The Cursed Prince, Teresa Roman [the reader ebook TXT] 📗

shake it, and as I did, she closed her eyes. “You’re jealous. And worried that Nicolai finds me attractive.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Maria opened her eyes and looked into mine. A protest formed on my lips, but Maria continued before I could get a word in. “You have no reason to be, child. This”—she dropped my hand and pointed to herself—“is no more than a glamour.”

And with that she transformed from a beautiful woman to an old lady and then back again in a matter of seconds. My eyes widened, and my hand flew up to cover my gaping mouth.

“I prefer this look over my true appearance,” she said.

“Good grief, Maria,” Maxim said. “Can you save the magical transformations for another time? Willow only just found out she’s a witch. We don’t want you scaring her half to death.”

“Right. You mentioned that. Also that her powers are bound. Which means I’ve got to get to work on a potion to unbind them right away.”

“Perhaps some dinner first,” Nicolai suggested. He turned his head to look at me. “Willow, you must be hungry.”

“Dinner after,” Maria snapped. “Now leave us. Willow and I need privacy.”

Nicolai seemed hesitant. “It’s okay,” I told him, still embarrassed that Maria had announced to the whole room that I was jealous.

“Will you come and see me after you’re done with Maria? I’ll be waiting for you upstairs.”

I nodded. Nicolai and Maxim left together, closing the door behind themselves.

“Frederic told me your story. It’s such a shame that your mother clipped your wings,” Maria said after they’d left. “A bird should be allowed to fly.”

“She was trying to protect me.”

“Hmm,” Maria said, clearly unconvinced. She looked at me from head to toe and back again, circling me.

“What are you doing?” I asked after she had walked around me for the third time.

“Studying you. I’m trying to figure out what ingredients to put in the potion I will create to unbind your powers.” She finally stood still in front of me, one arm across her chest, the other braced so she could rest her chin in the palm of her hand. “You are a last-born witch, no?”

“I guess so.”

“The last-born child of another last-born child. They are the most powerful witches, you know.”

“Do you think that means I’ll be able to help Nicolai?”

“That I don’t know. Since Nicolai’s foolish brothers killed the only woman who truly knew how to lift the curse, we are left with nothing but guesses.”

“That doesn’t sound very promising.”

Maria smiled. “It isn’t, but the more time you spend around Nicolai, the more likely we are to stumble on the answer to this puzzle. And in the meantime, I will teach you everything you need to know about being a witch.”

“What if none of us ever figures out how to save Nicolai?”

“Then it wasn’t meant to be.”

Maria walked past me. I whirled around and grabbed her arm. “Where are you going?”

“To get to work on your potion.” She loosened her arm from my grasp and lifted her eyes to meet my gaze. “Nicolai is waiting for you, my dear. Go to him. I will see you tomorrow.”

She left me standing there with my mouth open. I was tempted to run after her and extract more answers, but I had a feeling she only gave them when she was good and ready to. Instead, I went in search of Nicolai. He was standing outside on the balcony in the library again, staring at the grounds surrounding the castle just like he’d been doing the other day. His fixation with the world outside the castle walls made sense, but it didn’t seem healthy to dwell on something that was off-limits.

“Nicolai.”

He turned around and strode toward me. “I have an idea,” he said, grasping my hands in his. “Why don’t I take you on a tour of this castle?”

“You’d do that?”

“I see no reason not to. At this point, you know pretty much all of my family’s secrets.”

“Your brothers won’t mind?”

“This is as much my castle as it is theirs. I don’t need their permission.”

He offered his arm, and I fit mine through his. We walked down one dark hallway, then another. Sconces provided enough light to see a few feet in front of myself, but that was about it. Every few steps, Nicolai would stop and point to a portrait on the wall and explain to me who that person was. He also pointed to several closed doors. They were his brother’s bedrooms, so we didn’t go inside.

We finally reached a door that Nicolai did push open. A giant canopy bed in the middle of the room and a nightstand on either side of it were the only pieces of furniture in the room.

“Is this your bedroom?” I asked, figuring he wouldn’t have shown it to me otherwise.

“It is.”

I walked over to the bed. “It’s a little dark and dismal, wouldn’t you say?”

“This is a castle. Dark and dismal are par for the course.”

“Yes, but it wouldn’t hurt to add some color. I bet a nice shelf with some candles and your favorite books would make this room more inviting.”

“Perhaps, but I don’t do much in here except sleep, so I don’t see the point,” he said, then gestured for me to follow him. “Come. I’ve got more to show you.”

At the end of the hallway, we turned right onto a covered bridge that led from one wing of the castle to another. Giant rectangular openings on both sides looked out onto the grounds. A small stream ran under the bridge on which we stood.

Nicolai pointed. “Ahead are my parent’s quarters.”

At the end of the bridge stretched another long hallway with rooms to my left and right. A large tapestry hung from the wall directly in front of me, depicting a pack of wolves walking through a large field. I stared at it, a shiver running through me as I remembered my dream from the night before.

Nicolai put his hand on