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“You think I’m mad. You don’t believe me,” Tabitha said quickly, lowering her head to confide more with her cat companion. “I didn’t believe me either. I dreamed of him so much I thought I must be dreaming again. And it was always the same dream. I saw him—my Tom, your Leo—but it was like he was trapped. There was a woman . . . She seemed—perhaps not entirely evil but empty, and I thought she might be hurting him somehow. Keeping him. I tried to hold on to him, but there was always some magic keeping him away.”
Archie shook his head. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe Tabitha, but he was having a hard time putting his words together and processing all the new information at once. “And it was a dream?”
“I thought it was. The same sort of dream for the last three years—not every night, but often enough. Then, I thought I recognized a few of the trees. And I just couldn’t stand it anymore. I had to see. I went into the woods, and there he was. Like the dream again. And this time . . . I tried to grab onto him, like in all the other dreams, but he left something behind. He had this in his hair.” She held up her palm to show off a small colored bead. “It wasn’t a dream.”
“So he is still in the woods?”
Her shoulders slumped. “I know I should have found a way to bring him back with me, but it was like the dream. He wouldn’t come, and I couldn’t hold him. There is something there. Or someone? And the way he spoke—like he was drugged or half asleep. He’s wrong, and I need you to tell me how to fix him.” Tabitha met his eyes more earnestly. “You think I’m mad? Everyone always thinks I’m mad.”
“No,” Archie said quickly, finally catching up with himself. “Of course I don’t. I’ve been looking for him too. We all have. We just never—but we should have known you would be the key, even if kissing him in his cat form didn’t work.”
Sometime before, Archie might have been disappointed he couldn’t do something to break the prince’s curse on his own, something that would more clearly pay off the debt he still felt he owed to the man. But finding Leo was the most important thing, and Archie had long ago learned to fit the right man to the right role. There was no question Tabitha was better equipped for the task after all she had seen. And the best help he could be was to share all he had learned of the faerie to speed her on her way.
After all, Ainsley had asked that they set aside their search until after their wedding, but she never said they couldn’t pass it to someone else.
“Come. Let me show you what I’ve found. And next time you see him, we’ll have a plan.” Archie led her back to the library, determined to chase this new hope wherever it led.
And if it meant that he never inherited the kingdom and stayed forever as a Marquis blissfully married to a princess, that would only make him more grateful to Leo, his soon-to-be brother by marriage and the former magic cat.
Chapter 32
Save the Cat
Amongst the streets of Castletown and the rest of the Borderland Kingdoms, it was often said that faeries were cold and even cruel to the humans who came under their power. Perhaps for some fae and some humans, that was true, but that was not what Leo experienced. Within their realm he was often forgetful, numb, and disoriented with all the magic in the air, but he was always called a prince and set loose to wander about their highest court. The Fae Queen treated him as a somewhat exotic and beloved pet, given to her by the son of her youngest daughter who wished to curry more of her favor.
If Leo occasionally went days without food, it was because they simply forgot he needed to eat. If he was made to dance all night until his feet bled—well, that certainly wasn’t ideal, but wasn’t it cute how he tried to keep up with the rest of them? And if any member of the queen’s court was ever intentionally cruel to him, that being—fae or animal spirit or whatever it might be—was swiftly dealt with by his doting mistress.
So when he spent the day lost to himself, she was the first to notice.
The fair-haired beauty looked over her wine goblet at him, her elven features ageless and serene. No one would ever guess she had grown grandchildren, and Leo still had trouble believing it was true. “Tam’lin. Darling, are you not happy with the feast?”
Leo’s hand was on a lock of his hair. One of the beads was missing. “I think I . . . I might have remembered something last night.”
The queen put down her goblet, almost purring with delight. “Did you? Oh, what fun.” She clapped, calling for the attention of the rest of the table and beyond. “Everyone, Tam’lin is going to tell us another story of the human lands.”
The lavish feast forgotten, the fae and faerie creatures gathered close at their queen’s command in a delicate tinkle of bangled feet and the soft whisper of wings.
Even a few of the animal servants came in from the hall.
Human stories were their favorite; they especially liked the one about the stubborn cat who refused to talk or wear boots like a proper faerie beast.
With all the wide and deceptively innocent eyes locked on him, Leo knew what was expected, but he still wasn’t sure where to start. He had been so certain the memory was a dream, but the bead was missing. “Last night, I was out walking in the woods—just walking. But there was a woman. I thought I knew her.”
“Your sister? Another member of your family, perhaps?” the queen asked, beckoning for him to continue. “In our realm, it is said that mortals can even connect with the spirits of the dead if their bond is strong enough.”
Leo thought he remembered someone saying that before—that dreams could allow someone to form a connection between realms—but he shook his head. “I don’t think she was dead, and she wasn’t my sister. She was . . . different. She called me by another name, and I wanted . . . and I felt . . .”
The queen’s smile instantly dropped. She stood, swinging about to confront one of her seated guests. “Pan’dryn, what is this? You said he didn’t have a true love, that he could be mine and dream of me alone.”
The stag-horned and white-haired fae prince fumbled amongst the cushions they all sat on, almost crawling back like a crab. Leo hadn’t known it before, but he had since learned the fae man was hardly a man at all—a young upstart eager to make a place for himself within the queen’s court. “He didn’t have a true love. I checked, the first I met him. And then he was a cat—”
“And you thought a cat couldn’t find true love? Is that what you found in all your dealings with both men and beasts?” Her voice scorched through the room. There might have been some actual heat behind it. She had that kind of power. “You have underestimated your subjects, Pan’dryn. And you have underestimated me. That alone will lead to your ruin.”
The fae prince cowered in response, and the queen turned back to Leo.
She pressed her face into a smile one might give a child. A pet. A human. “Come here, my darling. Tell me of the girl you saw, and don’t be afraid.”
Afraid? Should he be afraid? He never felt anything anymore. “She wasn’t like you,” Leo was quick to reassure the Fae Queen, and it was the truth. He had no ability to guard his words or any sense he needed to. “She was . . . smaller. Weaker. And sometimes she was afraid. But she would always smile for me, no matter what else was wrong. I heard her sing when there were only the cats to hear her. And when she would speak to me—”
