Their paternal devotion impressed me. As an Alma, I was unable to reproduce, so the idea of unconditional love for a child seemed a foreign concept. Maybe true love is caring for your descendants. A parent’s love should never, ever fade.
And yet, my own parents had left me at the Alma Palace without a backward glance. They were rewarded greatly for my safe delivery. Hardly an act of love.
“Have you made any progress?” the queen asked as she approached me. Her eyes flickered to the line of people around her son.
“Nothing yet, Your Majesty,” I said, inclining my head to her. “Carishina is sure this is the correct course of action. However, I’m more concerned with the root of the problem, which is why someone poisoned the prince, to begin with.”
“We’ve been through all this already,” the king told me. “No one would want to hurt Yarling. Everyone adores him.”
“I saw a man,” I said, “and he struck me as… odd. He is somewhat tall, has shaggy brown hair, dark eyes, and a very handsome face. He was young, no more than twenty.”
“Desian,” the queen said with a relieved sigh. “I’m glad he’s back.” She looked to the line of people again. “Where is he?”
“Not here, at the moment,” I informed her. “I’m sure he’ll stop by soon.”
“Why do you call him odd?” the king asked. “He’s never seemed so to me.”
I nearly snorted. So, the rulers weren’t aware they had a shapeshifter in their midst. Did the prince know?
“Mainly his hair,” I said, waving my hand casually. “Or is that the fashion of the court now?”
The queen chuckled. “Oh, no. Desian cares little for fashion.”
“Is he a Duke or some other rank within the nobility?”
“Technically, yes, but not by birth,” the king supplied. “Yarling met him in the city, a poor orphan. They became quick friends and we sort of adopted him. He’s been living at the palace for nearly all his life.”
I nodded. So, an adopted son. One interested in the throne, perhaps? Would the lust for power corrupt those bonds of friendship? Even with the nation’s elections, this Desian could wish to better his odds by offing the most likely to be selected. “But he does have an official rank within the court?”
“Yes,” the king repeated. “We wanted to make sure he was always cared for. He is a Lord, with an estate to the east. A small estate, but enough for him to live off if he decided to leave here. But Alma, Desian would never raise a hand to harm Yarling. In fact, it’s the opposite. He always thought himself Yarling’s protector. A big brother in every sense of the word.”
“Then I look forward to meeting him properly. I only saw him in passing and wanted to find out more.”
The door opened again, and the man himself entered. Desian. A shapeshifting man? A shapeshifting dragon? A powerful dark wizard? Any could have been true.
“Desian.” The queen exhaled sharply and hurried to the young man. She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. The king followed and clapped Desian’s shoulder.
Then, sudden movement behind the dragon-man made me stiffen. A guard walked in, glancing around the room suspiciously. His eyes landed on the prince and remained fixated. Every muscle in my body tensed as the guard pushed past Desian and the royals and headed toward the prince.
The threat. Desian was using his presumed innocence to smuggle an assassin into the room.
I had to act.
The guard strode forward, his gaze intent on the sleeping prince. His lips curled up in a sneer. His hand, by his side, gripped the hilt of his belt knife.
“No!” I shouted, rushing forward. I stretched out my hand, sending off a protective spell, one meant to deter any with malicious intent.
The guard tore his eyes away from the prince and focused on me. Still, his steps did not falter.
A dark magician! Protected by evil and unholy charms!
I lashed out with offensive spells, rather than relying on defensive. A bolt of electricity crackled in my hand and I sent it toward the attacker. The lightning stopped him, hitting him right above the heart. He fell to the ground, stunned. I let out a triumphant holler and allowed myself a smile.
I’d saved him, saved the prince!
My foot tripped on one of my books I’d carelessly left on the ground. I lost balance. Cartwheeling my arms, I tried to find my equilibrium, but I was too far off center. I fell to the side, my arms grasping for purchase.
I stared down into the face of the prince, my body half on top of him. I’d caught myself a mere inch away. This close, his sweet scent intoxicated me.
