Page 7 of To Charm a Dark Prince

Jolting in surprise at the voice, she looked up. There, sitting at the edge of the crater at the top, was Merlin. The cat was flicking his tail from side to side, glaring at her like he always was. “Well?” His mouth didn’t move. But it was clear where the voice was coming from. His voice was deep, raspy, andmean.

Boyfriend’s betrayal. House on fire. Portal to somewhere. Falling to her death. Waking up in a flaming crater unable to burn. Naked. And now her cat could talk. Sure. Okay. Fine. Why not? Why thehellnot. “Am I dead?”

“Not yet.” He sighed. “Are you going to get up?”

“I— But—” She shook her head. “What’s happening? How is any of this happening? Where am I? How am I not dead? How can you talk? Why am I naked?” She felt panic begin welling up in her chest, and she struggled to breathe. Shutting her eyes, she began counting backwards from ten. That was a trick her therapist taught her years ago, and it always seemed to help.

Hopefully, this time wouldn’t be any different. But normally she wasn’t dealing with so much insanity—maybe literal insanity—all at once.

The cat let out an exasperated groan. “You are such a child.”

“Wellexcuse me, but I don’t know what’s going on!” She put her head in her hands and tried again to count back from ten.

“We can discuss things on the way out of these woods. Sitting there fretting will solve nothing. And if we do not leave quickly, we will both regret it.”

Looking up, she arched an eyebrow at the cat. “Why?”

“Because then the Prince in Iron or his bastard knights will find you. And if that happens, you’ll be dead. And if he doesn’t kill you, what he’ll do instead will be far worse.” He bared his teeth—one fang and all. “Trust me.”

“The Prince in Iron?”

“Must you ask stupid questions? Yes! That is what I said. Nowget up, and let’sgo.” The fur on Merlin’s back rose as he stalked away from the edge of the crater and toward the line of trees.

Oh. Woods. Yeah. They were in the woods. Standing on wavering legs, she looked down at her naked self and decided it was pointless to try and cover up. She couldn’t climb out of a hole and hide her boobs at the same time. And running around the woods pretending to be Eve from some dumb painting was going to cause more trouble than it was worth.

With her luck, she’d end up finding poison ivy.

But she took her long hair—which she usually kept in ponytails or a braid, but her tie was gone with everything else—and brushed it down over her chest. It was a sad attempt. Especially since she had nopants.

Wait.

Holding up a piece of her hair, she stared at it. Her hair was supposed to be brown. Not dark red. But there it was, in the light of the full moon—an unnatural shade of almost crimson. “What the—”

“Now,you child!”

“I’m being ordered around by my asshole cat. And my hair is the wrong color. And I’m in a hole. That’s on fire.” Climbing out of the crater was easier said than done. The sides didn’t look steep, but the dirt and gravel was loose, and she slid back down more times than she’d care to admit. But finally—now scraped and dirty along with naked, wrong-color-haired, confused, and terrified—she made it out of the blast zone.

It was only when she looked back at it that she realized…Oh. She had been the one who had made that hole. When she had hit the ground. And she wasn’t dead. Or on fire.

Sitting at the edge of the forest, looking just as angry as ever, was Merlin. With a sigh, she walked after him. “What happened to my clothes?”

“They burned. Obviously.” The cat began walking.

With nothing else to do, she followed him. “There’s nothing obvious about any of what’s happening.” Wrapping her arms around herself, she frowned. “Where are we?”

“I think we landed in Ellainwood.” He huffed. “Not that it means much to you.”

She shook her head and didn’t know what to say. What was she supposed to do? How was she supposed to handle this? Her mind just kept going round and round in circles over the same things.

Fire.

Falling.

Talking cat.

Naked.

No, she had to focus. She took a moment and tried to reconcile what had happened. She could process everything later once she was safe. Taking a deep breath again, she held it and slowly let it out. It was going to be okay. She wasn’t hurt. She was just naked in a forest with her talking cat. No broken bones, no giant wounds, no burns. She could solve this. She could get through it.

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