Page 22 of The Abandoned Princess

“Prince Xander?” Charli’s sister finally spoke, sounding incredulous. “You should at least try to make your stories believable. Why would the prince want to come here with a child like you?”

I gaped at her. She must have been jealous of her younger sister to make such a ridiculous assumption. Charli wasn’t pretending she was on some sort of romantic stroll with a prince.

For the millionth time, I had to swallow my outrage at being rendered silent and invisible. There was nothing I could do to stand up for my friend. I used to think I was the unnoticed younger sister at home, but I had been clueless about what it was truly like to be powerless.

“Is this some sort of game?” Xander asked, sounding tense. “I’m standing right here.”

“Regardless of what you’ve been fancying, this is dangerous, Charli.” Simon stepped forward and took Charli’s elbow in a firm grip. “Your sister and I will escort you home right now—and don’t even think about arguing.”

It was Charli’s sister who looked like she wanted to argue, her expression furious. But she could hardly say anything. She would look ridiculous and desperate if she said anything else to expose her jealousy of her younger sister.

But she didn’t need to say anything for me to be well aware that Charli wasn’t actually much younger than these two, and that her sister was well aware of it. Romance had always been far from Charli’s mind, but it was impossible not to notice her golden beauty. Her older sisters were all pretty, and together they made an impressive sight, but even as a child Charli had stood out.

I had always suspected Charli spent so much time in my clearing because her sisters resented her—it was probably the same reason they had spent so little time around me. In fact, I had long suspected them of being part of the reason the adults were so firmly convinced the children were only playing a game. I could too easily imagine them taking any opportunity to undermine the way others saw Charli, encouraging them to think her flighty and childish.

Xander couldn’t possibly know the various dynamics between the village’s children and youth, but he bristled at Simon’s behavior all the same. He stepped forward, clearly meaning to free Charli from the older boy’s grasp.

But when he reached for them, his hand veered away, failing to make contact. Growling, he tried again, his face tensed in concentration. It made no difference, though. No matter how hard he focused, he couldn’t force his hand into contact with them.

Charli looked back at him, her face pale. “That’s why I shoved you before,” she said in a quiet voice. “You won’t manage it on your own. I’m surprised even that worked. Nothing we tried ever worked before.”

“No.” I dropped back a step, shaking my head. “No, no, no.” It couldn’t be possible.

I’d been stubbornly ignoring the implications of Simon’s words, pretending it was just a game on the part of the two youths, because I didn’t want to acknowledge the truth. But I couldn’t hide from it any longer. For one brief, shining moment, I had thought myself free from the enchantment. But it had just been an illusion.

“Stop muttering nonsense, Charlotte!” Charli’s sister snapped as Simon began to drag the younger girl away.

Charli cast an anxious, apologetic look over her shoulder. “What should I say? Who should I tell…?”

Xander lunged after them, but his efforts were pointless. I already knew that. Hurrying after him, I grabbed his shoulder and gave it a slight shake.

“Answer her questions! You’re a prince, and you’ve just disappeared. Do you want to get her in trouble?”

Xander stopped, frowning down at me. When he looked up at Charli, nearly at the tree line, his face tightened.

“Don’t say anything!” he called after her. “I told them I was going looking for Princess Daisy, but no one knew I was going with you. There’s no reason for you to get yourself involved with this.”

I nodded urgently. “And we really don’t want Eulalie to know what’s happened! So you can’t spread this story around. There’s no point anyway when she’s the only one who’ll believe it.”

Charli had time to nod once before she was tugged out of sight. Xander and I remained silent and motionless, staring at the trees where she had disappeared.

“I’m sorry,” I said after a moment, not even trying to hide my miserable tone. “It was never my intention to drag anyone else into this with me. ”

Xander started and looked at me. “Of course it’s not your fault. You didn’t ask me to kiss you.”

My eyes narrowed. “No, now that you mention it, I certainly did not. I retract my apology. This is entirely your fault.”

Xander laughed, the sound unexpected. “Duly noted.” He looked around the clearing. “So what now?”

I stared at him. “That’s it? You’re just accepting it that easily?”

“Would it help if I ranted and raved or insisted it couldn’t be true? I’m happy to oblige if you’d like it.” He frowned after the disappeared youth. “You must know those two better than me. Might they have been faking the whole thing? It would be good acting for two youths from a remote village, but I suppose it might be possible.”

I shook my head. “I know what it looks like when someone can’t see and hear you. I have plenty of experience with that. Those two definitely had no idea you were standing there.”

Xander nodded. “Then somehow your enchantment has extended to me. So back to my question. What happens now? Perhaps you could start by explaining exactly how the enchantment works? It was the strangest feeling when my hand kept veering away from where I was telling it to go.”

I looked around at the moonlit clearing, trying to wrap my head around this unbelievable new reality.

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