll take you on a picnic. We’ll go on a perfect spring day. And you’ll feel the sun when it’s the perfect warmth without being too hot, and there’ll be a breeze, and you’ll smell flowers and a hint of water.”
Her eyes alit, her fingers clenched and unclenched in unconscious desire. “Do you think there could be a bunny? The books say how soft they are, and I always wanted to feel one.”
“I’ll get you a hundred bunnies,” Seth said, and he blinked hard, because a man did not tear up. “I don’t get the appeal, but I know they’re something girls like, so if you want them, they’re yours.”
Rosamund stared at him with an intensity flaying skin from bone and burrowing straight to his soul. As he sat before her, exposed and raw, she fell back, boneless as a rag doll, to land on the floor beside the bed. “Except that’s all just a pretty dream, isn’t it?” Her voice turned a dark, ruined thing, an emptiness to it he’d only known old men to possess until now. “If the curse gets me, the only thing that can break it is true love’s kiss. And I sit here alone, and even my father fears loving me. I’m going to be alive forever in death’s embrace. There will be something always just