Ali cleared his throat. “It’s time for my own confession, Rosie dear. I knew you were quite serious about spelling Prince Liam and that no amount of persuasion would deter you from your goal, so I’m afraid I took upon myself the role of antagonist in your fairy tale in order to prevent you from making a serious mistake. The day I confiscated your spelled chocolates, I had no doubt you’d try to get them back. So I switched them with ordinary chocolates, which I planted in my room before destroying the real ones on the off chance that they actually worked and some unsuspecting fool ate them. I couldn’t bear the thought of you losing your heart to anyone but me.”
I gaped at him in utter disbelief. When I didn’t respond he continued, speaking rapidly, as if desperate to complete his confession as quickly as possible.
“I must confess I’m surprised you didn’t suspect foul play. Did you really think I would have been so stupid as to leave my door unlocked as an open invitation for you to search my bedroom, where your enchanted chocolates were waiting to be discovered in the most obvious hiding place? Or that I wouldn’t have counted the chocolates I stole back and not notice two were missing? Or that I wouldn’t have been fiercely jealous of His Highness for daring to steal the heart I wanted for myself?”
Now that he mentioned it, as adamant as he’d been against my spelling Prince Liam, he’d seemed unnaturally calm about the entire scenario as it unfolded. I should have suspected…
Ali anxiously searched my expression, his own now twisted in worry. “I only did it because I believed you were falling in love with me, too. I knew you’d regret your spell when you realized you didn’t want Prince Liam to think himself in love with you, so I took upon myself the role of gallant knight and prevented what would likely become the biggest mess you’d ever entangled yourself in. I’m both sorry for tricking you and, I must confess, not.”
I tried to make sense of his words as they whirled around me. Slowly, it dawned on me that the situation I’d thought impossible to escape from only moments ago was now merely a memory. Fierce relief washed over me along with warm gratitude. I caressed Ali’s cheek. He’d served as my knight and rescuer, even before I knew I needed one.
Ali gnawed his lip as he awaited my response. “Plot twist?” he offered with a rather adorable timid smile. With those words, I finally broke from my paralyzing shock and beamed.
“I, Rosalina, have been part of the most amazing plot twist! To think such a brilliant one was part of my story and that Prince Liam doesn’t love me and I’ve found my real prince and nothing will ever stand in the way of our happily ever after…oh, bliss!”
Giggling, I hooked my arms around Ali’s neck and burrowed my ecstatic face against his throat. He returned my embrace, his own a bit dazed.
“You’re not upset?”
“Heavens, no. You knew my heart and came to your lady’s aid using the most spectacular twist. I’m ecstatic.” I kissed him fiercely, but he’d barely returned it when I yanked myself away and glared at him. “Never play the part of my antagonist ever again. Your only role now in my fairy tale is that of my hero.”
“Ah, so we’re in a romance now?” he asked, his eyes twinkling.
“Mm, more of a hybrid genre: romance adventure. How does that sound?”
“That is a genre I’ll gladly inhabit forever.” He kissed me again, pulling away when Eileen approached and pulled me into a hug.
“I’m so happy you and Alastar have finally found each other. I told you it’d all work out if you’d just let your love story unfold naturally.”
“It took you long enough,” Prince Liam grumbled. “I was running out of ideas on how to pretend to be lovesick. A man can only write so many sappy love poems.” He pulled a face.
I shook my head, still unable to believe the entire thing had been a façade.
“You really did an excellent job,” Ali said. “You even had me fooled sometimes. If I didn’t know without a doubt that you were faking it, I’d have gone mad.”
Prince Liam stood to take a bow. “It truly was a spectacular performance, wasn’t it?”
I frowned at Ali. “Wait, for your scheme to work, Prince Liam had to agree to play along. How did you manage that?”
Ali smiled guiltily. “After our fight by the pond when you’d gathered nearly all your ingredients for the spell, I realized how serious you were. When Prince Liam next visited, I cornered him and told him what you were plotting.”
