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“Princess Ella it is,” Casamir said.
I laughed quietly, shaking my head.
Casamir raised a brow. “What is it?”
“The selkie was right,” I said. “And so was Wolf. They both said I would come to rule at your side.”
The elven prince did not speak. He only stared, and I bent, my lips close to his.
“How does one turn a raven into a wolf?” I asked.
“Hmm,” he said, his arms tightening around me. “I suppose you could make a wish and I could grant it.”
“Wishes come with great consequences,” I replied.
“And if the consequence means remaining at my side for the rest of our eternal life?”
“That is not a consequence,” I said. “That is a gift.”
We kissed and descended into our own heated madness.
Later I would ask, “Why did you demand the hair upon the prince’s head and the feather in his hat?”
“The prince was too blind to see what he had before him—his golden curls might have become golden apples, his red feather a key to his cell, the buttons he traded to the pixies, feed to summon a horse. He had all the tools he needed to escape me, but he chose to use them incorrectly.”
We spent the rest of the evening together in bed, and the next morning, Casamir granted my wish, which saw Wolf the raven return to his true form as a great, white wolf.
In his true form, Wolf bowed and spoke.
“I am in your debt, Lady Thing,” he said. “I will come when you call.”
And as he disappeared into the surrounding wood, I mounted Balthazar who Casamir had also summoned from the Enchanted Forest.
“Are you certain you wish to return to your village?” Casamir asked before I departed.
“It is not my village,” I said. “But yes, they must know what they have done to me.”
I wanted them to look upon me and fear me, to know that their actions had created something far worse than a curse.
Now, as I passed cottages and shops, I smiled. The townspeople left their cottages to watch, and I heard their whispers.
I thought she was dead.
She has been ravished by fae.
Look at her dress! How indecent!
It was true the dress was indecent, exposing wide strips of skin, the thorned vines only covering my thighs and my breasts, but I loved it because it was a gift from Casamir.
I halted by the well just as bells rang in the late morning, disturbing the quiet. They were not nearly as beautiful as the ones that had drawn me into the forest, as if they were cracked, the sound harsh and jarring.
The doors to the chapel swung open, and more people spilled out onto the steps, among them many council members and the mayor of Elk, all of whom had voted to send me down the well.
In some ways, I had them to thank for my life’s turn of events.
Their merrymaking silenced once they spotted me.
Behind them, Roland appeared dressed in powder blue and Elsie all in white, her straw-blond hair threaded through with white chrysanthemums.
