Page 75 of The Abandoned Princess

“I thought you wanted it removed?”

I nodded and forced myself to stand still as she approached. When she reached for me, I remembered the first time I had met her and the subtle way she had scratched me with the ring. This time she had no need for subterfuge, openly scraping the gem of the ring across the skin of my arm.

I half expected it not to work the second time either, but a strange sucking feeling started deep inside me. My hands flew to my chest, but it wasn’t something I could touch. I felt something ripping free, and a rippling sensation ran through me.

I swallowed and stared at my arms, wondering if they were truly visible to everyone again.

“Yes!” Eulalie cried, making me look toward the ring.

There was no longer any sign of a crack on its surface, and it had also lost the light-sucking quality to its darkness. Staring at it, I thought I could even glimpse a touch of blue in the depths of the gem.

Seeing it, I realized my mistake. Lori and Xander were free, but the whole of Northhelm was now at risk in their place.

I looked from the ring to Eulalie herself and got another shock. Gone was the leathery skin, the familiar face, and even the ruby earrings. In its place stood a vaguely familiar stranger.

I stared at her long enough to realize why she looked familiar. She was a more beautiful, more feminine version of Prince William.

This was the queenly appearance Eulalie had chosen. This was the earrings at work.

“Do you like it?” she asked. The glow in her eyes showed how satisfied she was with the result. “Don’t I look magnificent?”

She drew a dagger from her clothes, her expression turning regretful. “I really do feel bad about this. But at least you die knowing you helped implement what will be the greatest reign Northhelm has ever known.”

CHAPTER 23

I backed away from her, wishing I had my own weapon to draw. My legs hit a small side table, and I picked it up, wielding it in front of me like a clumsy shield.

Eulalie’s mask of civility fell away. “You dare to defy me after I cared for you all these years?” she screeched. “I could have stopped bringing you supplies years ago!”

I didn’t point out that she had only visited the tower when it happened to be convenient, and she had never once considered that she wasn’t providing me enough regular food to sustain life. I couldn’t have stayed in the tower if it wasn’t for Lori and the children.

Part of me wished I hadn’t stayed in the tower all those years. But another part of me was thrillingly aware, even as she brandished her knife, that I was free of the enchantment. If I had escaped her and left Northhelm years ago, I would never have been truly free.

The table was successfully keeping me out of reach of her knife, but she was between me and the door. I kept backing up, hoping I wasn’t going to hit a wall.

Instead, I ran into a second table. It was a low one, and when it hit the back of my knees, my legs crumpled. I twisted as I fell, instinctively throwing away my shield so I could catch myself with my hands.

I succeeded in breaking my fall, but when I rolled onto my back, Eulalie was advancing on me with a twisted smile on her face. I scooted backward, only to collide with a sofa that trapped me in place.

Eulalie stabbed down at me with the dagger, but I whipped a cushion off the sofa, thrusting it into the air. The blade sank through the fabric and into the stuffing. Eulalie grunted in frustration, ripping the cushion from my hands and throwing both it and the knife away.

Before I could get to my feet, she leaped on me, pinning me down with her knees, while her hands wrapped around my throat. I fought, kicking and thrashing as she tightened her hold, but my movement was hampered by the various pieces of furniture hemming me in.

I really did only get one minute of freedom, I thought sadly, even as I tried to peel her hands away.

But before everything went black, the door to the sitting room burst open and someone crashed into the room.

“It felt like it was coming from in here,” Xander’s voice said to someone over his shoulder, and then his eyes found us, locked together on the floor.

He shouted and drew his sword in a single, fluid movement, just as Lori appeared behind him.

Eulalie reacted by letting me go, scrambling desperately away from me as she reached for her ring. She made contact with it just as Xander leaped for her, but nothing happened.

She barely evaded his blade, horror on her face as she fled to the far corner of the room and huddled against the wall. Xander paused to look at me, concern all over his face.

“Are you all right, Daisy?”

I was too busy gasping for breath to reply with words, but I did my best to nod. My response seemed to worry him since he hovered beside me, blocking Eulalie’s exit but not advancing toward her.

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