I groaned in utter humiliation and buried my face in my hands. Ali’s arms wrapped around my waist, where he began to rub my lower back in soothing circles.
“He was both amused at the idea and properly horrified should it work. I told him I’d be sure that whatever you gave him wasn’t spelled if he’d pretend that he was.”
“And he trusted you’d follow through?”
“Only because at the ball I noticed how besotted he was with you,” Prince Liam said. “I knew no force would stop him from preventing anyone else falling in love with you, spelled or not. So I agreed to the scheme and had more fun with it than I anticipated.”
I furrowed my forehead. “But what was your motivation to pretend? You could have just eaten the unspelled chocolate and I’d have thought it hadn’t worked.”
Prince Liam grinned mischievously. “I could have done that, but I also had my own motivations. Not only did I see you were in love with Alastar and needed the advances of an unwanted suitor to help you realize your true feelings, but I hoped my betrothed would learn I was avidly courting another and I could finally wriggle out of the arranged engagement I’ve always despised. While the first plan was a success, unfortunately, Princess Lavena is still very much mine.”
I took in his defeated expression. “I’d also hoped that my spelling you would help you escape your betrothal,” I added timidly.
He smiled tightly. “Thank you, Rosalina, I appreciate the gesture.” He sighed heavily, looking resigned. “But unfortunately, I’m coming to accept that my impending marriage is inevitable. I’m now trying to brace myself for the union I never wanted.” His expression twisted in disgust before he managed a smile. “At least I got an extended holiday from my heir duties, not to mention I had a lot of fun with the charade. I enjoyed coming up with ridiculous ways to make you believe me spelled. It became even more amusing when you quickly no longer welcomed my attentions; I loved making you squirm.”
Ali narrowed his eyes. “You did take it a bit far on multiple occasions. Poor Rosie was often near tears.”
Prince Liam held up his hands defensively. “It was all in your best interest, my good chap. I hoped the more I pushed your Rosie, the quicker she’d realize where her affections truly lay.” He frowned. “Unfortunately, the opposite seemed to be true. The more I brought up that Rosie was in love with you, the more adamantly she denied it.”
“Even once I realized it, I was afraid if I admitted it, you’d challenge Ali to a duel or something else just as dramatic.”
Prince Liam pondered that. “Maybe I laid it on a bit too thick.”
“Definitely,” Aiden said. “Was drooling that first day truly necessary?”
Prince Liam wrinkled his nose. “Perhaps that was a bit much, hence I never repeated it, but I wish you could have seen your faces when I did that…and the horrific looks you gave me when I initially refused to eat what I assumed was a reversal spell. Priceless.”
Eileen and Aiden laughed, and I used their distraction to seize the opportunity to spin back around in Ali’s arms and once more hook my arms around his neck.
“Plot twist indeed,” I murmured. “Thank goodness you know how I work, else I’d be furious with you right now.” For the relief at my being rescued so completely far outweighed any anger I knew I should be feeling for his sneaky plot.
“I knew your heart and did all I could to protect it, both for selfish and unselfish reasons. Not to mention I knew you needed to experience this journey in order to discover your true feelings. Am I forgiven?”
I tilte
d my head at him. “Hmm, are you?”
He grinned and pressed his forehead against mine. “Am I?”
I giggled and stood on tiptoe to lightly brush my lips against his. “Yes, dear Ali, you are, for your act wasn’t villainous at all but that of the noblest of knights.” And I pulled him into another kiss, the perfect way to begin this next chapter that I had no doubt would be wonderful.
Chapter 28
Later that evening, as I was about to prepare for bed, a folded piece of parchment slid beneath my door. I seized it and hastily unfolded it. As I’d hoped, it was a note written by my Ali:
Remember the vase you suspected of containing a map to a secret treasure? Perhaps you should investigate.
I grinned girlishly and clutched the note to my heart. Already our story promised to be a romantic adventure. I knew exactly which vase he referred to—the one we’d encountered during our very first midnight stroll. The only problem was I didn’t remember where it was.
