Loving a Prince Charming - By Danielle Monsch Page 0,26

land, long and loud and terrifying.

Dragon? It couldn’t be. It couldn’t. The curse was broken. Seth had saved the day. Nothing was going to stop the fairy tale story of the prince who saved the princess.

“I’m afraid that’s not quite how it happens, child.”

She knew that voice. From her left… “Sara?”

Sara from the tavern, as grandmotherly as ever, her face marked with generous laugh lines and eyes that gleamed with merriment. “Don’t mind me. I’m just here to give you a little support. You’ve got quite the job ahead of you.”

As Sara talked, Kira’s birthmark began to warm, similar to when she’d fought the fey the night she and Seth had left the kingdom. But instead of the stab of a red-hot burn, this time the warming was soothing and gentle, the way it felt when she sank into a hot bath the end of a long day. She held up her wrist to show Sara her mark. “What part do you play in this? You said I was fairy-marked.”

“I did? Well, then you are. I’m usually right about these things.” Sara sat down on a fallen log, folded her hands in her lap, and kept her gaze on Kira, her whole attitude one of patient and good-humored expectation.

The birthmark burned hotter and the whisper of memory tickled the back of her mind. Something was here, something that happened before. She knew this woman from before their meeting at the tavern— long, long before. There was a…question? —No, not a question, it was more—purpose. Something to do with purpose.

Her mind churned and uprooted, but there was no image to grasp, no word to enlighten. Whatever she and this woman shared, her mind would not give her the answer, so she asked the source. “The tavern wasn’t the first time we met, was it?”

“No, not at all. We met a very long time ago.” But when Kira parted her mouth to speak again, Sara waved her question away. “We’ll discuss that later. Right now, we have a curse to break and a prince to save.”

Seth. The dragon. Kira crouched down so she was eye level with Sara. “Where is Seth? That was the dragon I heard, wasn’t it? Why is there a dragon loose when Seth is with Rosamund?”

Sara reached out and patted Kira’s hand in support. “Because I’m sorry to say, the curse was fulfilled.”

“No.” Sara didn’t know Seth. Sara couldn’t know that he’d never allow that to happen. “Not possible. I saw him leave to go to Rosamund. He would never break his promise.”

“No, no he never would.” Sara’s voice gentled and filled with respect. “And he didn’t. He kept his word. Rosamund isn’t asleep.”

“You said the curse was fulfilled! You’re making no sense.” Panic snaked through Kira but she pushed it back, because what she was thinking – what she was thinking was not possible and didn’t happen. Couldn’t have happened. Seth was fine. “You said the curse was fulfilled, so that means Rosamund is asleep.”

Sara’s eyes weren’t merry now, and her laugh lines were greatly diminished. “He promised that little girl he would not let the curse take her, and he didn’t. Instead he took the curse upon himself.”

Kira grabbed the old woman by the shoulders and gave a hard shake. “You’re lying! He went to her to break the curse. Seth is fine. It can’t touch them now!”

Sara made no move to break free. Instead, she placed her weathered hands over Kira’s and held them. “Do you believe that man could make love to you but still marry another woman? Is that who you think he is?”

It was meant to be one night, just one night, for her to carry in her heart the rest of her life. It wasn’t meant to change anything. It wasn’t meant…

No.

Is that who you think he is?

No.

It had been her victory over Rosamund, hadn’t it? No, that wasn’t what Seth was. With their loving, she had won, hadn’t she? Over the curse, over Rosamund, over the circumstances that had defined her life since the moment she realized she loved Seth, the same moment she’d realized she could never have him.

Her knees buckled, rocks and branches bit into flesh and muscle as she sank into the muddy ground. Her fault. She cursed Seth. In her determination to have him, to win, she left him vulnerable to the curse.

The gentle touch of Sara’s hand on her cheek caught her attention. “Enough of that, child. You’re not evil, you’re human, and you’re in