Maleficent was always graceful, but being in the air was her natural state, and she moved through it like a dancer. She dove and spiraled and flew with irrepressible joy. And her unfurled wings beat strong and steady on her back.

Phillip knotted his fists in the horse’s mane. Aurora put an arm around the side of his waist that wasn’t hurt, leaned back her head, and looked up at the clouds, her hair streaming behind her like a banner.

Aurora slept that night, out of sheer exhaustion. When she woke, dawn was just breaking on the horizon. She watched the sun come up and thought over what she needed to do. By the time Marjory entered with a breakfast tray, she had come to some decisions.

Marjory put the tray down, rushed to her, and clasped Aurora’s hands. “Oh, I am so glad you’re well. I was so worried.”

“I was worried myself at times,” Aurora admitted, squeezing Marjory’s fingers.

Aurora drank her tea and ate a piece of bread with butter and listened as Marjory told her about dancing at the festival. She’d even gone around the maypole with one of the Fair Folk and blushed at telling Aurora some of the compliments he paid her.

After breakfast, Aurora put on a robe and went up the stairs to Prince Phillip’s room. If they could meet in the middle of the night, then she wasn’t going to stand on ceremony now, when she wanted to know how badly he’d been hurt.

She didn’t expect to find him bare to the waist, having his wound rewrapped by an elderly doctor with wild white hair and long tufted sideburns.

“Oh, hello,” Phillip said, clearly a little embarrassed.

Aurora felt her cheeks heat and tried hard to keep her eyes only on his shoulders. “I just wanted to make sure you’re well.”

“No dancing for a few weeks,” he said. “But I’ve had stitches, and an ogre came over this morning bearing packets of a special tea in which I’m supposed to soak my bandages to speed healing.”

Aurora glanced at the doctor, wondering if he was suspicious of faerie remedies.

He saw her look and smiled. “Once your treaty is signed, most of the people in Perceforest will be excited to trade for gems, but for me there is no greater treasure than the herbs of the Moors. Ones humans have not been able to gather for generations, but which are rumored to be able to cure many diseases that plague us.”

“I hope you will come to the ceremony today,” she told the doctor, and then gave Phillip a smile. “And I hope your patient will as well.”

It was with a light step that Aurora returned to her room to get ready for the treaty-signing ceremony.