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“Whatmercy?” I asked. “I am his prisoner, and I mustearnmy freedom, and for what? Nothing but his pleasure.”
“You must earn your freedom because he cannot earn his,” she said. “Trust me, it is not a pleasure to watch both of you fail at this every day.”
I stared at her, confused. “What are you talking about?”
“The prince is cursed by the Glass Mountains,” she said. “And if you do not guess and speak his name in five days’ time, he will forget it, and if a fae does not know their name, they fade away.”
“Fade away?”
“Cease to exist,” she said. “Never to return to the earthly plane.”
I thought of my earlier conversation with Casamir.
I have died many times and I will come back with more.
Under the curse, I supposed the cycle would cease.
“Why should I care?”
“Because now your freedom is tied to his,” she said. “And if you are not free before he forgets his name, then you never will be.”
“And what does love have to do with this?” I asked.
“You can guess his name and even speak it, but you must also love him, or the curse cannot be broken.”
I could not describe my shock, but the warmth that had radiated off my skin from the bath suddenly chilled me to the bone.
“Then we shall never be free,” I said.
“Let us hope that is not true,” she said, and with that, she left me alone to process this blow.
You must also love him.
Casamir had completely failed to communicate that part of the deal, though why would he? He needed me and likely thought himself charming enough to sway me.
“Stupid, arrogant fae prince!” I seethed aloud.
I threw off the towel and crossed to the wardrobe, knocking as I spoke.
“I need clothes! Something…modest!”
The door opened, and I snatched the white gown the fae offered and slipped it on as I crossed to the mirror. It was a thin night rail that did little to hide my body from sight, especially the parts of me that were still wet from the bath. I laced the ties in the front, as silly as it seemed considering that Casamir had already seen all of me. It felt like a form of rebellion.
I turned from the mirror and wandered to the window where the day was fading into night, only a small sliver of golden light peeking through the thick foliage outside.
I thought about some of the things that had occurred over the last few days—the way Casamir touched me on our first meeting, the way he’d taken over lacing my gowns, the way he had kissed me in this room as if he were starved.
But as it turned out, he was just desperate for me to fall in love with him and break a curse. My hands fisted, my face hot with shame. I crossed my arms over my chest, frustrated that I had let him indulge in my body at all.
Never again, I thought as tears pricked my eyes.
I was so embarrassed. I felt so stupid. I wasn’t even surewhy. There was nothing wrong with indulging in pleasure. Except that…I think I might have hoped that this idiot elven prince was actuallyinterestedin me.
“Never again,” I said aloud, and I watched as the golden light turned dark red. As the light faded, I swore I heard the sound of a bell. It was a soft chime I could feel in my heart, and it drew my attention like nothing ever had before.
I pressed my ear to the window, and it became clearer—a pretty peal of bells. All at once, I felt calm, the tension and anger that had tightened my insides releasing in an instant, and I could breathe again. I drew away from the window and left, the sound growing clearer without the walls of my room in the way. I followed the portico and escaped into the garden, guided by the echoing chime.
My feet were bare and the earth was cold, but the sound of the bells was warm, so I did not mind as I made my way through towering wood lilies and shoots of anemones, between trees hung so thick with brambles and thorns, their branches were hardly visible.
