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My voice had nearly fled altogether, but I managed to say, “You shouldn’t have stayed just because you felt obligated to me.”
“I didn’t,” he said, and he leaned over and kissed me.
I kissed him back, thankful for the warmth of his arms. And really, I’d been wrong to ever think he wouldn’t kiss as passionately as the Black Knight.
Chapter 28
I’m not sure what time we fell asleep, only that it was very late. Eventually I felt the sunshine drifting through the treetops in patches. A part of my consciousness registered that birds were chattering in the branches around us, but I didn’t want to wake up. I was still too tired. Every time the fire had died down, one of us had to get up to throw more wood onto it.
Besides, I felt perfectly safe with Tristan sleeping just on the other side of the fire. He was invincible.
As I drifted into another dream, I felt lips brush against mine. I smiled and opened my eyes, already thinking of what I would say to Tristan.
Only it wasn’t Tristan. I was looking directly into Hugh’s face.
I let out a startled gasp and sat up, my heart pounding and my head still dizzy with the remnants of sleep.
Beside me, Tristan sat up, reaching for his sword. Before he pulled it from its sheath, Hugh said, “It won’t do you any good. I’ve already kissed her.” Tristan paused. “You what?”
Hugh stood and looked down at us with a triumphant smile. He still wore his clothes from the ball, although 418/431
they were rumpled and stained. He had an air of weari-ness about him, and I wondered if he’d walked all of this way. “Didn’t you know she had the invincibility charm?” he asked Tristan. “She stole it from me, and now I’ve stolen it back.”
To me he said, “You should have understood how it worked before you told anyone you had it. It only sharpens your senses when your enemy has a weapon pointed at you.” He held up his hands, showing me they were empty. “I don’t have a weapon, so I was able to sneak up on you without detection.” He walked over to our horse as though we no longer concerned him. “It was thoughtful of you to make it so very easy to find you. What with the light pointing the direction you went last night and then the smoke showing your location this morning.” He patted the horse’s mane. “Thoughtful of you to provide me with a horse too. I suppose it was the least you could do after you turned my father and brother against me.” He turned back to us, his gaze suddenly chilling. “Of course, that doesn’t mean the two of you won’t pay for what you did to me, because you will.” He walked slowly back toward us, picking up one of the sticks we’d gathered for the fire. As he gripped it he looked at me. “You were a fool to choose him—he’s 419/431
nothing but a storyteller. I would have come for you. I wouldn’t have let my father hurt you.” He may have meant it, but I didn’t regret choosing Tristan. I glanced at Tristan to see what he would do, but he was only gazing at Hugh patiently.
Hugh held out the stick, making it into a weapon, then turned to Tristan. “What will you do now, page? If you don’t draw your sword, I will strike her. Draw it, and it will only make your end come more quickly.” Tristan stood up slowly, faced Hugh, then pulled his sword from the sheath. “Do you feel anything happening?”
Hugh took a step away from him. A flash of uncertainty crossed his expression.
I stood up but made sure to stay near Tristan. “You don’t understand magic either, Hugh. If you did, you’d know that you can’t switch the same enchantments.” Hugh took another step backward, this time as though he’d been knocked by a fist. His eyes had a wild look to them and his voice came out strangled. “I still have the same enchantment?”
“No. I switched with Tristan last night. Now he has the invincibility enchantment and you—well, you can’t go home until you’re a prince.” As soon as I spoke the words, a stream of sparkles swooped down from the sky. Like thousands of little 420/431
fireflies, they encircled Hugh and lifted him from the ground.
He put his hands out as though trying to swat them away. “What’s happening?”
“I think you get to go home now,” I said. Then the lights drew together and he was gone.
Tristan and I stood looking at the empty space for a few seconds, checking to make sure he’d really left. At last Tristan lowered his sword. “Well, they’re going to be happy to see him back at the castle.” I nodded. “I think so.”
Then we both laughed and Tristan wound his arms around me. He laid his head against my hair, holding me close. “You still smell good.”
“Better than cough syrup?”
“Way better than cough syrup.” The lights came again, a shower of sparklers this time, and then Chrissy stood before us.
She wore a tropical blue swimsuit and a pink terry cloth cover-up, and she smelled of suntan lotion. She took her sunglasses from her nose and slid them on top of her hair. “Okay, I’m saving myself the fifty voice mails you’ll be sending me shortly and taking care of this right now.” She tossed her blond hair over her shoulder and held up her hand to keep me from speaking. “I already know you no longer have that can’t-go-home-until-421/431
you’re-a-prince enchantment. So what will it be, are you happy with your prom date now, or are you going to claim that I still messed up your wish?” I held onto Tristan’s hand tightly. “I’m very happy with my prom date.”
“Good.” She smiled at me, satisfied. “All that anxiety you had over the dance and what everyone at school would think of your date—I hope you’ve learned that you can’t let people in high school hand your happiness to you.”
I nodded.
“I’m the one with the wand,” she went on. “Leave it to the professionals.”
“What?” I asked, because it wasn’t what I’d expected her to say at all. But I don’t think she heard me. She flicked her wand in our direction and the next thing I knew, we were standing in my bedroom.
• • •
Tristan turned in circles around my room. “Wow,” he said.
I let out a sigh of relief. “We’re back in the modern world.” Just because I could, I walked over to the light switch and flipped it on. “Look, electricity.” 422/431
His eyes kept roaming around my room. “You have a ton of clothes.”
“Not really,” I said, and shut my closet door. I hoped he wasn’t referring to all the clothes sprawled over my bed and thrown across the top of my dresser. In truth, it did seem like an overabundant amount. Everything in my room seemed luxurious now. Even Princess Margaret hadn’t had such nice things.
“I need to call my parents,” Tristan said.
“What are you going to tell them?” I asked.
Which was the reason he didn’t call them right away. I gave him a haircut first, then he showered, and I gave him a pair of my dad’s sweatpants and a T-shirt.
I also called Jane’s cell phone to let her know that I was home and to find out how Hunter was, but she didn’t pick up. And then I remembered that she’d taken her cell phone to the Middle Ages.
Yeah, so Jane probably wouldn’t be answering that anytime soon.
After Tristan was clean, shorn, and standing in my kitchen, I helped him with his story. “You leaned out of your window and fell out. Head injury. You wandered around for two days and don’t remember anything.”
“Wouldn’t my window have been left open if I fell out of it?”
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I looked at him and sighed. “It’s not going to matter what you tell them. They’ll know something odd happened to you—you’ve grown at least an inch and filled out. You’ve got scars on your arms. Plus you’ve turned into this total hot guy.” He took my hand and squeezed it. “I saw myself in the bathroom mirror. I don’t look that different.”
“Yes, you do,” I said, because it was true.
He shook his head. “You just see me differently now.” I knew he was wrong, but the funny thing was that when he went home—he gave me a blow-by-blow description later— his parents only noticed the new haircut. They thought that’s why he looked so different.