“What’s going on?” the king demanded. “Alma, what’s happening?”
I hardly heard the words, so absorbed in the view below me. His skin, a dark brown, was flawless, smooth, and youthful. Arched eyebrows his natural hair color, a soft auburn. A nose slightly too large, but only making everything else seem perfect by comparison.
Footsteps sounded behind me, quick thuds against the carpets. Who and why, I couldn’t even fathom. A second assassin perhaps? I couldn’t summon the strength to care. All thoughts were blissfully pushed from my mind.
“Alma,” the king called again.
I tried to stand up, to pull myself away from the trance the beautiful prince had caught me in.
“Pucker up,” Carishina said, a second before her hand grasped my hair at the roots and forced my face down. The move was so unexpected, I didn’t have time to react. The minimal distance separating myself and Prince Yarling vanished and my lips met his.
It wasn’t a kiss. I didn’t kiss him. He didn’t kiss me. Our lips came into contact because of bizarre circumstances. But as I struggled to pull back, my arms lashing out at my foolish companion, the prince stirred.
I stopped fighting. Carishina let me go, but I didn’t do anything besides pull back a few inches.
The prince’s eyes fluttered and opened. He looked at me, pale-brown eyes the color of summer wheat and as distant as a mountain top. Then they seemed to focus. His pupils constricted to slivers. “Who the hell…”
“Your Highness,” I said softly, staring down at his less-than-pleased expression. “I can explain. Carishina hypothesized the spell could be lifted with a kiss. She forced me—”
“Of course, it’s lifted by a kiss, you idiot!” he snapped, though his voice still pitched low. “That was the point!”
“I… What?”
The queen launched herself at her son, crying as she clutched at him. I fell to the side, thrown back by the force of the queen’s body. My legs were pinned painfully between them and I wiggled farther onto the bed to get out of the danger zone.
“Yarling!” the queen yelled, her voice broken by sobs and absorbed by the prince’s pajamas.
“Mother,” the prince said, patting her back awkwardly.
“We were so worried,” she told him, voice cracking with emotion.
The anger in the prince’s face melted to reluctant acceptance. “I’m fine, Mother,” he said.
The king joined his wife and son, tears glistening along his cheeks.
Not wanting to interrupt the familial moment, I got off the bed and walked to my beaming companion.
“It worked!” she whispered excitedly, grasping my forearm. “Klint, we did it!”
I supposed “we” did. Curse the child and her ridiculous notions. I’d never hear the end of this from her. All eternity for her to brag.
No, I thought. There needs to be another explanation. This was purely coincidental. I hadn’t kissed him. So, therefore, he couldn’t have woke from a kiss.
“You know what this means, right?” Carishina continued. “It means he’s the one you’re destined to be with.”
“Don’t be a fool, Carishina,” I scolded. “I’ve already explained how idiotic the notion of true love is, as well as the idea of a kiss breaking a curse. It’s simply a coincidence. One of the spells I’ve cast upon the prince finally worked. The magic needed time.”
Carishina’s eyes narrowed. “That’s not what happened, Klint.”
“I know more about this than you do, child.”
She shut her mouth and her eyes flashed with rage.
“Who did this to you?” the queen suddenly asked. “Who put this curse upon you? Tell us, Yarling, and we’ll see them punished!”
“I—” the prince began but trailed off. “I don’t know.”
An obvious lie. I could tell, likely his mother could too, but she didn’t press the issue. Instead, she rose from the prince’s side and made her way to me. Her smile glistened in pure joy while her eyes still leaked tears. “You saved him, Alma. We are forever in your debt.”
“It was our job, Your Majesty,” I said, inclining my head, mostly so I didn’t have to meet the eyes of the prince. “Since our task is now finished, we will return to the Alma Palace.”
“Wait!” Yarling yelled at the same moment the queen said, “You must not.”
I struggled to meet Prince Yarling’s gaze but couldn’t, so I glanced questioningly at the Queen. “Your Majesty?”
