Page 54 of The Abandoned Princess

I gasped. Was he challenging her? She had fled my clearing in fear of him, but she’d had time to recover since then.

Eulalie had been the focus of all my dread for so long that every one off my nerves was screaming at me. I wanted to leap to my feet and shout for Xander to run.

But something strange was happening. Xander had looked straight at Eulalie, but it was like he didn’t see her. His gaze passed over her as if she was just another member of the crowd. As if he himself was an ordinary person who saw her as a forgettable woman like any other. As if he wasn’t under the enchantment.

I saw the moment the same thought hit Eulalie, saw the shock ripple through her. If Xander couldn’t see her as herself, then he was no longer inside the bubble of her enchantment.

When she looked down at her ring, her eyes wide, it confirmed her thoughts. Xander had fooled her. But when she looked back up, a determined light had entered her eyes. She trusted the ring more than him.

She started toward him, and I maneuvered onto my knees—still lurking in the shadows but ready to leap up and dive into the fray if needed.

But before Eulalie reached the stall where Xander was standing, the stall keeper spoke in a conversational tone.

“You won’t find finer silk anywhere this side of the ocean!”

Xander looked at him and smiled. “It’s very impressive.”

“It’s spun here in our own town.” The man’s chest swelled, as if filled with pride in the local people. “I’m sure you’ve traveled all over, but you won’t have seen finer wares than this. Not in the capital itself!”

Eulalie froze mid-step, clearly thrown off balance by this evidence of Xander’s freedom.

The stall keeper picked up one of the silk purses and held it out, angled to show to best advantage. Xander dutifully leaned forward to touch it, running his hand down the length of it and making an admiring noise.

Thanks to my odd angle, I could see that he never actually made contact with the purse, keeping his hand an inch or so above it. Since he never tried to get closer, the enchantment did nothing to repel him.

“Clever,” I murmured to myself as Xander spoke again to the stall keeper.

“Very nice, indeed,” he said. “But I’m afraid I’m not in the market for a purse today.”

“A hair pin, then?” the stall keeper suggested, and I blinked, almost starting to believe they were having a real conversation.

“I’m afraid not today,” Xander said with an apologetic smile. “But perhaps—” He moved aside slightly, gesturing to the man beside him, and the true customer stepped slightly sideways, putting himself into a better position to see the pin the stall keeper was now holding out.

“Another day,” Xander called to the stall keeper with a wave of farewell and strode off into the crowd.

Eulalie did nothing to follow him. She was trembling slightly, clearly unnerved and unsure what to do.

But eventually she pulled herself together, looking down at the ring and stroking it reassuringly.

“Why not?” she murmured so that I only just caught the words over the sounds of the market. “He added himself to the enchantment somehow, so mayhap he knows a way out. But he can’t have broken it over Daisy. The ring would have responded to that.”

She still hesitated, though, glancing back in the direction of the village. Was she considering rushing back to the tower to check on me? If she did, it would cause all sorts of problems. We still didn’t know what she was searching for or where it might be, and I had no interest in trekking back across the ground we’d already covered.

But after a moment of gazing behind her, she shook herself and pushed forward into the market again, moving in the opposite direction.

I slowly relaxed, giving myself a moment to clear my head and settle my breathing. Eulalie had obviously decided that if the prince could no longer recognize her then he wasn’t a threat, and that could only be to our advantage.

“How did I do?” a voice asked from behind me, and I leaped to my feet, only just swallowing the scream that rose in my throat.

I whacked Xander lightly on the arm while he pretended to look apologetic.

“Do you want me to scream the town down?” I asked. “Don’t terrify me like that.”

“I did well, though, didn’t I?” He was looking smug, but I couldn’t deny his claim.

“Very well! I have no idea how you managed it. It must have looked utterly convincing to Eulalie. I was half convinced myself.” I laughed, but it was an uneasy sound.

I knew I should wish for the appearance to be reality. If Xander was free of the enchantment, he could go to the king and explain the danger directly. But after only a few days, I already couldn’t bear the idea of being trapped without him.

---