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Archie frowned, still staring at the painted portrait and putting the words together. It wasn’t like Leo—that’s what she had said to her father when she asked to join the hunting party. And Archie had been distracted and had only thought of Leo the cat. But even when he had first told the princess the cat’s name, she had reacted in a strange way. She had almost cried.
Because just like people rarely liked to speak directly of the plague, the name the cat had chosen for himself had become painful to the royal family, and it was no wonder why.
“Your brother,” Archie said, still chewing on the word and all the possibilities that came with it. “Your brother was the Crown Prince Leopold, but you called him Leo.”
Ainsley looked confused, but she answered him. “Yes.”
Was that really the answer? Again, it all seemed so simple and horribly complex all at once. “Then you don’t have to worry. I know exactly how I’m going to defeat that monster.”
He had a magic cat.
Chapter 26
Catnap
Leo hadn’t always been a cat, and he wasn’t always magical. Once, he was human, and he was lost. Pain pierced his heart. And then he had heard a voice, soft and distant, calling him deeper into the darkness. “Leopold Tamias Lynister,” it had said, elongating the words so they sank through him, past his conscious mind.
There was nothing to question.
Nothing to fear.
He watched his feet move closer, his boots crushing through the forest loam. A pair of emerald eyes greeted him, sparkling with their own inner light. “I was told to expect you here. I was even given your name . . . told I could toy with you however I wish. How do you feel about that? Do you know who would have done such a thing?”
Leo had no answer. He was completely fascinated by those impossible, penetrating eyes. Then a hand appeared, long and elegant fingers beckoning him to take another step toward a line of silvery-white mushrooms peeking through the forest greenery. A circle. The whole ring glowed softly in the moonlight, but not as brightly as the eyes.
A chilled breeze ran down his neck, the shadow of a warning stilling his steps.
The fae man smiled. He wasn’t just a pair of eyes. He was a man with white hair and an impressive pair of stag horns. All Leo could do was stare, torn between wonder and fear.
The voice started again, sounding more like the purr a cat might make after the mouse had been caught, but the game had just begun. “Tell me who sent you here, my little prince.”
Leo shook his head, still staring. He wouldn’t lie. “I wasn’t sent. I came myself.”
“Is that what you believe?” The fae man took his own step forward, but the elegance of the movement was followed by a subtle grimace of pain. Like a limping deer. Something dark, like blood, stained the grass below him. He had been hurt. But who could hurt a being like this?
Leo searched his thoughts for the answer, but it seemed just out of reach.
“Leopold Tamias Lynister . . .” The fae man was nothing but a pair of eyes again, holding Leo’s complete attention and banishing any other thought. Something about the glowing irises still reminded Leo of a predator, but also an artisan looking over a blank canvas or a mound of clay. “I have the shape of you now. The last man came to me with iron and was eager to grasp for things that weren’t his own, but that’s not who you are. You didn’t come here for power, and even an offer of revenge wouldn’t appeal to you so much as—”
“There is a plague on my kingdom,” Leo said with a sudden burst of his own eagerness. There was no conflict; this was what he came here for. “My mother was killed. It seems . . . unnatural. Like a curse, and I wanted . . . I hoped . . . ”
Tinkling laughter filled the glade. “You are noble then. Well, isn’t that delightful?” The man took another limping step, stopping at the ring’s edge and holding out his hand. “Yes. I would be glad to help you on your quest, my little princeling. But you must swear yourself to me with your full name and blood. The kind of power I wish to give you cannot be bestowed without it.”
Leo nodded and reached for his boot without thinking. He had dropped his bow somewhere—likely when the voice had first started calling for him—but he had a small hunting knife hidden near his calf. He never went into the faerie’s forest without it.
Red blood seeped across his palm before the sting of the blade made him pause.
The blade was pure iron. He had brought iron. Because he had known there would be a fae here—or at least he had hoped to find one. He had hoped to make a bargain where he would somehow come out on top. Such a thing seemed impossible now. The fae already knew his name.
Leo was already bleeding scarlet, mere inches from the ring.
And he still very much wanted to banish the curse on his land, even if it cost him his life.
So Leo reached his bleeding hand out to the fae before he could talk himself out of it. “My name is Leopold Tamias Lynister, son of King Randolph the First and Crown Prince of Umbrae. I will swear myself to you in exchange for the power to defeat the cursed plague on my land, provided no more harm befalls my family and the rest of my kingdom.”
The fae man seemed offended. “Hmm . . . conditions. Even now? What a fierce little prince you are.” He considered Leo’s hand, his nostrils flared like the whole blood ritual was now beneath his dignity. “But you needn’t be so afraid. I would never hurt you, and I would never ask you to do something completely against your nature. It takes far too much power, and frankly, it isn’t nearly as fun.”
The fae took Leo’s hand like the strike of a viper. “Come to me, my noble prince, and let us see what we might do together.”