“There is still the mystery of why someone poisoned Yarling, to begin with. You suspected Guardsman Antonio?” She gestured to the man still stunned on the floor. I’d forgotten about him.
I walked forward and placed my hand upon the fallen guard’s forehead. I reached out with my magic and erased the spell binding him. He’d ache for a day, but wouldn’t have any lasting damage. The guard groaned and lifted his head. He placed fingertips to his temples.
“Explain yourself,” I commanded.
He looked up at me sharply, then sucked in a hiss of breath at the sudden pain. He lowered his head into his palms, cradling himself. “P-pardon?”
“What was your intent in coming here?”
Still on the bed, I heard the prince mutter a soft oath. I didn’t have a chance to gage the prince’s reaction to see why he would be cursing in the first place. This assassin held my focus at the moment.
“Why were you in here?” I repeated.
“I was summoned,” he said, glancing up at me. “Lord Desian told me I had to come and try to wake the prince.”
My focus, and everyone else’s, went to Desian. He sat on the edge of the bed, his hand gently patting the prince’s back. He replied smoothly, “Alma Carishina instructed me to assemble all the soldiers of the garrison. Antonio was stationed at the town gate and I went to fetch him so he could do as the Alma commanded.”
Everyone seemed satisfied by his answer. I was not. His response had been too practiced. “No,” I said, shaking my head. “When the guard entered the room, he did not have intentions of saving the prince, but of murdering him.”
“Klint,” Carishina said, “how can you know for sure?”
“He crept in, sneered at the prince, and gripped his knife as he approached.”
The queen gasped. “Guardsman, is this true?”
“No, Your Majesty!” he said. “Well, that is….” He snatched his hand away from the hilt of his belt knife. “I may have gripped my hilt, but only as a habit. I would never harm the prince!”
Desian stood and approached the guard. “I vouch for this man. He wouldn’t have come, except I forced him.”
Again, the prince groaned softly, almost too quiet to hear.
I narrowed my eyes, examining the man who used to be a dragon. “If he didn’t want to come, why did you force him?”
He shrugged. “Alma Carishina wanted everyone.”
“Enough,” the prince said. “Everyone out! Mother, Father, I’m fine. I need to be alone for a few moments. I want everyone to leave.”
The queen fussed but did as her son commanded. Though unsatisfied with anyone’s story, but I was in no position to refuse the prince at this point. He was safe. I could keep an eye on Desian and this Antonio just as well outside the room. I could interrogate the prince at a later time, if needed.
“You.” The prince’s voice cut through the room like a crack of a whip. “Alma. I want you to stay.”
I glanced back, hoping he spoke to Carishina. Unfortunately, his brown eyes were glued to me.
As Carishina walked by, I grabbed her elbow. “Keep an eye on Desian and the guard. Don’t let them out of your sight.”
She pinched her lips into a line but nodded.
Alone in the room, I made myself meet the prince’s gaze. His face was unreadable, blank of emotion or intent. Why did he want me here?
“What did you do to wake me?” he asked harshly.
“I’m not quite sure, Your Highness. We attempted multiple spells, some potions, a few charms, runes and glyphs. None seemed to work at the time, so I can’t say for certain which one finally became effective.”
“You kissed me,” he accused.
I fought to keep from blushing. “An accident, Your Highness. I tripped and then Car—Alma Carishina pushed my head down. She thought my kiss might break the spell.”
The prince tore his eyes away from me. “And it did,” he muttered to himself.
“No, Your Highness,” I insisted. I didn’t want him having the same ridiculous ideas as Carishina. “One of the previous spells worked. I will do some research and discover which one has a delayed reaction.”
He nodded.
“Your Highness,” I ventured. “When you first woke, you said you knew the spell would be broken by a kiss.”
He looked away, embarrassed.
I pressed him. “You do know who slipped you the poison, don’t you? Was it Roberta? Or your shapeshifting friend Desian?”
The prince gave a start at me naming Desian so. “No, not Desian. And not Roberta, either. I brewed the potion myself.”
