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“What?” Paige cried as the guard wrangled her from the room. “This is crazy!”
The man shoved her through a set of double doors and half dragged, half carried her down a set of stone steps leading to a darkened space. A handful of torches lit the damp room. He thrust her forward into a cell.
Paige stumbled in, falling to her knees as the guard swung the barred door shut on creaky hinges. With an emphatic turn of the key, he locked her inside and strode away.
The other guard shoved Dewey into the cell next to Paige before retreating upstairs.
Paige climbed to her feet and wrapped her fingers around the bars, calling after them to free her.
“Nice going, Paige,” Dewey said once she stopped shouting.
“Me? I didn’t do this! It’s that crazy king. Why in the world would he lock me up for not marrying his son? At first, he hoped Henry didn’t promise me marriage.”
“Yeah, and then when you didn’t want to marry the wimp, he changed his mind.”
Paige banged her head against the bars.
“You can’t blame him. He’s got a half frog, all fraidy-cat for a son. It makes sense that he’d want him to marry someone brave like you.”
Paige spun and placed her back against the bars, sliding down to sit. “No, it does not make sense. This is insane. We are stuck inside a freaky fairy tale with no way out because the king is an idiot.”
“There are worse things. You could be royalty.”
Paige shot him an unimpressed glance. “You aren’t seriously suggesting I stay here and marry that guy.”
Dewey lifted a shoulder, his nose wrinkling as he prepared to speak.
A shadow spread across the floor, interrupting their conversation.
Prince Henry ducked through the opening a moment later, eyeing each of them in their cells.
Paige scrambled to her feet and grasped the bars. “Henry! Thank goodness. You need to help us.”
Henry clasped his hands behind his back and nodded. “Yes. Particularly now that Father is aware that the water you brought is, in fact, from the Pool of Yearning.”
“It is. I didn’t lie!”
“I know.” He puckered his lips at her, swiveling his head from side to side.
“Your lips! They aren’t green anymore.”
“No,” he said with a grin. “I’m cured.”
Paige’s shoulders slumped with relief. “Good. Well, that should count for something. Do you think you can convince your father to let us go now?”
Henry shook his head. “He’s even more insistent that we wed now.”
“That’s ridiculous. You don’t want to marry me. And I don’t want to marry you.”
Henry offered her an uncertain glance.
Paige crinkled her eyebrows. “Right?”
“Well…”
“Well, what?” Paige demanded, pressing her face through the bars.
“You are very brave. And very pretty. I could do worse.”
