Page 29 of The Abandoned Princess

She looked down at her ring, running a finger across its cracked surface. I suppressed a shudder. The last thing I wanted to do was touch the awful blackness of the twisted gem.

“It’s true that I need the ring for one final enchantment,” she murmured softly, as if to herself. “I haven’t waited and planned for so long to fail now. But would the power really go back inside? It hasn’t cracked all the way yet. I’m sure there must be more power left inside it.”

“But how do you know what will happen if you try to use more power than it has?” I tried to fight the desperate edge creeping into my voice. “It might destroy itself and both of us too. That wouldn’t fit with your plan, surely?”

She frowned, almost looking swayed by my words.

“I have waited and waited, and I only have one chance,” she muttered again. “It has to be now for this to work. One small enchantment to take a kingdom. But what if it does fail?”

“Exactly!” I latched onto her words. “It’s not worth taking a risk like that. You should take back my test enchantment before it’s too late.”

She frowned at me, but she hardly seemed to see my face, her thoughts caught up in a heavy struggle. Slowly her expression lightened, and I could barely breathe from the hope. My words had swayed her. She was going to lift the enchantment.

Her eyes roamed over the room with the same unseeing glaze as when they’d looked at me. Except her gaze once again caught on the bed. It looked sufficiently rumpled to have been slept in, but there was no denying the blankets were piled much higher than usual, despite the warmth of the night.

Something changed in Eulalie’s manner, her back straightening, and her eyebrows drawing together.

“They’re pretty words, Daisy.” Her eyes met mine. “But how can I trust someone who’s deceiving me?”

I felt my face pale despite my effort to remain calm. “What do you mean?”

She launched into sudden movement, striding across the tower toward my bed. But at the last moment, she veered toward its foot, stopping in front of the chest. In one fluid motion, she wrenched open the lid.

“This is what I mean, Daisy.”

CHAPTER 11

Eulalie’s smug expression faltered, her eyebrows shooting up as Xander exploded upward. She clearly hadn’t known who was inside and must have thought it was one of the village children.

“A man?” She fell backward, out of his reach.

As soon as he straightened to his full height, her eyes latched onto his face. “A prince! How do you have a prince in your tower?!”

She had clearly expected to have the upper hand and was thrown dangerously off balance by the surprise of Xander’s identity.

He stood weaponless before her, his sword still at the bottom of the chest, but he met her gaze fearlessly, his muscles taut as he held himself ready to move.

Lightning fast, his gaze flicked sideways to me. “Are you all right?”

“You can see this place and her?” Eulalie asked sharply. “The enchantment is still active, so how is that possible?” She gasped and looked down at her ring. “Are you somehow inside the enchantment as well? Is that what cracked the ring?”

“I have no idea,” Xander said evenly. “You’re the one who controls it.”

I shifted anxiously. I didn’t like how quickly Eulalie had leaped to the correct conclusion. I didn’t like anything about this situation. I should never have allowed Xander to climb into the tower. I had agreed to his claim I needed protection, but in truth I had just been excited at the idea of company after all this time. I had wanted him beside me, and now it had ruined everything. I had been working toward this conversation with Eulalie for years, and now my chance of convincing her was gone in one moment.

Eulalie took a step toward Xander. “I can’t free Daisy—she belongs to me now. But you should not be here. You need to be removed.”

Xander bristled, although he should have been hopeful at her words. Even if we couldn’t convince Eulalie to free me, maybe we’d succeed at getting her to free him.

“You’ll remove him from the enchantment?” I asked breathlessly.

She threw me a contemptuous look. “I’m not touching this enchantment. But that’s not the only way to get rid of him.”

“What? No!” I cried, my mind instantly leaping to what she had done to the adult men previously caught by her ring.

Xander didn’t look afraid, though. Instead he stepped toward her, all towering menace.

She took one look at him and her hand flew to the ring, as if she feared he was about to rip it from her finger. I wished he would.

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