I wouldn’t find it by remaining in my room, and becoming lost during this quest would only add to tonight’s excitement. I tucked Ali’s note between the pages of my journal and seized a candle, pausing only to smile at the golden ball resting in its usual decorative place on the mantle. I now realized it truly was enchanted to lead to true love, considering it had guided me to Ali my first night in the palace. But there’d be no need for it now that I finally recognized my prince, a prince who was waiting for me. I slipped into the dark hallway.
I expected to find Ali waiting for me outside the door and was immensely disappointed to find the corridor empty. Still, he was waiting for me somewhere in the palace, and I was determined to uncover his whereabouts, even if it took me all night.
But first, those vases.
I had a faint recollection of their location…sort of. The problem of engaging in frequent nighttime wanderings was I’d always done them without a specific destination in mind, which presented the annoying problem of being unable to retrace my steps now, especially considering the night we’d discovered those vases had been quite a while ago.
I paused at the end of a shadowy hallway and peered around the corner. Like most corridors in the palace, this one was ornate, decorated, and seemingly identical to the others. I silently cursed that my tendency to live inside my head rendered me unobservant in situations like this, for surely the decorations weren’t all exactly alike, but no amount of torture at the hands of a dastardly fiend could help me recall those I’d just passed. Curse this particular flaw the character of Rosalina was doomed to live with throughout her tale.
There appeared to be no hope of finding the vase by memory, so I’d have to rely on luck instead. I peeked inside each one I passed, and after fifteen tedious minutes of this I began cursing the royal decorators who thought it a good idea to use vases to decorate every blasted corridor of this massive palace.
“Cheating, Rosie dear?”
Ali. I grinned and spun around to find him leaning arms crossed with his left leg bent to rest his foot on the wall behind him. Goodness, he was adorable.
“Of course I am,” I said, unabashed. “Relying on my poor memory would cause me to take all night to find that elusive vase, leaving us no time for our adventure.”
“My apologies. I should have foreseen that problem and given you some clues to its whereabouts.”
“Will you help your lady in need, noble knight?”
He extended his hand and wriggled his fingers in invitation. I immediately scampered over to intertwine our hands and beam up at him. “Hi.”
“Hello to you too, darling.” He brushed a kiss along my brow and I melted. How could past Rosie have been so blind that she was utterly and completely in love with this man? What a fool she was. Thank heavens present Rosie was much more wise.
“I find myself lost, my gallant knight. I’m looking for a vase whose twin houses an invisible dragon’s egg and which also contains a hidden secret.”
“Ah yes, my lady, I believe I know exactly the one to which you are referring. It’s a mischievous vase that tends to wander, but I may have spotted it a floor up and several corridors down.”
I sighed. “I’m not even on the correct floor? If you hadn’t come to my rescue, I’d have been wandering for ages.”
“When I saw you cheating, I figured as much.”
He gave my hand a gentle squeeze and led me down the hallway. Although we’d made this familiar stroll many times, I had never felt so content as I did now to be walking hand in hand with the man I now knew to be my prince.
After several minutes Ali paused, tipped his head towards the mysterious vases, and lowered his voice to a whisper. “Approach them cautiously so they don’t awaken and wander off again.”
I giggled and reluctantly released his hand to tiptoe to the one I hadn’t looked in previously in hopes it contained something wonderful. And it did. With an excited squeal I withdrew…
“A treasure map, a real treasure map!” I eagerly unrolled it to discover all manner of landmarks and clues and dotted lines to follow to find the secret treasure. Ali approached and leaned over my shoulder.
“Hmm, fancy that. I suppose stories come true after all.”
“You sweetheart.” I pounced on him to kiss him quite thoroughly. “You’re going to make every story of mine come true, aren’t you?” I breathed the moment I broke our kiss to get a much-needed gulp of air.
“As the most fortunate man alive to have the greatest honor of calling himself your prince, I’m very much invested in your happily ever after.”