“Yourself?” My jaw dropped open. “Then that means….”
He drew himself up, trying to look important. Difficult to achieve while in pajamas sitting in a bed, but somehow, he managed. “I am a magician.”
“Why would you do this to yourself?”
To my surprise, his sigh sounded of relief. “If you haven’t figured out, then he wouldn’t have. That’s good news.” His happiness didn’t last long, though. His brow furrowed and he wrinkled his nose. The expression didn’t lessen his beauty. “But you also succeeded in completely ruining my plan, Alma.”
“I… What?”
“The whole point was to get Antonio to break the curse. I had Desian arrange to make the Alma tell my father only a kiss would wake me.”
“Desian never had us speak to your father. And he never said a single word to me since I met him at the Alma Palace. Of course, he was a dragon at the time, which may have put a damper on his conversational skills.”
“Oh, no. He’s perfectly capable of speaking in his dragon form. But the plan was always to get an Alma to suggest this course of action. What went wrong?”
“Well, Carishina suggested it, but….” I trailed off. What had she said about the stories? She had almost forgot, too. As if someone, or something, had reminded her about the lore. Had Desian really planted the seed inside Carishina’s impressionable head? “Maybe you’re right, Your Highness. It might have been Desian’s doing all along.”
He nodded once, as if he’d won some sort of argument and felt vindicated. “So now you see how you destroyed a carefully orchestrated plan.”
“If you like this Antonio, why not tell him so? It would have saved us all a lot of trouble.”
“I already have told him. He doesn’t like me that way. But I thought, if he were forced to try, he’d come around. I thought….” He sighed again. “It doesn’t matter what I thought because you stopped it from happening. Argh! He was here, getting ready to try!”
“Your Highness,” I said gently. “You must realize how foolish this all is. The idea of a spell being broken by a kiss? Those only work in stories.”
“You’re wrong. I know I had the right enchantment. It took me six months of researching to find the correct one.”
“If you’re determined, why not make the potion again and have A
ntonio kiss you awake.”
The prince growled in frustration. “Obviously that won’t work. It’ll look suspicious if I get poisoned twice in a row!”
“Then I suggest you move on with your life and find someone else. It’s all the same, in the end.”
His brown eyes seemed to look at me, I mean really look at me, for the first time. I tried not to fidget under his scrutiny. “No,” he said finally. “I have a better idea. You’ll stay here and help me figure out a way to make him love me.”
I scoffed. “Why should I? I’ve completed my task and will be paid handsomely for the job of waking you. Carishina and I will return to the Alma Palace tomorrow.”
“I can pay you more money.”
“I don’t need any. Money is inconsequential to us Almas. The Alsa Alma will be happy with what your parents already promised.”
The prince’s face took on a menacing countenance. “Then I will have to convince you by other means.”
“And just how—”
He lifted his hand, palm up, to his shoulder. The moment his hand stopped, I felt a jolt within my body, a spasm so hard my teeth chattered. My thigh burned, and I realized what enchantment he attempted.
The color left my face and I stared at him in horror.
His smile was cruel. “You know what I’m doing. I’m binding your magic.”
My throat constricted. “How?” I choked out. The spasms inside me increased intensity.
“That’s my secret. I can complete it. All I have to do is squeeze.” His fingers began to close and the pain in my thigh—where my Alma mark rested—seared like fire. “Of course, if you stay and help me catch the interest of Antonio, I won’t be forced to use these drastic measures.”
I gasped. “I accept.”
His hand dropped, and with it, the pressure within my body left. Still, I trembled from the aftermath of the pain and the fear. Very few magicians had the power necessary to bind another’s magic. It was another piece of the puzzle that didn’t fit.
But one thing was quite certain. The prince had to be a dark wizard.
Chapter Eight
CARISHINA AND I were given guest quarters on an upper floor. Prince Yarling explained to his parents he would pay our fees from his own funds until we found the culprit responsible for poisoning him. We were staying in the palace as his personal task force.
Breaking His Spell Page 4