Trial of Magic (The Fairy Tale Enchantress #4) - K. M. Shea Page 0,158

was sent. You ought to check them and see if any were set off. As long as you remain within shouting distance—as you promised—we really will be fine.”

Marzell pressed his lips together.

“Angel will be with me,” Snow White added.

Oswald—jamming his shoulder into Rupert’s—snorted. “That’s hardly reassuring! What will she do if something attacks? Throw a clove of garlic at it?”

Angelique studied her nails. “No, my best garlic attack involves forcing a peeled clove up my target’s nose. Want to give it a try?”

“It’ll be fine, Marzell,” Gregori rumbled.

“You are needlessly worrying,” Rupert added. “We will have the cottage yard surrounded. Any attack would have to get through us before they could reach Snow White.”

“Fine, fine.” A sigh leaked out of Marzell, partially deflating him before he smiled. “Do not hesitate to call for us.”

“We won’t,” Snow White promised.

Marzell nodded and joined his comrades, slipping into the forest where the mellow browns of their cloaks almost immediately camouflaged them with the trees.

“Good luck.” Angelique waited only until she was sure Marzell wouldn’t let any of them circle back around. “Quick, Snow White, now is our chance!”

Snow White followed her inside. “Our chance for what?”

“I don’t know,” Angelique admitted. “It’s simply that we’re not left alone often, so this seems like the ideal time to poke around the cottage or to burn some of those ruddy portraits Aldelbert keeps giving us.”

Snow White smiled like the good person she was. “I’m cleaning the mushrooms Wendal found this morning.”

Angelique sighed and leaned against the table to display her disappointment. “Such a diligent and good future ruler.”

Snow White silently retrieved the overflowing basket—which was a generous name for it since it was lopsided and some of the weave was coming undone—of mushrooms.

Angelique watched her for a moment, then added, “You’ll make a good queen—though with your king, you two might go down in history as the quietest royals ever.”

Snow White fumbled with her basket and dropped a few mushrooms on the floor. “What?” she squeaked.

Angelique wiggled her eyebrows. “You can’t say you thought you and Fritz were keeping your mutual admiration a secret?”

“I don’t know—mutual admiration? What makes you think—there’s been no indication,” Snow White babbled.

Angelique patted Snow White’s hand and impishly smirked. “Don’t you worry. Fritz is a patient lad. When you finally get the courage to say that you love him six years from now, he will undoubtedly accept.”

Snow White gaped at Angelique, who pushed off the table with a hop in her step. “Though now that I reflect on the matter longer, I think you’ll muster the starch to tell him much sooner. You have moved rather fast.”

“Fast?” Snow White asked.

Angelique paused and tapped her chin, pretending to think. “After all, you fell in love with him in about two weeks! For a shy girl, you do not poke around.”

Snow White set the basket down and slapped her hands over her cheeks to hide her blush. “I don’t know that I would call my deep admiration love, and at the very least I cannot presume to say that Fritz feels as I do.”

Angelique scooped up the mushrooms Snow White had dropped—penance for embarrassing her. “It’s odd. Folk stir up such a fuss about falling in love and are always so terrified of what the object of their affection thinks.”

“It’s scary,” Snow White said, “to know someone has enough power over you to crush your heart or give you boundless joy.”

Angelique picked up a mushroom and held it over her head, staring at it. “Maybe so, but falling in love is easy. It’s the years that come after love that are the real challenge.”

“What do you mean?” Snow White asked.

“Falling in love is frightening because it means your heart is no longer under your control, yes, but when the other person returns your affection—that is not the end of your trial but merely the beginning. It’s the heartache and pain that come with life that test you. It’s the times you feel like you have been beaten to within an inch of your life, like the whole world is against you. It’s the years that pass and gradually change how you look—how you spend your time. That is the real challenge in love, and that is where it most often fails. People fall in love with an ideal—not a person.”

I’ve seen it with Elle and Severin, my own parents, Stil and Gemma…

Angelique swiveled on her heels and dropped the mushrooms into Snow White’s basket, then stared into the princess’s bright blue eyes. “You