I raked my fingers through his hair and pulled him into another kiss. He returned it for a blissful minute before pulling away.
“Darling, keep kissing me like that, and I’m afraid we’ll soon discover there’s no time to track down a hidden treasure.”
And the thought that I, Rosalina, had a secret treasure to uncover in the Sortileyan palace was the only force strong enough to sever me from my Ali. I placed one final kiss on his lips before linking my arm through his and eagerly examining the treasure map.
“Let’s see if I can figure out how to read a treasure map.”
“You mean you don’t know how?”
“This is the first treasure map I’ve ever discovered, so I must learn as I go. Come, we’ll discover it together.” I removed my arm only to take his hand and drag him after me as I excitedly scampered down the corridor.
It really was quite a fantastic treasure map made with such loving detail. It led me to all the places that meant something to Ali and me—from outside the throne room where he’d thwarted my entry and we’d first spoken, to the base of the stairs where I’d careened into him on my first midnight stroll, to the kitchen, and other places that were the settings of playful interactions that had all allowed him to steal another portion of my heart, even if I hadn’t realized it at the time.
All of it culminated in him guiding me through the secret passage that opened to the starlit ballroom where we’d shared our first dance and I’d realized I was in love with him. I gasped in sheer delight as I stepped into the room, for under the starry night shining through the glass ceiling was a candlelit picnic.
I couldn’t speak as I gaped in wonder. I slowly approached, tugging Ali along after me. The details were perfect: candlelight, starlight, a basket of strawberries, delectable-looking baked goods, and dainty rose-patterned cups, with vases of real roses and scattered rose petals lit in the glowing moonlight.
“Oh, Ali,” I breathed. “It’s like a dream.”
He searched my expression with adorable eagerness. “Do you like it, Rosie flower?”
“Like it? I love it. It’s utterly perfect. Thank you.”
“Anything for my princess.”
I cast my wonder-filled gaze around again, the enchantment so perfect I almost couldn’t speak. I sighed contentedly and leaned back against his chest, relishing the feeling when his arms looped around my waist from behind. “You’re a romantic after all.”
> “It appears your fairy tales have corrupted me.”
Ali gently pulled me down onto the blanket spread across the marble floor. I snagged a strawberry and tossed it at him. He caught it before it could hit him and chuckled. “I’ll always have to stay on my toes with you.”
I picked up another strawberry. Its sweetness danced on my tongue as I took a juicy bite. To make the evening even more delightful, I discovered there were also chocolate-covered strawberries. “Oh, Ali, how did you manage this?”
“There are perks to being friends with one's prince, who, thanks to his wife, has been invested in our love story from the beginning.”
“In all my years of imagining the Dark Prince, I never would have guessed him to be a romantic.”
“He wasn’t until he met Her Highness. I suppose love changes people.”
He was right. Spending a lifetime imagining love could never have prepared me not only for experiencing its magic for myself but for the transforming effect it had on my heart. “Has it changed you?”
“It’s spelled me, no spiked chocolates required.” He swept a kiss across my temple.
“I’ve been spelled, too.”
He reached inside the picnic basket. “There’s a particular treat I’m eager to share with you. He pulled out a plate. “Honey-lemon muffins.”
I stared at them before their meaning hit me. I gasped. “Are these your favorite treat?”
He smiled softly. “They are.”
“Finally. Why did it take you so long to tell me?”
He half-shrugged. “It was a game, one of many we’ve played.” He handed me one and I took a bite. Its flavor danced on my tongue. As delicious as it was…. “My recipe is better.”
“Then you'll just have to bake some for me.” He brushed a kiss along my cheek.
We continued our most magical of all picnics, stealing kisses between stuffing ourselves with all manner of treats. Ali poured me some raspberry rose tea, whose fumes wafted in the steam to tickle my nose as I peered into my cup. It was the same tea that had been served my first day at the palace…the day I’d met Ali.
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