What she expected was a snarky comeback, a disagreeing quip, a cheeky grin that made her insides feel like overly salted fish soup.
Instead, he nodded. In agreement. And then he looked up, pinned her with his golden gaze, and declared, “Come with me.”
Baffledwould have been an understatement. She was absolutely mystified. It didn’t help that her cheeks were attempting to stage a revolt as they burst into flames, and that her palms were now sweating, too, and that Brunhilda’s spell was urging her to— Well, she didn’t want to know what Brunhilda’s spell was trying to make her do.
“Where?” she finally asked.
This time, he gave her a shrug. A nervous smile flitted across his lips. His hands shook as his fingers spun his rings around and around. “Anywhere. Wherever you’d like to go.”
“Why?”
“Well,” he spluttered, abandoning his frantic fidgeting to rest his hands on his knees. “I figured, with your good luck and my good looks, we could start a business.”
“A business,” she repeated, the words not making sense in her head.
“Yes.” He gulped and hurried on, taking advantage of her being struck silent. “You know. Break curses and spells. You’re good at it. And I’m good at convincing people—”
“You are absolutely terrible at convincing people.”
“I won’t have to return to the palace for a while, I’m sure, since I’d be my father’s biggest disappointment.”
“This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” she noted, wincing at the harshness of her words. “For starters, we don’t know anything about business. You’re a prince. A really bad one. And I—”
“I’m actually rather good at mathematics,” he groused.
“Fine,” she said, heart decidedly in her throat. “But what are wedoingwith this business?”
After nearly a week spent in Javi’s presence, she knew his tells almost as well as her own. She could spot the flush rising up his neck and flooding his cheeks, the tip of his nose, the tops of his ears.
“We’ve had a good run,” he explained, voice fragile. “And we’re…” He trailed off, unable to finish his thought.
The shiver that ran down her back made her freeze.
This was the worst thing that could happen. It wasn’t supposed to happen. It couldneverhappen.
Every wish on her birthday had been the same: To rid herself of her curse. To find a way to escape the life she had. And now Javi was offering her that, without knowing that it was sealing his own demise.
“You’ve been avoiding eye contact for hours. And now you want to start abusinesstogether?”
Javi groaned. “So you noticed?” He was back to not really looking at her.
“I’ve been forced to spend the last several days entirely in your presence, so yes.” She let the coverlet drop from her lap as she pulled herself onto her knees to better look down her nose at him. “You don’t have to let me down. You need not be nice to me. The kiss meant nothing. We’re not even friends,” she said.
He finally met her gaze. Something flashed across his eyes. Anger, or the tantalizing dangle of a challenge.
“I know,” he said, voice dangerously low. “But only because you won’t let me be.”
“I don’t need friends.”
He took a steadying breath. Horrifying fascination made her watch his long fingers grip his knees, as if doing so would keep him grounded. Then he stood up, startling Brunie out of sleep.
“What is it?” he demanded, his flush working down the rest of his neck. “I know you’ve been lying. At first, I thought it was because you lied to Brunhilda about your powers when you had none. Then I thought, no, of course not, you’re so clearly a witch. You practically glow with power.”
Risa’s arms fell. “That’s not—”
“But now I have no idea what to think. About your stupid walls or your stupid secret. I keep trying to fight through the brush and scale the walls and vanquish the dragon, all so you could see that it doesn’t matter. Your secret doesn’tmatter. Not to me.”
Panic began its climb up her throat. She wanted to slap her hands across his mouth to keep him from speaking, from saying things he couldn’t take back. This sounded dangerous. Like he was about to reveal something and she didn’t want to misinterpret his words.
