She tilted her head, her eyes narrowing, and a sharp smile settled onto her broad mouth. "Now we are talking about you, your highness, are we not?"

I hesitated, then nodded, shamefaced.

"I can't answer for you, and it's a cruel thing to pretend interest in another for your own purposes," she said, in a chiding voice. "I'm happy to help you, but only if you treat me like an equal, and not as if my life exists to inform yours."

Flushing, I nodded again. "You're right," I said reluctantly. "I would apologize if I didn't think you'd scold it for me."

With a laugh, Kamharida patted my hands, then took hers away and folded them together on the table, leaning onto it. "Let me take a guess, though," she said. "You want to go home, desperately, with every day you don't making your return more difficult. Everyone knows that soulmates have a year and a day before they fall apart instead of falling together, so all you have to do is hold the crown prince away from your heart for that span of time, and you will be able to miraculously survive and embrace your family again."

She leaned towards me, her dark eyes holding mine. "But you think that he is perhaps not the monster he seems to be, and that the two of you could be affectionate companions. Surely that is what he's hoping for, that Beast of Phazikai—for someone to look past everything and choose him. Isn't that what we all hope for, no matter how shriveled our hearts?"

Whatever Kamharida saw on my face made her smile, the sort of knowing smile someone wears when they're sure they're right. "You're asking yourself, do you choose to stand apart, and claim the happiness you desire? Or do you take the hand of a monster and see what the gods of Faery have given you?"

"Yes," I whispered.

"Well, I surely cannot tell you what to choose, and you can't trick an answer out of me," she said with a laugh, leaning back in her chair. "I'm a mother, not a priestess. I already gave you my advice, your highness."

"Wait until all my pieces are aligned, and follow that choice," I said with a sigh.

She nodded once, smiling. "You're not there yet, and that is more than fine," she said. "It has been less than a week, and you have a year and a day."

"Three hundred sixty days," I said.

"As you say," Kamharida said. "Perhaps when your eagerness to see another day go by turns to dread, you'll have your answer."

"Or if it never does," I pointed out.

"Exactly so," she said. "Now. Would you like to get that mud out of your hair, your highness?"

15. Faery Feast

Chapter 15

Faery Feast