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“You’re Leopold, aren’t you? The prince, I mean?”
Leo winced. How on earth did the bumbling oaf figure that out? But the question only came to him on reflex, born of his surprise and even anger. Leo knew Archie was smarter than he appeared, smarter than the cat had ever given him proper credit for. So why couldn’t Archie have waited until they were alone? Tabitha was here.
So, what would she do? Would she gasp and stutter, seeing him only as a prince?
Or would she simply refuse to believe it, seeing him only as a cat?
Leo wasn’t sure which reaction would hurt him more. He had wanted to find his name and be recognized as a prince for so long, but now, things were different.
It had always been easy for Leo to see why a boy like Archie might dream of becoming a prince. It had taken longer for him to see why a prince might wish to only be a man, to have a few true friends and not have to feel quite so responsible for everything. The cursed prince and the disinherited miller’s son might be opposite sides of the same awful coin, the very idea that their worth should be based on something as arbitrary as class and be ranked against each other.
But Tabitha barely blinked, brushing away the half-dozen cats she had been feeding. “Of course Tom’s a prince. What else could he possibly be? And I really should have . . .” Then she scooped Leo up and kissed him on top of his furry head.
Well, that was new. But his paws stayed firmly in place.
Tabitha sighed. “That didn’t work. But it always works in the stories. True love can break any sort of faerie curse.” But she wasn’t discouraged for long, quickly looking about for another solution. “But I’ve only known him as a cat. Does he have another sweetheart that we could try? Someone who knew him before he changed?”
Another sweetheart? Why on earth would he want another sweetheart?
Leo shook his head, trying to focus. If Tabitha’s kiss hadn’t worked, then no kiss would. There might have been a few young ladies about the court who had been interested in his title, but none who would bother with him as a cat. And Leo could admit he just wasn’t particularly loveable before he had changed his form. Not in the true and selfless way that kind of cure would have demanded. But Tabitha had tried. She had stayed. That was something.
Maybe he had changed in more ways than the obvious because he knew he didn’t need another sweetheart. He already had the sweetest and most ridiculous girl around.
“I have to go to Carabus,” Archie said, still on his knees like a proper petitioner to his prince. “There is a man there that the king is suspicious of, someone who says the plague is still going on in his lands and might be involved with the feral hounds that appeared during the Spring Festival. I mean, I suppose the Marquis would be your uncle, but his serfs call him an ogre.”
Archie shook his head, like he knew he was rambling. “And I just thought—well, I thought of asking you to come along with me, but I think it might be something I should do alone. I need to see if I can be the kind of man worthy of your sister and make my own magic. I still wanted to thank you though—for getting me this far. You didn’t have to do that.”
Yes, Leo had. Everything he had done to help Archie had only been in pursuit of his own memories. That Tabitha and Archie still thought he was some kind of selfless creature—what was he to do with that? And he still wanted to fight for a very selfish reason.
Tabitha’s kiss hadn’t worked. Leo was still cursed because he hadn’t completed his quest to stop the plague—a plague Archie thought was still going on in Carabus.
That had to be the root, the final piece to everything.
Archie had already turned and started to walk away. Leo only had a few moments if he wanted to hide away in the cart—still wearing the best disguise around. No one ever suspected the cat.
But Tabitha hadn’t put him down.
He wasn’t going to scratch her to gain his freedom, but then, he never needed to.
“It’s time for you to go and be the hero again, isn’t it?” she said without prompting.
Leo nodded, tense and ready to spring. But she still didn’t release him.
A drop of moisture hit his fur.
“I know you’re a prince and that you have some sort of magic, but I just stitched you up. You were covered in blood. You scared me so much, and I’m afraid if I let you go, you’ll hurt yourself again, or you won’t come back at all.”
More moisture drenched his coat like a summer rain. The part of him that was still a cat was repelled.
The part of him that was human was devastated.
He had seen Tabitha cry before, but not like this. Not for something he had done.
Tabitha jerked as if fighting a war inside her own head. “You can’t stay here. You’re a prince, and you can’t be one of my pets forever. But I had to leave my home before too. I was scared, and you helped me. I can’t help you fight an ogre or any kind of monster, but if someone else can . . . If Archie can . . .”
She didn’t know what she was asking. Archie had yet to prove himself to be anything but a miller’s son; Leo had to do everything himself since the day he became a cat.
“Just come back,” Tabitha said. “Promise me that you will come back.” She released him, and Leo hit the ground running. He couldn’t look back. He couldn’t do anything to stop Tabitha’s tears from flowing, and he couldn’t stay to watch them fall. He had made his choice four years ago when he had bargained with that fae, and he couldn’t go back and change it now.
